Yard Sale season is coming up soon around here, and I would like to start shopping at yard sales regularly. I don't normally go to yard sales, so could any of you experienced yard salers give me tips?

We don't get the paper, so I guess I'll have to buy the local paper once a week to find out about the yard sales. Is Friday when yard sale ads are usually posted?

I plan to go to multi-family yard sales and yard sales that are really close by (to save on gas). I'm going to get to yard sales right when they open. I know that yard sales often have "early birds" who arrive an hour before the sale actually starts, but I don't think that anything I'm looking for will be gone that quickly.

I'd love any hints or tips! Thanks!

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Around here Thursdays are great days to go garage saling. I would have quite a few low bills (1s). Do not be afraid to haggle - esp if you are looking at buying a bunch of small item that say would be priced for $6.50 - offer $5.

I always hate it when people try to get in really early to my garage sales b/c I am always finishing things at the last minute. Try to go to subdivision sales - I love those!

I think it depends on where you live as to when the start. Here they come out in the PennySaver on Wednesdays for sales that typically start either Wednesday evening or Thursday and Friday.
I go through and highlight the ones that have items listed that I'm interested in.
Then I look at the map and plan my attack. I try and hit the one that sounds really nice first off and go from there. With gas prices the way they are I typically don't go to farther away sales if there is only one that I'm interested in.
I agree it's cost effective gas wise to hit the neighborhood sales.

I would say check craigslist for garage sale postings.- I post on craigslist when I'm having a sale, so I hope people are checking!!!
You can do a search in the garage sale section for your city, so only tose in your close area pop up.
around here, sales are on Friday and saturday, so I post my ad on Thursday night.

Definitely check Craigslist for sale postings. If your local paper is onlinr, try that as well rather than buying a paper you don;t need.

I always go armed with a list of sizes, things I'm looking for (and them write down what I purchased so I don;t wind up with too many of the same thing!), a map of the area, the listing printed from Craigslist/paper, snacks and bottled water

Bring lots of small bills so the seller doesn't have to worry about giving loads of change, and also you can sometime haggle better if it doesn;t look like you have a load of $$ on you.

I plan a general route ahead of time, typically hitting the multi-family/larger sales first, or one advertising a particular item i am looking for, and then the other ones that are on that route so I don;t waste a bunch of gas

Fridays are good selection days, as early Sat morning, Late Sat morning/noonish is better for deals since lots of time people just want their items gone and will reduce their prices by half or more

Never be afraid to ask if the seller will take less than priced
I would not be an "early bird" - that is so annoying to me to have people digging through items when you haven't finished setting up

Have fun!!!

Oh, wow! Thank you all so much! I thought yard sales were only on Saturday mornings. And I'd never heard of looking on Craigslist for yard sales! Thanks, too for the tips on when to look for ads in the paper. This is all so helpful!

Our local paper does post ads online, although I think people have to pay extra to have their ad posted online and in the paper. But if the big yard sales are online, then I won't have to spend money on a paper!

I won't be an early bird, that just seems rude. But I will go out as soon as the yard sales open. My friend had a yard sale last spring, and I remember a lot of people haggling. Is it only appropriate to hangle for a group of items ("I'd like to buy all six of these... would you take $3 for them?"), or is it okay to haggle for individual items as well? I don't need any furniture, so it would be medium and small sized items.

The one thing I'm worried about is buying things just because they're so cheap. But I'm going to keep a list of what we actually need, and think very carefully and be very strict about things I see that we could use but that would not be on our list.

There's a university in my town, and one of the few times I went yard saleing I got an incredible deal on some DVD shelves. When the students graduate, I think they sometimes get rid of perfectly good stuff.

Thank you all again! Yard sales, here I come!

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You can haggle on anything, also you can go back close to noon if there were something you really wanted and they wouldn't go down on the price at the start they might then

Haggle away, most people expect it. Even on individual items. I am a cheapo so I try to bargain on even the smallest things. Even my 11 yr old will haggle with people now!

Definitely check out Craigslist and your local paper online. Most papers do not charge any extra for online ads. If you go every weekend, then you will become familiar with the areas that are best. I only go online to check for community sales in the areas that I normally go to. Some days like today, I didn't check craigslist or online papers. I just drove the way I was going. I hit 3 sales before leaving my community. Today was a very good buying day. I didn't see a lot of sales today but I also didn't go the way I usually go because my dh was working today since it was his saturday to work.

Also check Craigslist and your local papers to see if you are in a Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday area. Around here, it is a few on Friday but mostly Saturday only sales. it is nice now because sales start around 8am and go to around 2pm. The closer to summer it gets the shorter the time until it is only 8-noon. I get 90% of the stuff I sell on Ebay at yard sales, so sometimes if it is a great buy, buy it and try to resell it.

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"He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money."
Benjamin Franklin