Thought We’d Share a “Typical” Yard Saleing Day and the Results!
When I’m home in New Hampshire during the summer, it is a rare Saturday morning that I’m NOT going to yard sales. Buying at yard sales has been an integral part of my buying and selling business for so many years now, that I’m not sure what a sunny Saturday morning would be like without going yard saleing!
It has really just become a natural extension of my life.
When we began heading to the southern US for these last few winters, it was great! I could yard sale my way through the entire winter with scarcely missing a beat. Up north, yard sales pretty much cease to exist once Columbus Day hits. When we were here in the winter, the best I could do would be to visit the few thrift stores and occasional group shop that would be open and within driving distance.
Otherwise, I had to depend on the inventory I collected in the summer to sell during the winter.
In heading south for the winter, I had to be judicious in deciding what to bring with us to get rolling on eBay as soon as we arrived at our winter rental. I really can’t afford to be without income for more than a week or so. Before we left, I pre-loaded a bunch of items for sale into Turbo Lister (the listing software for eBay) – all stuff I could carry down south with us that wasn’t too bulky.
Then, all I had to do was “flip the switch” as it were, to start all the auctions running at once.
This last winter, we arrived in Florida on Tuesday, November 22nd – just a couple of days before Thanksgiving. We took a few days to unpack, get the lay of the land, get stocked up on our groceries, and then Friday morning, I was out at a local flea market I’d located, as well as some yard sales.
There weren’t a ton of yard sales that particular weekend, which is understandable since it was Thanksgiving weekend. But there were enough to get me out the door and driving around to learn the neighborhoods, roads, and where the “perpetual” yard sales tended to be. By “perpetual” yard sales, I mean the types where the homeowners are out there every single weekend, typically trying to sell the same tired old inventory that’s getting dustier and grimier with every weekend that they take the tarps off the peeling and bowing and delaminating plywood tables.
I pretty much avoid them for the most part.
But, once Thanksgiving was over with, the season picked back up. During our 5 months in Florida, Kathy said, “Why not bring the camera along one day and kind of chronicle the ‘day in the life’ type of thing… film a typical yard sale day?” We began to talk about that – and then I figured, “Let’s take it one step further and document what happens to EVERY item we buy that day…” We already do tend to take a bunch of photos about the usual things we find, in case something UNusual turns up about them…
We thought it would be interesting! So, we chose a day in February, and then took notes over the course of the next few weeks. We compiled the results – from beginning to end – in the following video. It’s a little longer than most of my other videos – nearly 9 minutes. But, we hope you find it interesting and perhaps a little informative as to how we tend to process and sell the stuff we get at yard sales. Here it is…
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