posted on June 5, 2001 02:53:18 PM
I know that there are some people in my area who will go to a persons house who is having a yard sale a day or two BEFORE the advertised sale. While I would love to get there first and good all the "good stuff" I would just feel uncomforable barging in.
posted on June 5, 2001 02:59:25 PM
There are some dealers in this area who do that too. Everyone who is in the biz hates them -- they are the most aggressive, obnoxious people, and usually they are preying on the ignorance of the poor people selling the stuff, trying to wheedle it out of them for much less than any possible value.
I've even heard stories of them showing up a day or two early, getting into the house, and ending up having the person in tears, due to their high-pressure tactics.
Anyway, it is something I would NEVER do, I have too much respect for others, and for myself. I've been doing this for 4 years full-time now & swore to myself when I started that I wouldn't conduct myself in a way that I would be ashamed of.
There is LOTS of stuff out there, if you learn your trade, work on always expanding your knowledge & get out often, you'll end up finding your share anyway. To my way of thinking, its only the truly greedy pickers who do things like working their way into a yard sale owner's house ahead of time. Sort of like watching the obituaries & then showing up to see what they threw in the gardbage (and believe me, people have done that, too!)
posted on June 5, 2001 06:20:28 PM
This is a good one!.............LOL!
So....thesre is an ad in the paper on Thurs. for a sale to be held Sat. & Sun. I go there on Friday afternoon [maybe even Thursday afternoon], am polite, have a wad of cash and an empty truck. The Seller is glad to see me, invites me in and we chat. I buy up everything that I can, for a price that is set by the Seller and that they are happy with.
It is a fair market sale as there is a willing Buyer and a willing Seller both in possession of the relevant facts, and each has their own motivation and neither is under any undue pressure to buy or sell.
Me, I want to buy, and they.......well they want to Sell, get as much as they can and be on their way. Sometimes we strike a deal for the entire lot, they give me a key and I get to clean it out during the week and they get to go home early. I even offer to pick up the price of the yard sale ad. Its win, win!
I get a second 'rush' as, on Sat. AM I ride by and look at the less-motivated standing in line waiting for the opening, blissfully unaware that there is little of significant value left. I toot my horn as I go by, wave to some that I know and rush off to the next sale, secure in the knowledge that I am gonna make a few good scores today while the competition is wasting time in line.
I then finish the days "route" by 10 or 11......have a leisurely breakfast and then return home to find at least 2 or 3 calls on the answering machine from the Executors to the Estates that I mailed last week offering to liquidate the estate that they are in charge of.......its gonna be a busy weekend!
Happy hunting!
Dr. Trooth
[I gotta get a bigger storage area, they are DYING to get rid of this stuff]
posted on June 5, 2001 06:48:39 PM
A lot less people at the sale a day or two early...usually less merchandise when I leave...there are no rules , truly the early bird gets the worm
posted on June 5, 2001 07:07:39 PM
I now have my non ebay primary business that precludes such things but when I did antiques as the primary biz i would show up early if the ad sounded good
I was always polite, like dr.tooth i would let the seller set the price or i would make a truly fair offer.
I used to also advertise to buy and used flyers antiques wanted I never lowballed but always made fair offer.
don't see a thing wrong with it and you don't have to be rude and crude
in fact i had a lot of referall either while i was there they would call relitivies freinds who had what I was interested in or a week, month or evan a year later they would call "hey rember me well my xxx has a old xxxx think you might be intersted?"
It works and you can do it ethically.
posted on June 5, 2001 07:59:52 PM
upriver
Thats true but the rude crude one show up a garge sales evan during regular hours one of the resons i refuse to have garge sales.
i never worried about "early birds becouse I would never give exact address in the ad just major intersection and watch for signs.
but a lt of the folks who showed up where so obnoxious i just decide it wasn't worth the effort
