How Garage Sale Logic Will Help You Prep...

[Silver Shield]

How do you make $1,000 at a garage sale?

Sell $10,000 worth of stuff.


Everything the typical American buys is almost worthless the moment they buy it.

Some do better than others, but for the most part you will get 10 to 40 cents on the dollar for just about everything in your home.

Toys, clothes, furniture, cds, dvds, electronics... pennies on the dollar.

That is because the in no universal intrinsic value.

Not everyone values your style, gadgets, entertainment taste universally especially when there are newer trendier stuff out there...
That is reflected in the values of your stuff.

Now lets put this on to your preps.
Would you take 10 to 40 cents on the dollar for your "old" guns, ammo, gold, silver, dehydrated food, water filters, and stuff?
No, they have intrinsic value.

Our economy is 70% consumer related, but when you realize that what these consumer are spending on junk that has no intrinsic value :boom


One other fact is that there garage sale is a cash only business.
What is the value of something if there is no credit?

What is your house worth if there was no 30 year mortgage?
What is your car worth if the was not 60 month financing?


The point of all of this that a garage sale is a great way to see what it will be like after the dollar collapses.

With no credit or expendable income for chotchkies, those with real money and have assets that have intrinsic value will have an upper hand financially in the new paradigm.

[Ponce]

Hey Agnut?.........post here.

First post of the day............good morning to one and all.

[Sparky]

It's interesting what you say about what someone else will pay for your stuff. I've thought of that before. I might have some $20 item laying around the house in like-new condition, yet I couldn't imagine someone paying me $5 for it. It does make you wonder about the "price" value of stuff.

[muffin]

I've thought about this also. I've been going to alot of garage sales lately. But funny how things work. That $20 "like-new" item you think noone would give more than a $5 for at a garage sale would go for alot more (probably) on Ebay or the likes. If you expand your market, you tend to make more. After moving out to MO from L.A. I've noticed that alot of crap that goes for decent money out in CA is el cheapo out here.

[Spectrism]

Yes... price shrinkage once you take your piece of $@!%# out of the store.

Part of the value is OPPORTUNITY needs. You need some things at some times. Imagine walking through a hardware store and seeing the thousands of fixtures, nuts, bolts, tools, etc. You don't buy them so they must not be valuable enough for you to fork over the list price. Back home you find a leaking pipe valve. You have the MAPPgas torch, soldering paste, silver solder, but no extra valves to replace the bad valve. What was too expensive in the store at $7.95 now has a different value in your mind. Getting your plumbing back to operation is worth more than $20, and maybe more than $50 to you. Here, another factor comes into play. Supply. There are two hardware stores that can supply this part. Competition keeps them from bumping their price higher.


I like garage sales because I can buy those valves for 50 cents... or a $5 shovel for $1...... or a large lumber saw for $6....... or cast iron pans for $2 or $1. Buying up durable goods on the cheap is a good investment. I hate seeing my family buy plastic crap from Walmart. And I use retail stores when my need is more valuable than the list price I have to pay.

[messianicdruid]

I got up at 6AM this morning to take my wife to garage sales. We drove all over for three hours, bought one item for three bucks. Then we went to an auction. The only item I was interested in was a sterling silverware set {104 pieces}. It went for $2100.00. I shoulda stayed home today. :-[

[Glass]

Ikea furniture is made from pulp wood if there is any would in there at all. To some degree it's price reflects the thing that it is made from and how much there is of that material. Plastic items are made from waste petro chemicals. Again to some dregree it's price reflects the thing that it is made from and how much there is.... although the price of some plastic defies belief. Hardwood or Softwood solid timber furniture is made from solid timber and it's price also reflects how much there is of it. There isn't as much because it takes a long time to grow, the quality of the timber that goes into it is higher and the craft that is required to make it is higher and rarer.

Location is interesting. In some cases it might be worthwhile holding your garage sale in another area if the demographics are better. Childrens clothes in an area where people will buy new compared to lower socioeconomic area where hand em downs are more accepted.

Of course we know what happens when everybody wants to sell at the same time.

[hoarder]

Most plastic chinese crapp will not bring 10% at a garage sale. Same goes for polyester clothing. But if you have piles of angle iron, US made tools, US made anything, farm items or firearms they will sell for 20% to 70% of new.
Garage sales are a good place to buy US made stuff that you can't buy elsewhere. Last weekend I bought a US made Victor cutting/welding torch complete with medium sized bottles that were 3/4 full, complete rig for $200. I also bought a cast iron Delta table saw for $50, only thing wrong was one plastic handle broken, which cost $18. You can't but American saws any more, all table saws are now chinese.

[Hatha Sunahara]

Garage sale logic says to me that if I need stuff I can get at a garage sale, I should buy it at a garage sale, and avoid the full retail price of a new item. Also, not to accumulate so much stuff that you need a garage sale to get rid of it. It helps to turn off the TV to reduce temptations.

I think a good visualization of what will happen when the system collapses is to read about Argentina in 2001-2002. We're all going to have to learn how to negotiate.

Hatha

[Book]

http://www.supportsolutions.co.uk/images/compulsive_hoarding.JPG

Might as well hang up a ROB ME sign. Gonna be decades after it hits the fan before anybody will be trading garage-sale or yard-sale "bargains" for actually essential stuff like food or ammo or medicine or a decent pair of boots. This "bargain" stuff also takes up valuable storage space and creates the appearance of a fat-and-happy hoarder.

[beefsteak]

Hey, Horn,
In that upper lefthand pix of that table full of round stuff? What are you asking for that kinda blue-greenish one, third row up? It's more or less in the center? And it's larger than the rest of them if that helps you figure out which one I'm looking at.

Sardonic observer

[agnut]

Hi Silver Shield; great thread topic. Been buying/selling/trading almost since I was potty trained. And writing about it nearly 4 years now in the bartering and horse trading thread (which is tucked away in the preparedness section).

So your question, “How do you make $1,000 at a garage sale ?”, may be better approached from your being a buyer rather than as a seller. Why ? Because you can save $1,000 by wise buying; wise selling is another whole topic. Spectrism in post #4 stated it quite clearly. The price savings between buying at a store and buying at a garage sale can be mind blowing.

Like in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to buy, a time to sell, a time to think, a time to run like Hell. In 2006-7 was a time to sell housing; at the peak price. I advised a couple of friends to sell their fully paid for houses and to rent an equally nice house and invest the money into physical silver. Where do you think they would be now if they had listened to me ? Millionaires.

An item that was in a store for $100 and is offered at a garage sale for $2 may NOT be a bargain. It all depends upon what YOU plan to do with this item. Is it something that you need and would have otherwise bought ? Is it something that someone else will later readily buy from you at a healthy profit ? Is it something that you know will become too expensive or unavailable in the future ? Is it large and therefore take up a lot of otherwise valuable storage space that could be put to better use ?

Messianicdruid in post #5 stated what I also experience from time to time. But occasional disappointment is part of the bartering and horse trading lifestyle. The better one gets at it, the less disappointments. In other words, a learning process. Hell, I’m still learning all the time. But what a great school where I am being paid while I learn.

Glass in post #6 wrote some very insightful things. Recognizing quality merchandise is very, very important. This is why I am always looking for older American made tools. They were made for a lifetime of high quality materials. The funny thing is, I see so much of these great tools just sitting there on tables all day even though I hadn’t gotten my sorry, lazy butt out there until just before the garage sale was ending. So many buyers had already looked and rejected these great deals. They look but don’t see.

Glass’ second point of location is important for buyers as well as sellers. I always map out the neighborhoods where the sales are being held and in my experience the best ones are in upper middle class neighborhoods. On the golf course, so to speak. First, these people selling have usually bought the highest quality merchandise. Second, they usually do not care about the prices; they just want the items out of there. This may be changing of late with the economy but for now this is my favorite type of seller. Other favorites are estate sales, farm sales and moving sales.

And Glass’ third point “Of course we know what happens when everybody wants to sell at the same time” is what we have been experiencing and are going into more intensely in the future. Back in July 2007 I wrote that I saw discretionary income disappear. Not for everyone but it was so significant in the dropoff in sales and interest that it was unmistakable. And now three years later we are still seeing it progress toward some bottom in the whole scheme of things. In other words, will we see the trash dumps piling up with good garage sale items since nobody is willing to buy them at any price ? Possible if things got so bad that there was no money to buy anything except food to survive on or a place to store the items. Can you see where I am going with this ?

I’ll tell you and in my opinion, it ain’t gonna be pretty. So be forewarned.

Life Is A Bury Go Round

We are all involved and revolved upon this humongous bury go round called Earth. Nobody is immune; we are all mortal and therefore only passing through. Nobody gets out alive; get used to it. Even the operators of the bury go round, the so called powers that be, will grow old and die in time. An old joke is that you can’t take it with you and that is why you will not see a hearse towing a U-Haul behind it. Funny but did you ever think that the line of limos following the hearse are actually U-Hauls in disguise ? I have, because in some way the wealth (and all the junk) you have accumulated goes to your children and family. So if your heart is with your family, what you leave them was a part of you. Very personal in most cases.

My way of cheating the grim reaper is to pass on what I have to my children long before I pass on myself. I’ve done a lot of it already and a goal before I take a dirt nap is to acquire a house for my two older daughters. I’m watching and waiting until the time when nobody wants or can afford to buy a house, no matter how low the price. It happened in the last depression and history has a way of repeating. Only time will tell.

This relates to what silver Shield mused what the price of a house would be if one had to pay for it with cash. It takes little imagination to foresee a time when there is a huge excess of foreclosed/vacant houses, banks not lending, high unemployment and little cash around. In fact, it takes NO imagination because we are now living in such a situation. Do you agree ? Look around. This is a process from abundance to penury and we are still in the early stages of this process. Complicating matters is that around 62 million home mortgages are under the MERS system which may not be able to provide a clear title as to who actually holds the paperwork. This is why the BofA last week suspended foreclosures in all 50 states. One hell of a mess.

What is coming will be worse than the last depression for most of the population. But it doesn’t have to be for you. This is why I write the bartering and horse trading thread. I am reminded of the story where a young boy was at the seashore. A big storm had thrown a multitude of starfish onto the beach. The boy was throwing these starfish back into the ocean. An old man came along and said, “You will never be able to save all those starfish.” The boy replied as he was throwing yet another starfish, “True, but I have saved THAT starfish”.

So it is like the saying people go mad by the multitudes but come to their senses one by one.

What is success anyway ? A few favorite quotes :

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. -Pericles

"Strange is our situation here on Earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men - above all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends." -Albert Einstein


To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is what I go by as I write on the bartering and horse trading thread. When I began it, I did not fully realize how important it was and would become. Life changing stuff. A whole different way of looking at how we go about our daily lives. Many members here have generously posted their experiences and successes that proved that I was not alone but rather that the Yankee Trader is still alive and kicking (ass, financially that is).

If you are not reading bartering and horse trading and acting upon it, you are missing out on maximizing the power of your very life and future.

Gandhi said that we must BE the change we wish to see in the world.

Best wishes and JMHO (just my halfassed opinion),

agnut

Put your money into education; it’s the one thing they can’t take away from you.
Ben Franklin