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Post your Garage Sale/Flea Market/Antique Mall Finds Here
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15,805 posts in this topic

15 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

Tried my luck at an estate sale this am. Second in line, first one to the comics, but there wasn't much there. Picked all of these up for a buck each. Not much to get excited about, but the western picture frames will be nice place holders until I upgrade them! I was stoked about the Captain Atom 83, managed to not look at the logo until I got to the car. doh! Oh well, for a buck I won't complain too much. I've certainly spent more for less in the past.

The morning wasn't a total loss, though. I picked up a stack of Game Cube and PC games for two bucks each. There are several that should sell in the $10-$20 range, and a couple that should hit $30-$40. I got 18 games for less than $40, so I'll do well. Game Cube games always seem to sell for me (with the obvious exceptions like sports games.)

Fun morning!

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From what I recall, gamecube was built to survive a nuclear winter lol and nice to see that it has a following, I miss mine :foryou: and it's where super smash bros was born :headbang: 

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32 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

From what I recall, gamecube was built to survive a nuclear winter lol and nice to see that it has a following, I miss mine :foryou: and it's where super smash bros was born :headbang: 

I don’t keep up much with gaming, but my understanding is that the Game Cube games are more difficult to emulate than the other old Nintendo games, so there’s still a pretty good market for GC discs. I don’t claim to understand it, I’m an old man! :preach:

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1 hour ago, F For Fake said:

Tried my luck at an estate sale this am. Second in line, first one to the comics, but there wasn't much there. Picked all of these up for a buck each. Not much to get excited about, but the western picture frames will be nice place holders until I upgrade them! I was stoked about the Captain Atom 83, managed to not look at the logo until I got to the car. doh! Oh well, for a buck I won't complain too much. I've certainly spent more for less in the past.

The morning wasn't a total loss, though. I picked up a stack of Game Cube and PC games for two bucks each. There are several that should sell in the $10-$20 range, and a couple that should hit $30-$40. I got 18 games for less than $40, so I'll do well. Game Cube games always seem to sell for me (with the obvious exceptions like sports games.)

Fun morning!

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Fun little score. Did you know there were comics there? Now the big question. What time did it open and when did you get there to be #2?

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1 minute ago, Robot Man said:

Fun little score. Did you know there were comics there? Now the big question. What time did it open and when did you get there to be #2?

Yes, I saw comics on the listing, that’s what caught my attention. I’ve been to several sales conducted by this company in the past, and usually do well by them. 

The listing primarily showed furniture, but there were two pics of comics, one of which was a scattered stack of worthless 90’s X-Men, and the other pic showed two boxes, in which I could see some Archies poking out. I figured I’d take a chance. You never know what might be lurking in those boxes.

Due to my general lack of excitement, I was pretty lax this time around, arriving at 7am for the sale which opened at 9, instead of getting up crazy early. And I’m glad! I actually arrived at 6:45, found the house, but there was no one around at all. I drove around the block and when I came back one car was pulling in at the same time as me, a much older lady. Her husband helped her out of her car, so I let her lead the way. Another guy showed up behind me. About 7:15 the estate folks showed up, and handed out numbers, so i was able to go home, have breakfast, and come back and jump back into my spot when it opened at 9. 
 

I’ve arrived at 4am before for a 9am sale where I knew what I wanted and was determined to get it. Other sales I’ve shown up right before opening because I really didn’t care much about what I might miss. With this one I was right in the middle. I didn’t have any reason to expect that there’d be anything great at the sale, BUT, WHAT IF THERE WAS??? So two hours early seemed like a good compromise. From past dealings with these folks I was pretty sure they’d give out placeholder cards so I wouldn’t have to stand around the whole time. It all worked out
satisfactorily for me. I didn’t find much, but I also knew that I didn’t miss much. Sometimes that feels just as good! Ha

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I guess estate sales depend a lot on the area. Last one I went to had no comics mentioned but a lot of nice early baseball and political stuff and toys. It started at 8:00. I got there at about 4:30 and was #10. There was a girl there for vintage clothes who got there at 10:30 the night before. #2 was my friend’s wife who got there at midnight. Luckily, she grabbed the 2 things I wanted and held them for me. The place was cleaned out within 15 minutes. 

I rarely do them any more. Just too hard core for me. I also know many of the promoters of these sales and they usually call me in ahead of time. I help them out with pricing because I know quite a bit about collectibles. It’s a win win. 

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1 hour ago, Robot Man said:

I guess estate sales depend a lot on the area. Last one I went to had no comics mentioned but a lot of nice early baseball and political stuff and toys. It started at 8:00. I got there at about 4:30 and was #10. There was a girl there for vintage clothes who got there at 10:30 the night before. #2 was my friend’s wife who got there at midnight. Luckily, she grabbed the 2 things I wanted and held them for me. The place was cleaned out within 15 minutes. 

I rarely do them any more. Just too hard core for me. I also know many of the promoters of these sales and they usually call me in ahead of time. I help them out with pricing because I know quite a bit about collectibles. It’s a win win. 

There are three or four "bigger" estate sale companies in the area that seem to get most of the business. I monitor their facebook pages and craigslist listings. I honestly never know what to expect in regards to turnout. I've shown up at 4am only to find i was second in line. I've shown up 10 minutes before opening only to find two or three people there. It seems like a lot of these local sales are primarily attended by flea market and peddlers mall sellers looking for stock. If a sale is specifically marketed as having comics and toys, I'll see a lot of the flea market guys and dealers there, and bets are off as far as how early they might show up. But a sale like the one yesterday, where they were pushing the furniture, and comics were just a couple of pics near the end of the listing, the turnout seemed about right. I was #2 at 7am, but when I came back at 9, I think there were only 15 people in line. 

It also seems like both listings and attendance are down this season compared to past years. I can only assume this is due to COVID. Most of the spring yard/garage sale season was canceled as we were in the middle of quarantine, so gatherings like that were specifically forbidden. The rules have relaxed a bit now, but I think a lot of people are playing it safe and staying away. Can't say I blame them. I do masks, gloves, sanitizer, and I keep my distance, and even then I think "Should I be in this stranger's house right now? Am I going to die for this copy of Spider-Man 2099?"

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50 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

There are three or four "bigger" estate sale companies in the area that seem to get most of the business. I monitor their facebook pages and craigslist listings. I honestly never know what to expect in regards to turnout. I've shown up at 4am only to find i was second in line. I've shown up 10 minutes before opening only to find two or three people there. It seems like a lot of these local sales are primarily attended by flea market and peddlers mall sellers looking for stock. If a sale is specifically marketed as having comics and toys, I'll see a lot of the flea market guys and dealers there, and bets are off as far as how early they might show up. But a sale like the one yesterday, where they were pushing the furniture, and comics were just a couple of pics near the end of the listing, the turnout seemed about right. I was #2 at 7am, but when I came back at 9, I think there were only 15 people in line. 

It also seems like both listings and attendance are down this season compared to past years. I can only assume this is due to COVID. Most of the spring yard/garage sale season was canceled as we were in the middle of quarantine, so gatherings like that were specifically forbidden. The rules have relaxed a bit now, but I think a lot of people are playing it safe and staying away. Can't say I blame them. I do masks, gloves, sanitizer, and I keep my distance, and even then I think "Should I be in this stranger's house right now? Am I going to die for this copy of Spider-Man 2099?"

Lol,  that is true.  

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2 hours ago, F For Fake said:

There are three or four "bigger" estate sale companies in the area that seem to get most of the business. I monitor their facebook pages and craigslist listings. I honestly never know what to expect in regards to turnout. I've shown up at 4am only to find i was second in line. I've shown up 10 minutes before opening only to find two or three people there. It seems like a lot of these local sales are primarily attended by flea market and peddlers mall sellers looking for stock. If a sale is specifically marketed as having comics and toys, I'll see a lot of the flea market guys and dealers there, and bets are off as far as how early they might show up. But a sale like the one yesterday, where they were pushing the furniture, and comics were just a couple of pics near the end of the listing, the turnout seemed about right. I was #2 at 7am, but when I came back at 9, I think there were only 15 people in line. 

It also seems like both listings and attendance are down this season compared to past years. I can only assume this is due to COVID. Most of the spring yard/garage sale season was canceled as we were in the middle of quarantine, so gatherings like that were specifically forbidden. The rules have relaxed a bit now, but I think a lot of people are playing it safe and staying away. Can't say I blame them. I do masks, gloves, sanitizer, and I keep my distance, and even then I think "Should I be in this stranger's house right now? Am I going to die for this copy of Spider-Man 2099?"

I feel the same way. There is no “social distancing” at estate sales especially when most of what everyone wants is close together. 

Yeah, not a whole lot of sales here right now. And very little I want anyway. But when it’s an old packed house, all bets are off. 

Very few garage sales which I rarely hit anyway. I suspect, like I have, that a lot of people have been doing a lot of clearing and cleaning up their houses and garages during lockdown. I think people might be waiting until things get better to have their sales. 

About all I got of any significance was back in April. Saw an “online estate sale”. These were pictured. Called the guy and agreed to drive about a half an hour to buy these. Met him in front of his house with masks. Kind of a bad area. He put them on the hood of my car. I went through them quickly, they were very cheap and a whole lot nicer than in the photo. I had the agreed amount in cash, laid it on the hood and off I went. 

It was very surreal. We were under pretty strict lock down. Got off the freeway and right away saw cops everywhere. Thought I might get pulled over. Was thinking what I would say but nothing happened. I was very happy when I got home and discovered there were two books not in his photo. One was the best one in the group. 

Was amazed that I was his first call on them. Weird times...

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3 hours ago, littledoom said:

$80 haul. Went over to a guy’s house last night and bought some comics. All in his garage. Dusty boxes scattered on shelves, inside cabinets, inside a walk room. I guess you could call it a private garage sale

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100 Bullets #1 pays for that alone. Perfect example of a "buy at a fair price but if you are prepared to list yourself , you will make 3x your outlay" haul.

Nice

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5 hours ago, littledoom said:

$80 haul. Went over to a guy’s house last night and bought some comics. All in his garage. Dusty boxes scattered on shelves, inside cabinets, inside a walk room. I guess you could call it a private garage sale

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I'm just waiting for a seller to have a massive haul of books, invite someone over, have them spend all their time cherry-picking and grabbing books and then at the end say "thanks for telling me what I should look up!  Have a goodnight!"  :D 

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