Flatintoone
Well-known member
I posted this in "Garage Sale Goodies" thread, but I'll add it here, seems relevant.
Quote:
Originally Posted by southalabama-"Perhaps I need to find better garage sales. I never seem to seeing anything close to this good."
Not BETTER garage sales, but MORE garage sales.
I have gotten some pretty good stuff at garage sales.
Just 3 days ago I got an English-made, pre-Irwin, no.3 Record vise (or vice as the Brits call it).
Anywho, it's new and it was $25.
But I had to go to half a dozen crappy garage sales first.
Some examples of crappy garage sales:
1) me: "your Craigslist ad stated you have tools for sale"
Idiot: "um yeah, I shouldn't have said tools, there aren't any, hey, need some baby clothes or a toaster?"
2) me: "your Craigslist ad stated you have tools for sale"
Different garage sale idiot: "yup, they're right there", points to a shoebox full of used doorknobs and RCA patch cords.
3) drive 6 miles to garage sale, ad says "tons of hand tools"
No garage sale, nothing in driveway, no one home.
4) me: "how much for the effed-up, bent, rusty, worn-out, seized, pitted, hammered-on, detent-ball-missing Snap-on ratchet that has brown water coming out of it when you turn it upside down because it has spent more time outside than the statue of liberty?"
Cranky old man: "well my son checked eBay and those go for over $100, so I'll say $75 firm"
Bottom line: You gotta kiss a lot of frogs to get the good stuff.
I spend a lot of time looking at and weeding out garage sale ads. It's gotten to where I can predict what a sale will look like just from the ad. On any given summer weekend I might whittle dozens of ads down to 5 or 6 stops. Targets of opportunity are limited to sales that a) look good from the road, b) are in older neighborhoods or rural areas. Just saying "Tools" in the ad isn't enough to get the sale on my list. I'm not sure what my exact criteria are, but it has to do with the other things listed, the tone of the ad, and the neighborhood. I (like most other people, I assume) simply don't have time to stop at sales stocked with nothing but baby clothes and pressboard entertainment centers.




I got this 1/4 Matco flex head ratchet, 3/8 Kraeuter ratchet for Bluebolt, Snap On saltus set for $100...