One of my biggest ambitions with my garage sale video series “Trash Talk” is to show people the ridiculous amount of opportunity that’s just sitting at garage sales all over the country!
This article breaks down the bigger takeaways and learnings from Trash Talk Episode 5:
1. Search for town wide garage sales by median income
When you try to find garage sales, Google “town wide garage sales” — you’ll find a bunch of garage sales in the same area so you don’t have to keep driving to different parts of town.
Another hack is to search neighborhoods by “median income.”
Hitting up neighborhoods with high median incomes will help you find neighborhoods where there might be more expensive items being sold off at a discount.
2. Silence is an effective negotiation tactic
People often miss out on good deals just because they never think to ask for lower prices.
I got these mugs at two for $5 (projected sale price is $20 a piece) just because I took two seconds to clarify what the price was. I immediately got a better deal.
Silence can also be a great negotiation tactic.
In the first garage sale, I asked if the gentleman would be okay with going down to $5 for a Vintage Budweiser light he priced at $10, and he said “no.”
Then, I just went silent.
In that silence, I gave him time to re-think his decision and whether he really wants to get rid of the item or not.
Finally, before I left, I offered to buy it for $8 and he said “yes.”
This item is the kind of product you put on Facebook marketplace and wait for a collector to come by and purchase it. I bought it for $8 and re-listed it for $80 😉
3. Stuffed animals are usually underpriced
When you’re looking for items at a garage sale, a good rule of thumb is that stuffed animals are usually a great deal.
I didn’t buy anything at the second garage sale I went to, but I missed an opportunity for a nice little return on a stuffed Hershey collectible:
4. Search “completed” and “sold” listings on eBay to gauge what products can be sold for
If you want to see what a product is worth, start by searching the name in eBay search on the desktop or mobile app.
For example, you could search something like “Hulk hogan action figure”, scroll down, and hit “sold items.”
When you select “sold items”, eBay will sometimes automatically check the “completed items” box.
“Completed items” refers to auctions that have ended for that search — whether they sold or didn’t sell.
You can uncheck this box to only see items that have actually been sold. Or leave it checked to also see patterns on what didn’t sell.
5. To scale your garage sale hustle, just buy more stuff
I got stopped by a fan who asked me how to scale a garage sale flipping business once you’re starting to make some money.
There’s a LOT more money to be made at garage sales than what I’m showing you on Trash Talk because I’m being selective about the things I want to buy. But if you went and bought virtually everything at a garage sale, you’d end up making a lot more money because everything is just so underpriced. But it’ll take more time to list all those items and more space to store them in your house.
Just to show you an example, I picked up this old phone from a garage sale for $2 that I could sell for $15+:
I think garage sales are incredible if you need a little extra side cash between $100 – $1000 every weekend, but scaling beyond that ultimately comes down to how much you really love it, how much extra cash you really need, and how much time you have.
6. You just need a few big hits
People tend to get caught up on whether every single item that they buy is going to sell or not.
But the truth is, you just need a few big hits to make up for everything else.
One of the biggest finds last weekend was this box of Skylander toys that I bought for $7 and listed for $182.49.
At the end of episode 5, my projected profit is almost $350
Watch the full episode of Trash Talk 5 below:
And if you want limited edition “Mug Life” tees and hoodies, click here 😉
