A few months ago a good friend of my wife visited for the first time. She, like my wife, is a housewife. After a few minutes of chatting, she mentioned that she makes extra money selling things on eBay that she buys at garage sales. She said that she earns a few hundred dollars a week doing this. Seeing that my wife was looking for something to do, she piqued my interest.
She had to find out if this was something that could be done as easily as she said it could be. She had no idea what to look for, but she had a very powerful friend…my iPhone. Armed with the eBay iPhone app, I hit the garage sales that weekend. That first weekend was slow because it was new to me and I didn’t really know what to look for, even with my eBay app. Although I had no idea what to look for, I bought a few items that ended up making me around $200 in profit.
How do I search for items at garage sales?
By far the easiest way to search for items is to use the eBay sales app on the iPhone. However, the same can be completed by simply searching for the complete items using any phone that has access to eBay. What I do is look up the manufacturer’s name and model number on everything I find at a garage sale. For example, that first weekend I found an Abbeon hydrometer that had the model number on it. I did a quick full article search for ‘Abbeon Hydrometer HBAT1433’ and found two had sold last month for $39 and $75. The person selling the item wanted $5. I bought it and sold it 7 days later for $44. After all my fees, I ended up making around $37. Not bad for about 1/2 hour of work (5 minutes at the garage sale, 5 minutes for the photos, 10 minutes to create the list, and another 10 minutes to pack and ship)
The other way to search if you don’t have a model number is to search for what item it is. For example, I found a Waterford crystal dog at a garage sale. A quick search for ‘Waterford Crystal Dog’ on eBay revealed that the item’s actual name was ‘Waterford Crystal Retriever’. I did a quick search of the entire ‘Waterford crystal retriever’ list and found some of the retrievers selling in the last few weeks for at least $50. I ended up buying it for $20 and reselling it for $56. Another $30+ win.
While those earnings are nice, it’s not uncommon for us to find $5-10 dollar items that net us around $100 or more. Some of those items were a new Rosetta Stone software set (bought for $5, sold for $100), embroidery machine (bought for $10, sold for $120), Olympia LED globe (bought for $5, sold for $107). Almost every weekend we find an item that we clear almost $100 dollars on.
Not that my wife has taken this on as her ‘job’, she finds articles where she can earn at least $15-$20 per article. We’ve found that anything under $15 really isn’t worth listing. Do the math… $15 – $20 x 10 items per week = $150 – $200 minimum per week. It is quite easy to get there.
Tips for items to buy
Anything with the original box will sell better than items without the original box. If an item has a box, make sure the item in the box is that actual item. I learned this the hard way.
Please verify that any electronic items work before purchasing.
Stay away from stuffed animals.
Don’t buy really big things. They are very difficult to ship (for example, guitars)
The books aren’t selling very well (most can now be purchased for $0.99 on Amazon or eBay). Only in rare cases are they worth buying.
Check items VERY carefully. Small chips, scratches, etc. they can kill the value of an item.
Most people these days have a phone with internet access that can easily be used to search eBay before buying an item at a garage sale. It’s really simple to do and there’s practically no competition. Unless you count retirees who like to hoard things at home “competition.”
