There will be a lot of people going to garage sales, blindly searching for deals in the garages of the common masses. Because these sales are held by common, everyday, United States citizens, you can expect a lot to go wrong. Whether it’s a terrible garage sale sign that’s the size of a post card with the words “Toys and Tools!” scrawled in yellow marker or possessing the firm belief that everyone wants a chipped, ceramic elephant that was made in the seventies, garage sale hunters have to go through quite the ordeal to find good deals. There’s absolutely no system, save for some vague suggestions copied off of other clueless garage sale hosting dorks.

This guide poses to change all of that and instill order to the chaos.

In this guide, I’ll divulge helpful advice to both garage sale seekers and hosts. I’m guessing that most of Pocky Box’s readership consists of buyers, but since I have great confidence that this site will be regarded as a universal fount of timeless knowledge, I’m sure some of the ignorant masses will look to me for advice. I’m qualified to give this advice based on the fact that I’ve been to plenty of garage sales and have noted the idiocy of their hosts. With that, we start out with advice for hosts, since most of you buyers would stop reading the guide if I gave you your section first. Tough it out.

Advice for Garage Sale Hosts

Signs: Garage sale signs are essential to the success of your sale, especially if your house is located in some shack hidden deep in some housing project. The problem is, most people can’t grasp the concept of good sign design, opting to put a bunch of useless information on a scrap of paper and expecting everyone to be able to read it, because they know that they’re having a garage sale, so why shouldn’t everybody else?

I want to stress to you hosts that ninety-nine percent of the time, these signs will be read by passing motorists who have less than two seconds to read them, or they’ll end up killing someone. It’s important to make sure that all of the right information is readable quickly, or potential customers might simply blow your sad effort off. They’re bargain hunters, why would they want to put a lot of effort into it?

But what is the “right” information? How should it be laid out? And where should the sign be placed?

First off, a good sign should be at least letter size (8.5” by 11” inches), but preferably bigger. Cardboard makes a pretty good sign and poster board is good, too. Basically, anything that can absorb the ink from your marker and can take a beating from the elements. Thin paper is NOT acceptable. You can always buy one of those pre-made garage sale signs. The advantage of pre-made signs is that they’re instantly recognizable (unless they're the kind that blur the text together so you can't tell what the hell it's supposed to say until you're right on top of it). The disadvantage is that there’s usually not a ton of room to put information, and they cost more money, a serious setback for an enterprise with such razor-thin profit margins like the garage sale industry.

Use a thick marker that contrasts well with the paper (contrast is defined as one color being visible on the other, for our slower readers). In other words, orange marker on pink paper is a major no-no. And by “major” I mean “punishable by death.” Try to make sure your ink doesn’t run, just in case there’s rain. Laminate the entire thing if you want protect your sign from the weather and you're a rich snob who can afford it. Just make sure you laminate AFTER you write all of your information down, you rube.

Now that you have your materials, it’s time to put down your information. I recommend the following format: On the top, write out what kind of sale it is (garage, yard, whatever), large enough to make the shape of the words out, but not too large (you need that space for more important things). “Yard Sale” makes it seem bigger, so go with that if even if it’s only kind of true (toss an old couch on the lawn to validate this statement if you need to). “Rummage Sale” sounds absolutely huge, but this label should be reserved for actual rummage sales. "Moving Sale" implies you're selling lots of stuff at low prices so you don't have to take it with you. The honesty of having an actual move after is up to you.

Avoid the “Barn Sale” label; that makes it sound like your selling hay and rusted tools (though rusted tools are a big ticket item; see below). “Junk Sale” makes your intentions too obvious (it’s like calling the tobacco industry the “horrible cancerous death” industry). I’ve heard the phrase “Ticket Sale” and "Tag Sale" before, but no one is going to know what the hell you’re talking about.

Next, put the street address below the header, number first, then street name. This doesn’t have to be emphasized; it should be bigger than the title, but not bigger than the date and time. It’s hard to get the exact address while driving, and there’s a good chance that the hunter may not know where the street is anyway. A helpful arrow pointing in the right direction can help remedy this. The address info is important to have, but only as a quick point of reference.

Finally, write the date big lettering close to half the size of the sign. If hunters know for sure when your sale is on, they’re more likely to investigate it further. Keep the date simple, using numerical month/day only to keep it readable. DO NOT identify the name of the day; it’ll make it more confusing and doesn't really tell if the sale is this week or last year. If you indiciate that your sale is "Today," I will find you and I will kill you.

Under the date, write the time in slightly-smaller letters using hours only. AM or PM designations are unnecessary. Only morons will think you’re having a sale from dusk until dawn, and you don’t want these people to be at your sale anyway (unless you want to rip them off). Good date and time ideas will be discussed later.

If your sale is relatively easy to find (be honest with yourself on this one. If you have to make forty-two turns to get to your house, it's not easy to find), you can probably get away with a sign saying simply “Sale” and an arrow pointing the way, but I don’t recommend it.

DO NOT take up half the sign with “Garage Sale;” there’s absolutely no point to that. ALWAYS put the date, time, and address on the sign, emphasizing the date and time that should be readable at a quick glance. DO NOT promote the garage sale’s greatness on the sign. There’s nothing wrong with putting the world “big” or “large” or “family” as long as it’s in small lettering and you can afford the real estate. The most important message to convey is when and where it is; it does you no good if you have a grand garage sale and no one can find it or they don't know when it is. DO NOT list the items you have available. It’s a waste of space and makes the layout more confusing.

Try dressing your sign up a little. Just the other day, I saw a garage sale sign posted on a scarecrow. It was pointless in the context of the sale, but it caught my attention. Just make sure your decoration doesn’t obscure the info on the sign, or you’ll be doing yourself a disservice.

Try to keep your signs within a mile radius of the event. Check the local laws regarding posting before doing so. Busy intersections are a good bet, and be sure to post a sign at the ends of the street. If it’s off the main road, post a full sign at the end of your road. If you’re buried in a series of twists and turns, a color-coordinated sign that announces the event and helpful arrows are all you need (I say color-coordinated so hunters don’t confuse your sale for someone else’s). A sign at the actual event is inviting, but not necessary. DO NOT post signs on random telephone posts without rhyme or reason; that’s just stupid.

You’re not limited to telephone posts, so go out and explore your options. If you’ve got the cash (and a lot of good wares), take an ad out in the local paper. The most hardcore of the garage sale hunter elite use newspapers as a resource to get a jump on rival hunters. If you can’t afford that, post signs in local businesses if possible. If all else fails, word-of-mouth is a solid promotional tool, but you run the risk of having a lot of people coming around excepting handouts, since “word-of-mouth” makes it seem like anyone who’s heard about it is “on the inside.” And we know you’re not in the business of garage sales to give out charity.

If you only have room in your brain for one concept, grasp this one, because it’s an important one: DO NOT LEAVE YOUR SIGN UP AFTER THE SALE IS OVER. Nothing irks me more than seeing signs for garage sales that were held six months ago (you think I’m joking). After your sale is done with, get your lazy butt over to ALL of your signs and remove them. Make a note of where you put them all so you can get them later. If there are any reported violations, I will personally kill you.

Location: To be a true garage sale, you have to have the actual event in your personal garage. No one’s going to complain if your sale spills into the yard, however (which validates it as a yard sale). If you have friends or family that are hosting their own sale, why not ask if you can join them with a few choice items of your own? It saves you the trouble of sitting on a folding chair in the summer heat, sweating gallons and feeling the wrath of ruthless bargainers (see below) and it makes their sales appear mightier, which means more people will want to come. Or you can be a sport and do the same for others. The only downside is customers might buy the other people's stuff instead of yours, so just to be safe, double the price on all of their stuff without letting them know. This will make your merchandise appear more reasonable .

I'm kidding, even if it does make sense.

Community rummage sales are a good bet because of the exposure, but each have their own set of rules. Some might charge you money to rent the space and others might except you to give them your stuff FOR FREE so they can sell it for money. Worse yet, you have to haul all that junk to the sale, so you may have to be a little choosier about what you sell. In other words, that box of assorted action figures with missing legs and heads may not seem like the best thing to waste precious cargo room on. Actually, this is probably for the best.

Flea markets are a good bet, but space will likely cost a lot more money. Plus, you don’t get that surge of people like a rummage sale, since the flea market will likely be there next week, killing the sense of urgency, unless the glorified shack that it’s held in collapses from the wind. Another problem is you’ll be partnered with the flea market elite, the type of people who typically put back more beers per hour than they have teeth; they are not Bob and Elaine from church.

Perhaps the best setup is the neighborhood sale. What you do is get as many people in your block as you can to agree to have garage sales at the same time, get everyone to help out with the signs and other promotion ends, and sit back and watch the customers come pushing and shoving to get to your merchandise. Huge sales attract garage sale hunters like moths to a lighthouse, because they usually equal great deals with little effort, much like rich subdivisions for trick-or-treaters. You can even increase your prices a little more because of the increased customer flow, not that I’m suggesting you should (hey, don’t burn me after I gave you such wonderful advice for free).

The downside to the neighborhood sale is you’re essentially encouraging competition to try and thwart you. For example, in any given neighborhood sale with a heavy child population, you’re going to find that sixty percent of them are selling a copy of the Mouse Trap board game. If you were going it alone, you may get lucky and sell the game to some clueless doofus that thinks his kids would love the game, despite the fact that so many people are selling it for a fraction of what they paid for it. In a neighborhood sale, there are ten other copies to choose from, so you have to pray that you were the first garage sale the doofus visits, your price is cheaper, or your item is in better condition (i.e.: has some of the important pieces). But don’t except the doofi of the garage sale world to be particularly concerned about quality control and shopping around, so prayer is your best bet.

Another problem is that you have to be in the right kind of neighborhood in order to hold a good neighborhood sale. If you can’t clearly see into your neighbor’s bedroom during inappropriate moments without the aid of a telescope, you’re probably too spread out, and hunters won’t want to lug around on quarter-mile treks between sales.

The biggest fault of the neighborhood sale is trying to get individuals to work together. When groups of people try to accomplish one thing, you can bet that they’ll all work to botch it up for everyone else. If you’re lucky, no one will want to have a neighborhood sale, and then you get all of the business yourself.

Dates and Times: The “when” of your garage sale is almost as important as your “where.” Generally, garage sale season (at least in Ohio, which, as you know, affects most major world trends) starts in late April and ends around September. If you flirt with the edges of the season, you may be able to pick up desperate garage sale hunters who want their fix during a period of scant garage sale counts. You may be onto something if you hold one in the dead of winter; you won’t have any competition.

As a general rule, Fridays and Saturdays are the best bet, with Sunday being the next up. Don’t ignore the weekdays, though; if you can afford the time, do it, because you'll have less competition than on the more popular weekends. Just be smart about it.

What amazes me the most about garage sale hosts is how incredibly dense they are about times, especially on weekdays. They set it up just like a business, with the standard nine-to-five structure. This is idiotic. The only people you’re going to attract are the unemployed, “self-employed,” or kids off of school for the summer. The first two groups don’t have a lot of money and are experience as such, so they’ll bargain you down until you break out in tears and agree to sell them your house for ten dollars. The kids don’t bargain so much, but they have even less money, and they only want cool, trendy things, and your kids are selling their stuff for a reason that doesn’t involve the stuff being too cool and trendy.

The group you really want to sell to are the people who get off of work at five, like me. When I get off of work and see all of the garage sales that have just closed, it annoys me to no end, because I really want to go to them. I have money, and I’ll spend it! Instead, these morons setup sales during the hours that I’m making the money I could have given to them. I’ll go out on a limb here and say that if these people don’t have anything to do when I’m working, they probably don’t have a lot going on a little later in the evening when I’m not working. I don’t see why they can’t sleep in a little and start the whole shebang up at noon and end it at seven. Hell, run it all night! I’m sure the neighbors would love it!

So it’s good to extend the sale to six or seven if you can. Not only will you get more people with more money who are less likely to bargain (except me, I’ll murder you), but you’ll still be open when the competition closes. It makes perfect sense, but I guess I’m not surprised no one else thought of it. DO NOT end the sale before five; that’s really stupid.

One problem you might run into is hardcore hunters bugging you to open up early just for them. I saw a sign once that stated if this happened, there would be a price for admission and prices would be doubled. At first, I thought that the person who came up with that idea had a personality that made Lorene Bobbitt sound reasonable, but it makes sense if you think about it. You don’t want a person whose car cost less than your monthly water bill knocking on your door and peeking in your bedroom window, wondering why you aren’t open for business for early birds such as them. So a sign like this would be a good idea. I’d consider purchasing a gun, too, just in case. Just hide it when the sale gets underway (the sign, I mean. The gun might help prevent theft and bargaining).

Managing: Keep in mind that you’re going to have to commit yourself to an entire day for a sale, so make sure you can fit it into your schedule, or make sure someone reliable can watch over things to give you a break. No, your four-year-old doesn’t count as reliable, and if you go ahead and put the scamp in charge anyway, you’ll end up with a kidnapped child, or worse, a hundred-dollar computer sold for a quarter and a baseball (four-year-olds aren’t the best bargainers).

It’s probably a good idea to have someone you can switch off with for a few hours to recharge the batteries, grab something to eat, and beat the bedroom door in when you recall the scraggly guy from earlier that morning that offered to trade you an old coffee pot for personal favors. You probably don’t need two people to manage a sale at once, so manage your staff so they don’t over-exert themselves. You don’t want to your helpers attempting to cram a cassette player into a very personal region of a customer who wanted a dime taken off of the sticker price.

Merchandise, Pricing and Bargaining: The ultimate goal of a garage sale is to get rid of the junk in your house that you don’t want while making enough money to afford to take the family out to a decent meal. You’re probably not selling what could be described as "valuable prizes" here, so don’t price them as such. That doesn’t mean that you should sell complete crap, though.

The one thing I want every garage sale host to keep in mind when they set merchandise out, price it, and have to consider that selling something at a garage sale is basically stating that you don’t want that particular item anymore. You’re selling people your junk. I’m not saying you should give away your stuff for free, but just keep in mind that you’re selling unwanted items and it’s expected that you sell things cheaply.

There’s literally 19 gazillion different products that have been manufactured by humanity the world over during the last hundred years, and about 18.99999998 gazillion of them are complete rubbish. There’s simply too many items to offer a good guide. The best thing to do is to make sure the thing you’re trying to sell looks decent and is partly functional. I’m only going to cover a few of the main types of things that I almost always see at these sales, with a little merchandise slamming at the end. My observations may vary from reality, but it’s better than going at it blindly.

The best seller seems to be children’s stuff, especially baby clothes. Kids don’t really care that they’re wearing someone else’s junk and parents can use the money for something more important, like baby sitter fees. Plus, there’s a good chance that the original owners simply grew out of item, so there’s a possible chance that the merchandise isn’t being sold because it’s broken. I wouldn’t bank on this, though.

Electronics are good, provided that they work and aren’t terribly obsolete. Clocks and telephones don’t do well. Think about it: these items are extremely available and almost essential, so the chances that customers will already have these are astronomically high. Besides, why would someone part with something that’s nearly essential? Suspicious…

Computers are good, provided that they’re priced appropriately. It makes me gag every time some moron thinks he can get two-hundred dollars out of a six-year-old computer that’s covered with grime and missing most of the components, including the hard drive. Apparently, these people either think that just because it sort of works, customers will pay up for an obsolete computer even though a new one is just another two-hundred away or they’re justified in selling it at that price because they paid six times as much for it “just a little while ago.” I usually attempt to talk some reason into these people and tell them the proper price for their computer (“I’ll take it off your hands and I MIGHT not slap you for trying to sell this junker for money.”), but it usually never works. Either they get lucky and some idiot happens by and buys it or they haul the thing back inside, wondering what in the world is wrong with their moronic customers for not buying a computer that they paid six times their asking price for. Geniuses.

Stereo equipment is questionable. CD players may do okay, but you can forget cassettes, though you might be able to entice some music buff with an 8-track player. Anything that plays MP3 is good if you find the right kind of person (the kind that knows a USB port from a wall outlet). If you’re selling an entire stereo entertainment center, don’t expect more than thirty dollars for it. Thirty dollars is a lot of money in garage sale terms, and you can get entire stereo systems for fifty new these days.

Video games are excellent money makers, but keep in mind that standard prices are easy to find, and the garage sale hunters might know that. Video games are mainly what I look for when I check around garage sales, and I’ve found a lot of incredible buys, but have also seen a lot of clueless sellers who demand way too much. Of course, finding clueless sellers who demand too little works for me as well, so it goes both ways. Basically, do your research and whatever price you find, cut down a little, because any price that you sell it for is yours and not some trade-in store’s. Here’s a tip: PC games generally suck as retail items. Price accordingly.

Don’t expect much from CDs or VHS, though DVDs can make a little more. Keep the first two under a dollar and the DVDs at no more than five, depending on the title. Don’t hold your breath on any other formats unless you get someone who is looking for that sort of thing specifically.

For some reason, tools seem to sell well. It doesn’t matter if the tool is nothing more than a rusted hunk of metal; if the garage sale sign exclaims “Tools!” you’re not listening to my advice and your garage sale will be so bad, angry garage sale hunters will torch your house. Another thing you’ll be guaranteed is a lot of old guys will show up at your sale. I don’t know what the deal is with old guys and rusted, worthless tools, but they seem to derive great pleasure from paying a dollar for a corroded monkey wrench whose days of adjusting are over with. Maybe it’s just some weird old guy hobby.

Kitchen appliances don’t do as well, especially gimmick items like Salad Shooters. Let’s face it: you bought the item in the first place because you bought into the company’s marketing spell and once you actually got the thing, you wondered what the hell you were thinking. Without the hype, no one is going to touch these things. Caller ID units are bad, too, because they’re thoroughly obsolete and easy to get anyway. Same with cell phones and pagers, especially pagers; I don’t know why people bother. Any obscure electronic device of which its function evades you may require research, so you should just slap a dollar price on it and hope it wasn’t worth a million dollars.

I think I’ve made it clear that knick-knacks are moronic items to sell. The same goes for dishware that consists of a single dish. Beat up furniture is also an insult to customers. You know? I’m jumping the ship before port and am just going to tell you to use common sense, because there’s just too much to go over. If you don’t like it, just remember what the sticker price for this guide is.

Speaking of which, you should price your items in consideration of how badly you want to get rid of them. If it’s something like children’s clothes that you will never, ever use again and no one else wants, you can afford to price them really cheap, which will get you some money that can go towards college for your child, by which I mean a single meal in the college cafeteria (without fries). If you have something that you may want to hang onto but just want to see what would happen if you sell, price it up and hope for the best. If you’re not going to be upset if it doesn’t sell, you have nothing to worry about.

It goes without saying that you have to actually price things, so clearly label everything with the appropriate sticker. If you have one of those deals where each person in the family gets money for their items that they sell (or you have other people selling at your sale), label the items with their name and keep a price list. On that note, make sure you know their minimum price for bargaining and anyone managing the sale for you knows yours. It just makes things easier for everyone and will increase sales.

Free bins are a must. You can get rid of junk and not feel guilty about taking other people’s money for it, and someone may be able to use some of the stuff. If a customer asks to take everything, let them. The point is to get rid of the stuff, not worry about other customers getting dibs on it. You may never get rid of it otherwise.

One thing that you’re going to invariably run into are bargainers. In the garage sale world, bargaining is expected. Don’t get insulted if someone asks for a price cut and don’t be an arrogant snot about it. Remember that you’re selling these people your junk, and if you want to get rid if it, you’ll have to play by their rules. Of course, it’s your stuff, and you can price it however you want. Just remember that it’s the customer’s money. If you absolutely don't want to bargain, either on one item or everything, hang a sign stating the prices are "firm," though you run the risk of coming off as a complete jerk. I'm going to hazard to guess every sale I ran across with one of these signs on anything was a total, overpriced bust and I ended up leaving without dropping a dime. Signs stating your willingness to bargain aren't needed, but are a nice thought.

Sometimes your customers may be short on cash, unable to take a desired item with them, or, for whatever reason, can’t or don't want to take an item with them at the time they arrive. It’s a good gesture to hold the item for them, but set some limits, because there’s a chance that they’ll forget about it and you’ll wind up stuck with your junk again. Arrange a pickup time or ask for some money down. At the very least, this will help ensure they’ll show up and take the item off of your hands, especially if you demand money up front (and if they don’t come back, free money!). Just don’t be a rat fink and sell it behind their back, especially if they paid for it.

One of the most important things to remember is to be polite. You’re going to run into a lot of people from all kinds of walks of life, so try to be tolerant. Your customers are guests, so treat them as such. If they do something you don’t like, tell them politely; it's your property, after all. If they do something dangerous, there’s always the police. Not that you need to be scared or anything, because I want as many sales as possible. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned the police thing…

Advice for Garage Sale Guests

The advice for buyers is a little more philosophical. Most of the practical advice has basically already been stated in the last section (so if you ended up skipping the last section, looks like your cop-out didn’t work. Get back up there and read it). Any advice that I give to the sellers can work for the buyers if you know how to look out for it. So, I’ll summarize the main points and get on with the inspirational talk.

Finding a Garage Sale: Like I mentioned, the hardcore garage sale hunters check the local news papers for the big finds. Word of mouth is also good, but the best way (and most fun) is to search out the holy grail in the good old fashioned signs by driving around (most people will advertise this way anyhow). If you still don’t have any luck, try cruising through a neighborhood that’s off the main road; you’d be surprised at some of the stuff you’ll find. Just don’t waste too much gas, because by the time you find your unbelievable deal, you may have spent way too much on gas getting there.

If you see someone setting up a sale, politely ask, firstly, if it’s a garage sale and not someone cleaning out their garage, and then ask if the sale is open if the first question is a “yes” (or you’ll sound like a complete dolt). If they say it isn’t open, you can ask if you could look at what they have out so far, or ask if they have something that you want. If they do, ask the price and if the item can be held for you (see below). If they refuse to cooperate, just wait it out and hope for the best.

Just be aware that you’re probably going to run into signs for sales that have long past. If you see someone who insists on doing this, feel free to go to their house and demand that they bring out stuff for you to buy. Who knows, maybe you’ll get a shot at some things that they wouldn’t sell before, and using guilt as a bargaining chip, receive massive discounts. So if you get a fifty-two inch plasma television for a buck, you have me to thank for it.

Bargaining: If any of you are thinking of hosting a garage sale, stop reading now, because I want the buyers to have an edge on you. Hey, I dispensed all that free advice, so you can afford to be a little generous here. I can wait… okay, the most important aspect of bargaining, the trick that always works without fail, is to you pull a gun out and aim it at the host’s children and… GOTCHA! You sneaky sellers! Get out of here and draw up some signs! Some GOOD signs!

Anyway, at garage sales, bargaining is expected, so feel free to do so. When offering a lower price for an item, be polite about it (if you offer a higher price, politeness is unnecessary). Instead of snidely saying “I’ll give you (lower price) for that,” put your request in the form of a question. Ask “Can I offer you (lower price) for this?” or “Can you go (lower price) on this?” It could make a difference.

A good bargain price depends on the price and the item (as well as how much you actually want the item), but usually you should ask for a discount no more than fifty percent, unless the item is really overpriced. A good technique is to figure out a price you want to pay and ask if it could be lowered to half of that. If they are willing to bargain, most likely they’ll go halfway between your fake asking price and their price, making it your real asking price. This way, you walk away with the price you want and the seller feels like a really good bargainer. And if they accept your fake price, you walk away with a price you really want to pay and the seller gets rid of something they really didn’t want, apparently.

Buying a lot of stuff is usually a good way of asking for discounts. If the total comes out odd, ask to have it evened up. For example, say you bought fourteen dollars worth. You can feasible ask if you could get it all for ten. Or you can ask if you could have a five dollar item and make the total fifteen. Good patronage can pay off.

If you want to be dishonest, you can act really interested in an item, go to your wallet, and “find” that you don’t have enough money to pay for it. Bring this up, and you might get lucky. Of course, if you visit this site, you’re probably really dirt poor (that would explain why you haven’t made any donations, you scrooge), so the moral dilemma of this technique is moot.

Words of Inspiration: Keep an open mind when going to sales. It’s good to have in mind something in particular that you’re looking for, but don’t bet on actually finding it. This is a treasure hunt, and you’re going to have to dig through a lot of dirt to find something good, even if it’s not what you had in mind. Keep trying to the point of reason. Don’t let garage sales rule your life.

Be polite and courteous, especially when bargaining. Say “hi” to the people in charge and make small talk when appropriate. Don’t wander into places where you aren’t welcome. If the sale is in the garage, don’t head around back behind it just to check it out (you’d be surprised what some people find entertaining).

Don’t be afraid to ask if they have something that you’re looking for up for sale. This saves you time and makes you less inclined to look for something that isn’t there. Be broad about it. If you’re looking for NES games, for example, don’t ask them for that specifically. Instead, ask for video games or electronics. Remember that you’re dealing with the masses; they may not know what you’re talking about, which is why they’re selling potentially valuable things at a garage sale for a fraction of they're worth. Take a look around even if they give the thumbs down on your query, just to be sure. There may be something else of interest or something the host didn’t know about.

Don’t take bargaining refusals personally. Okay, I admit there are a lot of jerks out there, and you’ll probably run into a few angry and stressed people in your travels. Even if they get grating and nasty, don’t let it get to you. The most extreme thing you should do is tell them that you’re not going to buy from someone who treats customers like that and walk away. Don’t trade insults, even if they deserve it. The last thing you want is a scuffle turning into a police report because the hosts decided to fabricate some facts. Like it or not, you’re a guest, and you don’t want some jerk making you a trespasser all of a sudden.

If you can’t take the item with you for whatever reason, ask if they can hold it for you until you can take it. Make sure you arrange a time to pick it up or put a little money down on the item before leaving. As far as the sellers are concerned, you could leave and never come back, and then they’re stuck with the item. Don’t assume that they’re going to hold the item forever, or even for a reasonable amount of time. While you might think that you can swing by in the afternoon to pick it up, they might be excepting you to be there at the opening early in the morning. It’s happened to me before, so from my experience, don’t count on having an item held for you, and only put money down if you really want the item and the seller looks trustworthy (which isn’t much to go on, but it’s better than nothing).

Don’t be embarrassed to root through the free bin, even if you don’t buy anything. That’s what it’s there for, and you might find some treasure.

Most importantly, know when to walk away. If you don’t really want an item, don’t buy it. If you sort of want it, name your (low) price, and if the seller can’t deliver, politely refuse and leave. Don’t think you need to buy something at a garage sale just because you think it’s impolite not to. And though you can get some heavy discounts, don’t spend more than you should, because discount or not, it’s still money spent.

That’s the culmination of my garage sale wisdom from years of poking through dozens of them. Use it as a guideline, not a bible, and with any luck, you’ll wind up walking away better off, whether you’re buying or selling. And have fun, because though you’ll be digging through a lot of dirt, a treasure hunt is rewarding once your shovel strikes the chest.