Garage Sale Season, finding that one perfect collectible or antique

Garage sale season is here in full force... YIPEE. Even though I don't need to add to any of my personal collections, I am always on the lookout for that one missing item.

You learn how to drive by a house and from the street tell if it is a sale worth stopping at or not. In general, I avoid the new high dollar homes filled with young families. They will sell baby items, clothes and cheap junk at high prices.

I head for the older neighborhoods and the wealthy... extremely rich should I say. This is where you will find the real treasures.

Since I do tend to have the "itis" I can't throw anything away, I have had quite a few garage sales of my own over the years, and very successful ones I might add. So here are a few tips if you want to attract a large crowd of people ready to spend money.

• Put a price on everything, yes it takes some time but folks don't like to ask how much an item is. This is a personal pet peeve.
• If it isn't for sale.... get it out of the sale area or cover it up.
• Put a variety of nice large items close to the street to looky-lous (like me) can see them when the cruise slowly by.
• Be willing to bargain just a little, I never expect to get a great item for nothing but I don't want to pay antique shop prices at a garage sale either.
• Donate your clothes to a charity, or atleast only put out the best. I personally will not dig through dirty old clothes.... and I have run across some rank stuff.
• Baby clothes are great to sell.
• Have newspaper or tissue for wrapping fragile items and bags or boxes for putting purchases in.
• Let the kids sell lemonade or sodas, especially if the weather is really hot. I always have a few extra lawn chairs scattered around for folks to have a seat and rest (or the men while the women shop) this keeps folks around longer... and the longer they are there the more they will buy.
• When your sale is over please remove your signs from the area. How many times have your driven around and around looking for a sale that ended 3 weeks prior.
• Have a free bin of toys for the kids, one toy per child.
• Have fun and make you sale fun

Maybe I will stop by this garage sale season.