Trash or Treasure: Finding Deals at Yard Sales

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The phrase "the early bird gets the worm" has never been so true as when yard sale shopping with Jacksonville appraiser Barbara Langston and her son Jonathan.

Nearly every Saturday, they wake up before the sun to be the first people to arrive at the First Coast Yard sales. On one particular Saturday they arrive at a subdivision sale on Jacksonville's Southside. They stop their vehicle in front of a sign that says yard sale at 8 a.m. The fact that it is only 6:45 a.m. doesn't slow them down.

Barbara Langston marches right to the front door and knocks. The homeowner greets her, stunned by the early shopper. But in a matter of minutes she is able to convince him to let her in, even though they aren't finished setting up.

"He knew he could possibly have a sale," says Langston.

Her plan of attack is to get in before anyone else and quickly grab everything that looks decent. "We hit it first and cleaned out all the good stuff," Langston says.

She bought a box of dishes for $10. "I was hesitant to buy the dishes at first," says Langston. "But when I got to the car and show what was in the box I felt good about the buy."

That's because it was filled with Noritake platters. Langston says Noritake is an extremely popular type of china. She plans to call 1-800-Replacements to sell them all of the Noritake platters. "I could probably get $10 a piece for each one of those and there are probably $20 platters," says Langston.

For their next location, Barbara and Jonathan head to a community sale they saw listed in the newspaper. This particular sale is at an apartment complex and some 20 residents all have set up tables with their belongings. The Langstons also hit this sale before it opened.

"You can do very well by getting up early, it's worth it," says Langston.

Barbara says it's a good idea to ask the seller questions about the items you are interested in. "It makes me more knowledgeable about the items."

At this sale, she finds a seemly ordinary basket and asks the women about it. The seller tells her that it's from Pennsylvania, it's hand made and likely Amish.

"It's a hand-woven Amish basket," says Langston. "It's probably from the turn of the century and it's worth about $40. We paid 25 cents for it. That was the deal of the day."

Barbara says if you want to find the best deals at yard sales, then you need to plan ahead. That includes filling up the vehicle with gas ahead of time, putting boxes and blankets in the vehicle, plus getting plenty of money in smalls bills.

"Generally we start out with $500 in small dollar bills and on a good day I hit the ATM again," says Langston.

She says go with change because you are going to lose a good deal waiting for change.

"One thing we bought was 15 cents and I had a quarter," says Langston. "I just give her the quarter and go. It's not worth waiting for 10 cents to lose a good deal at the next place."

She also says to look for the people who have everything priced extremely low. "These are the best kind of people to find," says Langston. "They want to get rid of it. They don't want to take it home so they have priced it to move."

The Langstons say in these hard economic times yard sales can also be a good place to buy things to decorate your house. During this particular Saturday of shopping she bought several items for her own home.

She bought brand new candle holders still in the box. "They were $19.99 and they've never been opened," says Langston. She bought them for only a buck.

Another tip, look for a community of subdivision sales. "Usually a subdivision sale has a ton of garage sales," says Langston. "You can jump from one to the other."

Langston is working on one of those community sales for Saturday, May 17th. It's behind the Blessed Trinity Church at 10478 Beach Blvd. The sale is from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Langston says after you find all the good buys www.ebay.com and www.craigslist.com are good websites to sell the items. If you buy dishes or china you can call 1-800-Replacements. The company buys individual pieces of China to sell to people who break or lose part of their collections.

For people who want to sell coins or gold pieces, Langston recommends going to Edwards Coins on Edgewood Ave.

Another option is to rent a small space at an antique mall. There are several popular ones on the First Coast: San Jose Antique Mall, Avonlea Antique Mall, Tin City Antique Mall, and Sugar Berry Antique Mall.

Appraisers such as Barbara Langston may also be interested in buying some of your valuables. You can reach Barbara by calling B. Langston's Antiques at (904) 642-1003.