Calling Garage Sale Shoppers: post your finds!

I love to garage sale shop and even have gotten my husband into it. Our finds today:

Fire place tools: poker, ash pan, ash broom, tongs, wood bellows, small firewood carrier, and stand, in black, in like new condition.
Our cost: $10.00
Approximate retail new: $60.00

6 foot aluminum ladder in like new condition.
Our cost: $20.00
Approximate retail new: $60.00

Kitchen stuff: 10" square cake pan & aluminum splatter guard in good condition.
Our cost: $0.25
Approximate retail new: $15.00

2 weather radios in good working condition.
Our cost $5.00
Approximate resale value: $50.00
With these I plan to sell on eBay, then purchase the weather radio of my choice.

What have you found at a garage sale lately?

reply to post by Ameilia


Child slave in good working condition
Our cost: Free with stereo
Retail: Couple of thousand

Haven't done much garage sale shopping lately but I did pick up some bamboo blinds for my patio last weekend for $5 each...
If I remember correctly they go for about $20-$30 a piece new.

Wish I had more for ya - saw an interesting article on yahoo the other day about someone who picked up an old Andy Warhol sketch from when he was just getting started - I think he paid $5 or $10 for it & now that it's been certified it's valued at around $2 million...now that's what I call a deal

I am a man, so as such am always looking at man stuff...


One day I was at a garage sale and saw a straight razor that was being sold for 10.00$ (US) when it was really worth about 500.00 as a collectible item. German steal with a scale made from mother of pear (the real stuff) shell.

I never sold it, instead I refurbished it with extensive dremel work and a series of very pricey hones...have been using it for about 10 years now.

I have spent a total of 200.00$ (US) on shaving in the past 15 years...

The remaining balance is from buying custom shave soaps and a strop to keep my razor sharp.

Originally posted by coldkidc
Haven't done much garage sale shopping lately but I did pick up some bamboo blinds for my patio last weekend for $5 each...
If I remember correctly they go for about $20-$30 a piece new.

Wish I had more for ya - saw an interesting article on yahoo the other day about someone who picked up an old Andy Warhol sketch from when he was just getting started - I think he paid $5 or $10 for it & now that it's been certified it's valued at around $2 million...now that's what I call a deal

edit on 7-4-2012 by coldkidc because: (no reason given)

I saw that too this week:
$5 Garage Sale Find May be Worth 2 Million

I will never have a find like that, but basically want to find household tools on the cheap. And it's going to be too hot to go out in a few months, so I have to get the garage sale shopping fix in when I can.

Of course, sometimes I go out and hit all the ones I find for a couple hours and don't buy anything. Blah.

I buy mostly at thrift stores and Goodwill.

My finds.


Joseph Szady signed artist proof litho worth $1000+ bought for $14

Joan Purcell signed litho worth $600+ bought for $3

Dave Bumbeck signed litho worth$500+ bought for $4

Higgins art glass worth $200 bought for $1

Bruce Seabourn signed litho worth $500+ bought for $5


Vintage WWII US Navy bomber jacket worth $300-$500. bought for $13

Many many more things.


I buy art.

The area of Colorado I live in is considered to to be the top antique shopping place in the world. In other words; "we collect a lot of useless #", but I absolutely love it. Living here is like going to a garage sale every day when you walk down the street.

At the ripe old age of 35 my house is a eclectic collection of old world antiques.

The computer I'm on right now
Paid $5
I wish I had a better idea on the retail...It was originally a windows vista but has had a few upgrades including Windows 7

Survival suit for boating cost 50$ retails at 250-300$
Box of 100 cell phones 50$ retails at?
new in box power screw driver impact driver combo...dewalt 100$ retails at 225-250
600 ft of lead line for prawn lines...10$ retails about 75$
666 Clark ranger log skidder 1500$ retails at 7-9000$ had to fix the radiator....
I love digging around.....will buy anything that looks like i can make a buck on it....
lincoln welder 25$
Power plant 2500 watt....25$ the two for 50 actually...both work well....
I could go on and on.....

Finds from the past weekend were not wonderful. We got:

A pair of hiking style brown Doc Martens made in the UK
Our cost: $8.00
Approximate resale value: $25 or so. We are keeping these because they fit Husband. You can't find the UK Docs anymore.

A pair of 2 way radios
Our cost: $5.00
Approximate resale value: $35

So, nothing for the house. Sure it's fun to resell stuff, but usually we are trying to improve our home life above all.

The sales we went to, only about 5, were about wiped out. I don't know why exactly, but every person except one said they were swarmed as soon as they opened. So choices were slim. The only sale that still had bunches of things was overpriced. Lady had a garage, a driveway, and a huge porch covered with crap priced at retail value. As an example, a Coleman lantern (which I would have bought cheap) was there for $55, well they retail at $50. She was complaining to me no was buying her stuff and I didn't have the heart to tell her that was because she needed to slash her prices by 80%.

So all in all, not a great week.