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While I am sure I will continue to utilize all of these sourcing avenues. I find myself scheduling a lot more thirft store trips as opposed to Estate Sale/ Garage Sale trips.
It more about time and consistent inventory. I can be sure I will come home with a lot of stuff if I spend the day at thrift stores. But I cant tell you how many Estate sale / Garage sale trips have ended up netting nothing or very little.
Dont get me wrong some of the best stuff I have ever found has been at Estate sales / Garage sales but I think I am moving more for the sure (moderate profit) things than the hope for the allusive $1000 find.
What are your sourcing strategies?
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Go to storage unit. Bring junk to house. That’s the one we SHOULD be using as our primary method LOL
We don’t have a lot of true estate sales near us. Mostly yard sales. We’ve got s couple thrift shops nearby, otherwise, we have to drive a bit of a distance. I like auctions, CL, FB and others, but the thing is, we usually do pretty well with yard sales (in season) and thrift shops (whenever we have time to stop in) without doing much more than that.
And, we have death piles on top of death piles, so there’s no danger of running out of inventory any time soon. Or probably within my lifetime LOL. It’s just hard to resist the thrill of the hunt.
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For my routine sourcing, it’s thrift shops. I have three decent ones each within 10 minutes of my house. I occasionally do well at yard sales and auctions but because my time is (especially now, with the new job) limited, I’ve built my routine more around the shops with occasional spice from a yard/estate sale or an auction.
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Thrift shops are my favorite. Estate sales depress me, probably because my parents are aging. Lately, I’ve been buying wholesale and letting someone else do the sourcing and quality control for me due to lack of sourcing time.
~beth ann~ -
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My favorite source is free stuff from friends and family, or junk found on the side of the road. I’ll get a couple items a week for free just because people know I sell stuff on eBay, or know I fix electronics on the side.
However, my main source is thrift stores or clearance racks at places like TJ Maxx/Marshalls where you can get brand name, NWT items cheap.
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My main source is auctions – both live and online. Since I sourced a good bit over the summer, but wasn’t able to keep up with listing, I’m trying to hold off on buying too much right now.
I’ve been going to a few garage and estate sales just to keep things interesting. I’ve been finding that the sales I see advertised with signs on the road, but I didn’t hear about on gsalr.com, are the BEST. They are typically trying to get rid of stuff, but don’t know much about pricing or advertising. Otherwise, I will go to 2 or 3 garage or estate sales and end up buying maybe one or two items.
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Speaking of online auctions, what sites do you find as good sources of inventory? I haven’t done any serious diving into online sources of inventory yet, but with a potential move to a more rural area, it would be nice to know of some solid online sources.
For us, Veronica kills at the garage and estate sales, I kill at the thrift stores. So a typical sourcing week for us is garage/estate sales on Friday, and thrift stores on Saturday (when they are 50% off).
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The online auction company that I like is called Maxsold.com. However, they are only in certain markets. You will need to go on their site and type in your zip code to see if anything is within 80 miles or so of your home.
Other live and online auctions can be found at auctionzip.com. In addition, estatesales.net has a tab for auctions, and it is a bit cleaner. With Auctionzip, you will need to click through the calendar days until you find something that looks interesting or do a more detailed search.
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I prefer yard sales because items are almost always cheaper. I wish yard sales were every day! But, I can only get to those on Saturdays. I work Fridays so those mornings are out for me.
Pretty much same goes for estate sales. Saturdays are generally the half price days so there won’t be as many items, but they’ll be cheaper.
I’m still shy about auctions, only went to one and it wasn’t a typical auction. It was auctioning off leftovers after an estate sale at a hoarder’s house, so it was still packed. It was pretty sweet, I got a lot of stuff for almost nothing.
Thrift stores are great because I can go at almost any time, but unless they are having a sale, the prices here are usually way out of my range, and stuff gets picked over constantly. Once in awhile I can score a deal if the pricers don’t realize the worth of an item and if I happen to be there right after they put it out. Usually the thrift store price is almost equal or equal to the price I would charge! UGH.
I find that if I venture out of the main city to a small town, the deals at thrift stores are better and much less picked over. I will fill up the car at these thrifts!
Once in awhile I’ll get some clearance items from Walmart or another retail store. I usually don’t have much luck in the retail arbitrage department.
I get things from family and friends, also. Awesome! -
I completely agree, thrift stores (and goodwill bins) are where I do 90% of my sourcing. Estate sales around me are so overpriced its ridiculous, and garage sales are for the most part a waste of time and gas. I can drive to 10 and not find anything good, and I never leave a thift without at least one full bag. I do occasionally attend our local auction which can sometimes be great, and others crap, but it does change it up a bit!
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