Profiting with a Garage Sale Business

Everybody would like to make a living at the house. But most don’t think that small time enterprises like a garage sale business will get them anywhere. Well if you have a strong location that gets through traffic, then you are already poised to succeed in garage sales. Even if you don’t have the best of locations, you can still build a solid base of clients that will come back to you time and time again if you continue to bring new and interesting items to the market. I know of one lady in our Church that does nothing but her garage sale every weekend, and that’s how they make their living.

Benefits of a Garage Sale Business

Independence. Pure and simple. This is what every entrepreneur is looking for. I am an internet and real estate entrepreneur and that is exactly what I want: the opportunity to decide what I will be doing from day to day. And with the right strategy, you can turn your home into a cash getting machine.

Also, being able to be at home most of the time in your business is a real plus for having a garage sale. In my business, I do most of the activity from the house, through working on the computer or engaging in phone calls. However, with almost every business out there, you’ll need to get out of the house from time to time to run errands and meet people.

Getting Your Own Garage Sale Business Started

For many folks, it isn’t going to be the selling part that is going to hold them back from making money in garage sales. It is going to be finding and obtaining new and valuable inventory at low enough prices to be able to sell on the weekend. So here is a couple of ideas for finding inventory at very low prices, enough for you to be able to resell and profit from them:

Storage Auction Sales
This is one of my favorite ways to make money in the garage sale business. It involves finding the public notices and legal section of your local newspaper and picking out the auctions at local mini and self storage units. Then you go and buy the units, and turn around and sell the individual items at your garage sale. We have been able to triple our money using this technique.
Other Garage Sales
This is an interesting idea. So you are at the end of your Saturday and things are pretty slow at your garage sale. So you ask one of the kids to watch the sale for a little while as you go out to find new items. So you go to the other garage sales in your area, and offer to buy out the remaining items for a ridiculously low price. Great way to obtain more inventory.
Bulk Lots on Ebay
Ebay sells bulk lots of many different items. In the same way, you can go shopping online, pick up a box full of cell phones or other items at a very low cost, and resale them individually for a profit.
Finding and Fixing Up Abandoned Items
Many people will just leave things out for the garbage or on the side of the street that seem to have no value. If you are a little bit of a handy man, you can find things like broken vacuum cleaners, old beat up patio furniture, and a host of other items that people are content to just throw away. Take the back to the house, doing a little sanding, painting, replacing of belts, etc. and presto, you have an item that is worth something again.

So you see, with a little intuition and work, you can make it in garage sales. The ideas I just posed to obtain new inventory can also be called “chatteling”, which is the process of buying and selling personal property for a profit. Tomorrow, look for my post on running a successful garage sale for details on selling your newly acquired inventory for the highest possible price.