Saturday, October 27, 2012

When is Shopping Better Than Selling?

It would seem to make sense that selling (making money) would always be preferable to buying (spending money), but in the case of garage sales, the opposite is true.

We had our own garage sale today. Since we are out at garage and estate sales every weekend, it is rare that we have one ourselves, but we had gotten to the point where it was time to move those unused items and store surplus. We had a very good day, sold the majority of what we had put and made a tidy sum. Or did we?

You really don't make much, if any, profit from a garage sale. It's still smart to have one now and then just to clear your place out, but it is rare that you will ever get what you paid for anything. You're lucky to get 10% of your original price.

On the other hand, if you follow the suggestions in our book, "The Complete Money Saver's Guide to Garage Sale Shopping," then you will almost always be buying things at a tremendous bargain and saving a great deal of money. As we discuss in the book, staying on a predetermined budget, knowing the local market and knowing what things retail for, you should arrive at garage sales well prepared to make the very best buying decisions possible.

Go ahead and have that garage sale now and then, but know that the real money is in buying smarter in the first place.

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