6 Tips for Yard Sale Shopping

By Lauren Rose Correa, July 1, 2019

The only thing that gets me more excited than a trip to the thrift store? A nice Saturday morning yard sale! The deals that I get at yard sales are usually much better than my thrift store deals — which is saying a lot. I’ve gotten a tall faux plant for $5, multiple free chairs, and a hand painted floral tray for $15.

Here are my best tips for successful yard sale shopping.

1. Find yard sales postings online.

I still see the old fashioned poster board signs hanging on telephone poles all the time. But another way to learn about yard sales is to find them listed online at places like Facebook Marketplace or Craig’s List.

2. Look for community yard sales.

On a typical day, yard saling would require a lot of listings from online and a car. But if you hit up a community yard sale, everything is conveniently close together. You just need to walk from one sale to the next!

3. Cluttered Yard Sale = Better Deals

A friend and I were yard saling together when we came across a yard full of boxes with junk piled in them. My friend wanted to go elsewhere, but I insisted that this was an exciting find. When people haven’t taken the time to sort their goods, that usually means they are just trying to get rid of “junk” as fast as possible. The more you have to sift through everything, the more likely you are to find overlooked treasures at a fraction of the cost.

4. Don’t forget to haggle the price.

Yard sales are the number one place to for haggling, and there are a few ways to increase your changes of talking down the price. First, if you’re buying a lot of items at one sale, the seller is more likely to give you a better deal since you’re buying up a lot of items from them. Also, your chances of haggling successfully are higher at the end of the day (usually 2 or 3pm) when everything is being packed up for Goodwill.

5. Bring reusable shopping bags or tote bags.

People usually provide plastic shopping bags, but having a few of your own bags in tow can’t hurt.

6. For community yard sales, bring a wagon.

I’ve never personally done this, but I saw someone else doing it and I thought it was one of the best ideas I’d seen. When you’re buying bigger items, reusable shopping bags don’t always do the trick!