My Main Hobby - Garage Sales and Treasure Hunting

[theantiquetiger]

I have a few hobbies, collecting LSU, collecting toys (not anymore), & now photography, but my main love is hitting garage sales and estate sales. I have been a picker now for over ten years and have come quite an expert at it.

I started off small. I would have no more than $20 in my pocket and rarely bought anything over $5. I would find something interesting, buy it and flip it on eBay. I would make $10-$20 an item for the most part. In the beginning, my best finds were women's designer shoes and purses. I knew the designer names because of my wife. I would pick them up all day long for a dollar or two, and sell them for $20, 30, and 40 each.

My first big hit was a $1 purchase that I sold for $125. It was a Pierre Cardin backgammon set.

Nowadays, I have no less than $200 in my pocket and have spent as much as $1500 at on sell on an entire collection of Italian wood carvings that I sold for $2000+.

My biggest hit ever was still early on when spending $160 was out of the question on my part. A guy had 16 boxes full of old toys marked $10 a box. I bought them knowing I was going to get the wrath from my wife. The toys included Six Million Dollar Man toys and Mego Superhero action figures and accessories. I sold them for just over $7000!!!!!

This is what got me into collecting LSU. I was finding some great stuff and didn't want to part with it.

My latest find was just two weeks ago. I paid $2 for a little rubber basketball given away at a LSU game. It was signed by Pete Maravich and his dad, Press (coach of LSU). I sold it the next day for $250 because I was already trying to save for the original photograph of the first game ever in Tiger Stadium (my prized piece of my collection).

People always ask me how do I know what to buy. My answer is that I don't know, you just have to risk it. That's why I always tell people to start off small like I did and make a bankroll.