Finding Vintage & Antiques at Garage Sales

You’ve heard me say it many times, my absolute favorite place to buy vintage and antiques is garage sales. If your experience with them has not been great, then today is your lucky day because I’m going to give you loads of tips on finding vintage and antiques at garage sales.

Why do I love garage sales so much?

1. I find great stuff at garage sales
2. Shopping them is a real treasure hunt
3. I like being outside (unless it’s hot, LOL)
4. I enjoy people, and you see plenty of people while out garage saling

My sweet husband and I attended the World’s Largest Garage Sale this past Friday in Warrensburg (NY). I’ve gone almost every single year since I was a teenager. The entire town is one giant mob of people selling stuff.  What did we find? Among many other items, we bought 36 holiday postcards for just 25¢ each, a set of Hardy Boy books for 50¢ each, a collection of 24 old letters in their stamped and addressed envelopes (1893-1929) 15¢ each, bottles of Lancome Tresor and Estee Lauder Beautiful perfumes for $1 each, and a piece of Pyrex for $2. Related posts: 10 Vintage Items Often Overlooked & Undervalued at Garage Sales, and Adirondack Girl’s Garage Saling Guide.

What to Do Before Heading Out to Garage Sales

Before you hop into the car and head for that very first garage sale of the morning, make sure you’re adequately prepared.  That means planning out which sales you’ll be attending and making sure you have all the supplies you need to make it a profitable and fantastic day. I’ve created two printables to help you with both of these efforts and you can access them in my FREE Member Library when you subscribe here. Related Post: Preparing to Shop at Garage Sales

Types of Garage Sales to Attend to Find Vintage & Antiques

When it comes to finding vintage and antiques at garage sales, the goal is to find garage sales with the highest density of vintage and antiques or groups of garage sales with the highest density sales to shop at. The best kind of garage sales to attend from my experience are townwide sales in rural areas. Sometimes sellers are not quite as savvy about the value of the pieces they are selling and often their is a larger quantity of older and rustic items available. The next best type are neighborhood sales–in older neighborhoods especially. You will find more vintage and antiques in these areas because they contain older people who are often in the process of downsizing. The third best sort are individual garage sales that mention vintage and antiques (or have photos).  If a sale mentions vintage and antiques or has photos of interesting items, then add it to your list, especially if the emphasis on “antiques” isn’t overboard. I hate sales advertised as “garage sales” that end up being “antique sales” with antique shop prices. 

How to Find Tag Sales in Your Area

There are many ways to find garage sales in your area. Here are a few:

Craigslist

Search Craigslist for garage sales in your area on the day you’re interested in. Rather than search through the dozens of sales on offer, I like to narrow down my search by looking for the types of sales I’m interested in that I mentioned above. To do this, type “town wide” and then “town-wide” into the Craigslist search bar under “garage sales” on the day you’re interested in. Jot down the addresses and times of any that show up. Then do the same for “neighborhood,” followed by the names of local areas, hamlets, or towns you want to shop in. This lets you focus, for example, on sales near a neighborhood sale that you plan to attend, keeping you geographically focused. And it saves you the effort of having to look through all the listings, which during garage saling peak, could be several hundred.

Yardsales.net

Yardsales.net is another site to check for sales in your area and they allow you to create a sales route by clicking a small gray flag (upper right) on the sales you’re interested in. You can also get on their mailing list and have the sales in your area emailed to you every Thursday.

Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace is another place to look for garage sales in your area. Many sellers have begun to list their sales in various local Facebook groups. If you join/follow those groups, then you’ll see those listings.

Your Local Newspaper

Your local newspaper’s website is another avenue to check, since that’s the only place some people list their sale.

Estatesales.net

And while you’re at it, check estatesales.net. I know, they’re not the same as garage sales but there might be one or more in the area you plan to garage sale. Look for sales that are run by families rather than professionals. You can also search for “estate sales” in Craigslist. Related Article: Why I Shop Estate Sales

Categories of Items to Look For at Garage Sales

There are four types of items that you want to look for when shopping garage sales:

1. Antiques priced low: Sometimes sellers simply want to move vintage and antique items out of their house and happily sell them at a discount. Take advantage of this!
2. Hidden antiques: Other sellers are unaware of the value of the items they have for sale and price them low. This is to your benefit. 
3. Home decor: Garage sales are fantastic places to look for vintage, as well as new vintage-style, home decor–whether for your home or to sell. I hunt for berry wreaths and garlands, faux greenery and flowers, bowl filler (billiard balls, baseballs, dominoes, scrabble tiles, shells, etc.), wall art, architectural pieces, and more.
4. Upcycling Projects: You can find all sorts of junk that can be turned into something awesome at garage sales. 
5. Supplies: Almost any kind of supply that you need for decorating or your vintage business can [eventually] be found at a garage sale. It depends in part on how long you are willing to wait to find it, LOL. Look for: cleaning supplies, tools, hardware, miscellaneous parts, office supplies, shipping supplies, craft supplies, etc.

Vintage & Antiques to Look For at Yard Sales

Now we get to the really interesting part: What sorts of vintage and antique items should you be looking for at garage sales? All of the wood and metal items in this photo came from garage sales– along with those in the photo below. The general answer to the question, “What to look for at garage sales,” is anything and everything! Over the years I have found literally hundreds upon hundreds of vintage and antiques at yard sales. You just never know what you’re going to find, which is of course why so many people love shopping them. But lets narrow that down a bit, okay? In my blog post, 10 Vintage Items Often Overlooked & Undervalued at Garage Sales, I answer that question for you by identifying things that other people often pass right by. You’ll see photos and read examples of each of those ten categories. If you’re looking for more in-depth info on that topic, then consider buying my eBook, 25 Vintage Items Often Overlooked & Undervalued at Garage Sales. Hundreds of copies have sold to great reviews. In addition, I’ve written a couple of hundred Vintage Finds posts that reveal the hundreds of items that I’ve purchased at garage sales over the past six years. Check them out 🙂 Related Posts:  5 Things I’m Looking for at Garage Sales [2018], and 5 Things I’m Looking for at Garage Sales [2016]

* This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one and make a purchase, I will receive a small compensation that has no effect on the price you pay. Thanks in advance for supporting my blog!

Best Practices for Finding Vintage & Antiques at Garage Sales

1. Go regularly: One of the main reasons why some people say they never find anything at garage sales is because they don’t attend enough of them. You can’t go to three sales one month and five sales the next and expect to find great stuff. Instead, if you’re serious about finding quality vintage and antiques, you should plan on attending 10-15 sales at least once a week. Seriously.
2. Shop brisquely: I know you want to examine every single book on the shelf or every piece of jewelry, but you’ve got to adopt some methods of quickly scanning items so you can hit as many sales as possible during your outing. That’s how you’re going to find the good stuff. Don’t race, but be intentional. One of the ways I do this is by reminding myself what I’m looking for when standing before that shelf or that jewelry box. I might say to myself “Look for antique books or cook books or coffee table books,” so I don’t get bogged down in the modern novels (of which I have too many already anyway!).
3. Don’t overpay: If you’re attending garage sales regularly, you should be able to find many items for low prices. For example, you shouldn’t spend $5 on an antique aqua canning jar, because before long it will probably turn up for $1. Be patient and don’t overpay for items that you can wait for, and certainly don’t pay more than retail unless for some reason the item is extremely rare.
4. Don’t buy everything: Just because something is vintage or antique doesn’t mean it’s beautiful or that it will sell (if you’re a seller). Pass by the mediocre items or those that you already have a lot of. It may be painful at first, but push through, it’ll get easier next time. Save your money (and storage space) for the good stuff. 
5. Know your values: Before purchasing an item, have a good idea of its value–unless the price is ridiculously low, then don’t waste too much time trying to figure it out–just buy it and figure out its value later on. This means studing vintage and antiques online, at the library, or through books you purchase. If you are uncertain of an items value, take a few seconds to look for some info online, especially for higher priced items. Ebay is a good place to find out what others are asking for similar pieces, or check under “Advanced” to learn what similar items have actually sold for recently. Related: My Price Guides
6. Haggle: While some garage sale sellers refuse to consider offers on the first day of a sale, some will, especially if you are purchasing several items. Don’t be afraid to ask if they’ll take a $8 for a $10 item or $80 for a $100 item. Certainly on the 2nd or 3rd day of a sale, they’ll expect haggling. Sometimes I want to know in advance how open they are to haggling and I’ll ask, “If I buy a number of items will you be able to give me a “good” or “bundle” price?” Related post: How to Haggle Like a Rock Star
7. Go to some late in the day and on the last day: The tendency is to think that by the last day of the sale “all the good stuff is gone.” But in fact, that’s not always the case. I often hit garage sales late in the day on their last day and find good junk–sometimes for my business and sometimes for my personal, household use. In reality, as I get older and enjoy sleeping in, I tend to get to sales later in the day than I recommend (like, after lunch, LOL).

If you fall into the “uncertain garage sale shopper” category, then consider picking up my workbook: Your Definitive Guide to Becoming a Garage Sale Superstar. It will help to grow your confidence and ensure that you find “the good stuff.”

Thanks so much for stopping by & happy garage saling 🙂

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