So I hit Charleston's "east end yard sale" mothers day weekend. It is a one day sale where two streets 4 blocks long have a neighborhood wide yard sale. I left the PAN coin show Friday night and settled in at my mother's house that night. She lives at the end of one of the streets so no get up and driving required. We woke and rolled out Sat morning about 7:30am. The sale starts at 8 but folks were already out there setting up and looking. At about the tenth house I noticed a large table of silver colored goods. You know the stuff....plates, platters, candle holders, flatware, ect. Well there was a dude already sifting through it heavy. Sure enough, I watched him take 3 silver (925) lipped glass coasters to be paid for. I made a quick hussle on the leftovers. It was all Silver plate. Tagging the guy with my eyes I lapped him by 2 houses as to get a better shot at seeing things first. About 20 houses in I snagged my first buy for the day. It was setting on a table baggeied by itself but grouped with a bunch of costume jewelry. I asked the gal, "how much?". It was the 14K necklace that you see in picture below. She said, "one dollar". I promptly paid the gal. Thanked her and left that yard onto the next. Around house #50 I made my second and third purchases. Same senario as the last gal. Good jewelry mixed in with costume but this time it was loose in a cheapo china jewelry box with a tag on the lid reading "One dollar each". There I snagged the 10K diamond necklace, the sterling cross, and the sterling pendant drop thingy. She cut me a break and sold the goods for a total of $2. Finally at the end of the first street I made my 4th purchase. Sorting through yet another junk jewelry box I located a sterling ring. I asked the gal, "A dollar says I can straighten this ring out and make it wearable again". She said "its yours". Moving onto the next street The crowd was getting thick. It was about 10am now. knowing the goods are getting picked over strongly at this point I figured I'd be lucky to grab another deal. Half a block up on that street sets a parking lot. Lots of folks had set up there. Normaly these don't yeild many goods but I opperate under the idea of "you don't know unless you look". I quickly noticed from about 40 feet away a very tarnished set of candlestick holders. A quick flip of one revealed "Crown Weighted Sterling". Nice. From my days of scrapping I know these normaly have 2-3 ounces of sterling. I ask the guy running the tables what he was looking to get out of them. Like the broken record of the day he chimmed, "A dollar for the pair". I paid the man and moved on. No more goods were uncovered on that street. The loop took me 4hrs. Did it all with mom in tow. She snagged some nice OLD pattern fiesta Sea Foam Green and some rocking wine glasses. We had a blast together for mothersday weekedn and I turned $5 into some cheap metal, kept what I wanted (the candle sticks), and turned the rest on RC to be sold to the highest bidder.
My cost =$2. Sold here for $6.75 = Profit $4.75
My cost =$1. Sold here for $62 = Profit $61
My cost =$1. Sold here for $50 = Profit $49
+ 2.5 ounces of sterling in candlesticks (im keeping) = $50 unsold profit
Posted: Sat May 18, 2013 7:52 am