1. Get out of bed in the morning

2. When you don’t feel like getting out of bed in the morning - get out of bed

3. Get an early start

4. When you don’t feel like getting an early start - get in the car and get an early start

5. Go to every garage sale that opened that day

6. When you don’t feel like going to every sale - go to them anyway

7. Sit down at the computer and list what you bought

8. When you are sick and tired of listing - list some more

9. On days when you buy lots of good inventory - repeat steps 1 through 8 the next day

10. On days when you don’t find anything - repeat steps 1 through 8 the next day

Photograph by Tatiana Sapateiro.

Popularity: 16% [?]

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The photo to the left is what I saw out my windshield as I was waiting for one of today’s garage sales to open.

I woke this morning to eleven new garage sales in the paper and to between 1.5″ and 2″ of new snow on the ground. To make it more enjoyable, the snow had a lot of moisture in it, making the residential streets in town slipperier than they had been all winter.

One of the sales was postponed until next Saturday, but everyone else just toughed it out, put on their winter coats, shoveled their driveways, and opened up on schedule.

The pickings were kind of slim. My purchased amounted to:
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Popularity: 19% [?]

The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge launches one week from today, with May 1 being the first day participants can begin buying qualifying inventory. If you had thought about participating, but don’t live in an area with a lot of garage sales, there have been some changes made regarding inventory sources, so you may want to reconsider taking part.

Several readers have already registered. Their personal goals for the Challenge range anywhere from $1000 to $12,000, so don’t miss the chance to take part just because you don’t think you can produce a huge amount of sales.

Last year my goal for the Challenge was a net profit of $10,000 from items purchased at garage sales and sold on eBay. Because of the changes made to qualifying inventory sources and the addition of Amazon and Half.com as sales venues, I’m going to increase my goal for this year.
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Popularity: 20% [?]

This morning I visited a local thrift store to find that they had put out quite a few new books sometime yesterday.

When I walked in, a friend who buys books to sell on Amazon, was already there. He had several piles of books on the floor and was just putting his cell phone away when I arrived. One pile had three books in it, the others appeared to each be about 15 to 20 books high.

As I said ‘Good Morning’, he began putting all the books from the larger piles back on the shelves and said, ‘There’s lots of new books here, but you’re wasting your time looking at them. I’ve gone through all the new stuff and those three are the only ones worth buying. I just spent 30 minutes going through all these for three books I’ll probably get $40 for. It’s hardly enough to pay for the gas.’

As he walked up to the counter to pay for his three books, I went to the shelves where they regularly put out cookbooks and, within five minutes using ScoutPal, had found four cookbooks that I can list on Amazon for a total of roughly $85.
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Popularity: 25% [?]

I owe those who have tried to register for The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge an apology.

The blogging platform I chose for the Challenge blog - Wordpress.com - was chosen because it uses the same blogging script that I currently use for The Auction Rebel. My thinking was that there would be a zero learning curve for me and that would make it easier to answer any questions participants had about posting their updates.

As it turns out, the version of Wordpress used at WordPress.com has a few minor differences then the one I already use. One of these differences is what needs to be done to enable others to post on the blog.

This has caused some head-scratching for those who have already tried to register, and I apologize for that.

I’ve just added How To Register For The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge to the Challenge blog to walk you through the steps to register.

Popularity: 20% [?]

The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge blog is now live. The blog will be used by participants in The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge to share updates of their progress.

If you have registered to participate in the Challenge, you will need to register there as soon as possible so that I can set up your ability to post to the blog. Within the next three days there will be tutorials posted there to make posting your updates as easy as possible.

I’ve also decided to make one change to the rules for the Challenge. One regular reader had asked if auction sales could be included since there were very few garage sales in his area.

Since there have only been three or four reader who have expressed interest in taking part, I’m going to include auctions as a source of Challenge inventory because I’d like to have as many readers as possible participate.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Earlier this afternoon eBay released their 1st quarter earning report for 2008. For the fun of it I thought it would be interesting to do some digging and post the 1st quarter stats for The Auction Rebel.

One thing quickly became clear. eBay certainly doesn’t need to worry that the blog is going to replace them in either earnings or popularity any time soon.

So without further ado, here the The Auction Rebel’s stats for the 1st quarter of 2008.
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Popularity: 24% [?]

I’ve been using ScoutPal since shortly after the company was founded and have always had good things to say about it. In fact, although I’ve never actually written a review about the service, I’ve recommended it in posts here on numerous occasions.

One thing I’ve always liked about ScoutPal has been it’s reliability. A few weeks ago that reliability began to deteriorate. For me, things came to a head this morning in a thrift store when it became necessary to log-in eleven times just to check five books.

When I got home I decided to do some checking and discovered there are a lot of users around the country who are having the same problem. The service that these other subscribers and I am getting at the current time is not acceptable considering what we are paying each month for the service.

If any readers are currently considering subscribing to ScoutPal’s service, I would recommend that they don’t subscribe at the present time. If the problems ScoutPal is currently having are corrected, ScoutPal may once again be a reliable service. Until that time though, I wouldn’t recommend that anyone start a new subscription.

Photograph by Ceriseyy.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Vita-Mix blenders don’t show up at garage sales on a regular basis, but they do appear often enough that you should be aware of what they are so that you can take advantage of it when the opportunity presents it self to buy one.

Vita-Mix has been manufacturing blenders for home use since 1937 and for commercial use since 1986. Any of the various models they have manufactured over the years are worth considering when you come across them, but we will look only at the household models here because they are the ones most likely to show up at garage sales.

These are the models you are most likely to find.

The Vita-Mix Mark 20 was manufactured during the 1950s and early 1960s. Most buyers of the Mark 20 on eBay are probably collectors rather than someone looking for a Vita-Mix they can use on a daily basis in the home.

When considering the purchase of a Mark 20 be sure you test the blender to insure it works. Vita-Mix still has parts available for many models on their web site but this isn’t one of them. Nearly all of these I’ve seen have at least some rust at the top of the base around the drive shaft mechanism, so be sure to check for rust there. If it has light rusting, it can be removed, but if it is heavily rusted, it is probably a good idea to pass on it, unless it is so cheap you feel you can make a few dollars selling just the barrel and the top.

The Mark 20 can bring anywhere from $20 to $80 on eBay depending upon it’s cosmetic appearance. With that in mind, I wouldn’t recommend paying more that $5 or so for one of these.
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Popularity: 38% [?]

The last few months have seen a significant increase in the number of regular Auction Rebel readers. Since there are close to two and a half years worth of articles on the blog, many of you may not yet taken the time to fully explore the Archives.

With the garage sale season either just around the corner or already starting in many areas of the country, I thought now might be a good time to bring to your attention a few previous posts about various items you may find at garage sales that are almost sure winners on eBay. Some of these posts are a little old and the prices they bring may have changed, but they all are still well worth being on the lookout for.

Lots of Rich Dad Poor Dad books and related material

Books by Peter Capstick usually do well

Gene Hill’s books are almost always winners

Lots of magazines often do well - keep your eyes peeled for them

Never pass up a box of Animorph books

Many Stampin’ Up rubber stamp sets do well

You can’t lose with some Weight Watcher cookbooks

P. Buckley Moss cross-stitch pattern booklets

Photograph by C.P. Storm.

Popularity: 36% [?]