How to Get the Best Deals at Yard Sales

So, you are looking for some bargains for yourself, your family or to resell for profit. Yard sales are great places to find some fantastic deals. But how can you be sure you are finding the best bargains? Read on for some tips for getting the most for your dollar!

PLAN YOUR ATTACK: So you are looking through the paper trying to decide where to start. Seems like everyone is having a sale, where should you begin? Sit down before you head out the door. There is an easy way to do this now and not miss any of the sales. Highlight which sales you want to stop at. Make sure to mark any multifamily/community sales and any that focus on something you need. (These would be "Must Stop" sales. If you are expecting a baby, you want to find all of the sales selling baby clothes and gear.) Now take this list and go to www.mapquest.com They now have a feature that will allow you to put in up to 10 destinations on your trip and sort out the order of the stops. This is a yard sale shoppers dream! Sort your stops carefully. There may be one sale that starts earlier than the rest. Place this as your first stop and go from there. Or you may want to start close to home and work your way down the road. Or start out at the furthest stop and work your way back home. However you want to sort them, MapQuest will work with you. If you have more than 10 stops just start a new search using the last sale address on your list as your starting point for your second search. If you notice one sale seems to take you far out of the way, check and see if it is one you have marked as a "Must Stop". If not, you may decide to skip it to save some gas. Just delete it from your list. Once you have all of your stops in, print out your directions and voila! Now you have street by street directions to all the sales you want to stop at.  Go back and mark all of your "Must Stop" sales on this also. This is helpful if you find you are running a bit short on time and need to decide which sales to skip.