Advance purchase of an entire yard sale

Today, I Went to a "yard sale" with my wife of one of her friends.

The sale is this Friday and Saturday. When we got there I asked her friend what she would take for everything?

She quoted me 3$50
My wife had picked out around $90 worth of stuff that she wanted already.
I offered $285 and they took it.
If it had not been a friend of my wife, I would have offered 150 and worked up from there.

I saw $300-$400 in quick sales and then the remainder of the stuff.

Anybody else try this and/or have Success?

I've not tried it in advance of the yard sale starting. I'll try to get a figure for everything early on in a yard sale. On my website, I advertise a service to pick up the leftovers. Of course, they can put up an ad on craigslist, but a lot of neighborhoods around here don't want random people driving through.. I just got a call for a 40 home neighborhood yard sale pickup.. Obviously too much for me to handle!

I just got a call for a 40 home neighborhood yard sale pickup.. Obviously too much for me to handle!

Think big !  You could double your floor space at the thrift store....add some more slatwall !

You could use the tips here on getting helpers (and a truck) to move stuff.

True, you probably would need a place to store stuff until you could sell it all, but it would mean NOT going to storage auctions where a good quantity of the stuff one is buying is not truly visible...compare that to the yard sale bonanza !

Think big !  You could double your floor space at the thrift store....add some more slatwall !

You could use the tips here on getting helpers (and a truck) to move stuff.

True, you probably would need a place to store stuff until you could sell it all, but it would mean NOT going to storage auctions where a good quantity of the stuff one is buying is not truly visible...compare that to the yard sale bonanza !

Thanks for the encouragement! But it would be for the leftovers, which means a lot of socks and snack trays.. I suppose if there were furniture that couldn't be moved, I'd be interested.. if it's in decent shape!

Some folks actually WANT to have the yard sale.
These folks were extatic and relieved not to have to go thru it all.

Cstore7, I have done that. It usually works out for the both of us. I try that more on a "moving" sale..I live in Florida and nobody wants to sit in their front yard all day long. On a average yard sale people usually want to make anywhere from $200-$350, give or take some. I usually show up about 15 minutes before the sale and wait in my truck. As soon as they start putting stuff outside I walk up and politely ask if I can look as they are setting up. I never had someone say no. When they are done I quickly figure up a price and offer them about $100 less than I'm willing to pay. We haggle a little bit and I always get to the price I want sometimes less. I remember one HOT summer morning I rolled up and did that, this couple was moving out of town and was selling most of their belongings, you could tell they did not want to be out there. They had about $2000 worth of furniture, antiques and other misc stuff. I offered $500 and after some haggling I said, I'll give you $850 and I'll clear all this stuff and you can go back inside to the AC or you can sit outside in the 100 degree sun. The wife looked at her husband and said SOLD. I sold almost everything and made almost $1900.

YuupFL -

That is what I saw yesterday.  The longer we hung around 'talking' the more I could tell that SHE was doing her best to sell it to me and be DONE with it!!
She had totally decided she did NOT want to sit out all weekend and sell for a $1 here and there. AND then, move have of it back inside!

To some, I think this would be a great relief.  To others - it would ruin their FUN!

Yard sales around here go from 7 a.m. to noon. Nobody's standing around all day, just the morning. I had a couple of garage sales when I lived in Tampa before moving to NC.. I stood outside all day for 2 weekends.. It actually wasn't too bad, but we moved in May.. April was still nice.