Cobia is right about the estate sales crowd...another regretable result of tv shows.

I still can only go Saturday after I sell at the flea or on Sunday.  One of the 3 big estate sale holders sells on Friday and I usually do well there, though crowds can still be big. The pricing at that vendor is better than the other two also, so that helps.  I do well with the fellow who handles the garage and mechanical stuff for the woman who runs the whole show.

One of my best buys was just at 4 pm on a Saturday close to closing. All day long no-one had any interest apparently in two Pelican boxes with Nikon underwater cameras, another with a plexiglass housing for an underwater movie camera.
They wanted $200 each for the three items and because it was late in the day and the next day Sunday was half off day, I pushed the male seller a bit and got all three for $200.  All sold on eBay (as separate items) for right at $800 making a $600 profit.

That same day (same sale) I found the safe in hall closet. It was fastened to the floor and no-one had explored it very much to see that it could actually come away once you got inside to take the bolt out of the bottom surface. Too top it off, they had the combination but could not get it open.

Again, we were at 4 pm and they were anxious to close. They left me with the combination and I went at it. Took a bit but got it to open. I got inside and found one plastic container with 12 partitioned sections. Little jewelry brooches; most costume but one nice gold piece.  I locked it all back up and told them I would buy it but would have to come back the next day to get it. I got it for $100 and took the combination with me.

Next day, came in, opened it, put the jewelery box in my side bag and removed the bolt from the floor, took the safe home where it is in use today. Gold brought in $125. So a good buy!

In central California (and elsewhere in the state I expect) the majority of flea markets are held at private owned "yards" capable of holding around 200 or more vendors and parking for maybe twice that many cars.

Flea markets are also held in the parking lots of colleges who get the vendor fees to further student body organizations.

One of the largest flea markets in the central part of the state is the one at Roseville, CA. I'll find a link and maybe a pic and put it here.

Edit:

Here's the link to the Roseville flea....

denios.org/

Personally, I only belong to two, but I can't remember the last time I posted at the other one and I mostly joined it to see what it was like and what was going on there.

At least one member here jumped ship a year ago and did most of his posting at another site, but I think even that has dried up now.

You?

EDIT: you can vote and you don't NEED to post a comment, but the comments would be interesting if you feel like doing so.

......and then sold it to make a buck ?

Any prices I've seen at pawns pretty much preclude that but years ago I bought a old PUCH moped at a pawn, got it running and sold it on eBay to a fellow who drove up to central California from the Los Anglese area to pick it up.

You ?

Congratulations to the one person responsible for Travis having to pay Drew double what he was originally asking for this site!   

Thanks Teacher ! (and Drew STILL hasn't sent me my cut !) Wink!

Here are a couple of pics from the auction I talked about in reply #11 above.

I mistakenly had the camera in video mode so these aren't that great but will give you some idea about two of the poor lockers.



The pic above was the first $5 lkr.



The pic above went for $200 after none of us wanted it at $25. This was a newbie lesson lkr.

The $1400 lkr pics were bad...but I'll see if I can salvage something and if so, will post it here.

Just got off the phone talking to a friend who gave up going to the auctions a full two years ago due to prices, etc.

He told me the following story. He wouldn't tell me who told him, but he said it was a trusted person, and I trust my friend, so here goes.

*****

The un-identified story teller said that he had been at an auction where a buyer (someone he knows) got a decent locker at a decent price (don't think that price was revealed to me) but that he (the un-identified story teller) was shown pictures of the inside of a piano bench that he had seen shortly after the time the locker was sold to HIS friend.
He had seen the bench in the locker when the lkr was sold.

The pictures revealed silver dollars and silver certificates IN QUANTITY.  The lkr buyer sold them in bulk to a person who deals with such things and he got $17,000 for it all.

Where are we when those things show up?  Not there, that's for sure...and you can bet that the original story teller is crying the blues a bit for not bidding on the locker himself, but it's always easier after the fact to say that !

Glad someone hit a jackpot !

Went to an auction today with 5 lockers and 30 plus in the crowd. The usual 6 to 10 regular buyers were there which typically means there will be no bargains as several bid beyond the lkr's worth.

First 3 lkrs were pure trash. Remarkably they only sold for $5 each, not the usual $40 or so they have been going for.

Fourth locker any of us there (or here) would have been proud to own !  We entered a hallway and the line bent to the right in an "L" shape. While I was still at the short side of the "L" we heard the auctioneer saying "I've got 1,000. Anyone want to go $1,100."

This was while we hadn't even seen it yet, but he quickly came to where we were and said he wasn't going to sell it until we had seen it.

Finally got around to it and it was a 10 x10 showing a lot of good stuff. There was a 3 level Craftsman rollaway (brand new looking), half a dozen white styrofoam boxes (collectibles of some kind but with Made in China labels on the side), a white framed plastic set of drawers (the translucent kind) showing airplane model boxes inside....looked like they were genuine and never opened.  Anyway you get the idea...it was a beauty, the kind many of us dream about.

I would have taken a chance on it at even $800, but as we finally filed past, the bidding resumed and it went to $1,400 and sold at that.

******

This went to a regular of about two years and one who has a rep for overpaying. The rest of the regulars and I chimed in with "You've got more guts than me!, "I hope you get your money back", etc.  As we went on to the next lkr the consensus was he had overpaid by half. We'll see. This fellow has a store which he started in Nov, 2012 and we are all looking at the six-month and 1-year mark to see how it goes. He's only open 3 days a week.

This is also the fellow who on a pretty regular basis tells me he is breaking even or "I just broke even on that locker I bought 3 months ago."  Not my idea of a good business model, but he seems happy.

******
Fourth locker started out slow; a 10 x 15 with not much showing at all. No body wanted it in the $25 range, but it finally got going with one of the regulars taking the newbie up to $200 and getting out while the getting was good. Welcome to the biz newbie !

Fifth locker was OK looking and the regulars always confer on what we think they will go for. Pretty much agreed on $400 and that's right at what it went for to a regular of about 5 years. Not for me. Another successful day of not overbidding, but boy I would have loved the $1400 lkr...for $600 to $800.