Garage Sale Finds

Has anyone found any ridiculous deals at a garage sale?

There has to be some people out there who don't know what they have, and put vastly incorrect prices on their coins?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

So far my greatest finds have been from garage/yard/estate sales and flea markets. Not only with coins but with numersous other items.
At one flea market a guy had a notebook full of those 20 holders for 2x2's. Mostly full of Indian Head Nickels and some Jefferson Proors. Entire book for $80. There were 238 Indian Nickels in there and most in at least VF condition.
At a garage sale a lady had a jar of cents. It appeared to be about $35 face value. The entire bottom was full of Indian Head Cents. I later found the latest coin was in the early 1950's.
At one flea market there is a guy that used to sell coins that were just dumped into bins. 2 bins of US coins and 1 of foreign. All Dimes were $1 but if you purchased more the price went down. After I found a 42/41, 26S, a few 21's in the Mercury Dimes, I told this guy about coin prices and gave him a copy of a price guide.
Very little luck at pawn shops but possibly due to so many others in my area visiting them first.
Aside from coins I've purchased guns, knives, swords, auto parts, ammunition, electronic shooting ear protectors and on and on and on.
As an approximate guess, I would say I purchase about 75% of everything from those places.

 

Yes but.......

It cuts both ways too. I've seen a water glass full of dateless Buffalo Nickels that they thought was darn near priceless. A 1906 Indian Cent so worn you could hardly make out the date they wanted $20.00 for because it was 'so old' they knew it has to be valuable.
On the other hand I got 3 Columbian half dollars in a sport coat once but since it was a charity event for the pet-adoption folks I made a reasonable donation anyway. The gal selling the stuff actually told me to 'just keep them', thinking they were just $1.50 I guess.
But most of my treasure has been non-numismatic. Tools, furniture, decorator items, etc.

 

Information is power!! The more you have the more you make!!

 

Thanks guys, looking forward to spring hoping to find some garage/estate sales and finding some deals.

 

Thrift store I bought a 925 silver bracelet for 10 cents. I have so many of those stories though.

 

I've found my best deals at auctions and estate sales. If you're lucky, you will find few coin people hanging around. I'm always curious at the others in the audience that buy dishes, fishing lures, coleman lanterns, radios, postcards, etc. Apparently, the right ones are worth a lot of money. They are probably thinking the same thing when I pay $10 for a large cent.

 

When I am working and driving around I am always on the look out for garage sales.
I always go looking for coins and that is why I carry atleast $100 cash on me at all times.
I went to this one ladys house and she wanted a $125 for 100 Ike Dollars.
It was in old glass mason jar. I really didn't want all of the Ike dollars but she would let me look through
them so I bought the whole jar.

Well I ended up with tons of MS coins and 14 coins that I sent to NGC and they all came back MS65 as I
thought they would.

The picture is of what I have left!!

 

I also see it both ways either they don't have anything priced right or they have everything above redbook price.

 

Last year at the local swap meet I picked up an extra 1910-S Lincoln in EF for $19. Wen I got it home and looked closer it happened to be an RPM 1910 S-1MM-001 !

 

One time I asked at a garage sale if they had any coins, as I always do, and an old lady brings out an old mason jar full of coins. She asked $5 so I bought them thinking they're all probably common cents. They were, but also quite a few common quarters, nickels and dimes. Turns out I paid $5 for about $9 in change. Not bad
Guy~

 

I love those yard sales and flea markets. I like rootin thru the coffee cans full of odds and ends, boxes with all sorts of junk mixed together. I'm always looking for coins and find alot of encased coins. I guess my best find was a baby food jar with buttons in it, but on the bottom was an 1886 T2 IHC in VF condition, not bad for a dime. I'm always on the lookout for moving sales too, everything must be sold. Great deals...

 

For those times someone is selling at moon money, I've often dreamed about coming back with a bunch of the same coin and offering to sell at a fraction of the price to demonstrate how much they are really worth.

 

The last two times that I saw coins at a house sale (tag sale) I calculated that they were worth about $25 to $40 tops.

The guy told me that he wanted about $175 for them and had turned down $125 already that morning.

I told him to call the guy up and accept the offer. Quick!



The other time was similar, no bargains there, anywhere.

So far.

 

I nearly died

I went to Pike's Place Market today to see what Market Coins had to offer in the way of selection & prices and grading. Well it turns out his prices are pretty much the same as Redbook. I was considering getting some beginning supplies to store stuff in but he said that the little holders were $5.00 for 100, so I passed.
Then I went to Goodwill and was looking through their household bins ( where everything is 49cents per pound ) and I nearly stopped breathing when I saw these buried by broken china and old tire chains:

But alas they were empty.
For 49 cents per pound I got myself some good starter storage containers.

 

Nice pickup!!

 

Yep ... Like they say , "Build it and they will come" so the coins are welcome to start visiting me anytime they want

 

Usually everything I see is overpriced. Maybe I need to start looking more/closer.

 

that is a nice pickup, i need the weather to improve before people start having garage sales here.

 

I've gotten some of my best Morgan Dollar deals at the flea market near me. The individual, couldn't really call him a dealer, was there many times last year selling off a collection from what I could gather.

One of my favorite Morgan Dollars I bought from him was a 1890-S toner in AU condition for $22. :bigeyes: It's definitely not AT. The toning hugs the rim about 3/4 of the way around. But not like these fake AT rim toners. I wish I had a light setup to photograph it appropriately.
The other toner I bought from him was an 1887-O album toner in XF condition.

At a flea market on a cold day nearly 15 years ago I picked up a key date Morgan for $9 in an old guys circulated stack of Morgan dollars. It is an 1892-S in Fine condition! BUT, it has a couple rim hits, but it's still a key date and fills the hole in the album. The "S" and the metal looks authentic under the loupe.