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Days are getting longer and leaves are starting to bud. This can only mean one thing….
YARD SALE SEASON!
I have been doing the yard sale scene for 30 years. I can’t remember a time I wasn’t going to yard sales. My parents would load me up and take me away. I would get 5-10 dollars to spend how I pleased. I learned the art of the haggle at a very young age. Yard sales here in America have changed with the technology boost. Just a few years ago, I would be able to find boxed G1 transformers all the way to some of the hardest grails of them all. With the invention of the smart phone, everyone has a price guide with the good old eBay app. Things are harder to find these days, however, there is always a deal to be found.
One of my greatest finds was about 5 years ago. I came across a man that had a G1 Blaster.
I got him for 2.00. Had a few here and there GI JOES and MASK toys. But there it sat. G1 complete MIB Omega Supreme. These things go for outrageous prices…..he had it marked $20.00. Well, that wasn’t good enough for me. Will you take $15.00? Sure, said the man. So for $20.00 total, I walked out of the man’s yard with a few hundred dollars worth of goodies.
Every year, I plan a vacation around the world’s largest yard sale. The 127 sale. Google it, it’s amazing. It runs through the majority of the Mideast in the USA. I have been going to this for years. I have probably driven thousands of miles while hunting for goodies. This one sale is the reason I had a pretty decent collection back in the day. I would find Ghostbusters, GOBOTS, MASK, Dino Riders, Transformers, GI JOE’s, you name it I found it. All for dirt cheap prices that no one would believe. A dollar here a dollar there, and I would haggle things to fifty cents. It was all about the hunt.
If you have never experienced the joy of the hunt, you have no idea what you are missing. Going to Toys R Us is one thing. Going through someone’s junk and finding your treasure is a high unlike any drug could produce. I challenge you with this; take 20.00 on a summer day. Stop at these sales and see what you find. I would be willing to bet dollars to doughnuts you don’t come back with the 20.00.
Ebay is the easy way out; you will have a new found love for the most common of toys if you buy them at a yard sale. It is literally digging up buried treasure.
Here is a list of some of the bigger items I added to my collection via yard sales:
USS Flagg
Omega Supreme complete with box
Complete T-Rex From Dino Riders
Castle Grayskull
Eternia
Pee-Wee playhouse playset
Boulder Hill
TMNT Blimp in box
TMNT sewer playset sealed (yes I opened it)
Complete Soundwave in box
YARD SALE SEASON!
I have been doing the yard sale scene for 30 years. I can’t remember a time I wasn’t going to yard sales. My parents would load me up and take me away. I would get 5-10 dollars to spend how I pleased. I learned the art of the haggle at a very young age. Yard sales here in America have changed with the technology boost. Just a few years ago, I would be able to find boxed G1 transformers all the way to some of the hardest grails of them all. With the invention of the smart phone, everyone has a price guide with the good old eBay app. Things are harder to find these days, however, there is always a deal to be found.
One of my greatest finds was about 5 years ago. I came across a man that had a G1 Blaster.
I got him for 2.00. Had a few here and there GI JOES and MASK toys. But there it sat. G1 complete MIB Omega Supreme. These things go for outrageous prices…..he had it marked $20.00. Well, that wasn’t good enough for me. Will you take $15.00? Sure, said the man. So for $20.00 total, I walked out of the man’s yard with a few hundred dollars worth of goodies.
Every year, I plan a vacation around the world’s largest yard sale. The 127 sale. Google it, it’s amazing. It runs through the majority of the Mideast in the USA. I have been going to this for years. I have probably driven thousands of miles while hunting for goodies. This one sale is the reason I had a pretty decent collection back in the day. I would find Ghostbusters, GOBOTS, MASK, Dino Riders, Transformers, GI JOE’s, you name it I found it. All for dirt cheap prices that no one would believe. A dollar here a dollar there, and I would haggle things to fifty cents. It was all about the hunt.
If you have never experienced the joy of the hunt, you have no idea what you are missing. Going to Toys R Us is one thing. Going through someone’s junk and finding your treasure is a high unlike any drug could produce. I challenge you with this; take 20.00 on a summer day. Stop at these sales and see what you find. I would be willing to bet dollars to doughnuts you don’t come back with the 20.00.
Ebay is the easy way out; you will have a new found love for the most common of toys if you buy them at a yard sale. It is literally digging up buried treasure.
Here is a list of some of the bigger items I added to my collection via yard sales:
USS Flagg
Omega Supreme complete with box
Complete T-Rex From Dino Riders
Castle Grayskull
Eternia
Pee-Wee playhouse playset
Boulder Hill
TMNT Blimp in box
TMNT sewer playset sealed (yes I opened it)
Complete Soundwave in box
 | Jeremy Sebolt is a life long MOTU and toy collector, was one of the original minds and hosts behind the wildly successful Back To The Eighties podcast, and once ate a full bear. |
