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Personal Finance Lessons Learned from Yard Sales - Click Here

At 10am Saturday morning, we climbed into the car and headed for the county fair. We’d only been driving for a few minutes when my wife pointed at a sign. “Look! An estate sale,” she said. “Let’s stop.”

We like estate sales better than garage sales because they usually feature nearly everything a person has ever owned — not just the cast-offs. Family members have generally pulled the plum pieces, but there are still plenty of treasures remaining to be found.

In this ...

It’s that time of year again. Some of us know it as spring; others call it the start of yard sale season. Yard sales (also known as garage sales, tag sales, rummage sales, and stoop sales) attract an interesting and diverse subculture of bargain hunters, environmentalists, and treasure hunters; they are an interesting form of community commerce. Both buyers and sellers at yard sales are likely to have learned some broadly applicable lessons in personal finance. I know I have!

As a ...

There is nothing more aggravating than searching for a garage sale only to drive around aimlessly because there were no signs to guide your way. Personally, I won't waste very much time hunting for a garage sale that has inadequate or missing signs. As a rule carelessly marked sales are usually carelessly planned sales that are rarely worth the bother.

There are a few exceptions to this rule though. Some people will carefully plan a great sale but honestly don't realize how important ...