How to Find Estate Sales In Your Area

If you want your used book selling business to take off, you need to find estate sales in your area to score the best bargains in town.

Unlike garage sales where sellers don't have a real incentive to cut a deal, estate sales are designed to clear everything out of a property, and you can haggle, make bulk offers, and find much higher quality goods than at an average garage sale.

Most estate sales in your area will be advertised in the local newspaper. If you don't get a local newspaper, you can frequently pick up free local papers at coffee shops, restaurants, and malls. These may or may not have estate sale ads, but it doesn't cost you anything to find out.

Get Creative

If you don't want to pay for the leading local newspaper, you can use the publisher's website and find estate sales online. The online site will typically have a classified section complete with listings for estate sales in your area.

Spending the time preparing and planning for advertised estate sales in your area isn't enough if you really want to make yourself some money.

Many brokers and families simply put up estate sale signs and hope for the best. Of course, you have no way of knowing about these potential treasure troves until you find out about them.

Once you've gotten a feel for when estate sales in your area tend to happen, it's worthwhile to spend a little time driving around on busy days looking for estate sale signs after you've been to the estate sales you already planned on going to.

Cruising around may not be worth your time, but then again, you may walk out with hundreds of books for which you only paid pennies, which could make your trip a real money-maker. Some of the most surprising, profitable finds are the ones that you happen across by accident, so always take the time to seek out new local estate sales.

After you've found good brokers and firms who conduct estate sales in your area, get on their mailing list if they have one. Many simply send an email newsletter, but some may send a physical sheet of listings. Also, some brokers have a hotline that you can call that will be regularly updated with new lists of local estate sales.

If you are a high-volume buyer of used and rare books, estate sale brokers, collectors, and other bargain hunters will get to know you.

Like any other area of business, networking is critical to allow you to discover new opportunities and find profitable used books.

One of the most important estate sale tips that many forget is very simple: arrive early! Sales are very popular among collectors from all fields, and it's easy to understand why. Many professional liquidators have a loyal following of dealers, collectors, and high volume buyers that are notified of sales being held.

Hit The Sales

The more you get yourself out there, the more you will build your reputation, and you can use these estate sale tips to help you to start enjoying stellar finds that you discovered simply by word-of-mouth.

Even if you do develop contacts in the estate sale business, it is still worthwhile to check your newspaper and cruise for deals, because you can't prepare yourself for everything by relying exclusively on one method. The more you prepare and the more time you spend hunting high and low, the more money you'll make.

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