Ever since living in St. Louis I've gotten into going to estate sales. Not for fine china and old lady jewelry, but man cave stuff, army surplus, tools, 1980s toys, etc. I've gotten some great deals over the years. For awhile I was finding firearms at them in Iowa, usually at outrageous prices, but they are usually willing to negotiate down on them. A lot of these places know what stuff people a generation older than me collected 20 years ago, but they don't go to estate sales anymore or the value has tanked on that stuff (depression glass, Beanie Babies, fine china). Some are catching on, others just price really high and knock it down over a weekend until someone buys.

Last week I went to one in Iowa because guns items and pellet guns were mentioned. Our kids could always use more pellet guns. The guy who runs that sale never actually prices anything, it is make a pile of stuff and wheel and deal with him. Anyway, I end up being #30 or so in line but make it in to grab all of the pellet guns and some other "gun accessories" in cases. Stuff a couple dozen people walked past before me. Also some nice Airsoft guns. I'm not into Airsoft, but I know these were worth alot and people are walking right past them. I ended up paying $350 for 2 1/2 quality Airsoft guns, 8 pellet/BB pistols of various vintage (about half of which ended up working including a very nice Crosman Mark II), a Hasbro Lawn Javelin (Jarts) set, a couple odds and ends, and a handgun case and toolbox that had "gun accessories." That's the most I've spent with this guy other than the time I bought an entire GI Joe collection at one of his sales.

I get home and go through the toolbox, it has several Wilson Combat 1911 accessories, all new in bags. I open the handgun case and go through it: a 1911 .22LR conversion kit with 4 mags, a .460 Rowland conversion kit, 100rds of .460, 100 rds of .45! Before last week I never even knew about .460 Rowland. .44 Magnum power out of a 1911!?!?! Sure! Of course, I sold my S&W 1911 last yr because I wasn't really into it having a CMP 1911 and a G21.

Flash forward to today and I'm buying a Kimber Custom II to try out these conversion kits... (Not at an estate sale though)

Next purchase, lottery ticket!

I got some Beanie babies (2 Hope), a cribbage board, a tie, and Corningware recently at garage sales. Not even in the same league!

I used to go to garage/yard sales and estate tag sales. Now I just have time for auctions on the weekend. I go for the antiques, collectibles, toys, glassware, pottery, and stuff I can turn and make a profit on.

Garage / yard sales can be tough. Alot of time wasters and then a goldmine. Alot of auction/estate sale places have been going to online via Hibid and Proxibid, less time wasting, harder to make a score, more fees. I managed to get a dozen straight arm GI Joe, basically the entire 1982 line up for $25 once via a Hibid local auction once though.

You will like the Roland 460,Its a crowd stopper at a shoot.
I owned and reloaded for it,got to damn old to enjoy guns much and gave to my son.

Best I did was finding an Atmos clock for $25.

Other than that there were too many strollers and overpriced furniture.

A friend who couldn’t /didn’t need more tools let me now his elderly parents were selling their acreage and workshop after 50+ years on the same property and having huge estate/moving sale. I get there and line is snaked down the street.

Got a craftsman router and some bits and carrying case and a makita palm sander for $5 each.

He had all kinds of neat stuff. Almost every issue of Hot Rod from 1948 to the mid 70s. Not issue 1 though or I would have grabbed it.

It’s interesting to me when in people just wholesale out their entire life. Easier to do it on a Saturday then over the next few years on eBay.

The psychology major in me likes figuring out who lived there. It seems most things will.be bought in a 5-10yr time span when they "made it" and nested in then had kids and it was survival for the next 18yrs then status quo until retirement.

one local auction house had a 'gentleman's' auction every few months,

all 'man cave' stuff, guns, fishing etc,

bought 11 boxes of what to most looked like crap for $110 or so,
kept a handful of stuff, sold some to friends and put the rest on ebay a couple years later and netted over $2000,,,

lots of oddball dies,
lots of Cutts Compensator parts,
and a handful of 28 and 410 ga chokes brought stupid money



wife and I used to hit some in higher ends parts of town, she found a set of pearls that the estate people said were costume jewelry,
and she bought them at costume jewelry prices,

had a jeweler look at them,, they were real,

and vintage pearls apparently are worth a bit,
she had them restrung, still wears them

I picked up a 1894 Winchester 38-55 first year serial number with origin Lyman sights at an estate sale for 200 bucks. Best score ever.

Dammit, FishOn, don’t tell me stories like that!