How We Do It

So how do we do it?
We mainly go to auctions.  We have several each week to choose from, with one on Wednesdays right near the house.  We own a Grand Caravan (with stow-and-go seats) and a 5' x 10' enclosed trailer.  The Wednesday auction always has about 15 furniture pieces and a good supply of collectibles. We also try to go to another one on each weekend.  It takes us to farm sites and many towns within an hour's drive and it's a lot of fun.

Furniture - We try to not buy furniture that needs a lot of work, but there are cases Tom gives the OK as he is the one who fixes everything.  We are at the point now where after we win a piece of furniture we go a quick clean-up on it, measure it, and photograph it before we load it into the trailer and take it to out storage garage that is just a few blocks away.  Laurie will list all new items on Facebook (online garage sale sites) over the next few days and usually half sells right away and the other half takes about a month.  As an example, we get dressers for maybe $10 and flip them for $50;  still a great deal for most people with growing families.  We get things cheap and sell them cheap.

Collectibles - Still learning everyday, but Tom has done well with old cameras, vintage electronics, vintage toys, and some artwork.  There is just so much to know to do well at it.  We have not had much luck selling collectibles through Facebook so we use eBay and therefore have to limit our picks to things we can ship.  We currently have a 500-item eBay store and sell about 30 items a week.