Antique Collecting: How to Evaluate Garage Sale Finds

Series Summary

On person's junk is another person's treasure. And when you hit a garage sale you will usually see a little of both. The trick is to know which and which and then spend your money on the good stuff. In this series, our antique store owner shares advice on how to evaluate your antiquing finds, be they worth a fortune or worth nothing at all.

In this series of garage sale instructional videos, our expert gives you the lowdown on common yard sale items. Wondering if that old Coors Beer sign is worth the asking price? Is old Boy Scout gear collectible? How about vintage magazines? Learn the facts from an experienced antique store owner. Those comic books and baseball cards on display in a neighbor's front yard could be worth a fortune or worth nothing at all. Knowledge is power, or in some cases knowledge is the ten bucks you saved because you held off buying barbie dolls that are not worth what the neighbors were charging. Watch this series and save face as well as money!

Video Transcript

"Expert Villagers’ this is Jan, you fun antiquer, I’m back. Yes, I am back and I am Jan and I own a big antique mall in Pomona and I am the one who is who was the college administrator with the PhD, who said I am really tired of this nonsense and decided to have fun and decided not to go to a whole bunch of meetings all the time. So I created my own fun and I have become an antique appraiser because it has been my hobby all my life, so I decided to legitimize it, become an antique appraiser so I am certified so now I go out and I appraise antiques and I also have an antique mall which is very, very fun. So I have been doing this all my life, my mom and I use to go to the “as is” thrift shops and the Salvation Army’s and we found phenomenal treasures. I still can remember finding a Diego Rivera sculpture, original, which my mom sold for probably thirty bucks which we don’t want to talk about that because we will have to kill ourselves if we think about it. But I am the expert on antiques today and what we are going to talk about coming up is garage sales. What is still out there to find, either sell immediately as an eBayer or have a thrift shop, scavenger hunt with a pickup there, or maybe you want to rent a space in an antique mall like mine and we can help you out. So today we are going to start with, when you see something at a garage sale you like, buy it, don’t let it sit there. I know we have talked about some loser items, but these are my picks for garage sale winners. So if you see these out there no matter when you go that means grab them, even if they have been there awhile that just means you are lucky because somebody did not see it. But garage sales are all about timing, so the early bird catches the you know what, so let’s go right now and find those treasures. "