• Being able to get up and leave early on garage sale mornings.
• Money to get started.
• A car for transportation and to carry your treasures home.
• Wearing comfortable clothes and shoes.

It's easy! In fact, anybody can do it! Read on!

For years, I used to shop at garage sales for my family and my home. But, one day I realized I wasn't shopping smart. A smart shopper would be able to buy a carload or even 2 or 3 carloads of great garage sale treasures on a Saturday. Don't believe me? Then, you need to read my booklet and see how every Saturday I buy carloads of great merchandise!!

Store prices for new furniture, clothes, and housewares are outrageous! You can shop at garage sales and never pay full price for an item again. No matter what you're looking for, be patient, and you will find it. Finding great buys at garage sales doesn't just happen! It takes planning! People tell me all the time, "I never find anything". I believe it's because they don't plan. In the next few pages, I'll not only show you how to buy, but what to buy. I'll show you how to treat going to garage sales as a business. Included also in these pages are some do's and don'ts and some great tips that only come with experience. Soon, you too will become a GARAGE SALE JUNKIE!! Follow my instructions and you will be on your way to a new, exciting experience and maybe even a career.

To get started, you will need:

• Access to a car or truck
• A flashlight
• A street map of your town
• A local newspaper with the garage sale classifieds
• Cash
• A friend. (I will go into details later).

Study your map! Pick out the area or areas of town you want to concentrate on. (Usually, I go to the sections of town with the better subdivisions, because the nicer things are usually found there. For antiques, I go to the better, older neighborhoods.) Get to know the subdivisions in your area that you have chosen. Learn the street names. Become familiar with your area.

On Fridays before the big day, I will read over the garage sale classifieds for the next day. I read every ad but only write down the addresses for my area along with the time the garage sale begins. Be sure to write down the whole address-don't just write down 314 Maple, write down, 314 Maple St. or Court, or Way, or Lane. Whatever it may be. There may be 2 or more streets with the same name located in the same town or even in the same area. If the ad mentions furniture, I will put a letter F to the left of the time. If I can, I will go to the sales listing furniture first. After I've listed all the addresses and times, I take out my map and locate each street. I then write down the directions to each garage sale. Unless you know where each street is located, you'd better write it down. Six AM is no time to be searching for a street that you thought you knew where it was. When I'm finished with my garage sale list, I look over it to see if any sales are located near each other. Then I look to see which garage sale starts the earliest. Some sales start as early as 6 AM. This next statement separates the amateurs from the pros. If you are serious about treating this as a business, you will be at that 6 AM sale at 5 AM. Yes, that's 5 AM!!! You heard me right! The early bird gets the worm, and whoever wrote that must have been referring to garage sales. Even if the ad says no early birds-pretend that you didn't see it! If you go to garage sales at the time listed, you are too late! The good things are already gone. Any good buys or anything of any real value is gone within 10 minutes after the garage sale opens and they let the first person in.

Here is an example of my garage sale list. My real list would have 35 to 75 garage sales listed.