I was reading our local paper & it mentioned an ad for an upcoming rummage sale that has traps for sale. Curious if many of you buy traps at places like rummage sales, flea markets, auctions, or eBay

If the quality is there and the price is right I buy.
A lot of times price is the same as new.

Rummage sales, flea markets, auctions - all great places to buy traps IF you know what fair prices are. Sometimes folks at auctions why overpay for traps and sometimes there are bargains.

A month ago, I was at an auction where a guy paid $20.00 each for # 3 Victor double longs. Bought all of them (7) at that price.

I was at an auction today and bought # 2 round jaw Monty coils for $2,50 each.

And don't forget to check all the traps in a pile. You some times find collector traps mixed in with the Victors.

I always check out traps and rummage sales ect. Some times you can get a good deal. Other times they put the word antique in front of traps and want 4x more than they are worth.

I’ve seen traps on farm sales and they always go for new price .

Was at an auction that had traps that had been through a barn fire. Guy paid new price on them and many were long springs. You need to know what you are looking at before you start bidding.

I'm planning on having a yard sale as soon as it cools down a little. Gonna be selling off some good traps and some supplies. Shipping is a pain in the butt anymore.

Just takes 1 idiot to waste your day the way some bid is crazy on stuff. I have a neighbor that spends too much on some and gets some great deals at times. He has paid a lot for some old Herters and got a deal on some 114 Newhouse traps at a flea market the next time.

Was 3 collectors in that area if they advertised traps for sale they were there and would run them up. Hope they had to eat a bunch of those they ran up.

I buy quite a few at flee markets, auction or even out of the paper. I am always looking, ya know it is a sickness.

I'm always looking for a deal. Craigslist is the funniest place to get traps. Most I see are "vintage" & they want crazy money most of the time. Sometimes there's good deals on it.
I look at yard sales flea market pawn shops and antique stores. My best score was a diamond trap.

In this area most flea market traps are 20-30% higher than the new trap cost, I have given some thought to buying new longsprings getting them rusty and marking them up for flea market "primitives". Farm sale might have a bargain, but, as they^^ said know whats in the pile or box before bidding and don't bid above your evaluation with the auction fever.

I bought 2 dz mb 550 offsets for $100 per dz last fal offof Craig’s list. Then saw some this summer for $200 per used dz

I find a lot at yard sales but now only buy traps that I use and only at good price. Kept ending up with piles of nice old traps not getting used. I have a bunch of really nice pinch pans that I have accumulated which may not get used since I decided to start putting wild river pans on my victors and bridgers.

I’ve got a few deals at yard sales and flea markets, but I’m not gonna overpay for used traps.

C'list is a better place to buy traps than most flea markets, on C'list or similar ad lists, they are there to sell, in flea markets they are decor/primitive/antiques novelties that they don't care if it sells or not.
Yard/garage/TAG sales can be cheap because often they don't know what Dad had and just want to clean the old place up to sell. Auctions, go to outside/farm auctions on rainy days and indoor auctions on pretty days and limit yourself to $2/trap tops. At least part of them need work and usually some will be junkers for parts.

Guess I'm like most that have already posted. I find traps in lots of places. Like others have said get some deals some others just want crazy money. I my self don't buy anything unless I can get them at what I call user price. A trap I'd be able to clean treat and use myself. Any of the other stuff, old or something I don't use personally. I won't pay more than what I think I can flip them and make at least a bit. Sometimes I've bought a bunch of traps. Kept out the ones I want for my self and sold the rest for as much as I bought the lot. I like them kinda buys. What I think is funny is I've bid on traps with tags on them. I'll count up the tags and add up the general value of what i think the traps and tags are. Then some person just got to have them tags runs the whole pile way up..Lot of times I can go to convention buy the same tags and traps for way less. Just don't get some people when comes to bidding on things.

Mac

tjm - limiting yourself to $2.00 per Trap tops??? Wow. That's really cheap. Following that rule means if a trap is priced at $5.00, you could be passing up Newhouse, Sargent, Crscent and who knows what else.

A person is better off knowing a bit about which brands of traps are more valueable and base the price you pay on that.

wissmiss, the idea is set a limit at the least trap value in the pile times the number of traps, not to get into a bidding war. Farm auctions in these parts rarely have anything but user traps and junk. I have never in my 68 years ever encountered a collectable trap that was not already collected. Your point is taken, if I am ever in the presence of a Newhouse, I will go a bit higher.

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