True. Odds of finding good traps at a sale for a good deal are slim. I will not argue that at all , but there is more there than looking for traps.
Like the show Pawn stars , ya never know what you will see come through the door. I've gotten some great deals on other things.
I went with a buddy years ago to a garage sale to a mutual friend's house who was retiring and moving out of state. We both knew the guy with the garage sale for years and mostly went as a courtesy to him. Usual stuff for sale , bric-a-brac etc. Nothing special or anything we were really interested in , but there as a show of support.

On his kitchen table there was a whole bunch of bottles of liquor and wine for sale with price tags. Who sells that at a garage sale ? Just odd. I asked him about it. He replied it was an accumulation of years of gifts he had received and he was not much of a drinker and didn't want to drag it along in his move to Florida.

To make a long story short , I made him an offer on the complete lot. He accepted. Next thing I'm loading up about 5 cases of booze and wine that I paid roughly $2 a bottle. That Christmas a lot of my friends got bottles as gifts. It took me years to go through the rest. Even had a bottle of Southern Comfort in there that was as old as I am. 4/5ths of a quart , not this milliliter stuff.

Ya never know what you will find.

Yup! When you get into one of those "super-picks" as I call them, be prepared to buy the whole thing as you will be getting the best price possible.

One thing I am solid on is being honest when folks are innocently and unknowingly offering prices that are way too low. When the situation is such that I really ought to be paying more, I let them know and make a reasonable offer within the range I would have been willing to pay.

One guy was selling off his deceased Dad's old buggy and wagon equipment. He repaired them and had several buildings full of stuff. He started throwing prices at me and I was making piles, but then I realized he was drastically lower than what he could get. I told him "Wait a minute. You can get a lot more for this stuff if you would advertise." He came back at me with "If you don't buy this stuff at these prices, someone else will." That day I filled my Suburban 3-4 times at great prices.

That, my friends, was a "Super-Pick".

Moosetrot

I bought out a Whole Garage sale for 2 $100.00 bills

The man had died and his widow just wanted not to sit through a sale.

Wood box full of traps... coyote , fox - coon sz's. ...The resale of what I bought out was 5 times in profit.

And I'm sure you dutifully reported the profit on your tax return. lol

Jim

I'm not saying a guy can't get a deal now and then and like Moosetrot said, if your going anyway well then it's not so bad. If you have the time then go for it as you never know what you'll come home with. Just saying that you may be better off buying on line or conventions. One can always add to your arsenal with some garage sale finds.

One time I was at a garage sale. The guy was using 30 gallon blue barrels for table legs, he had plywood as the tables. He had good stuff an as we talked he said he moved here from the Adirondacks.I asked about traps and he said YEAH- …..the plastic barrels were full of traps. That was 20 or more years ago and I got them for a great deal. I hit sales regularly for other stuff and haven't seen traps pop up very much.

Had a sale yesterday and moved some traps that I couldn't sell on Ebay or even Trap Shed. High shipping was the culprit I am guessing.

Pretty much hit and miss.I have found some great deals at garage sales,one time a lady had a bunch of no.4 jumps on a table,one had a $2 price tag.I asked if that was right,she got an attitude and said"for you those are $4" .I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough.My experience has been when people have a garage sale they want the goods gone,they don't want to kick them around anymore.So when I have found traps they're often at a great price.But you don't find them very often.As some have pointed out,they're not always easy to find.

I asked one lady if she had any traps. "No." i looked around. "How much for these wire
things (220 conis)? " 50cents each" "I'll take 'em."

Yes and at scrap yards.

Probably about the price I see at flea markets and antique stores, around $12 to $15 each for super rusty worn out victor 1.5 longs. Most have springs that would compress if a horse fly landed on them. Never have seen traps at a yard sale around here, on craigslist they tend to ask new prices for used traps.

Watch craigslist you can find some on there occasionally

What fer traps are you looking for kid?

https://allentown.craigslist.org/spo/d/new-tripoli-victor-duke-trapping/7144723817.html

Not sure how far you are from these but also found some 330 on a different post

I’ll have to check scrap yards and I’m just looking for any traps I can that I don’t have to pay shipping which is why I was asking about garage sales

Oh good Lord kid, what traps do you need, what are you going to be trapping?

I’m not going to go digging through scrap yards at like facilities I just meant like scrap piles or random “scrap” people (mostly neighbors) got at their houses I’m going after whatever I catch and I don’t “need” any traps I just want to see what could pick for super cheap or easy. You can’t blame me for trying to save money “waste not want not” I’m not going to spend money on things if I can get it cheaper or easier somewhere that is reasonably close. I don’t have much to do during the day why not pick around.

I’m just looking for any traps I can assuming they work.

Ok, this is my last attempt, what traps are you wanting?

One thing I have done is talk to your local scrap yard and see if they have any that come in , if they will put them aside and what they would charge you for the same.

I have gotten a couple of anvils that way. They pay the person pennies per pound for the anvils , I buy them for considerably more like .50 a pound . Anvils are VERY HARD to find here affordably. New ones cost a fortune.
Just gave away one of my hot secrets.