Shop For Home Furniture and Decorating Items at Flea Markets, Garage Sales and Thrift Stores

          Bargain Shopping: Get the Best Price

How To Shop:
Flea Markets, Garage Sales and Yard Sales

Get the best price. You see what you've been looking for and know you want the item, approach calmly. When you enter the booth or get out of your car never, never let the dealer or seller see your excitement over your great find!

Again, approach calmly, if they know it's exactly what you want, they know you will probably buy at their highest price.

Some shoppers like to bargain and are very good and gracious at getting a better deal. Most sellers are expecting to bargain and are prepared to discount items 10 percent to 25 percent.

It is easy and OK to ask "Is this your best price?" or "Do you discount for cash?"   Sometimes if you purchase several items you will get an overall discount on all your items. I like to gather everything I want into a little pile, then ask the seller for their best price on the lot.

Most of the time they give me a price much lower than I thought it was going to be.

If you feel something is way over priced, make a gracious offer of what you think it is worth. When shoppers are insulting with ridiculous offers, many sellers will not negotiate on anything at all. Friendly banter and conversation with the seller is always helpful. You can kind of judge their mood to negotiate this way as well.

Get what you want. Have you ever gotten back in the car with your friend and compared purchases? Does she have the coolest stuff that you didn't even see?

When you get to the booth or sale and you see something you want. Check it out immediately. You don't want someone else to snatch it away before your very eyes!

After you have checked out your first discovery, step back and go through the sale methodically. Always start in the same place either left or right. Go up and down each aisle until you have gone all the way through the sale.

When you see something you like, but it isn't a "I have to have this!" or you really don't have any place for it, make a note in your notebook where it is (booth number or address and phone number). If you are still interested later in the day you can always go back.

If the item needs repair, will you really fix it? If it is going in your next garage sale, DON'T buy it.

Maybe the club chair is just perfect for your bedroom suite, but there is an awful stain on the seat cushion�..Buy it and cover the cushion in a contrasting fabric -

Great pieces, parts and inspirations for your Art Objects! A necklace you would never wear may be the perfect color beads to work in the mosaic project for your home decorating color scheme. One of those wood candle holders kids make in shop class or a wooden salad bowl may be the start of your perfect decorating accessory.

A high dollar interior designer friend of mine keeps an eye out for books with printed art. She cuts out the pictures, has them matted and framed in beautiful picture frames, and hangs them to accent the room's decor.   With these small prints, she recycles and repurposes the book. Her client saves money in one place and has more decorating money to spend on other decorating items and furniture.

You can do the same for even less cash. Buy your frame at the yard sale or thrift store then buy a standard size matt at a craft store.

Where is your car? Don't forget where you parked? Wondering around a big parking lot with all your purchases looking for your car is the worst! Did you bring a pick up or your SUV?

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