Everyone Has Now Heard of eBay
Why? I have one word for you--eBay. eBay has changed the garage sale landscape irrevocably. Although eBay had been around for three solid years in 1999 when I wrote the first article, back then, most people still hadn't heard of eBay. Sure, even in 1999 you were fighting off the people who <i>had</i> already found eBay, but today your problem isn't that the other garage sale shoppers are eBay savvy, the problem today is that most likely the garage sale seller is eBay savvy too.
I'm Going To Sell My Ratty Old Dolls on eBay!
For instance, several times I've had people who have come in with a box of ratty old dolls wanting identifications and values so they could "put them on eBay." Of course, 9 times out of 10, I'll ask a few questions and find out that they have no clue how to do this; sometimes they'll admit to wanting to use the local eBay "drop and ship". In any event, I don't give out free appraisals so they generally just slunk off with their box. This is a box of dolls that before eBay, I can assure you, would most likely have ended up in a garage sale.
Before eBay
In pre-eBay days, if you were moving or if granny died, just about everything ended up in a garage sale (unless you knew you had great, expensive stuff, and then it went to an estate sale. You may have held a few nice or sentimental things for family members, but that was it. Today, if you have any computer savvy at all, you are going to "look it up" on eBay before you throw it on that lawn.
Wow! Dig That Angelina Ballerina Stuff Out of the Garage Sale Pile!
I know I do this; recently, my kids were cleaning out their rooms and we were going to give their cast-offs to my sorority's garage sale. But, before we did this, I couldn't help checking a few things on eBay. Imagine my surprise when I found out that various sets of Angelina Ballerina doll furniture (now retired by Mattel) was worth $150 each! Or, that some of my son's old video games were fetching high prices on eBay. You can bet that those items did NOT end up at the garage sale.
A Table at the Garage Sale With The Good eBay Stuff
I've even been at local garage sales where people separate out a table or two with the "good stuff" and will quote you eBay prices when haggling (or even put them on the tags!). It sort of kills the whole idea of finding an old Madame Alexander doll worth $50 for $10, when the garage sale person incorrectly quotes a value of $200 (but I'll let you have it for $100) from some eBay auction asking prices where the doll didn't sell and the reserve wasn't met.
Can You Still Find Bargain Dolls at Garage Sales?
So...does this mean that garage sales are now useless for finding old dolls? Not at all! But, you might want to wear elbow and knee pads when you go--I'm only partially kidding here, since there are many more aggressive garage sale buyers than ever before--buyers who make their living off of eBay, and who wouldn't hesitate to knock you over if they saw a 1950s Strung Alexander-kin for $10. Further, you'll have to look harder and longer at the sales, you should arm yourself with a firm idea of going Internet prices for dolls, and you should still follow the advice in my original The Garage Sale Hunt article.
Set That Alarm and Grab That Newspaper!
If you do all that, you'll find that finding doll bargains are not impossible. Remember, many people still don't have energy to carefully check prices on hundreds of items, and others just want the "junk" out of their house immediately! So, with the garage sale season firmly upon us, set that alarm, and grab that newspaper. You never know what doll treasures you may find!
