Armed with my smartphone and the Yard Sale Treasure Map app (check out the website, they have PC, Android & iPhone versions!), we headed out this morning to find some bargains. Here are the yard sale spoils for the weekend. I was really on the hunt to find some things to resell, but ended up with a few things we needed for the house instead!

$5  - 1 piece place setting of our dishes - Noritake Colorwave Graphite. It is missing a mug, but for that price, who cares? Normal retail price is $39.99
$3  -  large brown throw pillow for the couch. Brand new!
$10 - wireless router
$1  - The game of things.
25 cents - wire rack for the kitchen

The dishes were purchased at a benefit yard sale. We think they actually came from Bed, Bath & Beyond since they had several new items in packages from there. This was definitely my favorite find of the day!

I've not been able to print wirelessly since we got married because our modem/router is downstairs and my office is upstairs. It's been a slight pain, but I didn't want to spend $50 to buy another router or bridge. (My router didn't have the capability to pick up the signal from downstairs). I thought $10 was definitely worth it. There have been several times I needed to print off a recipe, coupon or something and I was downstairs. In order to print, I had to take the laptop upstairs, dock it, print, undock & take it back downstairs. I can't wait to get this hooked up! Looks like I got a pretty good bargain. This is going for about $20 with shipping on ebay.

The game of things is one I've wanted for a couple years. It's been on my Christmas list and our wedding registry. It looks brand new. Some of the parts are still in the shrink wrap. Hmmm...used ones are selling on ebay for around $20. Tempting. But since I've wanted it for awhile, I think I'll keep it for now.

Sadly, there probably won't be many yard sales next weekend since it is a holiday. Hopefully, there will be some so we can go again! The following weekend we're planning to have a yard sale of our own, so no hunting that weekend! :-(

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Have you found something on Craigslist only to discover someone else already bought it? Are you looking a specific item, have time to wait for it, but don’t want to check Craigslist EVERY day? Here are a few ways you can put Craigslist on “auto-pilot” to make your searching easier. My best find so far using these methods was a $279 IKEA dresser for $40!

• notifinder.com – emails you when the item you’re looking for is added. Note- my notifications went to my Gmail Spam folder, so be sure to check that!
• RSS feeds – there are MANY ways to read feeds, but my favorite is Google Reader. 
  Search Craigslist.org for the item you are looking for. Copy the URL of the results page. Open Google Reader and click Add Subscription. Paste the URL of the Craigslist search results page. Any time an item that matches your search is added, it will show up in your feed reader.
• craigz.com – doesn’t send any automatic notifications,  but the advantage of this site is the ability to widen your search radius up to 300 miles

Search tips –

Try your searches out on Craigslist to see what kind of results are returned before you use notifinder.com or an RSS feed. If your search is too broad, you may need to be more descriptive or search only in a specific category. 

Use broad search terms for more results – van, table, highchair

If you are looking for specific items, use descriptive search terms for fewer results - Venture van, IKEA table, Chicco highchair

Also try multiple variations of your search terms (including misspellings!) – Chevy, Chevrolet, Chev,
Chico

Looking for homeschool curriculum? Try variations – Beka (some list as ABeka or A Beka-  Beka will catch both), BJU, Bob Jones, homeschool, home school, textbook, or curriculum

Remember – if you are searching for multiple items, do different searches for each! Searching for van, table, highchair won’t give you any results unless someone happens to be selling all three!

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