When you drive through a yard sale, it’s impossible not to break your neck. There is always the possibility that in all those tables or in one of those dusty boxes, there may be a treasure hidden. There is a curious fascination to looking for those special items that may be hidden at your nearby yard sale or even the flea market.
With no schedule, most individuals visit a yard sale. They’re just there to take a peek at the goods and see if something catches their attention. That’s just perfect. Nothing is really wrong with that.
If you still maintain a list of prepper products you want to buy at these yard sales, however you will instantly become a force to be reckoned with. At these yard sales, you will be able to take out the planning gems and get them for next to nothing!
Let’s look at 10 of the best treasures you can find at yard sales for prepping.
Hand Tools
Nothing is better than a bunch of tools that run both on and off the grid. Not only are these tools essential to you, but they can also be of serious use to others. Things such as saws, files and axes would all have serious importance in a situation of long-term failure.
Related: 50 Prepper Items To Get From The Thrift Store or Yard Sale
For the average person, files are virtually impossible to create. Saws are also not a picnic. Hammers are perfect tools because they are used a lot and come in a range of styles and sizes.
Another great tool to obtain from yard sales are vintage, high quality, scissors. They are easy to sharpen and extremely effective.
- Augers
- Awls
- Wrenches
- Vices
- Sanders
- Wooden Handles
Nearly any tool that is powered by muscle rather than gasoline or electricity is worth picking up if you have a shot at it.
Generators
Generators often stop working and it is just a matter of cleaning out the machine or even adding some fresh gas to the machine to run through it. When generators stop working or are no longer needed because a house gets tied to a natural gas generator, well, it can be much cheaper than usual for these things.
The tough things are only driven by a gas-powered generator. It is a piece of hardware for preparedness that everyone should invest in. First, go to the yard sales and see what you can get.
Related: Review – 7 Best Portable Solar Generators
Cots and Camping Gear
For many individuals, camping is a phase. There is a time in their lives when they regularly go hiking, and then there is a time when they give up everything for the comfort of the climate controlled home and the king-sized bed.
For you this is wonderful news. Stuff like lanterns, cookware, sleeping bags and so on can be picked up. Be careful not to buy tents unless they are new. You literally do not take them out for a proper inspection and pitch them. You might find yourself with a cheap tent that is coated in mold.
Cots at yard sales are a fantastic find and should be picked up whenever you find them. They are outstanding for expanding the capacity to sleep in a disaster with family and friends.
Storage Containers
We store things. For storing and organizing of preps, we use 5-gallon containers, Rubbermaid containers and everything else that can be airtight or watertight. Go for it every time you can get your hands on some affordable storage containers.
Just to get the container and lid, I also bought Rubbermaid containers full of records or books! At a yard sale, people want to get rid of things. That is the argument in its entirety! Take advantage of that.
Related: Top 13 Prepping And Survival Items You Can Find At Farm Auctions
Cast Iron
Old cast iron cookware is one of the great steals of all yard sales. Most individuals do not know how to clean or restore cast iron cookware thoroughly. Most people would put it out as a planter or use it as a moneymaker at the average yard sale if the cookware gets a little blemish or any rust on it.
Typically, a rusted piece of cast iron cookware is just a great elbow afternoon away from being back to working order. In cast iron cookware, there is great value as the stuff is durable and lasts forever!
If the average person begins to make dinner in their Teflon-coated, inexpensive, cookware over an open fire, they can burn out these pans in less than a year. It would be great to have some cast iron to sell to those in need if there were no longer any stores selling cookware!
Books
At these yard sales, there are still books for sale. You may not find your favorite author of prepper novels, but the tables of yard sales all over the nation have plenty of value.
Remember, “prepper” books are not the only ones that teach you how to plan for the end of the planet.
- Gardening Books
- Woodworking Books
- Medical Books
- Home Repair Books (probably the most valuable)
- Fishing Books
- Country Living Books
- Recipe Books
Related: Get These Books for Your Preparedness Library
100% Wool
If you buy it retail, 100 percent wool clothing can be awfully costly. To those that still own them, older wool blankets and clothes can be outright hideous and unattractive. None of that matters to you of course, right? You are a prepper, and you know the importance of 100% wool.
You find yourself looking down at a tag every time that says 100 percent wool, do yourself a favor and buy it. You will get a deal and you will obtain a material that is unparalleled in terms of use for warmth and survival.
Gold and Silver
The chances of you rolling up gold and silver coins for sale on a table at a discount are slim.
However, there may be old jewellery or silverware made of gold and silver, but people are willing to get rid of them.
Look for tabs that tell stuff like 14k and other ways that gold and silver can be described. There are a lot of ways to do that, but you could find an old ring or a set of forks and knives worth a lot more than the price.
Related: 100+ Items to Barter in a Post-Collapse World
Bikes for BOVs and Such
A standby is at least one bike at almost every yard sale. When it comes to prepping, bikes are remarkable because the vehicle or the supply of fuel might be threatened. If that is the case, a bike would give you the opportunity to switch to a BOL or simply get to work due to a disaster when fuel is short.
Even if you already have a bike, during tough times, you can purchase bikes for spare parts or share them with others.
Fishing Gear
Fishing gear at work is often a steal. Fishing line spools, fishing reels and fishing poles will all work to get you fish and protein from the surrounding waters.
You should really consider getting into it, even if you’re not fishing now.
For pennies at most yard sales, fishing gear can be had. Get what you can. Another price is tiny hooks, so they can catch almost any kind of fish from you.
Between yard sales, flea markets, estate sales and scrapyards a thoughtful and skilled prepper can make a killing! It all starts with knowing what you are after. You must understand the items that have true prepper value, like 100% wool.
Bear in mind that most yard sales are meant to make space in a home and get rid of clutter. The money produced is almost always secondary, so providing a price below what is tagged or presented at the sale is not harmful.
Take your time and search for the uncut gems at local yard sales that await us all.
