Advantages
Our experience is that yard sales and garage sales are, by far, the best place to get a DivaDeal. Usually these sales are run by the homeowner as opposed to “dealers,” and as a result, real treasures can be found, including valuable antiques and collectibles. Remember the seller's goal most of the time is to dump their “junk” on someone else. The good thing is that one woman's junk is another woman's treasure.

Yard sales are also one of the best places to get baby clothes (usually for 25 cents per piece) as well as other baby accessories such as toys, books and equipment. Tools, kitchen accessories and books are often plentiful at yard sales and are usually very inexpensive.

It is often possible to get DivaDeals at both the front end and back end of the sale. That is, getting there early offers perhaps the best chance to get the best stuff before it is picked over, while shopping at the back end may result in the owner preferring to sell you something at less than he or she was willing to earlier in the day, just to avoid having to drag it back into their house again for storage.

Downside:
A yard sale is truly a “buyer's beware” market. Electronic items that do not work when you get home can generally not be returned (unless prior arrangements have been made—preferably in writing). Some yard sale vendors will let you plug an item into their garage outlet so you can verify its working status before you purchase. Also, some yard sale baby equipment and toys may be old and not up to the latest safety standards and can even be dangerous.

One of the biggest downsides of yard sales is that they are unpredictable on all accounts. That is, you don't know when and where they will be, until they are advertised so you can't count on them happening when you specifically need something. There is also no standard with yard sales, some are great, some are worthless, and many are in-between.

Bottom Line: Working yard sales is work but the benefits can be enormous.