Designer’s Shopping Secrets Have Been Used Before

BALTIMORE — Susan Weitzel stands poised, slim figure alert and eyes bright, like a cat about to pounce on unsuspecting prey.

Her prey is a scruffy little table with long, spindly legs. It lurks in the middle of a jumble of well-used toys, old garden tools and some disreputable-looking books, all spilling over a frontyard of a small house.

“Expect lots of disappointments and lots of surprises when you shop yard sales,” the Annapolis-based interior designer explains as she upends the table, which is priced at a modest $10.

You or I might have passed it by without a second glance, but Weitzel moves this and opens that and voila! Suddenly she’s unfolded a sewing machine--one that if not an antique is pretty darn close.

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We’re following the designer around on a beautiful Saturday morning to see how an expert, one with an artist’s eye, shops yard sales. Enough of this buying other people’s junk just because it’s cheap and then regretting it. We want to uncover the hidden treasure, the “Antiques Roadshow” find.

“Why go to Home Depot and buy a rake for $30 when you can buy a perfectly good one here for $1?” she asks rhetorically. Of course, the yard sale rake doesn’t look as good as a shiny new one, but it has all its parts. Unfortunately, it’s already in another shopper’s hand.

The new owner grabs her rake a little tighter and hurries to her car. Weitzel decides she’s uncovered all that she’s going to uncover here and heads off to the yard that’s next on her list.

(Aside to yard sale shoppers: Keep alert for unadvertised sales on the way to the one you’ve found in the classifieds. Tim Staab, whose stuff this is, explains that he decided to hold his sale when he saw there would be one around the corner.

“You don’t have to advertise,” he says of his street. “People cruise along here every Saturday looking for yard sales.”)

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From Weitzel, we want tips.

And she has them.

Examine things closely before you give up on them. Look underneath. (Remember that sewing machine.)

“If you walk a block to get to the house and no one you pass is carrying anything away from the sale, that’s a problem,” she says.

“Shirts hanging up and fluttering in the breeze are not a good sign.” (Clothes don’t sell well at yard sales unless they’re vintage wear.)

And most important: “Get there early. If you’re a real hunter, drive by the day before, scout out the locations and pick your mark.”

All dedicated yard sale shoppers know the posted start time is just a sham unless the ad says “No early birds.” Dealers and amateurs alike arrive half an hour or an hour early to get the good stuff.

Unfortunately, you can only get to one or, at the most, two sales early, so you need to decide from the ads or addresses which are most likely to yield good results.

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Veteran buyers say that most sellers expect you to bargain and price their goods accordingly. You should always offer less and see what happens. But not everyone agrees.

“Don’t think you always have to bargain if they seem reasonably priced,” says B.J. Berti, a yard sale aficionado and author of the just-published “Flea Market Makeovers” (Clarkson Potter). “But if you want to, ask politely. ‘Can you take such-and-such for this?’ Most of the time people are asking what’s pretty fair.”

Berti’s best find at a yard sale was two outdoor folding chairs, which she bought for $5 each. “They’re probably cedar, from the ‘20s or ‘30s. I painted them bright turquoise and use them all the time.”

Rather than going early, she recommends going late. “I like to sleep,” says Berti, who lives in New York.

“Go when they’re ready to close up,” she says.

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Weitzel happens to be excellent at dickering, never suggesting that the seller has priced his wares too high but simply asking if, say, a seller will take $10 for a few ancient tools in a toolbox handmade from an old fruit crate. The owner insists on the original price of $15, which she pays with good grace.

Later Weitzel has the tools unofficially appraised at $225; antique tools are a desirable collectible.

She and other yard sale veterans take cash with them. Some sellers will accept checks, but cash is better for bargaining.