I live in a small town surrounded by a vast number of farms. Yes, it's the country; call me a hick if you like, but country living has benefits that city dwellers can't even imagine. One of the great benefits of the country living is the nundreds or yard sales, garage sales, and flea markets we have in our town, spanning from late April through to late Spetember. Every weekend, on every street, at least one person has cleaned out their attic or garage and is trying to make a little cash on items they have seldom if ever used. The beauty of this is, a lot of people don't know what they have; they think it is just junk, but to those of us with an eye for the unique, we soon find out it is treasure.

There is a fine art to yard sale techniques. You can't just glance through the stuff; you have to take your time. You have to inspect items for authenticity. And how do you do that you ask? You research and learn to look for signatures and trade marks. Now once you find an item of worth, you can't let the seller know its true value. If they have a $5 price, tell them you will give them $4. If thye have it in their yard sale, thye don't know what they have, so put on the poker face and bargain with them for the price.

Yard sales are always full of collectibles and again if a seller has it on their lawn to sell, they don't know what they have. If you come across a box of autographed trading cards that sell for 25 cents a piece, offer them five dollars of the whole box. I can almost guarentee within that box will be the treassure you are looking for. I have many times, so I am sure you can. Rookie baseball cards, rookie football cards; there is a gold mine out there just in trading cards.

When it comes to flea markets it is a little trickier. Many of the vendors will know what they have a play dumb. What have you got to watch for at flea markets are the fakes and the replicas. You have to be educated in the value of certain items before trying to bargain with a flea marketer. For example if you come across a vendor who has a baseball card autographed by Reggie Jackson he will have it priced for $50-$100. But the question for you is it a steal or is it a fake? I can assure you it is a fake. An autographed baseball card from Reggie Jackson would sell for at least $500 and the flea market vendor knows this and is trying to take advantage of you. He is banking on the fact that you will be fooled, so your most important task is not to get fooled by the vendor and ensure that whenever you buy autographed celebrity cards from the flea market they are original.