Yard/garage/estate sale finds.

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Howland937

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Talking with my dad yesterday, and he was telling me about his yard sale haul from this past Saturday. Box of assorted things including (off the top of his head but possibly things he forgot)
Hornady .45acp dies
Hornady .44 mag dies
Hornady 7mm STW (he thinks) dies
Pacific 38/357 dies
200 SPM primers
200 SRM primers
Assorted brass
4 cavity .358 mold
Couple hundred cast .358 bullets
Half pound of some kinda powder
Case trimmer
Kinetic hammer.
All for the princely sum of $30
ETA...he said it came with a Lee hand loader too.

I've gotten some good deals over the years, but don't remember even coming close to something like that. Anybody got any good tales of great deals, instead of the stories of inflated prices?
 
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A few years back I was pursuing the flyer for the city wide yard sale in the nearby little town. One of the posts was for a "reloader", no price listed. I went to the listed address early the next morning and waited for the folks to come outside. It was a woman and her mother. I asked about the reloader and the woman took me to a table, they had several tables covered with miscellaneous household stuff. On the table was a Lee Loadmaster, new in an unopened box. I asked her how much and she said $50. I took it it and paid her. Was turning to leave and she stopped me and said "you have to take it all", she pointed to 2 more boxes on the same table, also unopened. When I got home I opened the 2 boxes and found a set of Lee . 223 dies, 500 new unprimed cases, a brick of primers, a box of 500 Sierra 52 gr. BTHP bullets and 3lbs. of BLC-2 powder. My one and only yard sale score!!!
 
I've yet to score big at a yardsale but I sure love to hear the stories.

Closest I've come was scoring a weaver k10 at a shop for $30 they didn't know anything bout it, I offered and they were excited for their daily sale.
 
I’ve only been to one estate sale but it was a big one. I ended up with 5500 12ga wads at $1 per bag and 6 bags of shot @ $10 per bag. That was in 2019.

non yard sale best deals include 4 closeout savage axis’@$49 with $50 rebate, closeout cci large pistol primers @$10/1000 bought 5 bricks (all they had) both found at Walmart in 2020. Horrible store but I can’t argue with the deals I got. I got 2 mec 600jrs and an old Texan 12ga loader for $40 total from Craigslist

I love a good deal
 
My best was my old RCBS RS2 with 4 sets of dies, bunch of assorted brass, 5-0-5 scale, older powder measure, trickler, case trimmer, lube pad and hammer type puller. $40 IIRC...that was about 15 years ago. Same yard sale I bought a Pacific 12ga progressive press for $35 after I went to the ATM and came back. Turned that into an old tang safety M77 in .30-06 about a half hour later.


More recently was just a private sale not quite a year ago. Slightly used Hornady LNL AP, 3 sets (.308, .30-06, .223) dies, 30lbs of range brass, trimmer, reamer, primer pocket swage tool, 1# of H414, old Thumbler's tumbler and a 4-12x40 Simmons Deerfield scope for $350
 
Hi...
Never found much at yard sales but I have made some excellent buys at auctions.
Kept some of what I bought that I had use for and sold the rest for nice profits.
Haven't been to many auctions the last year because of the "pandemic"...panic buying makes it almost impossible to get any bargains. Hopefully as supplies become more plentiful, it will once again be worthwhile to attend auctions.
 
Bought my Frankford Arsenal vibratory tumbler at a garage sale and been using it for years.
My original reloading equipment ( Lee anniversary reloading kit and extras) came from an old pawn shop new in the box for $80.00
My RCBS pro 2000 reloading kit was bought new in the box minus the reloading manual but with tons of added goodies from a private sale this past winter for $250.00
 
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6 months ago I just happened to walk by the outdoors desk at walmart. The shelves mostly vacant and area cluttered and disorganized with random store stuff. I noticed a blue CCI box inside a glass cabinet by itself and asked the clerk, he said large rifle magnum primers. Ended up paying under $5 for a box of 1000
 
A couple of years ago a friend went to a local garage/estate sale and noticed some lead for sale. He called me to go check it out. I found over 50 lbs of lead ingots for castings bullets in GI ammo cans etc, old primers, lots of brass several calibers, loaded ammo several calibers in plastic boxes, a completely corroded and frozen RCBS rock chucker, assorted tools, C clamps, a battery powered weedeater. the catch was that most of the ammo, primers and some of the tools had been under water in Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I don't recall how much I paid but it was around $100 or less. A friend soaked the Rock chucker and after 6 months or so he got it freed up. I had to replace the ram(it was damaged in the freeing up process) and primer arm for $60 and chase the threads on the die seating bushing but it is good to go. this was my only garage sale score. Believe it or not I test fired 10 LR primers and they all went bang.

I suppose when I check out somebody will buy all my reloading stuff for a nickel on the dollar!! I will try to get rid of it before I go if I can!!

Bull
 
Twenty years or so back I picked up a 1938 6.35mm Carcano at a yard sale for $30. It is in excellent condition and a real shooter. It was missing the spring for the bayonet swivel but otherwise complete. Unless you count the $2 bottle of smoked scorpion pepper vinegar, that's about the only real bargain I've come across at an outdoor private shopping venue.
 
A few years ago I picked up a Dillon Square Deal B in 45ACP for $50 at a yard sale. Since I already had a Square Deal B in 45 it got shipped to Dillon and converted to 10mm (it was very dusty and I wanted the job done right)
 
A few years ago I picked up a Dillon Square Deal B in 45ACP for $50 at a yard sale. Since I already had a Square Deal B in 45 it got shipped to Dillon and converted to 10mm (it was very dusty and I wanted the job done right)
$50.... wow! I just paid $389+10.9%tax for my SDB

WOW!
 
Talking with my dad yesterday, and he was telling me about his yard sale haul from this past Saturday. Box of assorted things including (off the top of his head but possibly things he forgot)
Hornady .45acp dies
Hornady .44 mag dies
Hornady 7mm STW (he thinks) dies
Pacific 38/357 dies
200 SPM primers
200 SRM primers
Assorted brass
4 cavity .358 mold
Couple hundred cast .358 bullets
Half pound of some kinda powder
Case trimmer
Kinetic hammer.
All for the princely sum of $30
ETA...he said it came with a Lee hand loader too.

I've gotten some good deals over the years, but don't remember even coming close to something like that. Anybody got any good tales of great deals, instead of the stories of inflated prices?
7STW is a BEAST!

My 1st reload ammo because it was not common at the time
 
My neighbor reloads and a friend brought a couple buckets to him and phrased it "left over reloading junk". My neighbor gave me a shot at taking what I wanted as he was not interested in any of it. I got a Lee Single stage for free. There was a MEC, and a Lee Loader in there as well as a set of 357 dies, and other misc. He ended up donating the rest. I took the single stage, and an old Lyman manual and figured I'd never get a better deal.

I do not visit sales that often around here, but I have never seen anything gun or reloading related. Once in a while good tools, but they go fast. When I was a teenager on the farm every sale had firearms and reloading gear.

-Jeff
 
FWIW, sometimes you gotta ask. Haven't gotten any great deals this way but if a sale has a bunch of fishing gear or hunting related stuff and the seller asks if there's anything particular I'm looking for... I'll mention reloading or shooting related. I've had a couple of occasions where the seller said " I have this old gun" and brought it from the house. Passed up a shotgun the other day (price was a little high) that the guy said he was hesitant to put out on the table for sale.
 
FWIW, sometimes you gotta ask. Haven't gotten any great deals this way but if a sale has a bunch of fishing gear or hunting related stuff and the seller asks if there's anything particular I'm looking for... I'll mention reloading or shooting related. I've had a couple of occasions where the seller said " I have this old gun" and brought it from the house. Passed up a shotgun the other day (price was a little high) that the guy said he was hesitant to put out on the table for sale.
That's how I got the Carcano. I saw an old sling and asked if there was a rifle that went with it. It was an old Herter's from the 50's so I was expecting a Winchester or Marlin lever action. When the guy came out with, "...dad's old huntin' gun," and it turned out to be a Carcano, I put on my poker face and grumbled about how hard ammo was to find before asking the price. The guy agreed and said his dad bought a bunch back in the 70's, used it all up, and the gun sat ever since. He didn't want it, neither did any of the grandkids, so he tossed out a $40 price which I said I thought was a little high, offered $20 and we settled on $30. I paid it and glad I did but I won't miss it either.

In this life, if you don't ask, you don't get.
 
It all depends where you are located. In certain areas of the country, reloading stuff could be put out without concern.

In my area, I believe it is a crime to resell certain components (primers & powder i think) from person to person. Therefore I would never expect to see that stuff at a yard sale. I can see if something is willed / given to someone when a person passes away as being more plausible.
 
In the last 20-25 years I could have probably filled the 8 foot bed of a pickup with the reloading stuff I found at yard sales. Texan and several MEC shotshell reloaders. Half a dozen presses, scales, tumblers, measures, and such. Ammo cans full of ammo and trash bags of wads. Many containers of propellant, many 5 gallon buckets of brass and hulls. Primers, bullets, lead, and a couple cronys. Lead pots, heaters, molds, and many firearms. Holsters, bayonets, fake grenades, many die sets and various tools. Not much out there in the past year though even as I activly look still.
 
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