We all love Mike and Frank. The show on History Channel, American Pickers is a wholesome family hit that makes finding antiques and “rusty gold” seem both easy and exciting.
Having a film crew follow you around and a pocket full of cash makes it a lot easier to get people to open their door, so a great place to start is in your own area by keeping an eye on Craigslist, Facebook, Buy/Sell/Trade lists, FreeCycle, yard sales and any other bulletin boards that have stuff listed that people want to get rid of. One place to make sure you keep an eye on is “the side of the road”.
Letting friends and family can also help since they are additional scouts for you.
The rule of thumb is to be able to buy something for $X and sell it for at least $2X, $3X is even better. If you need to put some work into it, you should aim at $5X to account for your time and materials.
So that means when you see a killer piece at a yard sale for $100 you need to think, can I flip it for $200? Can I rejuvenate it and sell it for $500?
You’ll make mistakes when you’re first starting out, but eventually it will fall into a rhythm and it will seem easy to spot the right pieces.
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