I love going to yard sales and garage sales, but what I really love is the flea market.
Do you have flea markets in your area, or are they called something else? I went to something called a “swap meet” one time, and was surprised to find that it was basically just a flea market.
At a flea market people set up booths and tables to sell their wares. Vendors can basically sell anything they want (anything that is legal – drugs, booze, cigarettes, guns, and stolen property is obviously frowned upon). A lot of the bigger flea markets have tents set up by “scrappers”, who are the people that drive around collecting scrap metal, appliances, rebar rods, and wire ties. These scrappers usually don’t use the metal for anything, they just sell it to the scrapyard for a few cents a pound, so they wouldn’t use the rebar rods or wire ties for anything themselves. I knew precisely how much all this stuff was worth, and made the man an offer of twice what he was asking to have all the rebar and wire ties delivered to my business. He was shocked that I was offering more than he was asking, but I said that moving so much rebar and wire was a huge effort and I was willing to pay him to do it. I also told him that I would buy any other forming wire, double loop wire ties, or rebar rods he found in the future, if he drove them to my business. This could be the start of something great!