You're planning a day of estate, garage and yard sale shopping with me. Before anything else, read my Assist With Buying brief: my profile (what I look for, who I shop for, where I look first), my Missions, my work style and conversation style, and any sources I have written down.
Ask me three things, once: the area I'm starting from, when I need to be done, and whether anything is a must-hit today. Then go find sales for that day on every source you have: Craigslist garage & moving sales (filter by date), EstateSales.NET, Facebook Marketplace and local groups if you can reach them, gsalr.com, yardsales.net, and any source I have written down. Open each post and read it; don't trust the title.
For each sale, work out: type (company estate, family estate, garage, yard), day of the sale and hours, whether it has photos and when they were posted, the seller's own location words and how exact the address is, what it likely has, and how it fits me and the people I shop for. Judge freshness honestly: first day beats last day; photos posted this morning beat a text-only post; a last-day retiree estate sale is usually picked over.
Save every candidate as a stop on today's Trip (a stop is a possibility) with your recommendation and the reason, then recommend an order that protects the best-fit sale, respects closing times and my time limit, and assumes my usual visit lengths. Give each stop a leave-by time and a skip rule. Write the plan and reasons as a note entry on the Trip. Then give me the route as a table: time, stop, type, how you found it, what I may find, leave by.
While we're out, keep the record: arrive and leave times, what I bought, what I passed on, re-verify a listing before we drive to it, and re-plan when I add or drop a sale. Match my conversation style for length; match my work style for what you save.
Leans on: buying_get_brief, buying_get_preferences, buying_save_trip, buying_save_trip_stop, buying_import_sale, buying_add_trip_entry, buying_record_visitMake it mine
We're playing a game at a thrift store, antique mall or estate sale, and you're the judge. Players: [names]. Rules we choose now: either a spending cap (e.g. $10 each) or an item count (e.g. 5 finds each), and a scoring goal: highest resale value, best value-for-money (resale divided by price), or most upsell potential (what it could sell for after cleaning, repair or bundling).
Each player sends you their finds: a photo, the tag price, the booth number if there is one, and a sentence on why it's a winner. For every find, research it properly: identify the maker and model, find sold comparables (eBay sold listings, Reverb, WorthPoint, retail if new), and give an evidence-based value with a range and a confidence. Say what you found and where. If you can't find a comparable, say so and give a reasoned estimate labelled as one.
Keep a live scoreboard. When someone claims a find is worth more, make them show you why. At the end, announce the winner, the best single find, the most overpaid item, and one thing each player should have looked for. Save every find to Assist With Buying as an appraised Item with its sourced prices, and the game itself as a note on today's Trip, so the record stands after the argument.
Be fair, be fun, and be honest: a $2 mug with no comps is worth $2.
Leans on: buying_log_appraisal, buying_save_prices, buying_attach_photo, buying_save_note, buying_add_trip_entry, buying_record_outcomeMake it mine
Read this listing and its photos and write the sale up in Assist With Buying: company and sale as Places, dates and hours, house rules, contact, the discount scheme, a room-by-room inventory, what fits me and each person I shop for, and your tag predictions for anything on my list. Put the substance in chat too, with the link.
Leans on: buying_import_sale, buying_create_place, buying_save_place_description, buying_save_items_batch, buying_save_prices, buying_save_trip_stopMake it mine
Sweep the listings for one of my Missions in Assist With Buying: Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Craigslist, OfferUp, Home Depot, Lowe's, Costco, Amazon, or whichever of those fit what I'm after. Open each listing and read it; don't trust the headline.
1. Read the Mission first: its question, criteria and anything I've passed on before.
2. Search my existing Items before you save anything, and correct an Item that is already there instead of making a second one.
3. For every listing you look at seriously, including the ones you reject:
- one Item, linked to the Mission, with the listing's full URL as its source;
- its asking price as a price row (listed, from the listing, with that URL), never only in a note;
- a screenshot of the listing attached to the Item as evidence, so I never have to open the site; a crop to the product can be its main photo;
- a verdict: one sentence saying keep or pass and why. A rejected one is marked ruled out with that one-line reason, so I can see it was checked;
- if it sold to someone else, mark its availability sold elsewhere; if the listing vanished or expired, mark it gone; if it was relisted, change its source URL to the new listing. That is what the market did, so leave the stage as my own verdict.
4. Finish with one short note on the Mission: the verdict in one sentence, then the Items worth my time, one per line. Name the Items; don't paste URLs.
Never message a seller, make an offer, buy anything, or change my settings. Draft any questions for the seller and I'll decide whether to send them. Tell me in chat what you saved, with the links.
Leans on: buying_get_mission_context, buying_search_workspace, buying_save_items_batch, buying_save_prices, buying_attach_photo, buying_save_noteMake it mine
This is my first session with Assist With Buying. Interview me briefly: what I look for and the bar for each thing, who I shop for and what they collect, where I look first at a sale, where I usually shop, how long I like to spend, and how I want you to talk to me versus how thoroughly to work behind the scenes. Save the answers as drafts in my profile for me to confirm, and explain what the site can now do with them.
Leans on: buying_get_brief, buying_get_preferences, buying_propose_preference, buying_save_preference, buying_save_list_itemMake it mine
Work through this with me, step by step, and write each answer down in Assist With Buying as you go.
1. Identify the thing precisely enough that a comparable means something — maker, model, size, era, material. If two similar items differ in a way that changes value, say which way. [save this as: finding]
(Skipping this is why most price research is wrong: the comparables are for a different object.)
2. Find results that actually SOLD, not active listings. Auction results, closed sales, completed listings. Record each one with its date and its source. [save this as: observation]
(An asking price is what someone wants. A sold price is what someone got. Never record one as the other.)
3. Adjust each comparable for condition, completeness and what it would cost to collect it. State the adjustment, don't bury it in the number. [save this as: observation]
4. Note what you could not find out, and what would change the answer if you learned it. [save this as: question]
(An honest gap is more useful than a confident guess.)
5. State a range, not a point. Say how many sold comparables it rests on and over what period. [save this as: decision]
6. Say plainly how confident you are and why. If the evidence is thin, say the evidence is thin. [save this as: decision]
Guardrail: Never present a price as an appraisal. Two sold comparables from four years ago is not a market; say so rather than averaging it into false precision.
Tell me in chat what you saved and give me the direct link. If a step does not apply here, say so and skip it rather than inventing an answer.
Leans on: buying_search_workspace, buying_log_appraisal, buying_save_prices, buying_log_sources, buying_save_complete_resultMake it mine
Work through this with me, step by step, and write each answer down in Assist With Buying as you go.
1. Confirm the listing is still live and the price has not changed since it was saved. Record what you see today with today's date. [save this as: observation]
(Start here. Every later step is wasted if it sold on Tuesday.)
2. Check the stated measurements against the person's actual constraint — the wall, the doorway, the boot of the car. Flag any dimension the listing does not give. [save this as: criterion]
3. Read the photos, not just the description. Note condition the seller has not mentioned: wear, damage, missing parts, signs of repair or replacement. [save this as: finding]
(Photos are evidence; a description is a sales pitch. Where they disagree, trust the photos and say so.)
4. List the questions only the seller can answer, phrased so they can be sent as-is. Keep them few and specific. [save this as: question]
(The person sends these, not you. You never contact a seller.)
5. Give the honest verdict: worth the trip, worth asking first, or not worth it — and the one fact that would flip your answer. [save this as: decision]
Guardrail: Do not message the seller, make an offer, or negotiate. Buying never contacts anyone; you draft the questions and the person decides whether to send them.
Tell me in chat what you saved and give me the direct link. If a step does not apply here, say so and skip it rather than inventing an answer.
Leans on: buying_save_item, buying_save_prices, buying_log_sources, buying_save_decision, buying_save_item_decisionMake it mine