‘Give It Up’ yard sale shoppers plot to turn bargains into profits

COLUMBIA, SC – It usually makes sense to spend a few dollars to make a few more.

Thrifty shoppers at the University of South Carolina’s Give It Up for Good yard sale on Saturday looked for cheap finds to fill their own closets and shelves – plenty of T-shirt piles, $20 microwaves, 50-cent hanger bundles and $1-$2 books to satisfy those with sparse homes.

But a number of deal-seekers also were stocking up on items they planned to resell online.

Krista Biernat and her mother, Karen Biernat, came for both reasons. Krista, a 22-year-old who just graduated from USC, was hoping to find some cheap items to stock her new apartment. since she arrived about an hour and a half after the sale began, her findings were little weaker than she’d hoped, just a few odds and ends that included a silverware tray.

Their real find of the day, though, was at the textbook table, where her mother stacked up at least half a dozen books she planned to sell online at www.half.com. As she flipped through books to check their condition, her daughter helped by looking up their selling prices online to find out what kind of profit they could turn.

“Once my kids started going to school, I realized textbooks are very expensive, so I started looking for used ones online,” Karen Biernat said. “And after they’d finish a semester, I’d sell them. ... I can’t believe people leave them (behind). I mean, they’re worth something.”

“Because people are lazy,” her daughter replied.

Each spring, USC’s housing department collects donations from residence halls as students move out for the summer.

Malia McPherson is lucky many people didn’t mind throwing out their used clothes. For $15, she packed a large shopping bag full of clothes that she will later sell on www.vinted.com and www.poshmark.com.

The 22-year-old pays most of her bills by reselling clothes, she said. So while she essentially paid pocket change for each item she found at the sale, she’ll be able to sell them for anywhere from $15 to $20 apiece online.

“I just look for the trendy stuff, like lace or floral, and go to that and just pass on, like, regular tank tops and shirts,” McPherson said.

McPherson has a good eye for thrift shopping, said her sister, 18-year-old Lexy McPherson, who joined her in examining their spoils on a for-sale rug Saturday.

The younger sister apparently had a pretty good eye herself, filling a $20 shopping bag with what she called “stupid T-shirts” with silly printings as well as trendy clothes from Urban Outfitters. She also came away with an *NSYNC “Celebrity” CD (score!), a book to read on a train ride to New Jersey, a woven backpack and sandals – plus a floral dress her sister tossed to her from her own pile.

All of the proceeds from Saturday’s sale went to Habitat for Humanity. Many of the unsold items were destined for the Habitat Restore shop at 2814 Augusta Road in West Columbia.

This story was originally published May 23, 2015 at 8:29 PM.