Build a rapport! Say, "hello" and make eye contact, comment on the sale or the house, ask questions, but expect you may find them too busy to talk for long. If they remember you at check out they may haggle based on your general attitude while in their "store." Treat them as you would like to be treated.
I like it when they ask me what I'm looking for - even if i am not sure. Conversation builds trust, trust build relationships.
The trick I use in hunting is to not looking for anything in particular, because you don't want to limit your focus or attention to a single thing. I am trying to look with such objectivity that I won't miss that which is disguised by it's surroundings.
In the purest sense I am not looking for what is for sale I am trying to look at everything, in the hopes that, should I see something I want, it will be for sale. Sometimes there's so much clutter, if there's a gem in there my brain can't sort through it all with out missing something. I often need to make numerous passes in order to see it all. I also need to look in less than obvious places.
The little can opener you see in the picture was this kind of find. It wasn't laid out on a table with a price tag tied to a string through the hole. No, this was found on an old piece of property inside a barn. You've seen these sales. they open up the house, barns, and sheds and let the hunters and diggers "have at it!" I scoured through this barn

Stanley Steamer?! That put this piece around 1917.
If you have read this blog before you know I save something for dramatic purposes. Upon turning the opener over I got a better surprise. Look at that phone number: Ask the operator for 137 and ring it 4 times.

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