YARD SALE TIME; CLEAN OUT THE GARAGE, BASEMENT, ATTIC AND MAKE A FEW BUCKS

All the signs of spring are in the air, and all the signs of people cleaning attics, basements, closets and the kids' toy chests are in yards all over town.

It's yard sale time.

It only takes a quick trip through the Southeast Missourian classified section to determine that yard sales are a popular means of getting at least some return on items that would eventually end up in the trash.

In a recent issue of the Missourian, more than 50 garage and yard sale ads appeared. The sales the ads touted ranged from the "Neiman Marcus of Flea Markets" to a multi-family block sale.

During the height of the spring and summer months, more than 100 yard/garage sale ads typically appear in the Missourian each week.

Many yard sales are prompted by homeowners' resolve to rid themselves of unwanted "junk." But yard sales prove that "one person's junk is another person's treasure.

And sometimes, at least, what is unearthed at yard sales is pure treasure.

Take, for example, a pair of charming storybooks about bears. Although the pair of books sold for $15, a high price for most yard sale items, the buyer didn't hesitate to consummate the sale.

Turns out the books were part of "The Roosevelt Bears" series, created in 1905 by Seymour Eaton.

Months later, the buyer discovered he had made a "once-in-a- yard-sale-lifetime" deal. The books are valued at $300 each, and according to a rare book dealer in Memphis, Tenn., would sell with one quick phone call to a collector.

For the yard sale merchant, a lack of research resulted in a $600 mistake.

But that's still not as bad as the Massachusetts woman who last spring sold a $50,000 vase at yard sale.

The vase, marked "Rockwood" on its bottom, was sold for $100.

The mistake she made could happen to anyone, writes Tony Hyman, author of seven books on turning "trash into treasure."

Few people would recognize what the vase was and how much it was worth, but the purchaser eventually took it to the Cincinnati Art Gallery, where pottery curator Riley Humler recognized its value, and engineered its five-figure sale.

Humler, writes Hyman in his latest "Trash to Treasure" book, has made other big-buck payments to yard-sale buyers, including $29,000 for two vases bought for $60 at a spring 1994 yard sale in Ohio.

It's sad that people who originally owned those vases got a tiny fraction of their value, writes Hyman. The people could have sought out someone like Humler, or other expert help.

Vases and glass are not the only items sought by collectors, Hyman points out in his books. If you search hard enough, someone somewhere wants to buy everything from stuffed aardvarks to zeppelin parts, noted Hyman, whose books can help identify and put values on old toys, books, oil paintings, Army and Navy memorabilia, and 2,000 other categories of collectibles.

It's amazing what people are collecting and buying, "more than one billion items in all," writes Hyman in the book.

Many followers of yard sales look for "first-time" sale events, hoping to acquire some overlooked prizes like the Roosevelt Bears books, vases, or early sports magazines.

"Sports Illustrated" magazine, which hit the market in 1954, observed its 40th anniversary last year and has become a collectible item. "The SI magazine is one of the fastest-growing niches in the sports memorabilia hobby," say Steve Prothero and Phil Regli, authors of a "Collectors' Guide to Sports Illustrated." The covers illustrate many of the greatest moments in American sports history.

During a recent yard sale, a copy of the number two issue of SI was purchased for a dollar...a great buy for the purchaser, a $400 yard sale mistake for the seller.

Like Hyman's "Trash to Treasures," the SI guide lists a number of purchasers of the magazine.

Diana Rix and Monica Rix-Paxson, who have spent years researching garage sales as a serious business, discuss yard sales in their new book, "The Complete Garage Sale Kit."

There are tons of garage sales every weekend, say the sisters. Some are big hits, others fail. Following research into what it takes to have a successful yard sale, "The Complete Garage Sale Kit" was written.

Rix and Paxson offer suggestions on how to start a garage sale, what kind of items to sell and, most importantly, how to make the most money possible.

Among the tips offered: Plan the sale date two to three weeks in advance, invite everyone you know, runs classified ads the day before the sale and the day of the sale, and place signs with direction arrows within six blocks of the home if city ordinances permit it. Secondhand items for sale should be priced to sell at 20 to 30 percent of their replacement value, say the sisters.

And if a yard sale entrepreneur finds an item of undetermined value, it may pay to hold it back until the value is determined.

Books and where to obtain them:

"The Complete Garage Sale Kit," by Diana Rix and Monica Rix-Paxson, paperback, 112 pages, $7.95, call (708) 961-3900.

"Trash or Treasure," by Tony Hyman, 476 pages, $29.95, includes shipping, (800) 549-7500.

"Collectors' Guide to Sports Illustrated," by Steve Prothero and Phil Regli, paperback, 152 pages, $12.95, P & R Publications, P. O. Box 26596, Las Vegas, Nev., 89126-0596.