Unearthing Treasures: Insights from the Garage Sale Millionaire

Keith Haney: 00:00:58

My guest today, the garage sale millionaire, Aaron Lapettis is an award winning author, collector, speaker and radio host based in Denver, Colorado. Aaron is considered one of the world's great collectors and treasure hunters.

He's often called upon by FBI because of his expertise in various fields. We welcome Aaron to the podcast. Well, Aaron, welcome to the podcast. How you doing today, my friend?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:01:23

I'm doing wonderful. Thank you for having me on today.

Keith Haney: 00:01:26

I'm so glad to talk to you. I don't do garage sales, but I actually, my wife does and forcing me to come along with her.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:01:31

So I'm going. You're going to be a convert. I'm going to. You're going to, after this phone call, you're going to run to the local garage sale and make a lot.

Keith Haney: 00:01:41

Well, that's possible because I've seen people go to garage sales and find Rolexes. So I'm keep looking for that garage sale.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:01:48

I'm looking for that garage sale too.

Keith Haney: 00:01:51

This is my dad's old watch and it's like, I don't like it anymore. Like, I'll take it. $2, right?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:01:57

Yeah, $2.

Keith Haney: 00:01:59

So, Aaron, I love to ask my guests this question. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:02:06

You know, it's, it's interesting that somebody once told me on my way of moving up the financial food chain that you don't understand money until you lose it all. And I would have to tell you, and I told this person then I guess I'll never understand money.

And he goes, you know, Aaron, I'm pretty sure you're going to understand money real well. But you have to understand a hard charger like you always gets brought down a notch or two. And, and I forgot about what he told me.

And then came the recession in 28 and 9. And I have to tell you, Keith, that I got humbled. I was worth, oh, I, I don't know, I was probably worth like $3 million then.

And I became, I had during that my gallery was getting ready to go under all my investment homes. The notes were called in and I was $4 million in debt.

Keith Haney: 00:03:26

Wow.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:03:27

And I had no lifelines. I did not have a family that could give me money. I actually canceled my life insurance policy.

So if I would have died, my family would have been responsible for everything. And that was a humbling experience. It was on blue experience because the stress I brought on to myself was enough to kill a person.

And it did almost kill me. I had a major heart attack in January 5th of 09. It was called, the nickname of it is the Widowmaker. And I was 99, blocked.

And as a doctor, you probably know a little bit of that to understand what we're going with. And the stress was too much for me and I did almost die and I would have left my family in peril.

And I was able to get out of the hospital a day early because I felt that if that heart attack couldn't kill me, nothing could. And I was going to turn everything back around. And I did with a vengeance. And I think that is the thing about most people don't understand money.

There is a bigger, deep, deeper meaning of realizing that money can buy things and get you the good life. There is a, there's a transformation of what money can do.

And if you don't understand it, it will bowl you over and you'll be just the person making a couple dollars an hour at the local restaurant.

Keith Haney: 00:05:10

I love that. You know, that's a fascinating story. I'm also curious.

People like yourself, entrepreneurs, people who are go getters, did you have people in your life who were mentors for you along your journey?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:05:23

I had one, that person who told me that and he would give me snippets of information and I didn't have as. I wish I would have went and sought after more because there were people that wanted to help me along the way.

But I was this young buck who thought he knew it all and I was pretty cocky and, and I was, I was that person with a vanity license plate. And Aaron won. And I'll never forget in my 20s and I was. Nobody could tell me anything different because I was so successful early in life.

My, my book how to Become the Garage Sale Millionaire was a follow up to the Garage Sale Millionaire. And that story, Doctor, is all about how I made it. And then it teaches people how they can make it too.

And in the early 20s, my biggest claim to fame is I was a millionaire by 20, I think 22 or 23. And.

And I did it by having my first garage sale at 9 and then garage sale after garage sale and then investing in coins and baseball cards and anything that had value.

And so being so successful early in life and you know, there's so many of these influencers out there and people that money and crypto millionaires, that money is coming quick, they do not understand money and they think money will always come to them until they lose it all. And they always say, well, if I lose it all, it'll be easy to get back. It doesn't work like that. It doesn't work like that.

So I wish I had more mentors. I had a group of people, older people, that encouraged me to give back to the community because they saw what was going on with me and.

And I think saw I had a good heart. And that did help me.

That did mentor me in the value of community, and that helped me make my gallery larger and bigger and stronger because people saw that I was giving back to the community and. And they wanted to buy from me. So in that regard, yes. But I came out about it in a different way than most.

Keith Haney: 00:07:53

I love that. So let's get into your early years. What sparked you to interest in collecting and treasure hunting? And how did you get started in this field?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:08:04

I think I would have to give that credit to my grandfather. When he passed away, we came over to my grandmother's house and we were kind of. Kind of strange, but everybody. The gram.

My grandmother was splitting up everything of his with the two. His. Her two daughters and two grandkids, me and my. My cousin. And. And we all got a choice of picking one thing right away. What was our favorite thing?

And my cousin went for jewelry. You know, sparkly, glittery things. And I went with an autograph photo of Thomas Edison. Oh, autograph.

My father was part of this science club that he oversaw. And it's funny that people like you and I have a connection that far back to people because it makes us feel older.

Keith Haney: 00:09:14

Right.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:09:14

But. But Thomas Edison. And it was. I saw it, and for some reason, it triggered something into. In me that I thought this was important.

I didn't know value back then because I was 8 or 9, but I knew the. At least the. Understood the importance of what I had holding in my hand. And that triggered a domino effect of understanding collectibles and values.

Matter of fact, I have that photo, that sign photo of Edison still in my collection. And I proudly took a picture of it and put it in my book.

So it starts somewhere, Keith and I, and with anything that people do as a side hustle, a job, a hobby, it has to start with one thing. And that was the one thing that started my career in collecting.

Keith Haney: 00:10:15

I love that. So what led you to write the book, the Garage Z a Millionaire?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:10:19

I always thought I had a. I always thought I had a book in me, and it took many years. Actually, during the recession, I was pitching a book called 101 Ways to Collect. And.

And I have to tell you, I pitched it to a lot of literary agents and publishers, and all I got was crickets. And as A matter of fact, I had some people took some time to write me back some letters.

And remember this is when my gallery was tanking and the recession on the houses. So I was pretty fragile at the time.

And I had somebody tell me, a literary agent tell me, took the time to write a letter back to me and said, I read your book. And I have to say those are the two and a half hours I will never get back. And I'm so angry at you for taking them away from me.

Keith Haney: 00:11:24

So he wasn't impressed.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:11:26

Not impressed at all. Not impressed at all. And it was hurtful, but it made me tweak the book. I, I basically rewrote it because it wasn't something that I was an expert in.

I'm not an, I wasn't an expert back then in collectibles. I'm an expert in how to make money. And I have to tell you, doctor, that I did not see it sometimes.

The forest for the trees, you know, everybody hears that analogy and you don't really know what it means until you have it happen to you.

What I'm an expert in is the hustle, going after it, finding a way to make it happen and put money in my pocket and doing it better than anybody else can do it. And that's what the book was about. And I realized it very soon after my heart attack.

And I realized what the name of the book was because it, what it was going to be about me and what I was, was a garage sale millionaire. And so I changed the name and changed the way the whole book was written.

So only a little bit about how I did it, but how everybody can do it and making sure people didn't know, think that this was a get rich quick scheme because it's not you. Whatever you put in is what you're going to get back.

I'm pretty sure that I could teach you in four or five hours, tell you to go to garage sales over the weekend, have you bring $250. I guarantee you I could triple it because that's how good I am. And it does not take.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist because I am not like to think I am. I may have some friends that are, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't rub off on you. So that's, that's what I believe and that's what the book's about.

Keith Haney: 00:13:34

So for people who are listening, who love to go to garage sales, is there some tips that you would have when you do garage sailing for, for collectibles versus I'm doing it because I need a couch for my living room.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:13:48

Yes, yeah, definitely. There is two different approaches and I think that's very important. A couch for your living room.

I would tell you to go to Facebook Marketplace next door. Marketplace or Craigslist. And that's the best place to sell big items. You, you would never sell anything big like that on ebay. Collectibles.

You need to do ebay. That is the best place to do it. And you would go on to ebay.

Say you're looking, you just bought something really cool or you're getting ready to buy something that you saw in a garage sale. Well then I would tell you, Keith, to go to this, the left hand side of ebay. There's an area called completed auctions.

And then you're going to really see what that item is worth. And so if that pocket watch that they're saying they're going to give it to you for three, four dollars, you're thinking about buying it.

You're going to go to the completed auctions, you're going to find guaranteed that exact watch in completed auctions. And it's the completed auctions that happened in the last 90 days.

may say that Watch is worth $: 1000

And so that would be the quick thing that I would tell you to do and then I would have you do a reverse image search on it, which is amazing with AI these days on ebay you can do it just on your phone, you can upload a Google image reverse search and find out other things if you are having trouble finding out what that is to find out more about it. So because we have the power of our phones in the grip of our hands, we can be so much more proficient on making money.

Keith Haney: 00:15:52

So I love this line of questioning. So what are the common mistakes people make when they're looking to buy or sell collectibles?

I know I used to go on Saturday night, I'd watch PBS and I watched the road show to go, oh, I can go do this too. I can bring in my baseball cards, but my baseball card is Chris Sabo and it's not worth a whole lot versus somebody who has other stuff.

What are some tips you have for us about common misconceptions.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:16:23

That when people find baseball cards, say you found a box, a big cardboard Box of a thousand baseball cards. And they're saying, oh, there's 1,000 in here. I want 100 bucks. And you're seeing a thousand. There may be 2,000.

The misconception is that it's worth $100. It may not even be worth $10. And that's because most baseball cards aren't worth more than a couple sets. And.

And if they're in a cardboard box, that means those baseball cards are. Have been open to the elements because cardboard boxes are very acidic, and so is a baseball card.

So you put those two things together, you've just aged that baseball cards. You accelerated that age of that baseball cards by 300%.

So what I always advise is if you're really good at baseball cards, you've studied baseball cards, you know what to look for. You're looking for a rookie Tom Brady. You're looking for a rookie LeBron James. You're looking for these.

These cards, and you know where to find them, the years that they came out.

So if you're looking at a whole bunch of cards, usually they're staged in a certain amount, a year frame, and if it's the year frame is between 86 and 90. Well, LeBron James. You're not going to find a rookie card of LeBron James.

But then you're thinking about what else, who else came out during that era, a Larry Bird or something like that, Then that's maybe who you.

You have to constantly think what could be in this batch of cards, but never think that you're going to find that one card, because usually you have to go through thousands of cards. And I have bought a collection that. That had a Tom Brady rookie, that had a Tom. That had a LeBron James rookie.

But I went through almost a half a million cards to find that.

Keith Haney: 00:18:27

Wow. So it does go back to putting the work in. You're not just going to. Chances are you just looking up on it are probably not real high.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:18:34

Yeah, you need to do the. The Kobe way of doing things. Just working all the time. Being that great, great player, being that great collector, you got to do it.

You got to know more than everybody else.

Keith Haney: 00:18:49

So we live in an age of what I call deep fakes. So how do you identify things that are fakes or replicas that you think you're buying your original?

How do I help people identify things that are really, truly authentic?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:19:06

You know, I don't. Everybody talks about deepfakes now, but what people don't understand, that this has been going on for years. 70% of autographs are fakes.

And doctor, I don't know if you know my background, but I. I've been brought in by the FBI.

Keith Haney: 00:19:24

Yeah.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:19:25

And so what? And it got so bad that if it wasn't like a multi, multi million dollar scam, FBI wouldn't touch it. Why? Because there's so many of them.

There's so many fakes out there that they don't have the time. They don't have the time. I brought them huge, where they set up warehouses of just making Mickey Mantle fake signed autographs. I proved it.

Because to have them take on it on a project like this is huge. And me and, and my handler with the FBI pushed it and it was not big enough. No lives were being lost. So it is sad.

You know, it was on 60 Minutes about 10 years ago, about the amount of fakes out there. And if you find an autograph, anything at a garage sale, I got to tell you, good chance it is fake.

And the only way to tell is to turn it into PSA DNA. James Spence, Authentic. There's Beckett. There's several places to go to, whether it's baseball cards or coins or autographs.

And basically it's a third party authenticator. And if they say it's real, it's. You're good. If they say it's not, there's no way to sell it.

And why did I mention different places like Beckett and different organizations will look at baseball cards? Believe it or not, there are fake baseball cards and. Keith, are you getting ready for me to blow your mind right now?

Keith Haney: 00:21:19

Yeah, please.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:21:20

I'm going to blow your mind. Can you believe it? You can even fake a coin.

Keith Haney: 00:21:25

Oh, my goodness.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:21:27

And, and people say, I don't understand. So somebody's minting fake coins? Not to that extent, but I could take a penny, change the mint mark, and make it from.

Making it worth from a dollar to $3,000 by changing the mint mark, by opening up, making it just like the S, making it turn it into an O or from. Or the O, which is Philadelphia. D is Denver. You know, changing things. That the mint mark or the, the year and that. And it's very.

It's a very intricate soda soldered iron. And they just change it and the value can escalate. And somebody that is not looking just bought a fake coin.

And the only way you can do it is have a 33 third party authenticator analyze it for you.

Keith Haney: 00:22:28

Wow. So I gotta, I gotta go have my, my book signed by Gordy Howe.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:22:32

Authenticated, you know, and I will tell you, I Don't know how we're doing on time. But, Keith, very quickly, I bought a lot of autographs these in my life. And the line is, the story doesn't mean anything if the item is fake.

Keith Haney: 00:22:50

Right.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:22:50

And everybody says that. That's obvious. Well, it's not obvious to a lot of people because I had somebody come in and say they watched Walt Disney sign an animation cell.

And they brought it into me and they looked at. And I go, I gotta check the signature. And they go, oh, you don't need to check it. I watched Walt Disney sign it. And I go, okay, well, you're old.

And maybe you did, but I still have to check it.

Keith Haney: 00:23:23

Right?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:23:24

And I did. And what it was the signature matched up to one of his secretaries.

Keith Haney: 00:23:29

Oh, my.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:23:30

Everybody says, how would you know the secretary? Well, I actually knew which secretary it was because the secretaries and assistants were known to sign his name because he didn't have any time.

And a lot of times everybody liked to think Walt Disney was on premise all the time. So I brought it back to this person. I said, that's not Walt's signature. It actually happens to be one of his lead secretaries. And.

And they were all mystified. And I go, you didn't actually watch Walt sign this, did you? And they. They eventually admit it. No, they didn't. They handed it to a secretary.

The secretary said, give me a couple of minutes. He's in his office. He's real busy. And, you know, half an hour later, boom, it gets signed.

Keith Haney: 00:24:17

Right.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:24:18

So the. The story is not. Doesn't make anything real unless it's really real.

Keith Haney: 00:24:24

Wow, that's amazing. So I'm. I'm curious. What are you focusing on today? And as you think about. Let me maybe, you know, the history of. Or the. Where collecting is today.

What would you see the future of collecting today?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:24:39

Great. Great. I think collecting today, I think it's changed a lot because people that make these collectibles are making so many of them. Like Beanie Babies.

Good example. Beanie Babies. Beanie Babies are worthless. And there was the huge craze of Beanie Babies. But now you can't give them away.

At one time, records were a great collectible. Then it was. Nobody wanted them. And now they're a great collectible again because everybody. Nothing sounds better than a piece of beautiful vinyl on.

On a record player. It's the true purity of music. And so some collectibles do come back into the spotlight, but you have the.

The collectibles like the classic business, baseball cards, coins, certain collectibles will never stop being collectible. But you just have to find that and make sure whatever you're buying into is not a fad. Because there are a lot of fast like Pokemon cards.

It's gone in and out of fad for a long time, but it won't go away. My son loves Pokemon cards. They are worth a lot of money, even though they're making millions and millions of them.

But that fad doesn't seem like it's going away.

But you just got to be careful that when you hop into a collectible, a new collectible, that you're doing it eyes wide open and you don't start buying into this fad that's going to explode a year later.

Keith Haney: 00:26:24

Wow, that's amazing. I'm curious, you tell us about your philanthropy work that you do and how you give back to the community.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:26:32

Yes. So my son is on the spectrum of autism. He is really very barely on the spectrum, but he still is and he's adhd. So I choose to help out.

Any charity that helps out. Autism is what I find important. It's what I believe that a lot of people in America do not understand that 1 in 48 kids are on the spectrum.

It is becoming an epidemic. A lot of people cannot afford all the counseling and the medicine that goes with having a child on the spectrum.

And they're going to have a kid that is going to be not an asset to the community, but a child that will have to be taken care of the rest of its life. So I believe that since this does affect me, I'm more blessed than others because my son is amazing. He's going to have a full time job this summer.

He is on the dean's list at school. He will go to college. So it's, it impacts him very little. But a lot of kids, they can't speak. They have to have 24 hour care.

And so I choose to help out organizations that help out the autism community.

Keith Haney: 00:27:57

That's really neat. That's so important to give back like that.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:28:02

I believe too, you know, doctor, this is, we're on this big blue ball for a short period of time and I think this is the only way people like you and I can make our mark in society is to try to give back that we're so blessed.

Keith Haney: 00:28:19

I love that. This is my other favorite question from my guests. What do you want your legacy to be?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:28:27

You know, my legacy is my son. And I want my son to be as successful or more than I am. And I truly believe that he will Change the world along with a lot of other young people.

And I hope that the world gives people like my son a chance. And that is how I see that if I've done something and my son turns out to be this great, great gentleman, then I've succeeded in life.

Keith Haney: 00:29:03

That's neat. I love that. As we wrap up this conversation, what key takeaways do you want to leave with the audience about our conversation?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:29:11

Well, Reverend and I, this is the first time I called you that because you're a reverend, you're a doctor. All I know is you're some like NBA superstar on the side too, that you don't have enough room on your title to include that.

Keith Haney: 00:29:26

That's true.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:29:27

You know, you're humble, I'm humble.

Keith Haney: 00:29:30

That's right.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:29:34

I think when people, I, I hope people look at my book because, you know, times, the economy is becoming quite difficult and when they're searching for something to do, I think finding something that they can do in their spare time, a great side hustle like going to garage sales, estate sales, looking on ebay, flipping things on ebay that they, you know, choose to read my book and take it for what it's offered at as a way to make extra money during these hard times. And I think they'll find a huge value and a lot of fun to do it too.

Keith Haney: 00:30:11

Where can I find your book and connect with you on social media?

Aaron LaPedis: 00:30:15

So how to become the Garage Sale Millionaire they can find on Amazon.com they can go to the garage on the my URL is www.the garage sale millionaire. They can buy it there.

They can even go to ebay and search me up the Garage Sale Millionaire to see how I buy and sell things so they can get a taste of it and learn from my descriptions and everything I think is valuable. So those are the way I have a Facebook account and an Instagram account, so all under the moniker the Garage Sale Millionaire.

Keith Haney: 00:30:49

Well, Aaron, thanks so much for taking time and providing such great content and I really enjoyed this conversation. I'd love to have you back on again and dig deeper with some more stuff.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:30:58

Well, I appreciate you having me on and anytime, but the next time you have me on, I want you to tell me stories of what you've bought at your next garage sale.

Keith Haney: 00:31:08

I will do that because I, I'm inspired now to go out and find some garage sale deals.

Aaron LaPedis: 00:31:14

Okay. Thanks a lot for having me on.

Keith Haney: 00:31:16

Thanks, Aaron.