Garmin Nuvi-GPS Garage Sale Navigation

Garage Sales Organized by GPS

Using a GPS navigational system to find garage sales may seem a bit extreme to some - but I say - why not? GPS navigation leads us to coffee shops, shopping malls, restaurants and hundreds of other points of interest (POI). Bargains are every bit as important as most any other destination.

Sales - Sales - Sales

Bargain hunting is addictive. Garage Sales, Yard Sales, Estate Sales all require skill to search out the best items and to acquire them at the best prices. Many obstacles stand in the way however. Bad signs posted in inconvenient locations, lack of good parking spots and even those dreaded early birds.

Decisions - Decisions - Decisions

Garage sales are posted in areas that will be noticed. Telephone poles, street corners, intersections, and on boxes weighted down with rocks. Newspapers, newsletters and websites advertise one man's trash as someone else's treasure. Some offer hints of what you may find and others just tell you the address and the day.

There are always more garage sales than time to shop at them. It is very important to "hit" the right ones. It is amazing what some garage sale shoppers will do in order to extract the important information from a sign. Once all addresses are assembled the next task is organizing them.

Stop 1 - Stop 2 - Stop 3 ... Stop 10

Any GPS navigational system can route you to a particular address. Any GPS navigational system can provide you with multiple choices of how to get to a particular address. This feature alone could be a bargain hunters dream.

Imagine how handy it would be to have a detailed and organized route to up to 10 garage sales. Garmin offers several GPS units with this feature plus some. They are the Garmin Nuvi 710, Nuvi 750, Nuvi 760, Nuvi 770, Nuvi 780, Nuvi 850, Nuvi 880 and the Nuvi 5000.

TomTom also offers GPS units with some handy garage sale features. One of my favorites is the Map Share feature. New neighborhoods are very difficult to navigate even with some GPS units. The streets are so new that many GPS maps have not been updated to include them. TomTom users work together by adding new streets to the GPS maps that are then shared by any user that wants to update their own maps.

Garmin plans to offer the Nuvifhone. Just as the name suggests, this mobile phone will offer some pretty handy GPS navigational features.

The new Apple 3G iPhone will also offer built in GPS navigation. With the iPhone's A-GPS (assisted GPS) you could navigate even faster than with your stand alone GPS unit. It finds the closet satellite which cuts the time to find your location. Once you know your location you can use the iPhone to follow your progress on Google Maps.

The Magellan Maestro 3140 offers the ability to add 20 individual addresses and then choose how to route to them.

Change Directions on a Dime

Whether you use a Garmin, a TomTom, a Nuvifone, an iPhone, a Smartphone with a GPS subscription, a Magellan or any of the many GPS navigational units you should not get lost. Automatic re-routing can be done instantly. Once you detour from your route the GPS will tell you how to get back on it.

After all, you may see a new garage sale sign along the way. Go ahead, stop-shop and get back on the road. There are so many bargains and so little time.