Throwing a successful tag sale is an art, and getting the best buys as a shopper has its own artful techniques.

Who hasn't spent an early Saturday morning after Memorial Day lining up tables of items for sale? Old trunks are emptied. The attic is scoured. And the garage is emptied of all those tools you never use and the sporting gear the kids have lost interest in.

But how do you get the most money for those items that were precious once but are now just old and in the way? Or how do you clear out the items you don't want to pack up and take with you when you sell the house and retire south?

Lisa Hida, of New Milford, has some tips. She and her best friend threw a sale early in July and made $600 between them.

"I'm not one of those organizational gurus who's written a book," Hida said. "I'm just an ordinary working gal who once every five years realizes there's a bunch of stuff in her house that needs to go."

Hida attributes much of her and her friend's success to doing the proper advertising and putting up the right signs. For $30, they got both print and online ads in The News-Times and The Spectrum. They also posted on Craig's List and "What a difference a good sign makes," Hida said. "My friend made some great signs. You were able to read the street names on them. You'd be surprised how many signs make this the smallest part and unreadable. Then my husband put them up at the cross streets to our house."

Renting tables for "good organization and presentation" cost $27. Hida and her friend rented three 8-foot tables from HH Taylor &amp; Son in New Milford. They were organized based on various categories: neatly folded clothing, jewelry, and household items on one; collectibles and CDs on another; and a $1 table.

Bins holding office supplies, framed prints and beauty products like hot rollers, were put in front of each table. Some folks are willing to poke around, others like things organized and easy to view, she said.

"Save your grocery bags," Hida said. "We would have made even more money if we hadn't run out of plastic grocery bags around noon."

Be cordial, welcoming buyers, and don't hesitate to share a story about an item, she said.

"The story of how I bought that print in a little town in Switzerland called Bern" was a sure-fire selling tool, Hida said.

For Chris Parkhurst, 23, of Brookfield, tag sale shopping is the way to go. Parkhurst is a recent Western Connecticut State University graduate with a degree in psychology. He lives with two other recent grads.

"We're on a very slim budget in a job market that doesn't seem to be hiring," Parkhurst said. "A dollar might not go far these days, but at a tag sale you can still get something good for a buck."

Parkhurst takes "a stack of 15 to 20 singles" with him when he goes for a day of tag sale shopping, and when he's spent them, he's done for the day.

On a Saturday in mid-July, he was looking for a beach chair, a cooler, a sun hat and a beach umbrella for a trip he was planning to the coast.

"There are two types of people holding sales: those who are unloading everything, and those trying to get the most money they can for old items. I stay away from the latter," he said.

Parkhurst had a cheery attitude as he arrived at sales. He always offered low, seldom above $1. If the seller balked at that, Parkhurst would bump the offer up 50 cents. He never went above $3, which he paid for a large cooler in very good condition.

He would walk away if the sale wasn't going through at the price he offered. That will often make the seller agree to the lower price, he said.

He got the beach chair for $1.50 and a sun visor for $1.

"You have to figure out who you're talking to," Parkhurst said. "If it's the wife in a nasty divorce where they're divvying up the goods, she'll be glad to sell her husband's things at any price she can get.

"If it's a guy who's parting with his toys because his wife wants them out of the garage, the buy could be tougher, but not much harder. She wants them out."

While Parkhurst had specific items he was looking for, his eye was always out for a bargain, too.

At one Danbury tag sale, he saw a flat-bottom boat tagged for $300. He carefully studied it with the seller and offered $100. The seller balked, saying he couldn't sell that low. He'd had the boat out on the lawn for several weeks and had already lowered the price a couple of times.

Parkhurst told the seller he'd be back at the end of day and would give him $100 for the boat if he still had it.

"He divulged that he was trying hard to get rid of the boat," Parkhurst said. "He offered to sell it with the cushioned seats and oars thrown in. At $300, he's dreaming in this economy. I'll call Monday and see if he still has it and offer him $100 again."

While many shoppers hit the tag sales early, Parkhurst aims for 11 a.m. By then, the sellers have lost a few sales and are feeling that they're not going to make much on the sale overall. They are more willing to negotiate down on prices, he said.

"I see a lot of the same people in their 40s and 50s going to the sales all the time. The recession has everyone looking for deals," Parkhurst said.

"If you need a specific item, don't call ahead if there's a number listed with the sale's ad. Go there casually, with your poker face on, and offer lower than they're asking when you find what you're after."