The methodology post explains what the Sale Score reads. This one is about the driveway: how to triage a real weekend board by score bands, when to break the ranking, and the traps that make a high score lie to you. The bands below use this weekend's actual board — 1,375 scored sales for October 30 – November 1 — so you can see how rare each band really is.
The bands, calibrated on a real weekend
- 90–100: the shortlist (71 sales, ~5%). Deep published photos, broad named categories, a schedulable sale. These anchor the route — you plan the day around getting to your top one or two first. The median 90+ sale this weekend published 393 photos; at that depth you can pre-shop the house from your couch and walk in with a list.
- 80–89: the strong second stop (232 sales, ~17%). Real inventory with one soft signal — fewer photos, a narrower category spread, or a shorter window. Most good weekends are built here: one 90+ anchor plus two 80s that sit on the same side of town will beat three 90s scattered across three counties.
- 70–79: route filler (294 sales, ~21%). Worth a stop when it's on the way, not worth a dedicated drive. Check the listing for your specific category — a 74 that names your category beats an 88 that doesn't.
- Under 70: skip by default (778 sales, ~57%). Thin listings, thin signals. The exception that proves the rule: a low score measures the listing, not the house. A seller who posts six photos of a packed garage scores low and can still pay. If it's near your route and free to check, look — just don't build the day on it.
Tiebreakers the score doesn't settle
Distance beats points. A 92 across town at 9 AM and an 84 ten minutes away is not a hard call: the 84, first, while the 92's line is still forming — or the 92 becomes your second stop after its opening crowd thins. Score ranks the sale; geography ranks your morning.
Day position changes the math. A multi-day sale scoring 85 on its first morning is a full-price, full-selection stop. The same sale on its final day is a discount stop — lower effective competition for what's left. First day vs. discount day is a strategy choice, not a ranking.
Your categories override the band. The score reads breadth. A specialist sale — all tools, all vinyl, all vintage clothing — can score mid-80s on breadth while being a 100 for the one picker who hunts that category. Read the category tags before you demote it.
The three traps
- The appointment-only 90. A high score with a booking requirement is not a 9 AM walk-in. If the listing says by appointment, the score is telling you about the house, not your access — book it or drop it, but don't put it first on a driving route.
- The single-window sale. A four-hour sale scoring 88 is a commitment, not a stop: miss the window and it's gone. Sequence it first or accept losing it.
- Treating the score as a price signal. It never is. Estate prices are set in the house, on the day, and the score reads none of them. A 96 can be priced at retail by a hard-nosed company; a 68 can be priced to empty the house by lunch. The score gets you to the right driveway early — the tags decide the rest.
Yard scores are not estate scores
One calibration the board forces on you: the same 0–100 scale runs over very different evidence. An estate score is computed from a structured company listing — published photo totals, named categories, stated hours. A yard score is computed from a homeowner's free-form posting: multi-family or multi-household signals, the length of the selling window, any categories the posting names. Yard postings don't publish photo totals at all — this weekend's board carries yard and garage sales at score 100 with zero photos counted, because the score there is reading "huge multi-family, all weekend" out of the text, not counting pictures.
So don't cross-compare. A 90 estate sale is a verified deep house. A 90 yard sale is a promising paragraph. Both are worth your Saturday, but they deserve different confidence — drive to the estate 90 on the listing's word, and treat the yard 90 as a strong tip you verify with your eyes in the first two minutes. Within each kind, the ranking is apples-to-apples; across kinds, it's a shared scale over different evidence, and the honest picker reads them that way.
This also explains why yard scores cluster differently. Estate listings come from professionals with a format, so their scores spread smoothly. Yard postings come from everyone, so the band fills with thin one-line postings at the bottom and a few unmistakable blowouts at the top — with less middle. When your local yard board shows a 60 on top, that's not a broken board; that's a quiet week's honest shape, and the right move is to weight the estate side of the route and let the yard stops be bonuses on the way.
A worked triage, in five minutes
Thursday night, report open. Sort by score. Star every 90+ within your radius — there will be a handful, not a flood. Add the 80s that cluster near them on the map. Check each starred listing for the traps: appointment? single window? your categories named? Then sequence by geography and opening time, not by score order — score decided which sales; the map decides the order. Friday, re-check: scores recompute as companies add photos and release addresses, so Thursday's 84 can be Friday's 91. That recompute is a feature — the board sharpens as the weekend approaches, and your route should sharpen with it.
The one-sentence version
Anchor on the 90s, build with the 80s, fill with 70s on the way, skip under-70s without a reason — and let distance, day position, and your categories overrule the number whenever they speak up.