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| Sunday, July 1, 2007 |
Garage Sale America |
Originally published on June 26, 2007.
 
I have to admit that I had never been to a garage sale until I was in 6th grade. That's when friends of my parents were hosting one. They told us they would give us a percentage of the proceeds if we helped them. I was also exposed to the giant rummage sale at church that would last for a few days, because my mom was in charge of it for a couple of years. Other than that though, my experience was pretty limited until I became a parent and didn't want to pay a lot of money for toys. Although I then started frequenting them, I am by no means yard sale savvy. However, I was in charge of my moms group yard sale this past April, and shortly after that Parent Bloggers announced they were looking for people to review Garage Sale America by Bruce Littlefield. Of course I was eager to see what I had done right and what I could have done better.
The first thing I liked about this book is that it's so easy to read. It took me a little over an hour to finish the whole thing. There are tons of photos of great yard sale finds, as well as boxes with tips throughout the book. The author does a great job of describing the art of "yard saling" right down to explaining basic concepts like the difference between a yard sale, garage sale, and a tag sale (I had never heard of the latter until I came to MA and wrongly assumed it was the same thing as a yard sale.) There are also a lot of personal stories from different yard sale goers which which I also enjoyed reading.
The book begins with an introduction followed by Part 1 entitled The Adventure. It describes exactly what a yard sale is and explains why someone would want to go to one or to have one. I have to say that the writing is not only light-hearted, but also pretty humorous. I personally never thought about a yard sale as being neighborly (inviting people to come over to your home/lawn and handle your items). The author also started putting boxes describing particular good finds in specific states of the country during various times of the year. He also wrote about yard sale etiquette, and even covered the impact of eBay on yard sale pricing. I've always wondered if you know that an item goes for, let's say $40, on eBay, do you ask for that amount at the yard sale or do you price your item at $5? The author specifically suggests that you not quote blue book values or eBay prices because yard sales are for bargains. If you're not willing to part with it, don't sell it. You get rid of an item you don't want and get some cash and someone else leaves viewing your piece of junk as a treasure. It's a win-win situation.
He then described going to the world's largest garage sale, which is the annual Warrensburg Garage Sale in upstate New York. It's a two day event spanning 10 miles with over 1000 vendors. Yes, you did read that right. He then discussed his trip to what used to be (but is no longer) the World's Longest Yard Sale which is 450 miles long at US 127. This part is particularly funny as the author related renting a van and setting out with $1,000 in one dollar bills. He included small boxes describing things like how to tell if a Hot Wheels car is valuable. There's lots of tips, stories from other buyers/sellers, hilarious descriptions of yard sale food (who knew food was sold?)and fun facts about things like fishing lures, and Barbies not to mention The Fabulous Mark Eden Breast Developer. There is also a picture of some rusty old chairs that would have been out on the curb in my house faster than you could say "junk", but that were a great find for his friend Bev.
The second part is called Design and describes how he furnished his home with yard sale finds. There are lots of photos showing how he took an item designed for one purpose and used it for something different. This is also known as "repurposing". A particularly memorable example was the barn door that he bought, not surprisingly, at a barn sale and made into a table.
The last part of the book is a month-by-month guide to the "best of the biggest" yard sales followed by a glossary of yard sale terms. Some of them are particularly humorous like when his definition of what food he eats at the big yard sales. FYI, some families take yard sale vacations!
So what exactly is a tag sale, if it's not the same thing as a yard sale?
A. Elliott's Lesson Learned: "...at a traditional tag sale you're actually invited inside the house where you find everything, still in its natural habitat, tagged and ready to move." (p. 47).
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posted by Alex Elliot @ 9:52 PM
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My Profile
| Name: | Alex Elliot |
| Home: | MA, United States |
| About Me: | Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 4 year old and a 1 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe. |
| See my complete profile |
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