Garage Sale Drought

[ralph7]

A large part of my adult life has been spent looking for that elusive trinket at neighborhood garage sales.
I have spent many a happy Saturday morning perusing about a 5 mile radius of several subdivisions near me
hitting garage and estate sales. I would survey the goods from the street and if pickins were slim or not to my
liking, I would proceed to the next one, as the early bird gets the worm.
Since shortly after the pandemic, this has come to a screeching halt. I don't know why and if you had told me that
this was going to happen, I wouldn't have believed you, but here it is.
For example, last Saturday, I hit just one paltry garage sale. Three years ago there would have been 30 or more.

For those of you that go, is it just here, or is it nation wide?

 

[pharmer]

Most folks put their trash up for sale around here, cheaper to have you haul it off than paying $65/ton at the dump. I don't have my "scavenger crew" any more, most got too old to put in the footwork. Guns don't ever appear any more and if they do folks want a years' tuition to Yale for em. Joe

 

[VM]

A large part of my adult life has been spent looking for that elusive trinket at neighborhood garage sales.
I have spent many a happy Saturday morning perusing about a 5 mile radius of several subdivisions near me
hitting garage and estate sales. I would survey the goods from the street and if pickins were slim or not to my
liking, I would proceed to the next one, as the early bird gets the worm.
Since shortly after the pandemic, this has come to a screeching halt. I don't know why and if you had told me that
this was going to happen, I wouldn't have believed you, but here it is.
For example, last Saturday, I hit just one paltry garage sale. Three years ago there would have been 30 or more.

For those of you that go, is it just here, or is it nation wide?

Ralph, I'm sorry but we have had a ton of great garage sales in past four years here in N. Indiana.
Wife and I enjoy doing them every weekend.
We collect a lot.. I even found three pair of S&W grips this summer at one sale.
This is my best find just a month ago …. Before and after pics

 

[LVSteve]

Quite a lot of planned communities these days only allow two garage sale weekends a year. That tends to cut down on sales.

Quite honestly, people are wound way too tight these days, so going to their sale and haggling or having them at my house holds little attraction.

 

[Farmer17]

I've had garage sales in the past and made a lot of cash but I haven't done one in many years. I remember a guy trying to talk me down on an expensive new Polo shirt I had never worn and I was only asking two dollars. He kept hounding me to go lower and I said "no, I'll just use it for a rag to clean my lawnmower".

 

[sjmjax]

There use to be frequent weekend garage sales where I live.
Most have dried up. Talking to neighbors about it.
Primary reason being people are disgusted by garage sale shoppers behavior. Showing up excessively early and disrupting efforts to set up. Offering ridiculous prices for obviously valuable items. General rudeness and carelessness handling other peoples property.
Many find it not worth the hassle and just throw stuff out or try selling it on various internet based services.

 

[Rustyt1953]

There were 4 houses sold this summer on my street. The sellers had bodacious yard sales. I couldn't physically check them out so Ruthie and Logan were my eyes in the skies.

We now have more more cool stuff to add to our growing pile of cool stuff.

 

[diyj98]

Primary reason being people are disgusted by garage sale shoppers behavior. Showing up excessively early and disrupting efforts to set up.

We had a yard sale last year. Despite listing "no early sales", I had a couple show up the day before the sale and ask if they could look at what we planned to sale. When I told them no, they got mad and spun out of my driveway. I figured I'd have a few of the "professional" resale types try to come an hour before the sale, but never dreamed someone would try the day before!

 

[Golddollar]

This past weekend our town suspended its requirement for having permits for yard sales, and the yard sales spring up like mushrooms. Each year as part of a town festival the yard sales can be held within the borough limits without obtaining a yard sale from the borough government.

I used to like going to yard sales and garage sales too but after seeing all the stuff that my cousins had to dispose of after my aunt and uncle recently passed away I figured I'd better start clearing out my house now.

 

[olfart]

I've had garage sales in the past and made a lot of cash but I haven't done one in many years. I remember a guy trying to talk me down on an expensive new Polo shirt I had never worn and I was only asking two dollars. He kept hounding me to go lower and I said "no, I'll just use it for a rag to clean my lawnmower".

You could've told him, "OK, I'll come down to $1.99 plus $.20 tax."

 

[imashooter2]

The mainstay of yard sales in these parts has always been children's gear. But nowadays, the mothers all go online to a group called swap and just trade things.

Anyway, the only firearms and reloading gear I've seen on a table in the last 40 years were in front of my house.

 

[LVSteve]

Primary reason being people are disgusted by garage sale shoppers behavior. Showing up excessively early and disrupting efforts to set up. Offering ridiculous prices for obviously valuable items. General rudeness and carelessness handling other peoples property.

The poor behavior has been a feature in Vegas for a long time. Back about 2000 I helped with a couple of garage sales late MIL#1 had at her place. The most obnoxious people seemed to be older and drove nice Cadillacs and Buicks. The four obvious illegals in what was left of a Toyota Tercel were no problem. They seemed thrilled with everything they got. MIL also had sodas for sale for $0.25, I swear she was born in car salesman plaid polyester. The illegal boys bought a bunch of extra sodas, no doubt because their A/C didn't work. When they left MIL said, "Now those were good customers."

 

[6string]

Around here, the stuff at garage sales is largely indistinguishable from junk hauled to the curb.
Most all of it came from Walmart or a dollar store.

 

[turnerriver]

My next door neighbor continues to regularly amaze me. He came over one day with an Ames short Artillery sword from a local garage sale. Colt .45 auto, S&W K-38, Remington rolling block, rifles, shotguns, ammo-all found at garage sales. He trades in high end watches for a living and is a very nice guy with an incredible ability to ferret out things.
Too much stuff in my garage for me to attend anyone else's sale.
Regards,

 

[Maddog 521]

When people start offering less on the price at sales I've had I always raise the price. When they complain I say
"You go down, I go up" that usually ends the conversation.

 

[dockmurgw]

I never had a garage sale. I use it store all my stuff so why would I want to sell it?

 

[mtgianni]

We had a yard sale last year. Despite listing "no early sales", I had a couple show up the day before the sale and ask if they could look at what we planned to sale. When I told them no, they got mad and spun out of my driveway. I figured I'd have a few of the "professional" resale types try to come an hour before the sale, but never dreamed someone would try the day before!

You needed a sign saying "Price doubles for every hour you show up early".

 

[mtgianni]

Most of the garage sales in the town nearest me happen on one designated weekend. We get a lot of estate sales but it's rare to see good stuff. I did by my wife a nice secretary built previous to zip codes this spring.

 

[Grayfox]

Yard sales ain't what they used to be. I remember a time when my wife and I would spend the whole day Saturday going to the various yard sales around here. Sometimes we'd find great bargains. It was fun!.
Recently, someone close to me passed away. We had an Estate Sale with his stuff. Advertised on Craig's List, social media and put out lots of signs. Hardly anybody showed up. I believe that people now think they're too good to be buying used stuff when they can sit at their computer and order anything they want from home. We ended up throwing most of his stuff in the garbage.