I’ve never been to a garage sale, except maybe once, when I
walked by one. So, scouring the classifieds and following handmade
posters to see what unusual items I could come up with was a bit of
an adventure.
I’ve never been to a garage sale, except maybe once, when I walked by one. So, scouring the classifieds and following handmade posters to see what unusual items I could come up with was a bit of an adventure.
I learned very quickly that the easiest way to find a garage sale is to follow signs posted on telephone poles and stop signs. Most were black lettering on brown corrugated cardboard, but a few begged for attention – neon-green arrows led me to one house swarmed with early-morning bargain hunters.
I picked up a few garage sale facts as I browsed. There are two basic reasons to hold a garage sale: to sell things that can’t be moved to a new home or to get rid of junk. The best time to go is early in the morning, before all the good stuff is gone. Those who don’t specify “no early birds” in a classified ad may find enthusiastic shoppers knocking on their door at 6am.
If you’re planning on shopping in the afternoon, forget about it. After making my way though six sales in Morgan Hill and Gilroy, I made a fruitless trip to Hollister at about 2 in the afternoon. By then, everyone had closed up, and the signs I followed led to empty yards.
Haggling is an expected part of garage sales. Many people even inflate prices to give shoppers room to bargain. However, there are basic prices for general categories of items. Books are about 50 cents each; clothing can be about $5; odds-and-ends are anywhere around $10.
There’s no end to the kind of items you can find, either. Clothes, books, furniture, jewelry, antiques and toys are only the beginning of a long list of things people are willing to put up for sale.
Also, people have very strange ideas about what others might want to buy.
The first oddity I found was a Norelco Shape ‘N Dry 750 Styler/Dryer (with 750 watts of drying power!) at a sale in Gilroy. It wasn’t so much the item itself that caught my attention – I think I may have something similar buried in a bathroom drawer at home. It was the cheesy models on the packaging that grabbed me. The woman in the background wasn’t so strange; you’d expect she was told to smile nicely and comb her hair. It’s the two men in the front that stand out, frozen with insane grins on their faces. They’re obviously not using the dryer, just holding it next to their already-groomed hair.
The next item I found in Gilroy was a scalp massager shaped like a squid. It’s one of those copper-wire contraptions that makes your head tingle, except it has a tiny cartoon squid-face painted on the handle. Personally, I thought the thing looked more like a spider, but I wouldn’t want to have my scalp massaged by either one.
My next find, in Morgan Hill, made me wonder about its origins – two tiny matching porcelain hatboxes, topped with miniature tea sets and roses. Where does something like that come from? Was it a gift, or was it picked up somewhere on a whim? Where do you buy something like that? Another garage sale?
A common item at many garage sales was the once-popular Beanie Baby. Seeing them laid out on blankets or piled in boxes brought back clear memories of myself as a 10-year-old, hoarding them in the belief that one day, that little blue bear would be worth hundreds of dollars. On the day I went out visiting garage sales, it also made my 10-year-old self reach for her wallet, only to be thwarted by my present, 17-year-old self. No, I don’t want to take Beanie Babies with me to college in the fall.
Books are another common item at garage sales. One promising find in Gilroy, “German in 10 minutes a day,” made me question all those years of high-school Spanish class. Why did I waste all that time on homework when I could have learned a language in 10 minutes? The illusion of a quick bilingual education was shattered, however, when I realized that the book doesn’t say how many days it takes to become fluent.
By the end of the day, I began to think that weird junk is a prerequisite for a garage sale. However, I did find some bargains, like a wind-up, antique lady’s watch that still works, and an inexpensive leather BCBG purse.
I have a certain amount of pride in my finds: I found them, and I paid considerably less than I would in a retail store. The watch, like many items at garage sales, also comes with a story. The woman who sold it to me said it belonged to her mother-in-law.
I don’t think I could give up retail forever, but low prices, unusual items and unique stories make garage sales a fun alternative to cruising the mall.
There are several Web sites available to post or browse garage sale ads, as well as find tips for buying and selling. Check out www.garagesalesource.com – where you can find a pricing guideline – or www.garagesalehunter.com, which sends out a daily list of garage sales in your area.
