The World’s Largest Garage Sale
The pandemic created a round of consumption resulting in an unprecedented accumulation of goods. Households stocked up on the familiar and the novel as a means of comfort, stability, and distraction. Since lockdown, there has not been the same purging that normally takes place. People have hung onto these goods resulting in crowded closets and stuffed garages. Now, with an uncertain economy, aging and excess possessions, and a need to declutter, circumstances will create the world’s largest garage sale.
A Gently Used Economy
One day they are there and the next, they are gone. People pass by with indifference, even disdain or experience a magnetic pull hard to resist. Few consider them in the aggregate given they exist for just a few hours. Yet millions of these micro marketplaces take place in North America annually.
In North America, these are called garage sales or yard sales, and they are firmly planted in suburban and urban life. These tiny and fleeting enterprises have regional names including tag, rummage, porch, or “gimme” sales. For clarity in this essay, they are referred to as garage sales.
Informal events for the sale of used goods by private individuals are found the world over. The British enjoy car boot sales. Participants load up used possessions into a vehicle and join hundreds of other cars at an open area like a farmer’s field or school yard. Buyers peruse the goods car to car. Flea markets abound in Europe where each country applies a unique spin. Belgium and France are replete with vide-grenier or “empty your attics” that take place in the center of thousands of towns. Everything from tennis racquets to escargot trays find new homes.
Germany does not allow garage sales, but municipalities host flea markets. The Netherlands celebrates King’s Day with music, dancing, fairs, and flea markets. Italian flea markets attract antique and vintage enthusiasts given the country’s history. A pasar malam is a street market in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore that opens in the evening, usually in residential neighborhoods. These sell both low-priced new items and secondhand goods.
North America gave rise to garage sales beginning in the 1950’s. A sharp increase in affluence and the accumulation of goods led households to sell unwanted items to each other at attractive prices. Homeownership provided the venue to conduct the selling process. This was a postmodern progression of the charitable fair or bazaar that tapped into a romanticism of history, featured attractive bargains, and created nostalgia for collectibles bordering on hysteria.
In the 1970’s garage sales exploded, legitimizing and entrenching the concept. Profiting from surplus or no longer desired used goods earned a prominent place in the underground economy with the tacit approval of government. Most sellers are home-owning amateurs hosting sales to clear out attics and basements. Buyers are bargain hunters looking to outfit their families and homes inexpensively. A smaller segment are professionals who know the value of certain treasures.
Preloved Economics
Garage sale transactions add up to billions of dollars in America alone. This is amazing given each event generates a few hundred dollars based on prices averaging twenty percent of the item’s original value. Profits go unreported at tax time, although city governments may benefit by permits. The city of Montreal is fine with the activity but only on four designated weekends per year.
The average price of an item is less than a dollar, but it is a volume business. Every month there are over a million garage sales held in America. Haggling is part of the rite and so is fickleness. Buyers give each sale only a handful of minutes before leaving if disappointed. That stems primarily from a lack of attractive goods but also involves dirty items, disorganization, overpricing, and an absence of price tags.
The practice is under constant refinement. Based on decades of experience, the best day of the week to hold a sale is Saturday. The time to start is 7:00am. Signs positioned strategically in the area remain the most effective advertising to attract neighbors while social media informs those willing to travel sale to sale. Garage sales hinge on children as buyers tend to bring them along and most transactions take place with kids in mind.
The most desired items are tools, collectibles, and sports equipment. Electric drills and ladders are highly desired while lawn mowers are avoided. Comics, records, and trading cards are prized. Bicycles are quick to sell, but bike helmets are a no-no. Older models may not meet current standards and it is hard to tell if a helmet was ever damaged. Similar are baby and booster seats. Plastic degrades over time and these products have a set shelf life.
Stuffed animals are among the least desired. Cosmetics and non-stick frying pans are unsanitary. Secondhand mattresses could harbor bed bugs. Electronics are risky without test runs. Older kitchen appliances can fail current safety standards and pose fire hazards. Still, the rational is often overruled by the irrational consumer. Anything priced at a few dollars creates a frenzy prompting the well-worn idiom, one person’s junk is another’s treasure.
On occasion, garage sales surface true treasures. Rick Norsigian bought sixty-five unusual glass plates at a sale. These turned out to be original photographic negatives taken by nature photographer Ansel Adams. The resulting appraisal reached two hundred million dollars. In 2008, Tony Marohn bought a box full of old papers at a garage sale for five dollars. Among them was a stock certificate that was subsequently valued at one hundred and thirty million dollars. An Andy Warhol original changed hands at a Las Vegas garage sale in 2012. That five-dollar purchase turned into a two-million-dollar windfall.
A story circulates among garage sale afficionados about “the couch”. This piece of furniture turned out to be worth far more than its function and fabric. The tale goes that it was a decent buy and served the new owner for years. Once it was significantly used, he prepared to throw it out. When the couch was lifted and turned upside down, a few dollars of change hit the floor along with a vintage luxury watch. Other versions of the fable substitute extravagant jewelry for the timepiece.
In the world of garage sales, arbitrage is a growing practice. This sounds the stuff of Wall Street but extends to Main Street when savvy buyers acquire certain items only to resell them at higher prices. These professionals are not reselling items at their homes, they are placing them on eBay and Facebook Marketplace. The average profit margin for items found at garage sales and resold on eBay near five hundred percent. In China, second-hand online exchanges are on track to reach over thirty billion dollars annually in just a few years.
Nearly New Recycling
Garage sales not only save landfills but there is an intriguing social aspect. Participants have financial motivations for hosting or attending, but there is a compelling recreational component. Meeting new people and rekindling old acquaintances is part of the process.
Both seller and buyer benefit at garage sales. Hosts enjoy temporarily owning and operating a small business. They control their “store” in its entirety from merchandising to pricing and service. The power to give used possessions new life is the higher-order benefit. Satisfaction comes from offering very low prices to personable and needy buyers. Garage sales are akin to nonprofits operating at a profit.
For buyers, these are not only bargain opportunities, but voyeuristic journeys explored through the examination of past purchases of neighbors and strangers. The mystery of a used item’s past, the excitement of haggling, or discovering an unexpected and rare item becomes a pastime, hobby, and profession. Attending such a sale doesn’t always yield a treasure but they guarantee entertainment at no cost.
Garage sales are social equalizers. Participants of all backgrounds interact with low or no barriers to entry. A clear etiquette exists demanding respect. Violating the shared ethos has immediate consequences. Buyers who make lowball offers risk offending the hosts. Hosts who gouge or do not have proper change on hand repel buyers. Buyers arriving early, paying with nickels and dimes or conversely large bills, mocking items, and haggling aggressively do not endear themselves.
Garage sales are temporary but permanent in public consciousness. Though the proverbial tent is erected and folded within hours, the experience lingers. One sale is compared to the last.
These exchanges take pressure off the environment. They will not save the planet, but they certainly help. It has become accepted and easy to throw stuff away. Garage sales are worthy of celebration and incentive for the fundamental recycling of hundreds of millions of items that do not have to be immediately produced or end up prematurely in landfills.
The World’s Largest Garage Sale
Every August, along America’s Highway 127, thousands of vendors dot the route selling used goods. The 127 Corridor Sale spans nearly seven hundred miles across six states. From Michigan to Alabama with Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia in between, it has become a national tourist attraction lasting four days. Billed as “The World’s Longest Yard Sale”, it earns that moniker but will soon be dwarfed.
On May 5, 2023, the World Health Organization declared an end to COVID-19. For three years, anxieties ranged from fear to boredom, prompting people to fill up homes with items in great quantities. This has been an extended period of purchasing, not otherwise contemplated or anticipated. Years of accumulation without the routine jettisoning is setting the stage for the World’s Largest Garage Sale.
Consider solely the sales of dumbbells. On eBay, during the lockdown, sales increased nearly two thousand percent from 2019 to 2020. Yoga accessories climbed over one hundred and fifty percent. Board games and puzzles hit historic sales highs. Amazon shipped thousands and thousands of Jenga and Connect4 games. Many homeowners went on archaeological digs and unearthed games forgotten in closets and not played in years. Once dusted off, it was discovered that the Battleship gameboard had no battleships. Suspiciously, the game of Clue was missing the wrench, sparing Professor Plum from ever being killed in the library. What did people do? They bought the game again.
Nostalgia crept into the collective psyche, took hold, and influenced waves of retro buying. Classic toys, from Gumby to Etch a Sketch, made astonishing comebacks. Tonka’s Mighty Dump Truck was, once again, mighty. Hot Wheels, Lite-Brite and Care Bears were introduced to a new generation. Floors were freshly littered with shiny Lego pieces.
Recalling fond memories of childhood, parents attempted to de-digitalize their offspring’s play habits while actively partaking. Families discovered or rediscovered the game of Life, acquired Monopoly property, and attempted world domination over the Risk board. Rubik’s Cubes, Play-Doh, and the Slinky found new homes. The Barbie film benefited from sentimental time travel as the doll and its accessories sold well during the pandemic.
The return to tactile distractions and human interaction was positive. However, tech toys were also purchased in dazzling quantities. Alexa is now a companion to many, but we wonder if she is a confidant or corporate spy. Video games transported players to other worlds, the Nintendo Switch sold like hot cakes. On the topic of cakes, amateur bakers loaded up on multitudes of muffin tins, piles of pans, and bundles of baking sheets.
It was gratifying to produce a loaf of bread or tray of cookies. Sales of bread machines put yeast and flour supplies under pressure. Warm and soothing aromas helped people weather the virus storm. Seeing something delicious rise in the oven became an important form of self-expression previously unexperienced by many.
Art and crafts exploded. Sewing machines and knitting needles with fabric and yarn underwent an amazing home economic revival. Both activities, not only meditative and calming, became cool. Craftiness takes many forms and ambitions soared while locked down. One gentleman proved extra dedicated. He bought a harp kit from Etsy, built the instrument, and set about learning to play Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”.
The necessity of home offices prompted a surge in the purchase of computers and accessories. Counters and other surfaces resembled elaborate trading desks. Monitors, scanners, and printers became staples along with staplers, tape dispensers, and organizers. Loveseats and end tables were pushed aside, replaced with desks and chairs to create the domestic version of a cubicle.
Pet accessories, not to mention pets, were steadily acquired. Puppy and dog crates along with safety gates cordoned and segmented homes. During the pandemic, owners treated their canine therapists to plush beds, extravagant chew toys, and deluxe feeders. Owners spent more time dressing pets than investing in their own appearance. A popular item for Rover and Lassie was the faux fire hydrant backyard pee station.
The yard, if you were fortunate to have one, was dotted with inflatable pools, patio and lawn furniture, playsets, slip ‘n slides, trampolines, badminton nets, bouncy houses, and the all-important barbecue. Cycling provided much needed freedom when people could leave home. So much so, that bikes and protective equipment were in low-to-no supply. Treadmills, ellipticals, and rowing machines outfitted with technology for streaming workouts, were prioritized and granted precious space.
These items are aging. The usefulness of many have flagged or owners have grown bored. Untold numbers of purchases were faddish and immediately shelved and forgotten. Homes that were reconfigured for fulltime occupation are drifting back to previous functionality. Households are discovering that the stuff must go.
Garage sales have long included the same unwanted, rejected, and cast-off items. Worn lawn furniture, water-stained paperbacks, bent badminton racquets, and incomplete puzzles were standard. Not so for the coming garage sales. Garage sale hosts will display a once-loved air fryer next to pristine board games. Balls of yarn along with gaming consoles and a treadmill will be priced to move. That extra office chair and unwanted sewing machine could be bundled and sold together. Frugal buyers, savvy resellers, treasure hunters, tire kickers, and opportunists will show up.
The World’s Largest Garage Sale could be a reset, a realization that the best way of dealing with clutter is to not let it accumulate in the first place. With history as a teacher, the more likely scenario is people will declutter simply to make room for newer and different items. The cycle will continue, and garage sales will endure as an important part of the global economy. They will entertain and recycle, provide profit and gain. The ultimate value of garage sales lies not in the result of decluttering and simplifying, but in the act.
