The sun came out. It warmed up. And I think I even heard some birds singing, or maybe that was me humming a happy tune.

The first Saturday in January rang in the first good day for garage saling following a bit of a dry spell. I'm grateful for the rain. But it sure can dampen the spirits of garage-sale lovers.

"It really irritated me because there weren't enough sales," said avid garage saler Robin Johnson of Mesa.

That's right, treasure hunters like Robin and I just went through a really rough period - you might call it a bit of a garage-sale drought. Thanks to miserable conditions three weekends in a row with cold, wet, windy weather - and then the holidays - garage sales seemed to evaporate in the Valley.

But aahhh . . . January would bring mild conditions and, as a result, an abundance of sellers and buyers.

"I've never seen anything like it. It's been a hoot," said Gina Simpson, who along with a friend was holding a garage sale in Gilbert.

When I pulled up to their sale, I couldn't believe my eyes. There were nearly 50 people gathered in the tiny front yard picking through boxes and looking at furniture. That's a lot of folks because typically, I might see a dozen or so shoppers at an average sale.

"We were planning on doing this several weekends ago but the rain caused us to cancel it. So, we've been ready to get rid of this stuff," Gina told me in between making change for customers. They made nearly $500 in just four hours and sold almost everything.

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Is your home overrun with unwanted knickknacks, unplayed games and unworn clothes? Before you start chucking things, why not throw a garage sale? Garage sales are a fun, economical way to cut down on clutter. They can even net you some cash when they're organized effectively.

Here are some tips for throwing a low-hassle, high-profit garage sale:

Ask neighbors to join in. When it comes to garage sales, the axiom "the more the merrier" holds true. The more browse-worthy stuff on display at the sale, the easier it is to draw in buyers.

Select sales items carefully. Whatever you're trying to sell, you have a much better chance of selling it if it's clean, particularly when it comes to clothes.

Group objects by type and display them on clean, sturdy surfaces. If you're selling smaller items, like hair clips or costume jewelry, consider grouping them in plastic bags.

Tag everything with a suggested price. It helps to minimize confusion and discourage prolonged negotiations.

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By mid-morning, the jumbo-sized garage sale filled with hundreds of vendors and bargain hunters trying to strike deals on trinkets pulled out from the backs of closets, precious antiques saved for years, marbles, DVDs, houseplants, records and all the other staples of the home marketplace.

For many who came Saturday, the ninth annual "World's Greatest Garage Sale" at the Monroe County Fair & Expo Center in Henrietta, was a gigantic treasure box to dig through.

"This is the thing I get excited about all year," said Fran Lander, of Le Roy, Genesee County. "We make sure we come every year."

This year, Lander had come in search of a glass teapot and didn't find it. "But I found everything else," she said, leaning up against a cart filled with pillows, clocks, baskets and other odds and ends.

In another corner, Greece resident Josiane Laloggia scanned over painted dishes and mirrored vanity sets — "just to see if I can't find some good deals," she said. Already, she'd purchased a Gorham crystal ball for $2.

"And you can't beat that," chimed in sister-in-law Janice Laloggia of Fairport.

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Dallas residents may soon have to register with the city before holding a garage sale at home under a proposal being considered by officials.

Dallas city policy currently allows residents to hold two garage sales at their homes per year. Each sale can each be up to three days in a row.

But Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia said too many residents are abusing the system, causing traffic problems and disrupting neighborhoods with frequent sales.

Dr. Garcia said it's not uncommon to see people virtually running businesses by selling new merchandise from their homes or from empty lots.

Some offenders, she said, have been documented using department store-quality clothes racks to sell used apparel.

"It's resale, not a garage sale," Dr. Garcia said of the illegal home-based enterprises.

Both Dr. Garcia and employees of the city's Code Compliance office are analyzing proposals to change Dallas' garage sale ordinance to require residents to register with the city before each sale.

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When Steve Segner goes to a garage sale, he doesn't pinch pennies. "Like that table over there. I paid $1,200 for it. But it's a Stickley so it was a real deal."

Steve owns and operates a quaint and cozy adobe-style hotel in Sedona with his wife, Connie. It's a small place, with only 12 rooms, but it's extremely well-appointed with top-notch furnishings and accessories. I could tell, however, these things - with their unique patina and historic character - couldn't be recent store purchases. There was clearly more adventure involved in acquiring these treasures.

My husband and I went to Sedona for a bit of hiking, relaxation and, yes, garage saling. I chose the El Portal Hotel, not knowing the owner was an avid garage saler.

I sauntered into the hotel lobby with its stone fireplace and interesting accessories just before dawn in search of my first cup of coffee when I spotted Steve reading the paper. I just had to know.

"Do you garage sale?"

"Oh, yes. Just about everything you see in this hotel comes from garage sales and flea markets," he told me enthusiastically. I knew it!

We shared stories of our favorite finds - mine is a 7-foot-tall iron candelabrum I got at a garage sale in Scottsdale for $10. Steve's favorite finds involve more money . . . a lot more. He knows quality when he sees it and isn't afraid to spend hundreds, sometimes thousands, on rare finds.

The native Californian has worked long hours in various ventures - including the newspaper and pet-food industries - but would always make time to go to garage sales. He bought so much, in fact, he had to buy a warehouse in which to store everything. "We collect and collect. And friends would come over to the house and say, 'You know, you have 14 lamps in your living room. So, we had our stuff everywhere."

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Clay and Mae Cowgill were eager to earn some extra cash from their clutter. They were having a huge garage sale at their Gilbert home, selling a "collection of stuff from over the years."

Business was great on Friday. They unloaded more than half their items. Saturday was slower but it was still action-packed. Something the Cowgills could've done without.

It was early in the day when a Grinch stopped by. It happened during a busy time, when at least four cars with buyers had stopped at the same time.

"Folks were asking lots of questions and my wife was making change," Clay said. "We were swamped." That's when another woman asked Mae if she could break a $50 bill.

Clay piped in his opinion: "I told the woman it depended on how much she bought. And she turned around and grabbed something right beside her and said, 'How about this?' " The woman picked up a few craft items totaling $9. Clay gave her the change and she and her male companion left.

All seemed well until it came time to count the money. The Cowgills noticed that $50 bill didn't look quite right.

"The front side looked fine but the back looked kind of funny," Clay said. "So, we went over to the bank and they verified that it was a counterfeit . . . and a pretty good one."

Turns out the bill was slightly smaller than regular U.S. currency and an identifying watermark was missing. So, the criminals paid with a fake 50 and made away with $41 of Clay's real money.

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HOW MUCH IS that doggy in the window?

Well, there is a posted price -- but there's also a sale on, we've got this coupon from the paper, and we've got a store loyalty card and a frequentbuyer punch card, and using this credit card gives us a discount, except that they say they honor competitor's coupons and we've got one of those, but they also will beat any competitor's price and we've got an ad, but then again they might be having an even better deal next week, and won't we feel foolish paying more, so maybe we should ask what kind of deal they can do for us ...

Welcome to the retail pricing game, circa 2007.

It's a game -- or maybe contest of wills is the better description for it -- that neither retailer nor consumer claims to enjoy playing. Every year, though, both play it ever more enthusiastically, or desperately, as though neither can escape it.

Retailers could get out of this if they wanted to. Just declare a basic price, stick to it, avoid the increasingly complicated discount schemes and hold sales so occasionally that they're actually special events when they occur.

But then ... who wants to run the risk of chasing away potential customers who have been conditioned to expect some sort of discount all day every day -- especially in such a dodgy economic climate?

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Just imagine how ecstatic Marla Stickland was when the tarnished and dusty little Huilier (Cruet Set) she picked up for a mere $10 at a neighborhood garage sale, turned out to be an important antique. She had no idea that such a dull looking item, when cleaned revealed a maker's mark and a bunch of other symbols that once deciphered by Marks4Antiques.com, turned into a sale of $850.

Not only were these marks totally nonsensical to her at the time, but they were dispersed throughout the piece. They were interspersed at various parts of the underside, and looked like initials with a flower, a woman's head, a bearded man's face and other strange looking ciphers. The first thing Marla thought was to use Google and search for all these symbols. But how do you even begin describing all these little images using words and terms, most of which can only be communicated using convoluted and long sentences? She was stuck.

After spending countless frustrating hours On-line, but driven by her intuition that there must be a story in these silver marks, she stumbled upon Marks4Antiques.com. She knew that her cruet set was made mostly of silver, so she thought "if I could at least identify the silver marks, I may have a starting point for more research...". She was right!

Marks4Antiques.com displays all antiques marks in shape categories. So, if a mark looks like a ship, then all marks that look like a ship or a boat, are displayed on one page. If a mark looks like a crown, all marks that look like a crown are listed on one page. The same with animals, flowers, crests, letters and a number of other shape categories. This pictorial method makes it easy to find antiques marks by just looking at images and comparing them.

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I'm offended. I'm hurt. (Excuse me while I dry my eyes.)

Deep breath. OK. I can talk now.

I love writing these columns on garage sales and I'm thrilled The Republic prints them each Friday. But I gotta tell you I'm appalled, outright disgusted, by a column one of The Republic's community editions published recently. Gosh, I just don't know how it made it past the editors.

It ran a couple weeks ago in The Chandler Republic titled, "If it's Saturday, it must be a garage sale." The author was Andrew Schwartzberg - a garage sale . . . (sob) ... hater.

Some excerpts: "There is something about garage sales I find just a little bit unsettling. . . . Somehow the notion of paying money for somebody else's junk just doesn't sit well with me. . . . And what of the person whose stuff you're going through? Are they selling you items contaminated with bubonic plague? . . . Creepy."

OK, OK, so the humor columnist doesn't like garage sales. We get it. But, hey, Andrew, I've been there, too. I was once a garage-sale snob. I was reformed, however, when I went to my first sale and bought an old copper boiler. I love that thing. So, Andrew, if you want to experience the "high" of finding a great treasure for mere pennies, I offer some advice for battling your troubling phobia:

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DEAR ABBY: I have enjoyed reading the occasional letters people write you about the acts of kindness they have experienced. I would like to share one that happened to me.

About a year ago my husband left me. Shortly afterward, I learned that he had embezzled funds from work, been fired from his job, and that our home was in foreclosure and the utility bills had not been paid.

I had been an agoraphobic housewife for years. In a panic for funds, I held a yard sale. That weekend I met quite a few of my neighbors and, in the course of the day, we shared stories of marriages gone wrong. I received many words of encouragement, even as I watched my beloved possessions carted away for a pittance. But the most amazing thing happened that day. A woman I'd never met before came back after the sale, handed me an envelope and left. Inside was $200. I cried like a baby.

Since then, I have overcome my agoraphobia, found a job and an apartment, and have begun the long process of rebuilding my life. I have no way to find that angel to thank her, but I'm hoping she reads this letter and knows that through her act of faith and love she helped me to achieve independence. You are, indeed, an angel, mystery woman! -- MS. B. FROM HORN LAKE, MISS.

DEAR MS. B.: The kind of empathy you described is usually demonstrated by someone who has experienced a similar kind of pain. Doing a good deed for someone in need can be an empowering act -- not only for the receiver but also for the doer. Sometime in the future, you will meet a person who needs a helping hand -- and when you do, you'll pass her good deed along and be a "guardian angel," too.

[News Story]

This last Saturday I had my annual garage sale to get rid of everything I had previously bought at other garage sales or clothing and articles that the family deemed unwanted. I don’t hold them more often because of the work involved in getting ready for one. Washing clothes, making signs, dusting off that old antique couch that we were going to re-upholster one day -- it takes an effort to hold a successful garage sale.

I also don't have them more often because my husband would have a heart attack if I were to more frequently put him through the torture of seeing perfectly good clothing that my daughters decide they don’t want anymore.

It pains him to see these things being sold for pennies on the dollar that we originally paid for. He relives with each sale the fact that at the time life couldn’t go on for my daughters if they didn’t have that new blouse or purse.
Actually, my son did some torturing of his own this time around as he put some of his video games up for sale because he grew bored of them. It didn’t help the matter any that he went out later that evening and bought another game with the earnings from his sale.

We also sold a few bikes that were used a few times but mostly sat collecting dust in storage. It was an unsuccessful attempt at exercising as a family that lasted all of one week. I hope at least that the people who bought them will actually ride them.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Celebrity rock couple Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, facing a new life as "empty nesters" with their children off on their own, are holding a $1 million garage sale to clean out some of their rather upscale clutter.

More than 600 lots of memorabilia, jewelry, costumes, paintings, and furniture from their Gothic-style house in Beverly Hills, their Malibu home and their British mansion in Buckinghamshire will be auctioned on November 30 and December 1.

The sale, to raise funds for the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Foundation, includes a gilded Buddha statue, a walnut parquetry inlaid games table, and the couple's Louis XVI-style master bedroom set.

But it also includes such items as a pair of Ozzy's trademark sunglasses, the all-terrain vehicle he was seriously injured while riding in 2003, his son Jack's black leather bed, and gowns worn by Sharon and their daughter, Kelly.

The two younger siblings launched their own showbiz careers from the MTV reality show about the family called "The Osbournes." The eldest daughter, Aimee, refused to take part.

Sharon Osbourne said it had taken her and Ozzy, who married 25 years ago and are listed as one of Britain's richest couples, nearly a lifetime to collect all of these items.

"Both Ozzy and I have very special memories of each and every item ... It is like giving up a part of us, and we hope each and every item finds a very special home," she said in a statement.

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Ask Felix who had the best garage sale in town Saturday, and he would have pointed his tail at Kim Brown's house in The Lake subdivision.

The curious cat, who Brown admitted had used up seven of his nine lives, paced up and down the cool cement garage floor as he helped shoppers pick out clothes for their toddlers.

Coordinating the sale with her daughter Aimee Hamilton, Brown said early Saturday that sales had been brisk since the pair opened the garage door for business a mere 36 hours before.

"The pile was three times as high on Thursday," said Brown, pointing to the rows of clothes neatly arranged by size and gender on long tables. A family could walk in, outfit their youngster and be on their way in just a few minutes. "We have five kids in the family that are 8 years old and younger, so we have a lot of kids' clothes."

Brown, who has participated in the citywide garage sale for five of the last six years, recognizes many of her repeat customers.

"I didn't have a sale last year, and one woman came by and cried. She said I had been outfitting her children for the past few years," Brown reflected, as she ran her fingers down the spine of her black-and-white family cat.

Mary Bauercamper examined a pile of girls' clothing while her husband, Scott, held their baby daughter Emma against his shoulder.

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I always get a little melancholy at this time of year. Fall is beautiful, of course, but it's also a bit sad. I guess that's because in many ways it's an ending, as the vibrancy and life of spring and summer shuts down for the winter.

The signs of the season are everywhere. The mercury dips below zero, leaves change colour, plants start to brown and wilt. After struggling for its life all summer, my poor little tomato plant has finally perished in the cool fall air. All we have left to remember it by was its harvest: Two bland-tasting tomatoes, each barely the size of pea.

But the saddest thing about fall to me is the street corners. Little more than a month ago, the street corners and intersections of this city were crammed with garage and yard sale signs, a beautiful array of cardboard and paper and Bristol board.

Now, those same corners sit all but empty.

And alas, it's but a sign of what is to come.

Garage sale season is winding down, and soon it will be dormant for another
year.

The end of garage sale season is a tough time for avid garage sale fans like myself, and the first few weeks of knick-knack withdrawal can be particularly difficult, believe me.

Oh sure, there are second-hand stores and classified ads and all that, but it's just not the same as the whole garage sale experience.

That's because the garage sale isn't just like shopping; it's more like an adventure.

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POMPTON LAKES, N.J. - Tables have turned on a retired policeman who ticketed nearly 40 motorists during a borough-wide garage sale in Pompton Lakes.

The town is investigating whether George Gerhold's driveway is legal.

The municipal judge has dismissed four parking tickets and ordered three others to pay just $7.50 in court costs. An eighth was found guilty of idling next to a fire hydrant.

The judge says he's not convinced the driveway was properly installed.

Gerhold said he had a verbal agreement with the town's zoning officer when the driveway was built in the 1970s.

The 62-year-old had told the town he was frustrated with people parking in front of the 30-foot driveway during the July garage sale.

Mayor John Murrin tells The Record of Bergen County the Building Department will investigate.

[News Source]

Yard sales have always held fond memories for me. I remember as a little girl my grandma and I would always go out to the rummage sales Saturday morning. She’d buy me books, dolls or basically whatever I wanted. I think most of my childhood clothes probably came from yard sales.

Yes, my grandma loved yard sales. My grandpa wasn’t a fan of them, so he never really gave grandma money to "waste on that junk." Little did he know that she always found ways to get cash for going "rummying," even it meant selling brand new clothes she ordered from Sears, using his credit card of course.

Grandma and I helped with the church rummage sales quite often as well. It was always a fun time. As I was sorting through my own items for a yard sale, I couldn’t help but think of her and wish she was around to be a part of it all.

The downside of having a yard sale is that you have to get up terribly early. My friend Melanie and I advertised our sale to start at 7 a.m. Of course, we knew we’d have a few early birds, but we weren’t prepared at all for what happened next.

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Residents of a Lehigh Acres neighborhood say they are sick and tired of living around half-built and overgrown homes. This weekend, the group plans to clean up the streets. It's not just to beautify the neighborhood - but to sell it to potential buyers.

The idea is that a dirty lot simply isn't going to sell. So the group plans to pick up the garbage and rip out the brush, but they won't do it alone. They're calling on the realtors themselves for help.

Deborah Sebastian isn't happy with what she has seen. She says the Lehigh neighborhood she chose to build her dream home turned into a dump.

"Dump trucks, pick up trucks and business trucks - they dump all over and that gives us a bad look," said Sebastian.

To get to her home, Sebastian says she passes garbage galore. She says the the garbage is stacked, bagged and lingering - festering in Florida heat.

"They are going to come see all the trash, this is a trashy neighborhood! Why would I want to live here?" said Sebastian.

She says many builders have given up on their lots, abandoned landscaping, and can't even keep their signs in the ground.

"There are a lot of duplexes half-built. Some are all the way built but grass is overgrown. They are just not selling," said Sebastian.

Deborah is no realtor, but she thinks she knows what won't sell.

Last weekend I had a new experience, my first yard sale. It was a fun time, spent with good friends, meeting a whole lot of wonderful people. A cloud cast a shadow upon us before we started however, created by a thief.

To the person who trespassed on my property Friday while I was at work and stole items from us, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You are a vile person with no morals, ethics or respect for other people or their property.

Although our prices were more than fair, you would have been surprised by the amount of items we simply gave away to people who might not have had enough money in their pocket or were such incredible people, we just wanted them to have it. Had you asked, those things would have probably been given to you as well. Although I'm sure money wasn't your issue, since my neighbor saw the car you were driving.

Instead you will live in shame over such trivial things. You are nothing more than a criminal, having committed trespassing, larceny and burglary. Was it worth it? Do you feel good about yourself?

To all the other kind people who came by, thank you. It was a pleasure meeting and visiting with you. And for those who plan to have a yard sale of your own, beware of putting your things out early; there is a thief among us.

Brenda Ingram

Churchill County

[Article Source]

It's the Mother of all Yard Sales, the long-distance run of garage bargain-hunting, a smorgasbord of discounts.

It'll sprawl for about 100 kilometres across Elgin County, with more than 100 vendors -- from homeowners disposing of unwanted stuff, to churches and community groups recycling used items and businesses slashing the prices on surplus inventory.

If you drive the route of the historic Talbot Trail, it normally takes about 90 minutes at posted highway speeds. But this Saturday it could take you much longer -- especially if you have cash and the impulse to tickle your fancy.

Maybe it's books, CDs or DVDs, a folding card table, garden rake, power drill or crock pot.

Almost everything you can think of from a home has been offered in the sale's previous years, says Marg Emery, executive director of the St. Thomas-Elgin Tourist Association.

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In the rest of Canada, the cardboard signs and folding tables make their appearances throughout the entire stretch of summer.

In Ottawa, however, there is one particular day where the garage sale is elevated to the status of institution and attracts thousands from the region. Every fourth Saturday in May, residents of the Glebe neighbourhood put out their wares for purchase. Janet Sutherland, the event's community liaison, suggests setting up early (people show up at the Great Glebe Garage Sale at 6 a.m.) with all items already priced--either individually or in groups.

Instead of offering a hodgepodge for passersby, such as the items pictured below, she says items should be grouped by type (books for 25cents). Making sure you have a cash float with lots of change is also important.

Many Glebe residents try to beat out their neighbours with offerings besides the results culled from the basement -- brownies at 50cents a piece might make that table with the Boy George records and Buns of Steel tapes more attractive.

[News Source]

Kim Dawson brings our attention to a story which deserves greater exposure than she is able to give it (pressures of space, time, need to give several hundred words to a story about how Kate Nash is to work with Gonzalez, a producer that only Canadian beatniks have heard of - yeah, that means you Feist): a story which features Marilyn Manson. And Eva Braun's handbag. And the skeleton of a four-year-old Chinese girl.

Here's how Kim reports the story on her estimable Playlist page: "Marilyn Manson is being sued by ex-keyboard player Stephen Bier who claims cash he is owed was spent on buying a handbag belonging to Hitler's wife Eva Braun."

It's only when you head to MTV, however, that the full freakish detail of this story begins to emerge.

They report: "In a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed Thursday afternoon (August 2) in Los Angeles Superior Court, former Marilyn Manson keyboardist Stephen Gregory Bier Jr. - known to fans by his stage name, Madonna Wayne Gacy - claims the shock rocker has been using the band's money to fund his lavish lifestyle, drug habit and the production of his upcoming film, "Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll," among other things. The suit further alleges Manson took assets belonging to the rest of the band (money generated through touring, and album and merchandise sales) to purchase Nazi paraphernalia, African masks made of human skin and the full skeleton of a 4-year-old Chinese girl, all of which he has on display in his mansion at Chatsworth, California mansion."

Manson made his response to the suit via MTV. "The fact that he's claiming that I've treated him unfairly, financially, is really ridiculous," the singer said. "And I would never spend my money on a Chinese girl skeleton. That would be crossing the line. It's a Chinese boy, for the record,"

And you thought Manson's spooky persona was just for show! The case, as they say, is ongoing.

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The Hamptons was the spot to be for bargain-hunting celebs like Mandy Moore, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Kelly Ripa and Edie Falco this past weekend. The 10th annual Super Saturday "garage sale" event hosted over 200 vendors including the likes of Marc Jacobs and Dooney and Burke. Super Saturday hosts top designers who have a giant outdoor garage sale donating the previous years items with major discounts ... net proceeds benefit The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Guilt free shopping!

In other NY news, Russell Simmons hosted the "Art for Life" party at his plush Hamptons home, attended by Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, and supermodel Petra Nemcova.

Meanwhile, in L.A. a pretty preggo Drea de Matteo was seen leaving Koi -- looking full and claiming she was "retired." "Joey" must have been good to her!

All this and much more in today's rummage sale edition of Star Catcher! No checks! Cash only!

[News Source]

Romeo Village Park was open for business the morning of Saturday, July 21.

The reason? The Kid to Kid Yard Sale, which gave children an opportunity to sell unwanted items for profit.

Thirty-six children signed up to sell, said the event's supervisor, Grace Venet of Romeo-Washington-Bruce Parks and Recreation.

"The weather's beautiful and the kids brought their treasures," Venet said. "I think a lot of us are buying each other's stuff."

Tables selling stuffed animals, dolls, board games, videotapes and books dominated the park. More outdoor-oriented sale items included baseball mitts, golf clubs and bicycles.

Washington Township resident Rachel Williams, 12, took the opportunity to sell two bearded dragons she had previously owned. The dragons' tank and necessary supplies were included in the purchase.

"I'm more of a warm-blooded animal kind of person," she said. "They were great pets, I just got kind of bored with them."

If she couldn't sell the dragons, Williams said, she would take them back to her house.

Romeo resident Robert Murphy was so enthusiastic about the sale that he wore a sandwich board to help promote the event.

"I just think it's great for the kids," Murphy said. "It's just wonderful."

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A crowd of people charged straight at me when the garage door opened for my big sale. Helpers jumped behind tables loaded with "good stuff"-and the fun of garage sales began.

The season of yard sales is upon us with signs around town and front yards overflowing with yesterday's gotta-have merchandise. Most folks face it eventually when "keen treasures" we've successfully accumulated must go.

For me, the revelation came when my empty-nest house had more grass to mow, more energy-consuming maintenance, and not enough of me to go around.

A smaller downtown Des Moines water-view condominium stole my heart and 32 years of "good stuff" had to go.

I zeroed in fearlessly, cleaning out nooks and crannies piled high with boxes and dusty stuff, some of which I hadn't seen for ages. Then the sorting began. Something I kept, however, are these useful tips that I learned from my yard sale.

Do you remember when your kids moved out years ago, leaving things for you to store "just for a little while?" Well, it's probably still in the same spot and even the kids wonder why they kept it. Tell them to come and get it, lock, stock and barrel.

This is also a good time for them to take items you intended for them that you won't need.

Listen to the music of their laughter and memory-talk as they sort the items. Gain some help, too, by arming everyone with a grease pencil, price tags, 409/Windex and paper towels. Clean stuff sells best.

No matter if the thing looks ugly, put it out. Toss odd items in a box marked, "Your choice-All ne price." It's amazing what people buy. Donate leftover items to charity.

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A -- Arrive Early. If the sale is advertised to begin at 9 a.m., you need to be sitting in your car in front of it and ready to leap out by 8:45. As yard-sale holders will report, diehard shoppers are often at their doorstep two hours early. This is just plain rude. Let the sellers at least have their first cup of coffee.

B -- Bring a Friend. It's nice to have someone to give you an honest opinion. My good friend Vicki is my best yard-sale companion. She talks me into buying things and I talk her out of buying things.

C -- Carry Cash. Unless you personally know the sellers, they most likely will not take a check, and you can forget about plastic.

D -- Don't Dilly-Dally. This isn't the mall. Take in the full picture on arrival and head toward the items that interest you most.

E -- Estate Sales are upscale yard sales. Often the sellers will enlist a private group to help conduct the sale. Things are pricier, and you will find people following you around as if you were just released from jail on a shoplifting charge.

F -- Forget the Fixer-Uppers. You may have good intentions when buying a chair with a broken leg, but truth be told, it most likely will remain in that condition until you pitch it.

G -- Go for it! If you are a female, rationalize your purchase with the sociological principle that men are the hunters and women are the gatherers. If you are a male, just stash your purchase with all of the other so-called tools in the shed and no one will ever notice it.

H -- Hang on to it! If you spot something you may want to buy, use the "hands-on" approach. Otherwise, before you can say "I've hit the mother lode," it will disappear before your eyes into someone else's hands.

I -- Inquire if needed. The sellers usually are very willing to answer questions, the most common being, "Does it work?"

J -- Jewelry. Check for missing stones, broken clasps, etc. Ask the seller if you want to try it on.

K -- Know your stuff. If you know there will be collectible items, do your homework and research the going rate.

L -- Leave kids, especially young ones, at home. There are many fragile items usually displayed within a child's reach. While you're at it, leave your non-yard-sale aficionado spouse home, too. You'll have more fun, and he/she will thank you for it.

M -- Mirrors. Mirrors, especially older ones, require inspection. Take a close look to ensure they would not be better suited for a fun house.

N -- Never leave your purchases unattended. If you can't carry them, lock them in your vehicle. The chaotic atmosphere of a busy yard sale can lead to sticky fingers.

O -- Open it. Don't hesitate to open drawers, jewelry boxes, luggage, etc. to make sure everything is functioning properly.

P -- Plug it in. When purchasing an electrical appliance, it's a good idea to ask if there is an available outlet to check it out.

Q -- Quick decisions are a must. The old adage, "you snooze, you lose" applies here. And if you're really not sure about buying, it's not fair to ask the seller to hold it for you.

R -- Returns are a no-no. If something is defective when you get it home, you could try to return it. Good luck.

S -- Sniff test. It's a good idea to check for mustiness, especially when buying old books or furniture.

T -- Tuck an extra $20 in your wallet. You'll be heartsick if you run out of cash and see someone carrying away a great find that in a perfect yard-sale world should have been yours.

U -- Use your imagination. If a piece of furniture is structurally sound, a coat of paint and some inexpensive hardware can do wonders.

V -- Vans, trucks or SUVs make it a lot easier to get large and bulky items home to where your spouse is not so eagerly waiting.

W -- Wear comfortable shoes.

X -- Xylophone. You just might find one. That's part of the fun of a yard sale; you never know what's going to be there.

Y -- Yard-sale listings. Start checking the classified section of your newspaper on Thursdays for dates, times, and places.

Z -- Zip up your purse or close your wallet before you overdo it. yard-sale shopping is a great hobby but you could end up with a bunch of stuff that you have no use for. Just in case, you can always have one of your own!

[News Source]

he garage sale crowd was out in force Saturday morning and normally, Bethany Henry would have been among them.

But this week, Bethany - whose husband Todd calls her Lincoln's Garage Sale Goddess - had her own gig going. Lots of neat "stuff," arranged in easy-to-see groupings all over her garage, driveway and yard.

And all of it was free.

"I think that's wonderful, amazing. I couldn't believe it," said Cori Daniels of Lincoln, as she surveyed the household goods, clothing and toys.

Daniels said she'd never been to a free garage sale before. She picked up some clothes and knickknacks.

"I wish I'd gotten here earlier," she said.

Another shopper was looking for toys for her grandchildren to play with when they visit.

Jody Bruce was on her way to Chicago, when she stopped in Lincoln to pick up her mother. A friend alerted her to the "sale."

"This is pretty cool - amazing," Bruce said. "I got dishes and toys and knickknacks and picture frames and clothes."

A single Mom who called Friday night and said she had to work on Saturday got the toddler bed the Henrys gave away.

Bethany usually has a sale every year that brings in between $500 and $600.

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It wasn't your grandmother's yard sale but if you searched hard enough you may have found some items from Uncle Junior's house, or maybe Tony and Carmela's house.

Bargain shoppers and die-hard fans lined up Tuesday outside a warehouse in Queens, N.Y.

They hoped to buy props used on the set of HBO productions, including a few from "The Sopranos."

The furniture included lamps, housewares and trinkets that once decorated the sets of numerous HBO shows.

Shoppers were disappointed to discover few familiar props from Tony's house or the "Bada Bing" were sold at the yard sale.

James Gandolfini's stand-in also went to search for memorabilia.

"The stuff I wanted was all shipped off to L.A. The house stuff, the kitchen, the wall clock which I had my eyes on since day one, episode one, eight, nine years ago. Didn't get that," Donald Metzger, "Tony's" stand-in, said.

The majority of the well-known props are now in Los Angeles for safekeeping until Time Warner decides what to do with them.

[News Source]

By Edward M. Eveld

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Ah, summertime garage sales - the perfect opportunity to gather up all that idle stuff, disgorge it and make a little pocket money to boot.

Selling can be tricky, though. Some items languish, unable to lure a buyer. Maybe you priced them wrong. Maybe the right buyer is out there but never happened along.

Judy Widener knows what comes next. For years her Volker neighborhood in Kansas City, Mo., timed its summer neighborhood garage sale to coincide with a "bulky item pickup" day. That way, unsold stuff could go right to the curb for quick removal. Convenient but bothersome for the recycling-minded.

Let's not send it to the landfill, she thought.

That's when it hit her: Hold a follow-up event, like a garage sale but without the money part. The idea immediately inspired a name: a "Free for All."

Unsold items from individual garage sales in the neighborhood would be amassed in one place, and people would take what they could use.

"It's free, for all," Widener said, whether you live in the neighborhood or not. "It totally describes itself."

Widener knew that many garage sale leftovers had appeal. Hadn't bulky item pickup day generated a parade of extreme bargain hunters who arrive in advance of refuse trucks to shop the piles at the curb?

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ST. LOUIS - John Jennings arrived early, sporting a ball cap that read "Senior Citizen: Gimme a Damn Discount." He wouldn't need that bargaining chip. After a half hour of scouring a yard sale on Hummel Avenue in southwest St. Louis, Jennings departed with a cute - his adjective - little tea set.

The $2 price tag seemed more than fair.

"Well, you have to buy something," Jennings said of the set destined for his granddaughter. "Why stop and look at a yard full of merchandise, then walk away with nothing?"

Jennings, a retired warehouseman and regular garage-sale visitor, is part of an army of bargain hunters who frequent the makeshift markets that pop up during the warmer months. In an age of Internet commerce, these old-fashioned, face-to-face transactions are holding their own against online auction sites such as eBay.

"All the eBay-ers are out there looking for finds, so that has really magnified things," says Bruce Littlefield, author of the new book "Garage Sale America." There are roughly 500 million garage sales a year across the country, he says, with an estimated $3 billion (in small bills) changing hands. Also coming into play: an increased awareness of reusable resources.

"Garage saling is the greenest thing you can do," Littlefield says. "It's the ultimate in recycling."

Recycling is just a trendier term for "getting rid of all of this extra stuff," which is how Gloria Barber and daughters-in-law Jen and Natalie described their mission on Hummel Avenue.

The three combined their clutter at Jen's place, where eclectic merchandise filled the yard, the garage and spilled into the driveway: Tupperware bowls stacked beside a trampoline; a New Kids on the Block video; vinyl pressings of polka king Frankie Yankovic; a wedding dress (worn once?); a Christmas tree; a salsa and chips dish in the shape of a sombrero that played "The Mexican Hat Dance" at the push of a button; a barber's chair.

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Shelly Bruette was setting up the inventory at her first-ever rummage sale when a customer found his mark.

"I had an old sewing machine with the folding table," said Bruette, 33, of Appleton. "I had it priced at $10. He offered five; I sold it for seven."

So even rummaging -- that time-honored pastime of the bargain-hunting faithful -- has become a competitive sport in the age of eBay.

The tires on the bike owned by Chris Hoffman for the past five years show no signs of wear. "Make an offer!" its price tag begged.

"I'm looking for one with the bigger (off-road) tires, said Hoffman, 40, of Grand Chute. Hoffman is a veteran of the rough-and-tumble world of the garage sale, that means to riches or key to unloading unwanted junk.

Hoffman said the vultures begin circling each morning 30 to 45 minutes before the rummage sales begin. To them, the pursuit of the deal overwhelms the innocence of this most casual exchange of greetings and goods.

"If something's two bucks and you sell it for a quarter, then they'll turn around and sell it in their own sale," Hoffman said Friday. "That's just the nature of the beast."

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It's the season for garage sale stories as well as all the wheeling and wheedling. dealing and dabbling in bargainspotting.

From the savviest antique dealer to the casual buyer, everyone loves to hear about the "one that didn't get away."

Here are five stories that will entertain, and if you’re a garage saler, inspire. Plus, I get to tell my own best story:

In the era shortly before e Bay, I was about 10th in line at a church rummage sale. A few people behind me was a really aggressive competitor.

Then I spotted a treasure on a bookshelf inside a fenced area: "The Adventures of Superman," the first hardcover novel based on a comic book superhero. Published in 1942, four years after the icon-to-be debuted in the comics, the book was complete with four gorgeous color plates illustrated by co-creator Joe Shuster. What made this copy worth nearly $1,000 was the rare dust jacket - in near-new condition!

Three elderly women were right behind me in line. I knew that not even my voracious competitor, if he had indeed spotted the same book, would dare to knock these women aside (though I was wrong). I, too, was delayed by two slow-moving people in front of me, but I scrambled to the bookshelf as quickly as I could, grabbing the book and holding it close. I heard him five seconds behind me, uttering an obscenity because he could not possibly grab the treasured tome or steal it away from me.

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By April Amadon/amadona@gnnewspaper.com Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

Fifty cents for an old baseball jersey, 10 cents each for a set of plates.

Just because some of the items sold at garage sales seem cheap doesn’t mean holding a sale isn’t a profitable venture.

On Thursday, the first day of their garage sale, Dion and Julie Pender of Lincoln Avenue Extension took in almost $1,300.

It was the biggest one-day haul ever for the couple, who hold garage sales every year.

This year, the Penders were moving, so they had a lot to get rid of.

"We had some more bigger-ticket things," Dion said. “We had a couch and a loveseat, a computer desk, we got rid of that.”

As the weather gets warmer and people are doing their annual spring cleaning, garage sale season is just beginning.

The Web site www.about.com advises anyone planning a garage sale to start early, as much as a month in advance, going through closets, setting aside anything sellable and saving grocery bags.

Proper signage is always important. The Penders put up neon yellow signs around surrounding neighborhoods, with big black letters that were visible to drivers.

Rita Lasal, who set up a sale in her Rapids Road garage on Friday, said advertising in the classifieds helps.

There’s no real science to pricing items, other than to keep in mind that buyers like to haggle.

"It’s amazing how much people will try to bump you down on stuff," Dion said. "If you really want $20 for something, you might want to put $22 on it."

Thursdays and Fridays are the best days, Julie said. Though they planned for the whole weekend, most of their best stuff was gone by Friday morning.

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The area's largest garage sale, held every two years by the Browncroft Neighborhood Association, returns this weekend for scroungers and savers.

"We expect more than 200 sales in a square mile," says Sharon Bloemendaal, in charge of publicity for the 2007 Biennial Browncroft Garage Sale. Quentin Road alone, she notes, has sales at 11 of its 24 houses. One year, "I counted 20 people in my front yard at one time," says Bloemendaal.

Items being sold at each sale - and which days each home will be having a sale - are listed in advance on the neighborhood association's Web site. Some sales start as early as Friday.

The Browncroft sale is as busy as the Corn Hill Arts Festival, says Bloemendaal, but this sale offers affordable, pre-owned treasures. "People plan trips from hundreds of miles away to coincide with this event."

Bloemendaal, for instance, is selling loads of fabric and a circa-1860s melodeon (like a pump organ). Other items for sale include antique dressers, lawn equipment, costume jewelry, baby furniture and equipment, tapes of old radio programs and musical instruments.

Park your car outside the neighborhood, then bring your strollers or bikes for easier movement, advises Bloemendaal. Want an item that's too unwieldy? Put a deposit on it, she says, and come back for it later. Since the initial sale in 1981, some folks have also admired the flowering cherry and forsythia, and the 1920s elegant homes. Many also enjoy the festive atmosphere.

"It's a happening, a fair, a festival - celebrating the hunt for treasures," says Bloemendaal, "and it's a lovely neighborhood for a walk."

[News Source]

It was a bargain shopper's dream.

Spread out across the SilverLakes community in western Miramar and Pembroke Pines, more than 300 homeowners offered everything from clothing and furniture to antique cars at the recent seventh annual Garage Sale and Charity Event.

Treasure hunters even had a map to help them navigate to each sale.

"It makes it easy to get around and find all the sellers," said shopper Amy Regent, of Miramar.

SilverLakes is made up of 38 sub-developments, not all of which allow homeowners to have garage sales. But once a year, those rules are relaxed and the security gates swing open for browsers from all over. "Residents like it because they know when it is and have time to get ready. They also don't need to advertise it," said Joy Savaiko, the community's director of special events.

The two-day sale is a benefit to homeowners who get to clean out the clutter. Residents also donated items to a local homeless shelter and the Salvation Army, which lined up trucks at the community park to accept donations.

"It is very good for both the community and us," said Dave Sayre, director of operations at the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center. Sayre said the donations filled three trucks and one trailer the first day of the sale.

Previous charities to benefit from the event include the Miami Rescue Mission, Crossroads Food Bank, Women in Distress and Kids in Distress.

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ST. PAUL, Minn. - Lisa Perry wants to make one thing clear about her decision to sell nearly everything she owns in one massive eBay auction.

"This might be midlife, but it's not a crisis," the 45-year-old St. Paul woman said. "It's midlife excitement."

When the online auction ends Thursday, the top bidder will get everything but Perry's dog, cat, photo albums and some clothing.

Talk about a clean slate: The 300-plus items going in a single lot include snowshoes, a futon sofa, a coffee maker, a queen-size bed, a Village People album, a milk crate of seashells, a computer, skis and shoes. There's a coffee table with inlaid tiles, Danish modern bookshelves and rugs.

The auction winner has to pick everything up within three weeks.

You can have it all right now for $2,000. That's her reserve number, meaning she can back out of the deal if the top bid falls short of two-grand. But she's so ready to unload her stuff, she might lower the reserve.

"I don't need it all," Perry said. "I don't use it all. I just have it all. Actually, it has me."

Perry has been studying Buddhism the last six years and started fancying the notion of "releasing attachment to things."

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By Roger D. James, Galesville, Wis.

Thank you to all but a few of the people who came to our "garage/moving" sale. My wife and I had an enjoyable three days meeting and visiting with you. We feel that we "did well." It was interesting and educational that some items sold so rapidly and others that we thought would go quickly were slow. All things considered, it was fun.

Unfortunately, one female had a different approach than most and "took a little shine" off our experience. Some also stretched "good taste" or "fair" by moving items into boxes that were marked at one price for the box. That was disappointing but not to the extent that it was a big deal.

On the other hand, young female, you may choose to try and fool yourself into thinking you made a good deal when you piled so much together then got it all for $30 (offered $20 for $60 to $70 worth of items that you removed some tags from).

I don’t think you really got "a deal" because those items and your forehead have "thief" indelibly written on them. Please understand that removing the tags and hiding a platter under the clothes was not part of the process of dickering or bartering. You know very well that your intent was to hide items and you rationalized that you would then "get a deal."

It’s doubtful that your conscience will bother you much, but please remember that you did, in fact, write "stolen item" on some items. When you look at them, only you will see the writing — others will see a really good deal.

Yes, you "paid for them," and Sheila, my wife, did agree. She didn’t get to see all of what you had in the pile (she was busy with honest people); you’d done well arranging items. You did steal her smile and part of the fun she had. Friday night and Saturday she still worked at her sale and enjoyed the interaction with others. You were still there though and kept a dark shadow over the enjoyment of a very, very good person.

[Source]

Garage sales, yard sales, rummage sales -- by any name, low prices are sweet.

While some people sell their stuff to clean out the clutter and others do it for the money, families along Bramble in Saginaw Township go to sales to catch up on gossip, said John E. Cyborowski, 60, who lives in the neighborhood.

"We have three neighbors who get together and do it every year," Cyborowski said. "They don't do it so much for getting rid of things. They do it as a get-together."

The sale is from 9 a.m. to

5 p.m. today and Friday.

"If it was up to me, I wouldn't have one," Cyborowski said, explaining that the women folk insist. "Two of the ladies have young kids, and every year, this is their chance to sell the clothes they grew out of."

In cities such as Frankenmuth, businesses profit as well as those hosting the sales.

"We've already had people calling, asking when the citywide sale is," said Jennifer A. Tebedo, president of the Frankenmuth Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"Cars clog the streets on both sides. It's wonderful," she said. "It's a lot of fun, and for the businesses, it's a wonderful food and beverage day."

People wishing to place an advertisement in the classified section of The Saginaw News can benefit with a how-to kit, said Denise Taglauer, supervisor of classifieds.

The kit contains a checklist of things to do for a sale, an inventory sheet, tips for a successful sale, about 100 price stickers and two garage sale signs.

[News Source]

As I was driving through the snow-filled scenery last week, I caught a glimpse of something amazing. Was that truly what I thought it was? Could it possibly be?

I turned my head to make sure. Yes, it was a sign for an upcoming garage sale.
Wishful thinking? No. Spring was finally arriving.

Maybe it’s just the new Daylight Saving Time thing that’s got me encouraged. I love that it’s still light out at seven p.m.

It’s becoming obvious winter is going away, but a bit too slowly. One day, I actually caught a bit of green on the lawn outside my kitchen window, before we were hit with a late-season snowstorm.

The poor birds, back from wherever they go for the winter, seemed as confused as I was. Still, they’re hanging on, knowing warm weather and worms will soon be here.
Yes, things are promising. Note the following sure signs of spring:

- The Easter Bunny has arrived at the mall.

- Regis and Kelly are on spring hiatus.

- You can buy Peeps (in a wonderful assortment of colors!) at the supermarket.

- It's almost tax day.

- I saw a bug in my bathroom.

- Some of my neighbors have come out of hibernation.

- "Dancing with the Stars" has started again.

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A garage sale in Baldwin Lake Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25, is bound to draw the curious. They may not necessarily be looking for a bargain, but they’ll be looking for clues to a bizarre story that unfolded there in the summer of 2002.

The garage sale of sorts is at property on Pigeon Road off Baldwin Lake Road. The garage sits on property belonging to the Natural Heritage Foundation now under the guise of Wild Haven Ranch. The garage is where Christian Lindblad and his girlfriend, Tina Stebbins, lived. It’s where he shot her and held her hostage for several days while Christian and his parents tended to her life-threatening wounds with soap, water and gauze.

No house sits on the property, just a two-story garage that has been taken over by critters. When the paramedics took Stebbins to the hospital and the sheriff’s department arrested the Lindblads in July 2002, the garage was closed and left to the elements. Some office equipment has been shoved inside, and it appears that items have been shoved and stacked haphazardly to make room for the office equipment. But little else has been touched.

In the upstairs make-shift apartment once occupied by Stebbins, Lindblad and their children, food remains in the tiny kitchen cupboards, clothes hang in a makeshift closet and in the kids’ room, blankets and toys are scattered as if the children hopped out of bed that morning and would return at sundown. It might have been home at one time. Now the cubicle is a refuge for mouse droppings, dust, dirt and junk.

Outside isn’t much different. Abandoned cars, campers, toys and a swing set, scrap metal, fencing, pipes and old ski lift towers litter the property. A bunker that’s waiting to be opened is barely visible under a collapsed shed and junk piled around it. What was once a beautiful piece of property with an extraordinary view has lost its luster.

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Molded plastic varieties displace rusty sets of yore

Like many parents in her suburban Long Island neighborhood, Patty Tilkin is a veteran buyer of backyard toys. She’s shopped for climbers and slides, seesaws and wagons, child-sized castles and plastic log cabins.

“We’ve had a million things,” she says, “even one of those little railroad tracks with the train that’s battery-powered.”

And yet Tilkin has spent surprisingly little money transforming her yard into a play space for her 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son. With so many affordable, durable products now on the market, the challenge for parents isn’t tracking down the right toy. It’s deciding which among many to buy.

The molded plastic pieces made by companies such as Little Tikes and The Step2 Co. are easy to assemble and require little or no maintenance. Forget the cumbersome metal swing sets of your childhood, the ones that came with six dozen nuts and bolts for your father to assemble and that were rusty within a year.

Today’s plastic climbers snap together easily and begin at about $100. Slides and teeter-totters run as little as $39.99. And for parents who consider brightly colored outdoor toys an eyesore, these products are available in shades such as tan and dark green, too.

As a result, sales of outdoor toys are growing, says Dotti Foltz, director of marketing communications for Step2. “Parents, if they have the luxury of having a backyard, really like the idea of making it a kid-friendly area,” she says.

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Tight finances, empty nests and quality-of-life changes are reasons that 10 percent of baby boomers will buy some form of real estate this year, the National Association of Realtors reports.

For many, that translates into downsizing their lives so they move into new digs with less clutter.

The difficult task may be approached with dread or even depression. But some who have downsized describe it differently:

"Extremely liberating," says Sally Heiser, 63. Heiser moved from a four-bedroom house to a mobile home in 1998.

Moving from the home that her parents built in 1936 was not as heart wrenching as Heiser expected.

"To this day I haven't shed a tear," she says.

Heiser, of Mesa, Ariz., believes it's because she focused on what she was moving to — a relationship with grandkids living in the same state — instead of what she was moving from.

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"Top Design" finds the remaining eight contestants scouring nearby garage sales for new and mostly used pieces to help them create the next "Top Design," airing Wednesday, February 21 at 10 P.M. ET/PT. Every talented interior designer must have an "eye for design, " especially when their interior design choices are limited by a small budget and garage sale items.

The fourth episode of Bravo's "Top Design" entitled "One Man's Trash," premiering on Wednesday, February 21 at 10 P.M. ET/PT, will test the eye of each of the remaining eight contestants. They must create a living and work space for their clients, who are all design students, using yard sale materials.

Special guest judge Joe Stewart (production designer) will join host Todd Oldham ("Top Design" host, designer) -- as judges Jonathan Adler ("Top Design" lead judge, interior designer), Margaret Russell ("Top Design" judge, editor-in-chief of ELLE DECOR Magazine) and Kelly Wearstler ("Top Design" judge, interior designer), decide who has created the "Top Design," and who will be sent home.

[Source]

Rock matriarch Sharon Osbourne is cleaning house and selling all of her unwanted items this weekend in West Hollywood, Calif.

The sale will take place on Saturday and Sun