Even during a recession, you can spruce up your home or office with new furniture and accessories to add character and warmth. One of the tricks to doing this, while saving money, is to buy items second hand, and garage sales are a great way to do this.

When shopping for home decor at garage sales you will have to keep your eyes open for items that will enhance the look you are going for. There’s no point in picking up a wall sconce, even if it’s only a buck, if it doesn’t match what you are going for or looks like it’s from the wrong era. The stuff is out there, but you’ll have to be patient in finding it.

It helps to scan the ads before heading out so you don’t waste time looking at sales full of baby stuff or antiques (unless that’s what you’re going for). Sites like GarageSaleFinder.com and craigslist are completely searchable, so you can plan your route to hit the sales that have accessories or furniture that you’re interested in.

Particularly with furniture, go early. Furniture sells FAST.

Angela Sullivan gives some great advice to readers of her blog:

Look for quality. Many homeowners are just looking to clear out their basement or garage, and are selling items that are otherwise valuable. Others just have a bunch of miscellaneous items that could easily be thrown in the trash. Thy to find that diamond in the rough.

She’s really nailed it. You have to really look at the items you’re buying, there’s no returning an item if it doesn’t work or doesn’t fit the space. Fortunately, at pennies on the dollar compared to retail, your risk is minimal and chances are you’ll be able to find something that will add that extra bit of flair to your rooms.

A cute article in the Buffalo News from late last summer gives an analysis of shoppers they experienced at their sale. Mostly, I think I disagree with the percentages, but I guess it depends on the region, the time of year and your merchandise. Allison, the author, even gave the shoppers in each category cute names like “Dollar General” and “Voyeurs”.

1) Dollar Generals come with no intention of spending more than $1, and satisfy their recessionary consumerism with the purchase of a book or toy for $1 (60% of customers).

2) Voyeurs drive by at 1 mph and look out the window to see if it’s worth getting out of the car, then decide to keep going (15%).

3) Silent Lookers actually get of the car, look disapprovingly at merchandise, and drive off without a word (10%).

4) Extreme Bargainers offer an insulting fraction of marked prices (5%).

5) Smooth Salers actually look at merchandise, offer a compliment or two, and if they purchase something, happily pay price as marked (10%).

In my neck of the woods, we don’t have nearly as many Voyeurs. Or maybe I just sell better junk so they actually get out of the car. It could just be that what was actually visible from the car wasn’t all that interesting. (See Top 25 tips for having a great garage sale for some ideas on planning your next garage sale.) Hmmm… Or maybe there are a LOT more sales in Allison’s neighborhood so getting out of the car is saved for sales with specific merchandise. The fact that Allison had 10% silent lookers makes me think that it was, in fact, WHAT she was selling. Seriously? 1 in 10 not buying anything? Heck, I’d close up and go back to bed if my sales were that bad. 5% on extreme bargainers? Maybe it was just that her prices were high and what she thought was extremely low was really the going rate.

I couldn’t tell from the article if Allison ever goes garage sale shopping, she may not have the experience to know how to price stuff. In any case, it was a cute article and I rather enjoyed Alison’s writing style.

There was a lot of commotion last year when the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 was about to go into effect. The biggest issue was the resale of various goods by second-hand stores and hand-made items made by artists throughout the country. What had everyone up in arms was the requirement for these merchants to test every single piece of merchandise for various hazardous materials. Prior to revisions to the law being made, even clothing couldn’t be re-sold without testing. This “feel good” law did absolutely nothing to hold China accountable for the vast amount of poisonous products they sell with false documentation about the contents.

In an October 2009 article by Mark Nestmann, he warns about the potential ramifications of selling recalled goods. I think he’s gone a little overboard with regard to the risks. Or perhaps I just don’t his sense of humor. In any case, I’m guessing nobody from the Consumer Product Safety Commission is going to be shopping at my yard sale and it would be tough to prove where one bought a particular item second-hand. That said, as an upstanding member of society, and one with a conscience, I don’t sell stuff that I deem dangerous, especially when it comes to products for kids. Am I going to look up every item I have for sale to make sure it’s never been recalled? Not likely, but then half of the stuff in my house was bought second-hand to start off with.

Details can be found in the CFTC publication, a “Handbook for Resale Stores and Product Resellers.” It clearly states “CPSC’s laws and regulations apply to anyone who sells or distributes consumer products. This includes thrift stores, consignment stores, charities, and individuals holding yard sales and flea markets.” It further states, “… resellers… cannot knowingly sell products that do not meet the requirements of the law.” Knowingly? Sounds like a gray area, but as the 20 page PDF states, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Hmmm. Ignorance of the law, maybe not, but ignorance of the products being considered “dangerous” would be another matter in my mind. Therefore it wouldn’t be knowingly. But I’m not a lawyer, so don’t listen to me!

Some products, like baby rattles containing lead, I get. But so many of the products on the recall lists are there because of stupid users. Natural selection, once more is being negated by a government program.

What are your thoughts? Do you have any products you’re still using that have been recalled? How did YOU survive childhood with all the danger? Without the government protecting us?

In my latest quest to find out how the garage sale search engine “market” works, I’ve been searching for posts on blogs about garage sales. It’s been an interesting adventure. I’m finding things like GARAGE SALE —— Bonita | Bonita, CA, which was nothing more than an RSS feed from craiglist. Granted, RSS feeds have their place in data aggregation, but it wasn’t even a real garage sale listing, it looked like perhaps a thrift store got hold of a bunch of shutters, couldn’t really tell, just that the only thing they had was shutters in various sizes. Hmmph!

Having said that, I’ll admit first hand that I have no way to go through the thousands of craigslist listings that my bot gathers each week for Garage Sale Finder. Now and then a dud slips through. On the plus side, it’s only Monday night and there area almost 800 sales “scraped” for next weekend already.

In south-side Hampton Roads, the cities of Chesapeake, Norfolk and Portsmouth, require residents to apply and pay for a garage sale before having a sale. Each of these cities has their own regulations regarding garage sales or yard sales, including restrictions on the number of days you may hold your sale and where you are allowed to post signs. Norfolk and Chesapeake have easy to find information on their cites, as well as printable PDF applications. Portsmouth, while it has a listing for garage sale permits and a phone number to call, doesn’t have any information about the requirements or costs.

• Chesapeake Garage Sales
  
  • $5
  • PDF Form available online
• Norfolk Garage Sales
  
  • $5
  • PDF Form available online
• Portsmouth Garage Sales
  • Permits required, but there is no information on their site except a phone number that nobody seems to answer at the Commissioner of Revenue office (757) 393-8771
• Virginia Beach Garage Sales
  • No permit required
  • Up to 2 sales per year, no more than 3 days long
    (info via the online 311 help desk, since it’s not on the site, but apparently *is* in the municipal code)
• Suffolk Garage Sales
  • No information on the city web site