The thirteenth annual Great U.S. 50 Yard Sale will be held Friday-Sunday, May 18-20, 2012.  The yard sale started in 2000, stretching across most of Indiana.  The goal is for it to grow into a Coast-to-Coast event held each year on the weekend before the Memorial Day weekend.  The Great U.S. 50 Yard Sale also serves to promote tourism along U.S. 50, to unite the many diverse communities, to provide opportunities for fund raising by civic organizations, to aid the environment through recycling,  and to serve as an opportunity for individuals to enjoy a great weekend of sales.

For more information please visit the route50.com website

Chesapeake Commissioner of the Revenue, Ray A. Conner, brought the request to amend the ordinance forward to City Council as a way to enhance the efficiency of City operations and to provide greater convenience for residents.

“In 2010, my office issued 2,621 garage sale permits, totaling $13,105 in revenue,” said Conner. “While I am well aware of the current fiscal realities, it certainly seems that the staff time used for such a small intake can be better prioritized elsewhere in the Commissioner’s office. This, along with a desire to make things simpler for our citizens, drove my decision to seek this change.”

While the permit and fee requirements have been rescinded, other facets of the ordinance remain unchanged. These include restrictions on the number of sales per calendar year (two total per address) and the duration of a single sale (not more than three consecutive days).

Residents with questions about garage sales may contact the Commissioner of the Revenue’s office at 382-6738.

A few hours after the conversation he sent me the press release about the city of Chesapeake nixing the need for us to get garage sale permits.

Well, I decided to google garage sales wsj and found his article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203899504577128971266748552.html

Lots of folks couldn’t read it when I shared it on facebook because WSJ wants you to subscribe, but I found if you google it yourself you’ll generally get a link that lets you read it.

While it was fun to have the site mentioned by name (though not by URL) and be quoted in such a prestigious newspaper, the fact that he mentioned gsalr.com and that you could find look up sales by zip code on that site, then mentioned my site by name with a somewhat frivolous quote about buying a textbook for under a buck and selling it for $75, and didn’t mention that one could look up sales on this site… oh well. Better than nothing. The article was picked up all over the place. Too bad there wasn’t an actual link to my site in it, that would have been awesome for search engine rankings.

If you can’t read the article with the above link, you can also read it on Amazon at: http://www.amazonsellercommunity.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=2775954&tstart=0

While the bulk of our listings come from other sources, such as craigslist and local newspapers, the number of individuals listing their own sales is growing exponentially as well.

Obviously, I rarely make posts here, but I’d love to hear back from folks who use the site. What would you change? What frustrates you? What do you love? Being a single-person webmaster with a programmer in another state, Garage Sale Finder has become what *I* want it to be… but I’m sure it could be so much more. Just post a comment or send me an email.

1. MASS Live (Western Massachusetts)
2. Lehigh Valley Live (Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania)
3. Syracuse (Syracuse NY)
4. Cleveland.com (North-eastern Ohio)
5. NJ.com (New Jersey)
6. MLive (Michigan)
7. NOLA.com (New Orleans)
8. AL.com (Alabama, pretty much the whole state, except the gulf coast)
9. Sillive (Staten Island, NY)
10. GulfLive (Jackson, MS, GulfCoast, AL & FL)
11. PennLive (Central Pennsylvania)
12. OregonLive (Oregon)

About half of these are in areas that have a long winter, but the southern states should be picking up soon. Let me know if these are useful to you, or if there are other online sources you’d like to see mapped.

National Garage Sale Day!

Annually, National Garage Sale Day is the second Saturday in August. That means this year it’s August 14th.

If you’ve never tried shopping at garage sales (or yard sales, or rummage sales, or tag sales… depending on your region), give it a try this year. While it takes some experience to spot a good deal, at the very least you can enjoy the eclectic mix of items for sale and chat with the folks holding the sales.

Second-hand shopping is becoming more popular, not only because of the down economy, but folks like to copy the Hollywood hot shots, and many of today’s young, hip stars are sporting vintage finds from second-hand sources.

Part of the fun of shopping at garage sales, whether it’s National Garage Sale Day or not, is the bartering or haggling. Where else do you get to dicker over the price? There’s an art to it, so if you’re new to bartering, check out Garage Sale Etiquette: Useful Phrases When Haggling.

Or maybe you’ll find an incredible treasure such as the man who paid $45 for a box of old glass photo negatives only to find out they were the lost work of Ansel Adams and are valued at an estimated $200 million.

If you’re not in the mood to shop, take the opportunity to hold your own sale and make a little cash with all the junk you no longer need. Old toys, old books, old movies (both VHS and DVD), appliances, clothing, furniture and more are all good candidates for making a little cash. Make it a family affair and do a little late spring cleaning. What doesn’t sell can be donated to charity. (Be sure to take a photo and get a receipt.)

Check out these articles for some ideas about pricing items for sale at your garage sale, or how to make great signs for your garage sale. Of course, advertising is key, which is why GarageSaleFinder.com is such a great idea. Use it in conjunction with your signs and perhaps a newspaper ad for maximum traffic.

Here’s one last article: Top 25 tips for having a great garage sale

So mark your calendar: August 14th – National Garage Sale Day

What’s driving the trend?

With such mild temperatures, the thought crossed my mind that it could be the weather, but a quick check of a weather almanac shows the weather was actually a bit nicer last year. About the same highs during the day, and not as chilly at night. so my completely unscientific guess, is — it’s the economy.