Sacramento Flea

There’s nothing like a new year’s resolution to get you cracking on cleaning out your messy garage.

And while things may be a little on the chilly side in the good ol’ US of A at the moment, now’s the perfect time to start planning your 2006 garage sale.

Why wait for spring or summer, when garage sale competition is at its peak?

Why not gather all your old stuff, including those Christmas presents you received two of, tie a price tag on them, and throw your street’s first garage or yard sale of the year?

It probably goes without saying that if you...

Need extra Christmas cash? Why not host a last minute garage sale?.

The catch? There’s only one more shopping weekend before Christmas.

Still, squeezing a last minute pre-Christmas sale in may well be worthwhile:

1. To help pay off that sagging credit card;
2. To take advantage of the last-minute pre-Christmas buying frenzy

If you do decide to host a garage sale this weekend, you could well be in a position to take advantage of the rush, because:

1. plenty of people will not have finished their shopping because day is still a good week away from this Saturday; and
2. many people are already...

Yard and garage sellers in the Michigan city of Walker had a win last week when the local council shelved a months-old proposal to regulate home-based sales.

Walker’s City Commission voted 6-1 to shelve the ordinance indefinitely after a vote to approve the ordinance failed 2-5. Commissioner Cyndy Stek cast the lone dissenting vote to shelve the regulation, because she favored throwing it out altogether.

The proposal had been reviewed twice by the Planning Commission before being sent to the overarching City Commission.

Mayor Rob VerHeulen said he did not support the ordinance, which would have restricted garage sales to three...

When planning your garage sale, you should always factor in a time-buffer at the end of your advertised closing time in case you’re doing a roaring trade.

People don’t like to be rushed, and what - apart from a few minutes of your weekend - have you got to loose anyway?

But since you don’t want to stay open just for the sake of it, here’s nine sure ways to gauge if you should extend your opening hours:

1. Your items are still moving.
2. There’s still plenty of people around.
3. On the day of your garage sale you discover that some event - like...

Listen up, garage sale buyers and sellers! Here’s the top 5 hints to keep you out of trouble at this weekend’s garage or yard sale.

Buyers:

1. Aggressive haggling is a no-no. Remember, you’re not at the sale to buy a huge item like a house or a car. You’re here to unearth a hidden gem, and have some fun in the process. Haggle by all means, but make sure you keep it light-hearted.
2. Treat your host’s garage and yard like you would your own.
3. If you’re bringing along kids, keep an eye on what they’re up to.
4. Consider leaving...

Yep, yard selling isn’t all beer and skittles. There’s lots of cleaning and maintenance to be done even before you get to yard sale square one!

But if you think of your yard sale as a great way to clean up, both physically and financially, it will ease the burden of the jobs that need doing.

Of course you’ll need to make sure your yard is clean, tidy and above all safe. It’s probably best to do the cleaning and maintenance yourself - paying someone else to do it will just eat into your profits.

Fortunately, you don’t have...

A local council in Dallas has seen the light, and slashed fines for infringements related to garage sale signs.

On Monday night, Plano City Council unanimously voted to reduce the range of garage sale sign fines by shrinking the maximum penalty from ,000 to 0, and by moving sign regulations from the city's zoning ordinance to its general code.

A summer enforcement push to control signs in median strips and other public areas drew a flood of complaints from garage sellers who received fines topping 0. The city handed out 179 tickets in less than two months before suspending the enforcement...

The last thing you need at a yard sale is for one of your customers to do themselves an injury.

So, before you open your gates, it pays to have a first aid kit, and if possible a qualified first aid practitioner, handy.

But when it comes to safety, as ever, an ounce of prevention saves a pound of cure. So here's a few tips to help you mensure your yard is nice and safe when your visitors come streaming through the gates.

A couple of hours before your sale you should check your yard to ensure:

1. there’s no low-lying tree...

Sounds like the title of a techno tune, doesn’t it.

Well, fortunately there’s nothing too technical in deciding whether to host a yard sale over a garage sale, or vice versa.

The first question to ask yourself of course is ‘do I have a garage or yard’?

Assuming you have one of the above, the next consideration is which of your yard or garage (or both) has the most space. If, for example, your garage is jam-packed with stuff you need to keep secure, best to use the yard and keep the garage under lock and key.

However, if your garage is full...

Instead of going it alone, why not pool advertising resources with your neighbors and host a street-wide yard sale?

This will, of course, take a little more organizing, especially the first time around, but if you make your street’s yard sale an annual event, it could become legendary throughout your town.

The main advantage of pooling resources is that you’ll be able to take out a larger advertisement in your local newspaper, buy more advertising signs, and even do a concerted letter box drop, thereby concentrating more visitors into your neck of the woods.

Things you’ll need to consider are:

• ensuring...