When a Community Yard Sale spans the community

WhiteTornado · Jun 5, 2017

I hit a yard sale over the weekend that was advertised as an annual sale for a large subdivision. It said residents either come to their common area or could sell from their own driveways. That's much better than just one house selling something, right?

I got there just after the starting time and only saw two families selling in the common area. So I wound up driving street to street, to see if any of residents had anything put out for sale. After a while, all those streets started looking the same to me! :icon_scratch:

One lady confirmed that the residents used to all sell from the common area but now mostly just set up in there own driveways. I hit about 10 homes before tiring of all the driving around. Most stuff was either baby/kid stuff or modern housewares. Nothing vintage at all. On the way back I hit a sale that had several signs on the main road and side streets. So I'm thinking, this has to be a decent sale. It was tucked back pretty far into another community. Wound up being one townhouse that had a paltry few things for sale, all little kid-related and one piece of modern furniture.

pjdentry · Jun 5, 2017

I've had similar experiences lately as well. The community yard sales tend to get folks with just a couple of pieces of junk to put things, in my experience.

AlienLifeForm · Jun 5, 2017

Those can be hit or miss, the only good thing is I can usually park and hit most of them on foot pretty quickly.

WhiteTornado · Jun 5, 2017

WarBaby said:
Those can be hit or miss, the only good thing is I can usually park and hit most of them on foot pretty quickly.

That was the thing, this one was so spread out or else I would have done that too. I guess next year I can park at the main entrance and bring my bike!

AlienLifeForm · Jun 5, 2017

WhiteTornado said:
That was the thing, this one was so spread out or else I would have done that too. I guess next year I can park at the main entrance and bring my bike!

Thats a good idea, at the last one I was at some guy brought an electric scooter and was tearing it up.

JimDon · Jun 5, 2017

My favorites.
1. Church sales
2. Organization benefit sales i.e. School, scouts etc
3. Community sales
4. Random Yard sales

diggummup · Jun 5, 2017

JimDon said:
My favorites.
1. Church sales
2. Organization benefit sales i.e. School, scouts etc
3. Community sales
4. Random Yard sales

No estate sales in your area? Depending on who's holding the sale, estate sales are my favorite. Down here I think the church ladies are all professional pickers or something. I have yet to score anything at a Church sale, save a few CD's and household things. Actually, I can remember scoring something once at a church sale about 7-8 years ago, but I can't remember what it was. I don't remember the regular yard sales being this bad around my area, ever. All junk it seems. Stuff I would donate. That or they want an arm and a leg for everything they're selling. I'll do a community sale if it's the right community. Knowing your area is key. I'm not going to a rental community sale.

scaupus · Jun 7, 2017

diggummup said:
No estate sales in your area? Depending on who's holding the sale, estate sales are my favorite. Down here I think the church ladies are all professional pickers or something. I have yet to score anything at a Church sale...

I'm in your cesspool area, and have hit a few times at church's, most notably quite recently.

GarageSaleKing · Jun 7, 2017

I go to community sales virtually every weekend. The key to success is being early. I normally try to get there by 8:00 or so and hit houses as they open. I usually pick up about 80% of everything I buy within the first 2 hours. After that, you just have to be lucky to find something. :icon_king:

trdhrdr007 · Jun 8, 2017

I went to a community sale last weekend that was advertised as being 15 or more homes. Turned out to be one house & all they had was overpriced crap.

The_Piratess · Jun 10, 2017

diggummup said:
No estate sales in your area? Depending on who's holding the sale, estate sales are my favorite. Down here I think the church ladies are all professional pickers or something. I have yet to score anything at a Church sale, save a few CD's and household things. Actually, I can remember scoring something once at a church sale about 7-8 years ago, but I can't remember what it was. I don't remember the regular yard sales being this bad around my area, ever. All junk it seems. Stuff I would donate. That or they want an arm and a leg for everything they're selling. I'll do a community sale if it's the right community. Knowing your area is key. I'm not going to a rental community sale.

That's what almost everybody says about Church sales everywhere lol! :laughing7:

Yes they get first crack at everything as it comes in and many probably are professional pickers too. The thing about Community sales is that many have a first day, unadvertised sale just for that community. So if you see one advertised it's a good idea to go the day before just in case so everything isn't picked over already. Estate sales are my favorite too. :thumbsup:

insontis · Jun 10, 2017

The last community sale I went to was a bust.. an upper end community and was completely packed by the time I got there around 9. Granted, this was also the second day of the sale. Possible all the good stuff was gone or was never there to begin with. A lot of expensive items seemed priced accordingly.. Either way it was definitely a magnet to the locals and had a lot of traffic. Of the three sales I hit prior [that weren't the community sale], two had sterling and one was a church sale with a few bargains. Heck, the church sale was even selling 8 of these returnable glass milk bottles for a buck a piece... the store will refund you $2 per bottle when you turn them in. :icon_scratch:

GarageSaleKing · Jun 10, 2017

insontis said:
The last community sale I went to was a bust.. an upper end community and was completely packed by the time I got there around 9. Granted, this was also the second day of the sale. Possible all the good stuff was gone or was never there to begin with. A lot of expensive items seemed priced accordingly.. Either way it was definitely a magnet to the locals and had a lot of traffic. Of the three sales I hit prior [that weren't the community sale], two had sterling and one was a church sale with a few bargains. Heck, the church sale was even selling 8 of these returnable glass milk bottles for a buck a piece... the store will refund you $2 per bottle when you turn them in.

There probably was some good stuff there on the first day. But I would have been making my rounds at 8:30 the day it opened and at 8:30 the previous day as a lot of people start their garage sales 1 day before the official opening date. :icon_king: