Summer has always been garage sale season, but this year they’re having a major moment. Amid growing awareness of the environmental costs of overconsumption and economic uncertainty, our collective appetite for preloved wares is on a major upswing. Nearly half of U.S. shoppers are buying secondhand, according to a survey from the data company Morning Consult. In particular, the market for preowned clothes is booming: That business grew by 14% in 2024—five times faster than normal retail. Facebook Marketplace is so popular it’s helping keep jaded Gen-Zers on the platform.
Garage sales don’t usually serve the exact same purpose as online re-commerce sites, because they lack the scale. But yard—or stoop, or porch, or garage—sales are increasingly going big. A one-off pop-up in Aunt Sally’s driveway will draw some attention through Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and sites like yardsalesearch.com, but community garage sales and distributed events like National Garage Sale Day are gaining popularity and drawing crowds. In fact, many towns have adopted regular citywide sales as part of their local roadmaps for meeting waste-reduction goals.
Mass sell-offs can be a big boon for would-be sellers and buyers. For buyers, they transform the humble yard sale into a superstore. “If you combine it with a certain neighborhood, shoppers are more likely to come, because they feel it’s going to be worth their time,” says Gretchen M. Herrmann, a retired SUNY Cortland anthropologist who’s been studying garage sales for more than 30 years and has personally browsed in excess of 3,000 of them. For sellers, these events lower the pressure to have a massive glut of goods to justify the setup. “The excess stuff that’s generated in daily living is sometimes not enough to have a garage sale,” says Herrmann.
If you plug “community yard sale” or “community garage sale” into your search engine of choice, you’ll find dozens of big sales in pretty much every state. In some locales, the scope is massive. In Upstate New York, The Great Adirondack Garage Sale stretches over 200 miles of highway. Kentucky’s 400-Mile Sale snakes a scenic route through the Bluegrass State in early June. The Highway 127 Yard Sale, meanwhile, holds the crown for longest route: 700-plus miles through Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama.
The environmental benefits of garage sales
Conceptually, the impact of buying secondhand is beautifully uncomplicated: Person A owns a usable thing they no longer want or need. Rather than throw it away, Person A sells thing to Person B. Voila! Product lifecycle extended and landfill diverted.
Doing the can-it-save-the-planet math is tricky here, because garage sellers aren’t necessarily tracking inventory, but we have some good indicators. Australia’s Garage Sale Trail is one of the rare instances where anyone’s tried to golf-clicker the goods changing hands. In 2022, for example, Shire of Denmark (an Australian region that, confusingly to Americans, has nothing to do with hobbits) claims to have hosted 305 individual sales that collectively moved more than 143,000 pounds of secondhand goods, which means each participating household saved about 469 pounds of clothes, housewares, and other castoffs from doom. That’s 70% of one Aussie’s annual waste output—or 7% a year stretched over a decade, because who’s got 469 pounds of stuff to sell every year.
We could go fully cuckoo-bananas trying to tease out the emissions reduction that would result from keeping a pu-pu platter of jeans, swag water bottles, and empty photo frames out of the trash heap. But let’s just say it adds up. Consider, for instance, that the production, transport, and packaging of a new pint glass nets around 0.5 kilos of carbon dioxide, compared to 0.03 kilos for an upcycled glass. Buying a preowned pair of jeans saves 16.9 kilos of planet-warming emissions over new dungarees. And snagging someone’s old concert t-shirt can save 4.5 kilos over fresh merch.
How to shop at a garage sale
As a peruser, it’s easy to get overwhelmed at a sale. Plus, browsing crowded card tables instead of neatly organized shelves requires recalibrating how you shop. So what are some ways to navigate them thoughtfully? We chatted with Herrmann as well as Heather Turner, an online reseller based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to get their best tips for scoring at a yard sale—big or small.
Scout sales online night before
If you’re hitting up a big community sale, this step is less necessary, but if you’re out to hit up the local circuit it’s smart to peruse sale listings online and plan your stops ahead of time. The night before you’re going to venture out, take a spin through sites like Craigslist, yardsalesearch.com, gsalr.com, and Facebook Marketplace to hunt down sale listings in your area. The best way to line up a route is geographically, but you may also want to deviate if one sale—or item at a sale—catches your attention enough to want to hit it first.
Narrow by neighborhood
The snapshots sellers put on their online ads and sale listings rarely tell the whole story. Folks post their biggest, flashiest things—say, a Dyson vacuum—and overlook the practical stuff that might be on your list. When there’s not enough info, Turner tries to assess the area the home’s in. If you’re questing after mid-century dinnerware, for example, a subdevelopment built in 2005 might not have what you want.
Make a list
Perusing old oddities can be a blast, but don’t get seduced by shiny objects and pretty glassware. Focus on finding the things you know you need—lest your rescued finds wind up in the trash themselves. Make a list before you head out for the day to avoid impulse purchases. Remember: The rules for being a conscious consumer apply even if the wares aren’t new.
Think of the children
Garage sales often have a ton of kid stuff, so think about what your child or grandchildren might need or enjoy. “Toys, books, clothing—those things tend to be ephemeral in people’s lives,” says Herrmann. Though Turner shops mostly for her reselling business, she snaps up gently worn clothing for her two kids on the regular.
Go early
Resellers tend to swing through garage sales early and gobble up the-most-flippable wares like collectibles and rare antique or vintage decor. The more specific your desires, the earlier you should get there.
Bring tools—and cash
Individual sellers obviously aren’t set up like retail stores, so you’ll want to go in prepared. That means carrying cash, but also your own bags or boxes. Depending on what’s on your shopping list, it may also be a good idea to have a measuring tape, flashlight, and magnifying glass handy—though a smartphone can stand in for all these in a pinch.
Inspect everything
In the excitement of a fresh find and a sweet deal, it can be easy to overlook flaws. If you’re inspecting electronics or an appliance, make sure it powers on—which may mean asking the seller to use a nearby outlet. If something’s got multiple parts, check to see that everything’s there; this includes popping open DVD, videogame, or CD cases, which can often be empty or mismatched. If you’re looking at an item with moving parts like drawers, wheels, and hinges, make sure they work.
Level up if you need to go big
If you find yourself having to outfit an entire home, know that garage-sale season is also estate-sale season where the entire contents of houses go up for grabs. Turner’s go-to for finding them is estatesales.net, and she recommends scoping out the pics before you go. The same timing rules apply: If you want something specific or rare, go early.
Shop late for the real steals
At an estate sale, the listing price of goods is not debatable, except on the last day, when most sales cut prices by 50%. Garage sellers are OK to bargain—especially as the sun starts to set. If you saw something you love early in the day but couldn’t get to a happy place with the price, swing back and see if they’ve eased up.