The Front Porch Goes Garage Sale Hunting

A ceramic keepsake for sale. (Genevieve Haas, NHPR) For bargain hunters, would-be entrepreneurs, and collectors, summer means one thing: garage sale season. It's a chance to find some rare or even valuable items, pick up some useful secondhand goods at a low price, or just get out and meet other "salers" on the trail.

The Front Porch explores the culture of yard and garage sales in this two-part series, from the business and economic side of secondhand goods to their social and cultural aspects.

Many of the stories in this series came to us through NHPR's Public Insight Network. You can help inform future series by joining the Network and sharing what you know.


A women peruses items at a yard sale
This Business of Garage Sales
listen: MP3
We’ll hit the road with Bedford resident Steve Fry as he hunts for the best used stuff in town. And garage sale expert G.G. Carbone, author of How to Make Fortune with Other People’s Junk, offers us a primer on what to do and what not to do, no matter which side of the cashbox you’re on.
Garage Sale
Photo Gallery

Board games for sale

Join Bedford's Steve Fry and Front Porch senior producer Andrew Walsh as they hunt for bargains.

 

Baseball Cards for sale - 10 cents each
Learning to Let Go: The Psychology of Garage Sales
listen: Wednesday, August 22 at 6:30 pm
Holding a garage sale can be lots of fun, but it can be a little tough, too. It’s not always easy to sell your personal belongings, especially the ones that have emotional significance. In the second half of the Front Porch’s mini-series on garage sales, we look at the psychological aspects of them. We’ll talk about the best way to let go of your belongings and whether you really should let go of them at all. And we’ll hear from NHPR listeners who shared their best garage sale stories with us.

Yard Sale Reverie

Plates for sale

In this web-only story, Elissa Paquette explains why we can sometimes learn more from what we don't sell.
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