Getting the Goods at Garage Sales
Story by Christina Rodriguez // Photos by Charisse Domingo

On Saturday mornings my mom and I go to garage sales.   It's a hobby we do on the weekends. We go and check out second hand items from other people's houses.   It's pretty interesting what people have in their houses.   It's pretty amazing what you can buy at garage sales, yard sales, moving sales -- they call them all different kinds of names. You see people selling furniture, accessories for your car, houses, frames, computer equipment, software, books, kitchen appliances, used cars, toys, bikes, anything you can think of.   You want it, people got it.   It's actually better then going to the flea market or the thrift store.   You can bargain the price, because these people just want to get rid of their stuff that they don't need any more.   Plus, its just fun.

You can go around your neighborhood and drive around and you might want to take a cart with you so you can store your goods.   Now a days games cost so much, but at a garage sale, I brought a “UNO Attack” for $1.00 and with all the parts in the box, and the stores it costs about $30.00.   I bought a car vacuum cleaner with two brand new filters for only $3.00. But I'm not the only who can get a deal.

Like my mom bought a bounce for my nephew, it was only for $5.00 and at the stores it was $80.00. I like looking for diet books and exercise videos to work out to, and exercise equipment if I can afford it at the time. Sometimes people are giving away free equipment, furniture, or TVs, and other things that they don't want no more.   I like looking for purses that I can't afford in the stores.  

You can even find collector items, ones people don't even realize that they have. I collect Tiffany lamps, so I'm always on the look out when I go to garage sales.   At one house I found a Tiffany lamp for $5.00 for myself, and I also found an imitation Tiffany Chandler for my mom's house and that gift was a bargain at only $5.00. Their retail price value is much, much, higher.

For a good garage sale hunter, you have to know your landscape. I remember I asked my mom once if we could go around my house in East San Jose. She told me no because everybody wants their stuff for more money.   She likes it on the South Side because everybody there sells their stuff for cheap, which I later found to be true. A lot of Mexican people want their stuff for more money than Caucasian people from the South Side.  

No matter which part of the city, garage sale shoppers will always push for a deal, going for the lowest price. Like my sister had a garage sale where she was charging $3.00 for a pair a jeans. Somebody went up to her and said that that was too much, that he can get it somewhere else for a $1.00 or less.   She told him, “not me” and the man took them for $3.00.   I guess it depends who sells the items.  

I used to go with my grandparents when I was younger. My grandmother was into the jewelry.   Her thing was to find jewelry at every home that she would stop at.   My grandmother would buy jewelry for cheap, repair and clean them and then turn around and sell them at the flea market for more money.   That was her hobby.   My grandfather would look for stereos, albums, old antiques furniture, and old wooden toddler toys that were beat up and repair it, strip, clean, and shine them.   He would turn around and sell them for a lot more than what he spent on it.

People will do anything just to get things out of their garage.   So always remember, someone's garbage could be someone else's treasure. That is, for the right price.

(Below, Jim and Rosa from North 8th Street sell their stuff on a nice Sunday afternoon)