Why the humble garage sale is making a comeback

Like radio and vinyl, it would have been easy to assume that the humble garage sale – that tried-and-tested way of offloading possessions – was heading the way of the dinosaur.

First came eBay, then Gumtree, then hyper-localised Buy-Swap-Sell sites. With online selling, no longer did you have to get up at dawn on a Saturday. Instead, you could sell at any time of the day (or night).

No more traipsing around the neighbourhood putting up cardboard signs, as selling could all be done from the comfort of your computer or smart phone.

Perhaps best of all, you could reach out to niche buyers in all parts of the world. One of the first ever sales on eBay, which changed its name from the more straightforward but less catchy “AuctionWeb”, was a broken laser pointer.

Yet, contrary to expectation, garage sales are still around and as strong as ever. Maybe we got tired of having to photograph items in order to list them online, maybe the hassle of selling each item individually got too overwhelming. Maybe the occasional rudeness that online communication seems to encourage, put us off (after noting in an online ad that the office chair I was selling was narrow, I received text messages calling me fat).

Mary Harnan, who offers decluttering and downsizing advice within her business allsorters, agrees that garage sales have never gone out of vogue, and each selling method has its advantages.

“Selling on line is great when you have just a few items or a special item,” Harnan says. “Garage sales are great for clearing lower value items. For example, I held a garage sale for an estate where there were lots of heavy and bulky tools. The sale was packed and we cleared everything in four hours and made several thousands of dollars.”

Garage sales are still advertised in local printed newspapers (as well as on cardboard signs affixed to telegraph poles around a neighbourhood) but online advertising of garage sales is now a mainstay. Posting specific details and photos of items available at the sale can be particularly alluring to potential customers.

• Related: How to hold the best garage sale ever
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Presently, Gumtree has 327 garage sales in the greater Sydney area and 202 listed for greater Melbourne. That’s a lot of garage selling going on! Local buy-swap-sell sites (usually hosted through Facebook) are also a great way to get word out locally about an upcoming garage sale.

Another major boost to the popularity of garage sales is the rise of the “garage sale event”. This concept started with the canny idea of neighbours maximising patronage by having sales on the same day. These days, garage sale events can include dozens or even hundreds of houses.

Perhaps the mother of all is the Garage Sale Trail, an Australia-wide event happening on October 21-22. In its seventh year, the goal is to have a staggering 350,000 sales on the one weekend.

That’s a lot of decluttering and reusing going on.

The circular connection between online selling and in-person garage sale selling is complete when you realise that eBay is a supporter of the Garage Sale Trail. “EBay has been connecting buyers and sellers in unique and interesting ways for 18 years now in Australia, and Garage Sale Trail feels like a really fun extension of this,” says Megan English, eBay’s trend watcher.

English agrees that online selling now complements rather than competes with garage sales. “With the introduction of any new technology, people always cry the death of something or other but the truth is there is nearly always room for both.”

Mary Harnan’s tips for running a garage sale:

• Advertise online, via a letterbox drop and with signage up at the end of your street
• End around 1-2pm or as soon as all the major items are sold
• Have change and keep the money on you for safety
• Don’t be insulted by low-ball offers, people go to garage sales for bargains. Keep in mind that sometimes it’s better to get $1 than nothing
• Be aware that stealing can happen at garage sales
• Don’t hold items for people who say they are coming back – they usually don’t and you may miss out on selling the item.