Millions of garage sales are held in the United States every year.

It's estimated that roughly 165k are held every week. That's tens of millions of dollars changing hands every year at these numerous garage sales. You can find furniture, clothing, baby toys, fishing gear, shoes, various appliances, and a myriad of random knickknacks.

Over the years, a growing number of jurisdictions have been looking to regulate yard sales in their area and whether or not people are aware of it, many areas require you to first obtain a license or permit before you go putting on any yard sale.

That's hundreds of thousands of permits that are expected to be obtained, which is helping to bring in millions of dollars in revenue for the state.

The rules vary depending on where you live but they generally restrict how many sales you might be able to hold within a year or how many days you can consecutively hold the sale for etc. The regulations are painted as an effort to try and keep communities safe and quite. However, officials have also allegedly admitted that their efforts to regulate yard sales have been an attempt to prevent people from operating sideline businesses that might upset neighbors.

The permit plan isn't working for everyone...

The garage sale permit plan isn't working out as well as everyone had planned. One city in Manitoba, Canada recently decided to eliminate their yard sale permit process because they said it was too much work to enforce the regulations and it discouraged recycling and reuse of items.

For 2018, it's reported that no one in that region will need to obtain a permit to hold a garage sale.

How many others might benefit if authorities in the US decided to do the same? I remember visiting many yard sales growing up and our family holding a few as well, permits weren't required and the neighborhood community didn't descend and crumble into nothing. Those who are attending the garage sale and making an exchange, likely consider themselves better off because of it, and so the garage sale has benefited the community rather than taking anything away from it.

Is it really necessary to get a third party involved if someone has some old clothes and furniture to get rid of and others in their community are interested in exchanging for their property? It seems like a waste of time and effort. It also looks like some authorities agree seeing as they've decided to scale back their permit plans for yard sales.

Pics:

Pixabay

Sources:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2015/05/30/cheat-sheet-yard-sale/28045619/

https://www.portageonline.com/local/permits-waived-for-garage-sale-holders-this-year

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/03/nyregion/more-towns-regulating-yard-sales.html

https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/06/22/raking-it-in-at-summer-yard-sales-does-uncle-sam-get-a-cut/&refURL=https://www.google.com&referrer=https://www.google.com

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The Freedom To Have A Yard Sale

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