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What is a garage sale?

Also called: yard sale, tag sale, stoop sale · Used in United States and Canada

A garage sale is a household selling its own used belongings directly to walk-up buyers, usually from a driveway or garage, for a day or a weekend. Items are priced by the seller, cash is normal, and there is no shop, staff or warranty involved.

What it actually means in practice

The name comes from where the goods physically sit. A household puts what it no longer wants out into the most public space it owns and lets neighbours browse. Nothing is curated or appraised — that is what makes it cheap and what makes it worth an early morning.

Garage sales are almost always occasional and personal. The moment someone is buying items specifically to resell them at profit, most municipalities treat it as a market stall rather than a garage sale, and the permit rules change. See the permit pages for what your city requires.

Yard saleA yard sale is the same event as a garage sale — a household selling used goods to the public from its own property. The name reflects the geography: in regions where homes sit on front lawns rather than behind attached garages, the sale happens in the yard.Rummage saleA rummage sale is run by a group — a church, school, club or charity — rather than a single household. Donated goods are pooled and sold, usually in a hall over one or two days, and the proceeds go to the organisation rather than to any individual seller.Estate saleAn estate sale liquidates an entire household at once — the furniture, the contents of every drawer, the garden and often the house itself — typically after a death, a move to smaller accommodation or a downsizing. It usually runs three to five days and is often handled by a professional company.Tag saleA tag sale is New England's word for a garage or yard sale. It comes from the practice of attaching a numbered paper price tag to each item, so a household clearing out for a move is running 'tag days' rather than a garage sale.

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