| Every Saturday morning in our part of the world, except in winter, |
| many people drive around the city looking for yard sales. |
| Yard sales, or garage sales, often take place in the driveway of someone’s home, or perhaps the front lawn. |
| The homeowners take out all the stuff they don’t want and arrange it in front of their house. |
| Usually, they put a price tag on items. |
| People driving by will stop to see if there’s anything they want. |
| Many people spend every Saturday morning shopping at yard sales. |
| If they find that they have bought too many things, then they have a yard sale of their own. |
| Some of the shoppers are dealers who buy things for resale. |
| Sometimes they resell them at their own yard sales. |
| But some dealers are professionals who run antique stores, used bookshops, |
| flea markets or used furniture and appliance stores. |
| Usually the dealers will try to get to the yard sale before anyone else. |
| That way they have the best selection. |
| Often they’ll try to buy items for less than what the price tag says. |
| The cheaper they can buy the item, the more profit they can make when they resell it. |
| Their motto is, “Buy low. Sell high”. |
| Sometimes a merchant will boast that he paid $1 for a glass or china cup at a yard sale, and sold it for $100 at his store, or on the Internet. |
| By having catalogs that show the value of “collectibles”, dealers can sometimes make large profits. |
| Now, however, many of the people having yard sales will try to check the value of the things they are selling first. |
| So it is getting harder to get a real bargain. |
| One reason for yard sales is that North Americans often live in big houses, which fill up with things. |
| People may use the basement, the attic, the spare room and the garage to store things that they aren’t using. |
| If they store things in their garage, all they have to do is open the garage door and have a garage sale. |
| When children grow up and move away, the parents will often sell the children’s old clothes, toys and furniture. |
| Another reason for yard sales is that there are a lot of things that people might like, but don’t want to pay full price for. |
| For example, if someone likes to read novels, they may be happy to pay $1 for a book at a yard sale, |
| rather than $20 or $30 at a retail store. |
| What sorts of things are sold at yard sales? |
| Just about anything you might find in a house or yard. |
| There are ornaments, china, home decorations, sports equipment, bicycles, games, dolls, toys, tables and chairs, |
| lamps, appliances, books, records, paintings, clothes, record players, and much much more. |
| Some items are things that were popular a few years ago but now have gone out of fashion. |
| This might include many toys, books and games that relate to an old television show that is no longer being shown. |
| While a lot of older people go to yard sales, so do a lot of students. |
| Students and young people may need cheap furniture for their apartment or a bicycle to get to school or work. |
| They may not be able to pay full price. |
| If you are lucky, you can find almost anything at a yard sale. |
| The trick is to get there early. |
| Most yard sales are advertised to start at 9 am, |
| but dealers may arrive as early as 7:30 am. |
| By 10 am the busiest part is already over, although most yard sales go on into the afternoon. |
| Yard sales tend to prove the common saying that “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure”. |
