Community Sale

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In some areas, garage sales have taken on a special meaning to a community and have become events of special local significance. Large areas of a community then hold a communal garage sale involving numerous families at the same time.

The Highway 127 Corridor Sale, promoted as “The World’s Longest Yard Sale,” encourages private individuals and professional vendors to conduct simultaneous yard sales along a 630-mile (1,010 km) corridor spanning five U.S. states.

Running east to west, the Coast-to-Coast yard sale runs along US 50 in May of each year. Though not as popular as “The World’s Longest Yard Sale,” the US 50 Coast-to-Coast sale is in its 16th year.

During the second Saturday in August, a 50 miles (80 km) stretch of U.S. Route 11 becomes a continuous yard sale that at Stephens City, Virginia’s Newtown Commons south to New Market, Virginia. The event, in its ninth year, is sponsored by the Shenandoah County Chamber Advisory Group, five chambers of commerce, and two town governments. In years past, the Yard Crawl has attracted people from as far away as Canada.

The now semi-annual City Wide Garage Sale was first held in October 1990 in El Cerrito, California. Local resident and reuse advocate, Marianne Hegeman proposed the citywide garage sale to facilitate garage inspections in the wake of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. City Wide Garage Sales have been replicated in other cities including Albany, California; Mountain View, California; and Eagle Mountain, Utah.

Informal sales also occur across the country. One such example is in the Bismarck-Mandan area. Coinciding with the United Tribes International Pow-wow, it is a tradition for the weekend following Labor Day to be the area’s biggest garage sale weekend due to the influx of visitors in the area. On any given year, total garage sales number at least 500, while Fargo, North Dakota surpasses Bismarck as the state’s largest city. The only state event that is bigger is the North Dakota State Fair held in Minot, North Dakota, during the last week of July.