Garage sale & Flea market

Garage sale

A garage sale, also known as a yard sale, rummage sale, tag sale, attic sale, moving sale, or junk sale, is an informal, irregularly scheduled event for the sale of used goods by private individuals, in which "block sales" are allowed, so that sellers are not required to obtain business licenses or collect sales tax

Yard sale in Summer 2005 in California

Typically the goods in a garage sale are unwanted items from the household with the home owners conducting the sale. The goods are sometimes new, like-new, or just usable, offered for sale because the owner does not want or need the item, to minimize their possessions, or to raise funds. Popular motivations for a garage sale are "Spring cleaning" or the owner's move to a new residence, to even getting some well-earned spending money. The seller displays their wares to the passers-by or those responding to signs, flyers, or newspaper ads. Sometimes local television stations will broadcast a sale on the local public channel. The sales venue is typically a garage, driveway, carport, front yard, porch, or occasionally, the interior of a house. Some vendors, known as 'squatters', will set up in a highly trafficked area, and not on their own property.

Staples of garage sales include old clothing, books, toys, household knickknacks,lawn and garden tools (UTC), sports equipment, and board games. Larger items like furniture and occasionally appliances are also sold. Garage sales occur most frequently in suburban areas on good-weather weekends, and usually have designated hours for the sale. Buyers who arrive before the hours of the sale to review the items are known as "Early Birds"; they often are professional restorers or resellers. Such sales also attract people who are searching for bargains or for rare and unusual items. Bargaining also known as haggling on prices is routine, and items may or may not have price labels affixed. Some people buy goods from these sales to restore them for resale.

Some cities, such as Beverly Hills, California, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, require that the homeowners apply and pay for a yard sale permit, and even with that homeowners in Beverly Hills can only hold yard sales in the back of their homes. Typically these permits cost only ten dollars or so.

Flea market

A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered.[1] It may be indoor or outdoor.[2] Many flea markets have food vendors,[3]and may be associated with carnivals or concerts.[4] Some have become infamous as outlets for bootleg movies and music[5][6]or knockoff brand clothing, accessories, or fragrances.[7][8]

The origins of the term are disputed,[9][10] but some have observed that buyers and sellers may be as active as fleas,[11]or that the original people and goods were infested.[12]According to Word and Phrase Origins, the term was derived from the "Vallie Market" of Manhattan.[13]

The original flea market may be the Marché aux puces("market with fleas" in French) of Saint-Ouen, Seine-Saint-Denis, in the northern suburbs of Paris. It is a large, long-established outdoor bazaar, one of four in Paris. From the late 17th century, the makeshift open-air market in the town of Saint-Ouen began as temporary stalls and benches among the fields and market gardens where ragpickers exchanged their findings for a small sum.[14]

Some television shows focus on the appraisal of second hand goods often found at flea markets that are worth far more than the buyer paid. The most popular of these shows is Antiques Roadshow in the United Kingdom, which led to American, Canadian, Swedish and Dutch versions of the show.

旧货廉价出售

Garage sales, or lawn or yard sales, are as big a part of American culture as apple pie and popcorn. Periodically, people clean out excess clothing, furniture, appliances, etc. from their homes and display the goods for sale to passersby, either on their front lawn or in their garages. The goods are always sold at greatly reduced prices, since getting rid of unwanted goods is more important than realizing even a modest profit from the sales

在车库、草坪或院子里廉价出售旧货，就像苹果派和苞米花一样，是美国文化的一大组成部分。人们会定期从家里清理出多余的衣物、家具、家用电器等，并把这些东西摆在屋前草坪上或者车库里当作货物销售给路人。这些货物以非常低的价格出售，因为处理掉那些不想要的东西比赚一点钱更为重要。

A flea market is similar to a yard sale, only bigger. Flea markets get their name from small, wingless insects called fleas. Fleas jump on to animals or humans and hide in their hair. Some people say the expression "flea market" comes from the fear that fleas may be hiding in the old things you buy at such a market.

Some flea markets are community events. Many families bring things to sell. The event may be held at a school or in a park. Some schools and churches hold flea markets once a year to earn money for special projects. Most flea markets, however, are held on weekends during spring, summer, and autumn.

Professional dealers' flea markets are more organized than yard sales or community flea markets. Sellers usually must get a trader's license from the local government. They must collect tax on everything they sell.

Some people get all their earnings by selling things at flea markets. Others have traditional jobs and earn a little extra money at flea markets. Some dealers at a flea market sell lots of different things. Others sell just one kind of thing. It may be glass objects or old farm equipment. Many professional flea markets sell only antiques. In America, things are considered antique if they are at least one-hundred years old.

One of the largest flea markets in the world is held in the state of California. On the second Sunday of every month, buyers look at objects offered by more than two-thousand sellers. This huge event is the Rose Bowl Flea Market. It takes place in the famous sports center in Pasadena, California. In sunshine or during rain, sellers show all kinds of things: books, records, fishbowls, seashells, doghouses.

Arts and crafts are offered at the Rose Bowl Arts and Crafts Outdoor Festival, in connection with the Rose Bowl Flea Market. The only objects not permitted for sale include food, animals, and guns.

Another famous market is called "The World's Longest Outdoor Sale." This event is held each year along a road that runs through the southern states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. The sale is

seven-hundred-twenty-five kilometers long.

The twelfth yearly sale was held last Thursday through Sunday. More than two-thousand people lined up to sell things. They included antiques, art, farm tools, home-made food, even cats and dogs. Thousands of people stopped their cars and looked over the goods at "The World's Longest Outdoor Sale."