{"id":198588,"date":"2019-12-03T14:41:53","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T12:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/garage-sales\/"},"modified":"2024-10-28T16:15:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T14:15:45","slug":"garage-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/garage-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Garage Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Cathy Kotze<\/em><\/p>\n

Some emigrants can afford taking their entire household with them when they emigrate, but most of us have to start from scratch.<\/p>\n

Luckily, there are GARAGE SALES.<\/p>\n

This typical North American institution has been the salvation of many an immigrant. Someone else\u2019s rubbish could easily become your most prized possession.<\/p>\n

Canadians and Americans prefer the latest version of anything. After a year or so everything is discarded: furniture, television sets, paintings, stoves, fridges, clothes, toys, kitchenware …<\/p>\n

The solution? Have a garage sale. Place an inexpensive advertisement in the local newspaper, and on a fine Saturday morning you put everything you deem redundant in your garage and driveway \u2013 and wait for the rush.<\/p>\n

This rush is a given, because everyone is dreaming of the bargain of the century. Claire Wiegand-Beckmann of the US bought a small card table for $25 on a garage sale, and a couple of years later it was sold by Sotheby\u2019s for $541\u00a0500!<\/p>\n

When grandpa and grandma depart from this life, their children and grandchildren have a garage sale. All the valuable items they collected over the years are now up for grabs. Fortunately, there always will be those who will cherish such items.<\/p>\n

Dedicated garage sale bargain hunters carefully inspect everything on display. There may be a Rembrandt or an undiscovered Van Gogh among the stacks of picture prints. And who knows, that toddler splash paint picture could be a genuine Jackson Pollock creation!<\/p>\n

Vintage and retro toys are very popular. Furniture to pick and choose. Crockery. Expensive tools …<\/p>\n

The man in my life had to leave behind most of the tools he had collected over a period of 40 years in South Africa. He was heart-broken, until he discovered garage sales. These days his workshop is crammed with only the best, and for most of them he did not pay more than $10 each.<\/p>\n

His collection of cameras is impressive and worth thousands of dollars, but he never paid more than $20 per camera.<\/p>\n

My Noritake dinner set I got for $8. For the three fine Royal Albert tea sets I paid $10 each. We paid $20 for a lovely antique cedar chest.<\/p>\n

We even have constructed our own small weather station from old-style and antique valuables.<\/p>\n

One sometimes tend to go slightly overboard at garage sales. I don\u2019t think we really have to have SIX cuckoo clocks. And I have my doubts about all those magnificent wall-mounted clocks in our own garage \u2013 there is no more space in our home!<\/p>\n

Garage sales have been good for us. So good, in fact, that we have had to have THREE sales ourselves!<\/p>\n