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Garage Sale America [Paperback]

Bruce Littlefield
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)


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Book Description

May 22, 2007

Garage Sale, Yard Sale, Tag Sale, Rummage Sale, Estate Sale, Barn Sale... they all mean one thing––BARGAINS––and America loves them. It's estimated that on any given Saturday, hundreds of thousands nationwide attend garage sales and flea markets to pick through other people's stuff.

Garage Sale America explores this cultural phenomenon of grass roots retailing, showcasing the people, places, and things of this modern– day gold rush, and reveals to readers the secrets to incorporating cheap but chic decorating into their lives. It's filled with funny and poignant stories of buyers and sellers, as well as a wealth of detailed photographs pf sales across America. Pull quotes, sidebars filled with anecdotes and fun facts, tips on bargaining and decorating tips make this an instant American treasure.



Editorial Reviews

Review

“A voyeuristic adventure...irresistible fun.” (Los Angeles Times)

“Take a bargain-hunting trip with American kitsch expert and anthropological voyeur Bruce Littlefield” (Press Telegram)

“Chock-full of amusing anecdotes, photographs and tips for both buyers and sellers.” (Bloomberg News)

“A must have for everyone! GARAGE SALE AMERICA, smile.” (An Open Book)

“A relentless cheerful romp through the backyards, barns and garages of the heartland” (thenewhomemaker.com)

“A photo-packed brag book of super scores and kitchy collectibles with a handful of helpful hints thrown in” (marketingmommy.com)

“A road trip/shopping spree -- what could be more American? And Littlefield is terrific company, too.” (gettrio.com)

About the Author

Bruce Littlefield is a New York-based designer, writer, and restaurateur. Hailed as a "design and lifestyle guru" by Publisher's Weekly, he is the author of the recently published Garage Sale America and Airstream Living, and co-writer of the best-selling Use What You've Got and Other Business Lessons I learned from My Mom with real-estate magnate Barbara Corcoran. Originally from the south, decorating for Christmas is as natural as breathing to Bruce, and each December finds him attempting over-the-top mischief. His personal collection of Christmas treasures can be found displayed proudly every hol iday season in a 1940s Catskills' farmhouse, which he renovated and decorated himself.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 144 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Design; First Edition edition (May 22, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061151653
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061151651
  • Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.5 x 9.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #593,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"Lifestyle authority" -The New York Times
"Modern Day Erma Bombeck" - NPR'S Roundtable
"Garage Sale Guru" - USA Today

Bruce Littlefield is a best-selling author, lifestyle expert, and an arbiter of American fun. He shares his passionate curiosity (and occasional mischievousness) through his books and TV appearances. Bruce has appeared on NBC, CBS, ABC News, FOX News, MSNBC, The Rachael Ray Show, NPR, Sirius, and numerous other programs, and has been featured in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the New York Post, People Magazine, OK! Magazine, Saveur, This Old House, the New York Daily News, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times.

His multi-book brand with Harper Collins is an adventure in American fun: For Garage Sale America, he took a thousand dollars and a truck and set out to see what treasures he could find. For Merry Christmas, America, he hung off light-encrusted houses and hung out with the real Santa Claus. And for Airstream Living, he took to the open road looking for the rolling silver icons. He is also the co-author (with Barbara Corcoran) of the New York Times best-selling Use What You've Got and Shark Tales, co-author of the book My Two Moms with civil rights activist Zach Wahls and author of the first book to read to dogs, The Bedtime Book for Dogs.

Originally from the south, Bruce has designed and owned two successful restaurants, and his personal collection of garage-sale treasures can be found in a 1940s' Catskills' farmhouse, which he renovated and decorated himself.

His latest book, MOVING IN: Tales of an Unlicensed Marriage, is a hilarious and sometimes scandalous tale of the first year he spent fixing up a historic bungalow in upstate New York with partner and NYC broker Scott Stewart.

Visit him at www.brucelittlefield.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/brucelittlefieldauthorpage

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
(12)
4.9 out of 5 stars
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All who have received the book from me have given it a great review too. Craig Hunter  |  5 reviewers made a similar statement
I found my self jotting notes down after page one. Randy P. Deabay  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Finders Keepers June 4, 2007
Format:Paperback
I have a chronic case of disposophobia, or at least that's how Bruce Littlefield would diagnose it. I can't bear to part with old photographs, worn-out running shoes, and a frog collection I've had since college. My favorite store is Finders Keepers, or was, that is, until the local antique shop closed and I bought out half the inventory.

So when my copy of Littlefield's Garage Sale America arrived in the mail, you can imagine where I put it--on top of a great big stack of books I have yet to read, some old, some new.

It wasn't long before its cover cried out to me with its retro colors, Bakelite radio, and funky leopard hat.

I scoured the photo-filled paperback for advice on everything from enamel-top tables to fishing lures and reeled in a lot more information than I bargained for, like tips on decorating, where to find some really hot wheels, and how to run a successful sale. I'm even learning to deal with my affliction, described in the book's glossary as "Disposophobia: the fear of getting rid of stuff, no matter how worthless or how valuable."

Some books may come and go, but Garage Sale America is definitely a keeper.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars 'The Thrill of the Deal' June 4, 2007
Format:Paperback
In Hawaii, HANA HOU is an expression you will hear often....it means, once more, do it again, encore, repeat, one more time...... and so it is with items found in garage sales, yard sales, church bazaars, tag sales, estate sales.....any kind of hana hou sale..... Just because someone is finished with that rocker, it doesn't mean that its life has to end right then.... There can still be one more round left to that old rocking chair!

What your neighbor down the street considers trash can definitely be your treasure....and that is the message that Bruce Littlefield conveys in his newly published book, "Garage Sale America".

From tips scattered throughout the book on how to plan your strategies for your hunt to how to use the treasures after you get them home, and ending with a useful (and amusing) Garage Sale Glossary, this little book can serve as a handy and entertaining manual on how to unashamedly romp through the detritus of other people's lives and score while you're at it!

The perfect gift for those who love to hunt for treasures, whether they are the type who grab the newspaper every single weekend and mark all the sales down, planning their trips by neighborhood....or the occasional shopper who stops on a whim every time they see a "Yard Sale" sign along the road....or the ones such as myself who mark the annual church bazaars down on my calendar....for all of us to whom the thrill is as much in the hunt as in finding that special deal!

There is no stigma attached to finding a bargain in someone else's discards....in fact, the feeling of satisfaction, the ... elation, if you will, when you find just the right item or that last piece of china that will complete the set you started years ago, is hard to describe.

After spending one evening reading this fun and enjoyable book, I started looking around my own home to see what around me could be considered 'found treasures'....and have to admit that a bit less than half was either bought at yard, garage, church bazaar sales or, the best yet, items found through our local Freecycle network or even at the "transfer station" - the PC name for our local dump, ......completely free!

If you love to go yard saling,....if you love to find a bargain,.... if you're looking for the thrill of the deal... you will definitely enjoy reading Bruce's book.

A couple of personal notes: I loved the idea of the seller who invites his best customers (read: bigger spenders), to breakfast before his sales every year for, as Bruce puts it "cranking up the adrenalin while you wait for the unveiling".....and don't miss meeting Wini. I won't tell you where to find her. You will have to hunt through the book yourself!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars garage sale america May 28, 2007
Format:Paperback
I found Bruce's book delightful. It spoke to me about a passion we share, and I learned a few things - me who has been a yard sale, estate sale, auction, dollar store fiend for about 3 decades. Yes, I learned something.

It is not what I expected, though. As a fanatic for old bottles, I know the typical antique books that purport to tell you the worth of things in dollars. They are all wrong. Kovell's, in particular, has the annoying habit of walking into an antique store, seeing something priced at ____, and then publishing that as the market value.

Bruce asks - and I am paraphrasing big time here - "Do you like it?" And the answer is, "Then it has as much value as you are willing to pony up."

Any watcher of Antiques Road Show has also been told this over and over. If something is well-done, then it's good. If it took someone weeks to do, and you can tell they put their heart in to it, and it's selling for $10, and you like it, bugger what Kovell's has to say. Buy it!

At first, I was a little surprised at the amounts Bruce was willing to pay. I was raised Western Colorado lower Middle Class, so keeping expenses really, really low is nano-etched into my red blood cells. I almost always am a bottom feeder at yard sales. But really, people do put things in yard sales in the hopes they'll get $50 for them, and this is an area I have been ignoring. Now that I have a bit of money, why not fly down South with a thousand bucks, rent a moving van and spend 4 days working my way up to Cincinnati through the World's Longest Yard Sale? Keep your Caribbean cruise, your Canadian fishing trip, your Brinks home alarm system. I want to go yard saling in the South for 4 days. Did I say I'm jealous?

What I did not expect, but I probably could have, is this is a design book. Here I've been making excuses for our psychedelic-themed bathroom, and our western-themed coffee room, and our dark and brooding theatre-like TV room. I walk into "normal" people's homes and everything was bought to match. That's design, right? Well, as it turns out, not necessarily. Janie and I found a Picasso print at a yard sale, of brightly-colored stick figures dancing in a circle. We also found a poster of a splat of water on a copy machine, with colored background. They match! It's design.

Another thing Bruce taught me in this book, however inadvertently, is to slow down. The people you meet at yard sales are at least as interesting as their stuff, and you don't have to be racing off to the next sale if you're engaged in a rich and rewarding conversation. If it's all baby clothes and Nascar Budweiser collectibles, okay, move on, but you've been invited into people's lives, and a large percentage of people are interesting. Believe it or not.

We are taken into Bruce's world. Bruce likes to garden, and seized the opportunity to move out of the city. Bruce bounces up and down in anticipation waiting outside a "tag sale". Bruce likes to entertain, and stocks a mean liquor cabinet.

I've always wondered what a "tag sale" is. This book shed light on that. It's an estate sale, or basically any sale held inside where the whole contents of the house is fair game.

The final observation I have about Yard Sale America is this. When I was a kid, my parents had a motel in Colorado, and we had a lot of Texans come visit. One day, I don't know how it came up but one day I was in the lobby and I recommended a book to an older gentleman. He looked at me, took the book and flipped the pages. "Ain't got no pictures", he said. "Book ain't no good if'n it ain't got pictures." Well, this old fellow couldn't read. That made a great impression on me.

He'd like Bruce Littlefield's book.

It's got lots and lots of cool pictures.

Ron Hall (aka: erroneous dot gather dot com)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Item! I am very happy with this purchase!!
Great Item! I am very happy with this purchase!! Great Item! I am very happy with this purchase!! Great Item! I am very happy with this purchase!!
Published 5 months ago by Doug Massarella
5.0 out of 5 stars Love garages sales...love books
Whether you are having one or going to them, there are great tips and ideas in this book for garage saleing and yard saleing.
Published 8 months ago by goodmoodfood
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book
A few years ago, a local talk radio show interviewed the author of this book and I had wanted it ever since. This book is very humorous and VERY imformative. Read more
Published 22 months ago by PrincessK
5.0 out of 5 stars Garage Sale America
Great product. Not just informative but entertaining. Nice to see how it's done in other parts of the country.
Published on February 2, 2009 by M. B. Dodson
4.0 out of 5 stars Great easy reading and entertaining book
This book is excellent for those who want to explore the doldrums of life in the world of garage sales and how quirky it is that individuals invite people into their yards and the... Read more
Published on December 6, 2008 by Richart Ruddie
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read!
For all of us that enjoy the "hunt", this is a fun and interesting book. The pictures are enjoyable and the information is helpful. Read more
Published on June 21, 2008 by Mr. John L. Fiebelkorn
5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun book.
Littlefield hit the nail on the head for me. He gets the same joy, excitement and invigoration out of saling that I do. Read more
Published on January 3, 2008 by Craig Hunter
5.0 out of 5 stars A must for garage sale addicts who also like to travel
If you feel you've exhausted every garage sale in your area and you realize you've visited the same sales four years in a row, then you might want to expand your usual boundaries... Read more
Published on June 10, 2007 by K. Corn
5.0 out of 5 stars Garage Sale America, more than just a book. A review from a reader.
It is a quiet chilly afternoon, and the rain is dripping down. All you want to do is to curl up with a good book, and escape the dreary day. Read more
Published on May 23, 2007 by Randy P. Deabay
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