Customer Reviews

Garage Sale America

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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.

I enjoyed Bruce's book much more than I expected to.The stories and backgrounds made me feel like I was along for the ride. The photos are awesome and I could hardly sit still thinking about all the treasures I might be missing while I sat reading in my rocking chair about the treasures Bruce and his friend discovered.

If you are a garage sale fanatic, a fan of The Antique Road Show, or just a 'people person' you will enjoy this book. I plan to buy copies for friends and family as Christmas presents. What a treat it would be to read this book while curled up in front of a nice warm fire this winter. Letting your mind wander to the treasures that are just waiting to be discovered when Garage Sale season starts again in the spring.

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!

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)

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 and consider branching out to other states. If so, you can't do much better than this book, which includes a calendar of some of the more noteworthy sales across the country, as well as other major garage sales. You might consider bringing a U-haul along with you if you have a tendency to go overboard and buy everything in sight.
If you like this one, you might also consider:

Garage Sale & Flea Market Annual (Garage Sale and Flea Market Annual)

This book is such a fun read. The first part is an adventure around the country looking at everything from garage sales to barn sales and the stories are often hilarious. The characters the author meet always have a story (and often have a steal!) He also talks of collectors of things as diverse as fishing lures and Barbies... with really neat facts. (Who would think a marble would be worth $3000!!!) Then, the second part the author shows how to incorporate these found things into an incredible home. The photos are stunning. And in the back is a list of major garage sales all around the country, including the world's longest and the world's largest. A really fun great summer read!

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. Picture a friend stopping by and sitting down with you and taking you on a most wonderful voyage through time, place, and through many adventures. That is what will happen when you sit down to the 132 page Garage Sale America book by Bruce Littlefield.

Many wonderful photos that will bring back so many happy memories can be found throughout this book of more than just garage saling. We start off with a most wonderful story about why Bruce decided to become a garage sale fanatic. The pictures and neat side notes to keep in mind are all well organized, and fun to read and remember. I found my self jotting notes down after page one.

Garage Sale America is very intriguing, while it entices you to go just one more page, then one more, and before long the book is complete, and you are sitting on your sofa smiling with a really nice warm feeling. Not only does Bruce describe his adventures, but he has brought the reader along with him. Small giggles here and there with just enough comical relief to say, yup, I know that feeling, and oh yes I remember those.

Garage Sale America is not only a wonderful story, but one full of great ideas, great ways to shop, and what to do with those old memories once you have them. After reading through the short but wonderful adventures, you can look over a list of the larger yard sales throughout the country all listed on 8 pages for us to check into. And the jargon used by garage saling folks is a solid 4 pages of meanings that Bruce has happily included.

Food, travel, great buys, and memories that just make you smile, how could anyone say no to that? Once you pick up and open the pages of Garage Sale America, you will not be able to put it down. Whether you are an avid garage seller, buyer, or just want to remember, Garage Sale America is definitely a book you will want to own. You will read it, and then take time to check out the wonderful pictures, and then reread it again so you miss nothing.

Garage Sale America is a great book to own, and to look through not only today, but any day you just want to smile, remember, and hang out with a great friend...


Randy D.

The Maine Poet

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. As an avid garage saler, I want to tell you that this book is filled with many tips, hints, and good old fashion advice for sellers and buyers alike. Whether your are new on the selling scene, or a pro, this book is definitely a must-have.

Great product. Not just informative but entertaining. Nice to see how it's done in other parts of the country.

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 items they have to offer. The pictures and reading are helpful and enetertaining. To find my local sale I always use Http://www.garagesalestracker.com