In the left corner, covered in dust and good prices, is the GARAGE SALE, and in the right corner, pristinely posed and tagged with market prices is the ESTATE SALE. For one night only, we’re putting estate sales vs. garage sales into the ring and letting you put your bets on your favorite contenders.
After all, how similar are these two legacy sales practices’ stats, anyway? Are they evenly matched, or is one a heavier weight than the other? It's time to settle this decades-old debate.
Estate Sale vs. Garage Sale: Everything You Need to Know
If you grew up in a rural area, then chances are you had to help a distant cousin set up their wares on a Saturday afternoon for a (hopefully) lucrative garage sale at least once in your life. But while garage sales are a commonality across the American landscape, estate sales aren’t as embedded in American culture.
The Set-Ups Are Completely Different
The biggest difference (and you’ll notice it right away) between estate sales and garage sales is how they’re set up. Garage sales are much more loosely organized, with people setting up their wares in whatever fashion they like, pricing them to their own wishes, and waiting for people to stop by and look at their stuff.
Estate sales are more formal. They usually last one to three days during a specific timeframe, where people queue up and wait to explore the entire property. Items are placed randomly throughout the home, priced and tagged. As you find things you like, you grab the corresponding tags and bring them to the organizers, where you pay and collect your stuff.
It’s First Come, First Serve for Both
It doesn’t matter if it’s a family garage sale or a massive estate sale, it’s always first come-first serve. This is why getting in line early at the weekend estate sale or pulling up to the garage sale right as it opens is super important. You want to have first pick of everything that’s being offered, because once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Different People Organize Garage Sales & Estate Sales
Garage sales, being quite informal, are hosted by any number of people, usually the ones whose stuff they’re selling. Meanwhile, estate sales are most often organized by third-party companies because of the tax paperwork and permits that have to be accounted for. That doesn’t mean individual people can’t host their own estate sale, but it’s substantially more difficult to do so.
The Prices Can Differ
If you have any experience with garage sale and estate sale culture, then you’ll know the reputation surrounding them. The popular belief is that garage sales offer cheap products, while estate sales have expensive prices, and this is true to a certain extent.
Estate sales do have higher prices, because the items in the estate are often evaluated on market value. And a portion of the proceeds goes to the third-party company that’s been hired to facilitate the sale. Thus, the markup is going to be higher than something you find at a locally run garage sale, since they’re not individually run, and there's no middleman to pay.
In addition, there are a lot of discrepancies from one garage sale’s prices to another, depending on such things as how often the person host sales, how well they understand finding market prices, and how desperately they want to get rid of their stuff.
Estate sales are trying to make the highest profits for a number of reasons: to settle any debts, give to the beneficiaries of the estate, and to make the third-party organizers a profit. On the other hand, garage sales are self-driven, meaning people are usually hosting a sale to make a little money off of the clutter they were already going to throw out.
You Should Bring Your Own Bags/Transport to Both
The biggest amateur mistake you don’t want to make is forgetting to bring bags and/or transport to a garage sale or estate sale. It’s incredibly unusual for either of these sales to hold items for a long period or help transport larger items to your home.
To avoid sheepishly negotiating with the people in charge, remember to bring bags with you at the very least. And if you’re in the market for a piece of furniture or tech, think about borrowing a buddy’s truck just in case you score big.
You Have to Travel for Both
Since estate sales and garage sales are all on location, you have to travel to visit either of them. Both take place at the actual homes of the people selling things, though estate sales are set on a larger scale, and thus, anticipate a lot of visitors. With garage sales, you might struggle to find parking depending on how busy it is.
Estate Sales Are Usually Better Advertised
Without a doubt, estate sales are, by far, easier to find than garage sales. Typically, estate sales information is listed on specific websites, such as:
Meanwhile, garage sales are harder to find. Sometimes communities or neighborhoods will host a garage sale weekend where anyone in the community can participate. These are the easiest to locate, because they’re normally posted with lawn signs on roads you might frequent or on community socials you might follow. However, part of the fun for some people is hunting garage sales down. Though they can happen any day of the week, the best time to go browsing is on the weekend.
You Never Know What You’ll Find
But we can all agree that the biggest shared appeal of both estate sales and garage sales is that you never know what you’re going to find. Some garage sale signs will list item categories, and estate sale planners will publicize some of their more covetable, pricier items to draw interest. Yet, it’s this mystery exploration aspect that pulls people in time and time again.
Beloved Cousins of the Collectibles World
Estate sales and garage sales might not be as closely related as siblings, but they share enough DNA to be considered the top cousins of this wild collectibles market. If you’re short on time and cash, estate sales might not be your thing. If you’re looking for a well-kept collectible and have the money to fight for it, garage sales might not fit the bill. Either way, the number of these in-person sales just proves that digital shopping isn’t going to kill the joy of discovery anytime soon.
