Garage Sales

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Rochester, as a city with relatively low rent rates, and several colleges, has a lot of moving in/moving out going on year round. There are a lot of opportunities to get good stuff at garage sales, especially in the suburbs to the east, where some of the 'Super Suburbinates' live.

Garage sales in Rochester do not have hard fast rules of etiquette. Bartering is allowed (and encouraged by "die-hard garage-salers"), though many people in Rochester don't seem to realize that you can. You should try bartering at garage sales in the area, if not for the sake of saving money, at least for the sake of watching people's reactions.

An important idiom to take to heart while shopping at garage sales is "the early bird gets the worm." Even if a garage sale is advertised to begin at nine or ten in the morning, people will show up at quarter to eight or earlier to camp out and wait for stuff to be put out or the garage to open. Regardless of whether things are priced yet or not, once that garage door opens, the sale is on, as far as garage salers are concerned.

Garage sale leftovers often end up at area thrift stores, such as Goodwill and Salvation Army, or by the curb after the owner tries selling it for a weekend or two.

Several progressive and community groups hold garage sales, but at the moment, there is no central list of them.

Garage sale aficionados often look for church sales and neighborhood sales. Why go to one garage sale when you can go to a combined sale held at a church or other building, or a block with 5, 10 or even 50 garage sales, including lemonade stands, hots, and baked goods. Perhaps the best neighborhood sale in Rochester is the biennal Browncroft Sale in the North Winton Village neighborhood, by only offering this every other year, the residents have plenty of time to gather stuff to sell. Riverton in Henrietta also has a big annual neighborhood sale in May.

The 19th biennial Browncroft Neighborhood Association Garage Sale returns this year, Saturday and Sunday, May 2 - 3, 2015. We expect 200 sales on 18 streets within BNA's 1 square mile, which includes the area bounded by Merchants Road, Browncroft Blvd., Route 590, Blossom Road. and Winton Road. Registrant lists of sale items are available for online public browsing on our web site: [WWW]http://www.browncroftna.org The site also provides additional details (i.e. application, parking, hours, maps, and the "what and where" of the sale. This year, 4 Port-a-Johns will be set up for the convenience of shoppers.

Neighborhood Sales

Online Listings

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