Despite the wind and cool temps yesterday, I couldn’t pass by the chance to hit the weekend garage sales around town. Ordinarily, I’m not a big fan of such things since it seems most peoples junk is, well, junk. Now and then while I’m driving around, however, I’ll spot what looks like an interesting piece of furniture and pull over only to find that it’s either outrageously over-priced (and the owner’s not willing to haggle) or it’s a piece of crap when viewed up close.

During yesterday’s outing, I couldn’t help noticing there were far more garage sales than usual, perhaps because so many people are having money trouble in this economy. That, at least, is what the NY Times says is behind the boom in yard sales:

The sales are part of the once-underground “thrift economy,” as a team of Brigham Young University sociologists have called it, which includes thrift stores, pawn shops and so-called recessionistas name-brand shopping at Goodwill.

“This is the perfect storm for garage sales,” said Gregg Kettles, a visiting professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who studies outdoor commerce. “We’re coming off a 20-year boom in which consumers filled ever-bigger houses. Now people need cash because of the bust.”

One thing I did notice, as I went from sale to sale, is how easy it is to tell which houses are experiencing money troubles and which are not simply by looking at what they’re trying to get rid of. Folks strapped for cash aren’t just selling their crap: board games with missing pieces, old paperbacks no one wants to read, broken furniture, etc. They’re selling their good stuff, too.

At one home I found myself lingering over a walnut and brass bar set, complete with four gorgeous bar stools and a full set of glassware, at a price I know was one-eighth of its original cost. I wanted it. I really did, and I was pretty sure I could justify the expense to VH1 by explaining that if we had a bar at home I wouldn’t need to go out to bars. Or something like that.

Ultimately, however, I decided against the purchase. For one thing, I felt strange thinking about profiting so handsomely by someone else’s misfortune. For another, we just don’t have the room in our basement for a full-sized bar like that. Not, at least, until we have our own garage sale, which I’m not about to have since it might lead others to think we’re having financial problems. We’re not (yet) but the way this economy’s going, it might just be a matter of time. And if I sell off our crap today, what will I have to sell if calamity strikes?

Who’d have thought that one day, instead of bitching about how cluttered my house is getting to be, I’d be viewing that crap as an investment?

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