My sons are in a boy scout troop that has The Mother Of All Garage Sales every year in August. It is H-U-G-E. They start collecting in May and use 5-6 giant storage units. It takes a week to set it all up in the parking lot of the church that sponsors the troop. It takes 50-60 people all working for 4 months so you can only imagine how huge. Last year they made $11,000 and they price EVERYTHING to go. The prices are really, really cheap. The troop has been doing this for more than 25 years so it's a neighborhood institution. Anyway, all of that said is it justify my keeping junk for the garage sale. I have a corner of the laundry room devoted to it. I bring boxes home from work and box up stuff all year. And then the se-up week I become ruthless and start culling from all over the house. Last year I got rid of SO MUCH junk - it was wonderful! And the best part is, what doesn't sell goes first to charities. After they take their pick, the the troop goes through and pulls out all the stuff the humane society can use and all the scrap metal, then the rest goes into a dumpster. So NONE of it comes back home with me! After all the work I'm not even tempted to bring home anyone else's donations either. Last year I brought home a paring knife, a hat, and a blanket - that's it. Working the sale also makes me not want to go to garage sales, so I don't drag home unneeded stuff. Anyway, if your friends are saving and really would have a sale then it can be a good thing. It's a great thing for me!

Yeah, watch out for groups who show up at yard sales. Especially groups of men. It is just not 'normal' for groups of guys to go tag sale shopping as a pastime. Groups, any group, often have one try to distract the seller and then the others make their way into the house. If they get caught they act innocent and pretend they thought there was "more stuff for sale inside". Keep doors locked at all times! Shoplifting is common with groups and sometimes they are just caseing the place to come back later for robbery. Do not answer any personal questions no matter how friendly people seem or even if they claim to be neighbors 'from down the street'. "Are you guys moving soon?" "You live in this big house all alone?" "Do you have any electronics/power tools/antiques inside that you might sell?" And DO NOT allow anyone to 'come back later' to buy something. By this I mean, it's OK if they have paid for a large item and set a time to come back for it, but many times after a yard sale people try ringing the doorbell later in the evening or the next day when they think you are alone, because they decided they *really wanted* a certain item after all. Well, too bad! After a yard sale check all your doors and windows to make sure that someone did not unlock or leave one ajar, one so they could come back later. It is unfortunate that is has to be like this but 'better safe than sorry' and 'better rude than raped'.

TAG SALE OVER and a major success!!!!! Thank all of you for your wonderful advice. It was very helpful, and having the best weekend weather in a while was also a plus!! The particulars: We held the tag sale for 2 days - Friday and Saturday from 9am to 2pm. I just didn't want to give up a Sunday, and and been noticing that most people in our area who have sales have been doing the same the last few years. Advertised in our Regional Newspaper - cost $61. Tried to put in what we needed for the basic min. 5 line cost of $45, but by the time we put in the dates, time, several items we wanted to hilight and directions, we went over. Our directions put us over!! (we went with the suggestions of not putting our address but cross streets instead - thanks to all who suggested it as we loved the idea and were only botherd by ONE earlybird the day before - guess it was our FOR SALE sign that gave us away ;; ) We live on a strangely designed street that loops around and intersects with our cross street twice. So our directions read that they had to go to the BOTTOM of the of the cross street. ( Belive it or not my signs had the same directions, PLUS LARGE RED ARROWS POINTING DOWN THE HILL, and some people STILL went around in circles!!!! NO WONDER teachers pull their hair out with some students!!!!! - oh wait, that's another forum, LOL). Also posted on Craigs List. SIGNS: We had LOTS of them! Was able to get a bunch of poke in the ground TAG SALE and GARAGE SALE signs from our agent and I taped my info to the bottom, plus I made more. Used a mega fat tipped permanent marker on 12"x18" poster board. My handwriting is pretty good and I WRITE LARGE!! (those itty bitty signs that people tack up that look like post it notes on a phone pole drive me nuts!!! WHAT ARE THEY THINKING!!!! and they wonder why they only had 2 people at their sale!!!!) Our signs were at both entry points of the main street we are off, at the exits of the highway (connector) we are near and all possible points from the entrance of our developement and directing customers right to our driveway. We put the signs up the pm before, drew out a map before hand and I pencil marked and numbered all of my signs and the map so my DH knew EXACTLY were I wanted them!! ;) and we went over the map. Plus it made it easier to check off when he took the signs down. Didn't put any signs right around our home and at the bottom of the hill until early the next AM, and we made use of our FOR SALE signs by taping up a big TAG SALE on both sides of it. I also kept my signs uniform in look and size, so the TAG SALE letters were all exactly the same size and color on each of the signs as well as the red arrows I added. That way people would not confuse my signs from other tag sale signs. And my TAG SALE lettering matched the lettering on the large TAG SALE signs in front of our house! We brought everything up from the basement two nights before and had it all waiting in our garage ready to be set up. We awoke at 4:30 to get ourselves together and begin dragging out all of our tables, boxes of stuff and furniture to sell. Unpacked all of the dishware, etc and kept the boxes and newspaper together under each table. That was a good idea, because when people were buying handfulls of stuff, we would just grab a box and wrap and pack it for them and they were on their way! We also kept a bunch of plastic grocery bags on hand which was suggested and was also a great help! We place all our our large furniture pieces up front to catch customers eyes. We used our whole long driveway, plus part of the circle of our circular diveway. All our our cars were put at the other end of the circle so we didn't block of the street and people would have not problem parking. It took us a good hour to set up and we did work fast. At first I just unpacked the boxes at each table and later went around to kind of keep like items together. I did have the more expensive pieces set at one table so I could keep better track of them. I marked some pieces that morning but not all - oh, and China Markers, well they don't work very well in the damp cool morning!!! ended up using permanent marker on many china and glass items. Never did get around to pricing the furniture because.............even though the sale was to start at 9am (but I knew there would be early birds).......what I didn't expect were all of the dealers rushing in at 7AM!!!!! I knew there would be dealers, but not that early, and some of them had just come from another sale some 10 minutes away from me!!!!! And this was the part I loved the most!!! My DH and I took bets on which items would be the first to go and how badly did we underprice them and not realize their full potential value. Well, I had a few hidious pieces, and one piece of art that was AWFUL ( I knew the artist and trust me, it was bad!!!!) Things went flying, I started bargaining, and was very happy. NOTE: when a dealer asked you a price, throw it back to them and ask what they are willing to offer and then just double our triple it and work your way down until you are satisfied!!! It works pretty well. (I love to shop and love to bargain. I've done tons of traveling and shopping all over the world, done pretty well for myself and always walk away getting what I want at the price I am happy with and feel was fair!) What is interesting is some dealers are up front with their buying, and others try to make you think they are in love with an item and "have to have it for themselves" and they make you think they are not dealers (those are the ones to watch our for ;) You may think you are selling to a poor helpless grandma, but, not so fast!!!! Anyway, I stood my ground on my prices and basically got wholesale prices for most of my early sell items and that made me VERY happy. (I did research certain items that I felt might have had some value.) I'm am certain, if I hit our large regional flea market this Sunday moring, I will see many of my early sale items up there!! For us to rent a cargo van and drag all of my stuff up there to make a few more bucks, really ain't worth it! And, yes, those hiddious pieces sold, and some for a lot, and the art...............I bargaind for MY price and not the give away price the dealer wanted it for! - trust me, the painting was BAD!!! We did sell a box of old license plates for too little, though. Oh, well, they were given to us by a friend who wanted to unload them and they just sat in the garage for years! Found out from one of the dealers after the guy who bought them left. She asked if there were any porcelain plates in the box, and there were a couple. She said they had value. Oh, well, you can't win them all, and honestly, we really didn't know. After the one hour feeding frenzy, (and btw, all of the dealers knew each other), the "let me get our early and beat the early bird", regular buyers arrived. The pace was steady all day and we ended up closing at 4pm instead of 2 'cause they kept on comming!!! We were very pleased with our first day. Surprisingly, the next day, although we did have a stream of people all day, was pretty slow. The first buyers didn't come till 8:30am and they were just the early Sat. am crowd. The rest of the day was so different than the day before. We honestly expected the Friday work crowd to show up Saturday, but it really didn't happen. I guess it's summer, people are away, and maybe some figured that all of the good stuff was gone anyway, who knows. We still had some good stuff at great prices, but this group wanted you to pay them to buy your stuff - ha, ha!! We again had the mad dash after the sale was over and made out pretty well. Unloaded a few big items we won't have to drag with us, and did better than Mickey D's for dinner!!! I'm a happy girl!!! We finaly had to take down the signs to stop the traffic. I put all the items I wanted to keep (how bad is that!) in a box and boxed all the rest for Good Will and donating the funiture to a local charity. Bottom Line: It was a blast, loved talking to people, got rid of stuff and we made money!!! It also took me back to my old days doing the Art/Craft show circut!! It was fun. Would I do it again, YES..........but not right away!!! Thanks again ALL OF YOU!!!! for all your suggestions and helpful hints. I know it would not have been as successful as it was without all of you on this forum!!! ~L Oh, and next time? I'll just do it one day, the extra $$$ on the second day was not bad, but not nearly as good as the day before!!!

Veer, the 'Red Barn' murder was the subject of a very early silent movie, so it must have been a familiar tale up until the early 1900s. Your Heyer anecdote made me laugh. It reminds me of a similar experience when I bought my very old paperback copy of Peyton Place at a book sale. The ladies taking my money twittered naughtily and one told me how when she was a girl she had to hide her copy in the garage so her mother would not catch her reading it. Alas, though a good (though not distinguished) cook I have yet to back a single loaf of bread. My sense of David's books is that they are filled with fascinating food history, even if some of the recipes are a bit esoteric for contemporary cooks. I have a battered copy of her fascinating slim book Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen. I love reading it, but it is not likely that I will be spicing and curing my own mutton in the foreseeable future.