For Fun and Profit

Garage sales are to be found in virtually all American communities, conducted and attended by a complete cross section of the populace. After discussing the evolution of the garage sale, its transformation and institutionalization, this article presents elaborated typologies of modes of garage sale participation. Roughly ranked by degree of economic rationality, the typologies demonstrate the complexity and contradiction of modes of garage sale participation. The garage sale is born of affluence, the rise of disposable consumer goods. But, it is argued, the garage sale and other forms of informal economic activity constitute survival strategies utilized by an ever-widening range of participants spurred by long-term economic crises.