Garage Sales

Garage sales spoil the look of our city. Why do we allow people to dump their stuff all over their lawns and clutter our sidewalks with their unwanted junk? Messy, dilapidated signs are tacked to trees, telephone poles and buildings. Flags and banners fly across streets and add to the ugly scene. A quiet residential area becomes a nightmare. Children out playing are confronted by strangers. Parents feel uneasy. Parking is impossible. Selling on other than a commercial lot should be prohibited.

Can you make money buying hidden treasures at yard and garage sales, then reselling them? The experts say you can, but don't expect it to be easy. Some advice from the pros: •Focus on a particular type of item. "Start with something you really like and have a strong interest in," recommended Aaron LaPedis, author of "The Garage Sale Millionaire. " "This will ensure that the treasure-hunting process will be much more fulfilling, as well as more profitable for you. " Research your specialty to see which items are most in demand.

A favorite weekend pastime has been preserved in Culver City for those who enjoy strolling through yard and garage sales looking for bargains. On Monday, the Culver City City Council voted against a proposal by one council member to prohibit garage sales within the city's borders. But the council also directed staff to enforce ordinances that prohibit sales in driveways or in front yards and sale signs hanging in neighborhoods.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Cameras can't bring back the dead - or can they? Addison Logan, 13, had broken his arm in a motocross accident and was looking for things to do. So on Thursday, he went shopping at garage sales with his grandmother in west Wichita, Kan. At the third garage sale, he spotted an old Polaroid Impulse - a cool find, given that a lot of popular online photo filters imitate what these cameras used to do. He bought the...

Responding to a complaint about garage sales at multi-unit buildings, Los Angeles Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky recommended this week that the city draft an ordinance limiting the number of garage sales in residential areas. Under Yaroslavsky's proposal, no more than three days of sales would be allowed within a six-month period at each property and no more than two per seven-day period. A resident holding a garage sale would only be allowed to sell used items owned by that resident.

Residents can have more than one outdoor garage sale a year, the City Council recently decided, but they will still be required to pay a $10 fee. The council voted to change the city's municipal codes to allow as many as three outdoor garage sales a year. The former policy of one sale a year had been criticized by residents as too restrictive. The council also decided to eliminate a proposed time restriction of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The City Council has tentatively approved a new law that would penalize residents who have more than four garage sales a year. Under the ordinance, residents would be allowed to hold garage or yard sales if they get a free city permit to do so. Only four permits per person would be given each year. Those caught conducting a sale without a permit would receive a written notice informing them that the permits are required.

Residents whose garage sales get rained out may reschedule them, the City Council declared this week. A year ago, the city restricted garage sales to four weekends a year because some residents complained that they were unsightly and that people were essentially operating businesses disguised as garage sales. But in March, rain fell on one of the sanctioned weekends, causing the cancellation of a number of scheduled sales.

The City Council will discuss an ordinance today that would limit residents to two garage sales a year. The proposed ordinance grew out of complaints that some residents were holding garage sales nearly every week, causing traffic snarls and littering neighborhoods with advertising signs. The council is not expected to take a final vote tonight but probably will schedule a public hearing on the matter Jan. 18, city officials said.

Residents will be allowed to hold garage sales this weekend for the first time since an ordinance regulating them went into effect, a city spokesman said. Code enforcement officials will be out today and Sunday to ensure that the sales meet city guidelines designed to keep them orderly, said Bruce Dunams, coordinator for community preservation. Under the ordinance, approved earlier this year, residents may hold garage sales only during the first weekends of March, June, September and December.

Want to make a few bucks and get rid of your household clutter at the same time? It may be time for a garage sale. Aaron LaPedis, author of "The Garage Sale Millionaire," has hosted some 50 garage sales of his own and frequents them in search of artwork and antiques. Done right, a garage sale not only can generate some cash but also land you a tax deduction. Here's what you need to do to get the most cash from your clutter. Gather widely: The key to getting lots of customers is having lots of stuff to sell, LaPedis said.

Since moving into his sleek contemporary home in the Hollywood Hills a few years ago, Alexis Hadjopulos hasn't entertained much. Hardly anyone has seen the place. But all that may change. A TV crew has been filming Hadjopulos at the house and at his L.A. store, the vintage home décor emporium This Is Not IKEA, better known as TINI. "It's crazy," Hadjopulos says of the reality show in development. "I wake up in the morning, and then they tell me to get back into my bed to film me waking up again.

Molly and Stan Hyman are hitting the road and they've put their garage up for sale. And by the way, their six-car garage comes with a house. The Burbank couple are automobile enthusiasts and restorers who in 1995 custom-built their garage/house to give themselves room to rebuild and showcase vehicles. The building replaced a home destroyed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, said Stan Hyman, a 76-year-old retired hospital administrator and real estate developer. "Molly wanted a new 1930s-style Mediterranean place, and we both wanted good garage space.

State and local governments need money to get through the economic slump, so they're turning to, well, garage sales. The city of Los Angeles is doing so literally, negotiating the long-term lease of parking garages to private operators. And California officials reported Oct. 11 that they had reached a deal to sell the Ronald Reagan State Building and the Junipero Serra Building in downtown Los Angeles, plus nine other buildings in four other cities, to a private real estate partnership.

Robert De Niro slept there. So did Elizabeth Taylor and Cary Grant. But the crowd that gathered Thursday morning to buy up a piece of the Hotel Bel-Air, a longtime playground of the rich and famous, was hunting for bargains, not souvenirs. Closed Oct. 1, the Los Angeles landmark is getting a two-year, multimillion-dollar face-lift. Its owners are selling off beds, rugs, lamps and other furnishings. About 100 people lined up outside a Santa Monica storefront where the items are on display, hoping to get a little stardust on the cheap.

It was a November Saturday in Minneapolis and it wasn't snowing. What else did local sports fans have to do with their time than line up by the thousands for a Metrodome garage sale? With the Twins moving to an outdoor stadium in 2010, lots of merchandise at the Metrodome was priced to move. There were autographed baseballs, banners celebrating Kirby Puckett's entrance into the baseball Hall of Fame, life-sized cardboard cutouts of Kent Hrbek. Some fans arrived at dawn for an event scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. By the time the gates opened, the line of fans nearly ringed the stadium.

Residents who want to hold garage sales must now obtain a permit from City Hall under a new ordinance. The law is an attempt to curb the number of garage sales residents hold in a year. Tony Vieira, revenue supervisor for the city, said some residents were renting out their yards or holding several sales each year, which he said is unfair to the licensed businesses in the city. The permit for a garage sale is $6.50 and is valid for two days.

Re: "More people are selling possessions to raise cash. Here's how to avoid the pitfalls," May 10: I was very surprised when reading Andrea Chang's two articles about garage sales that both of them failed to mention reviewing the yard sale regulations of your local city. Almost all cities in Los Angeles and Orange counties have specific regulations regarding the number of allowed days per year, what can be sold, use of the sidewalk, placement of signs (if allowed at all) and especially obtaining a permit.

The California State and Consumer Services Agency announced Saturday that what officials had dubbed the Great California Garage Sale made more than $1.6 million for the general fund. More than 7,000 people attended the sale of surplus state property in a Sacramento-area warehouse Friday and Saturday, officials said. Thousands of unneeded and unclaimed items were offered for sale, including computers, desks, jewelry and a dental chair. More than 600 used state cars were also offered -- 447 of them online, some signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Unemployment in California is high, which could partly explain why thousands of people had time to line up on a Friday morning to go shopping. Another possibility was the allure of a bargain, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration launched the Great California Garage Sale to unload some unneeded items, cheap. The governor toured the site Friday morning before flying east for the funeral of his wife's uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). The shoppers had waited in the pre-dawn outside the Sacramento-area warehouse.