Lake Havasu, Friday morning, crack of dawn: Early risers are cruising neighborhoods in search of deals among the plethora of yard sales around town. And yes, the number of yard sales in Havasu is as common as an out of state license plate in the Albertsons parking lot in January.
But ask one of the locals that have been here for over a decade and they’ll tell you that the number of yard sales is definitely on the decline. It’s not that people have less “stuff” they want to sell, it’s just that they have gotten savvy in how they sell. The Salesforce Definition of Ecommerce outlines how it’s about making transactions online, without a yard in sight. Social media has become an effective way to sell unwanted items. Potential buyers can go online in the comfort of their homes and search out those hidden treasures. In addition, all of the haggling can be done online and you can pick up your prized purchases at your leisure. Yard sales can be a great way to bond communities so you should consider giving them a go. You could make the most of storage sheds to store your stall equipment as well as the things you wish to sell.
One popular venue for online selling can be found on Facebook. Maddy’s Attic and Danny’s Junkyard are popular buying and selling social media groups. In fact, it is such a popular way to sell items that there are three Maddy’s Attic Facebook groups locally. Clarissa Cox operated the original Maddy’s Attic II after moving to Havasu in 2011. “I first met a Moms Club in Lake Havasu so I could meet other moms—swap stories and clothes,” states Clarissa. “I no longer run the local Maddy’s Attic, as I’ve been so busy raising my family, but in its heyday there were over 300 members. There were enough people to make it a fast and fun group, but not enough members to make it too dramatic. I miss those days!”
While Clarissa’s purpose for her site was to sell and exchange baby clothes with other moms, the site quickly grew into a site where people sold all kind of things—anything that people didn’t want was up for sale on Maddy’s Attic. Since Clarissa’s departure, there has been no lack of interest with many sites actively selling on Facebook.
An actual website, Craigslist.org offers another venue for online buying and selling. While this website behemoth is available throughout the world, a quick search on Mohave.craigslist.org will produce local results where you can haggle for all things from small, everyday items under $10 to houses, cars, motorcycles and just about anything you can think of.
Another venture that competes with the yard sale is the Lake Havasu Sunday Swap Meet. As the name implies, the swap meet is open every Sunday from Labor Day weekend until Memorial Day weekend. Located along the London Bridge Road in the London Bridge Shopping Center, you can find all sorts of items, including jewelry, plants, car parts, kitchenware, picture frames, sunglasses, clothing, yard art, pets, spas, albums, tools…a treasure trove of items with hundreds of vendors.
Yard sales will probably exist as long as there are garages (and there are a lot of them in Havasu). Quite frankly, many people enjoy the chase of getting up early and driving around town looking for that one-of-a-kind item. For others, social media has created a shop-from-home, 24/7 way to satisfy all of your yard sale urges.
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