Santa Clarans En Masse Redistribute Goods from Their Driveways

Santa Clara's city-wide garage sale on April 19 brought together neighbors for a good deal and helped one local do some much needed cleaning.

Life-long Santa Claran Susie Hartline got tired of paying $460 a month to rent a storage unit to store all the stuff she no longer wants or needs. So, she signed up for Santa Clara’s city-wide garage sale on April 19 and emptied her storage unit.

It was also an opportunity for her mom, Geri Nunes, to clean out the closets she has been filling since moving into her Santa Clara home in 1979. So, Hartline and her partner, Chris Sansom, hauled boxes of stuff from their Santa Clara house to her mom’s garage.

“It’s a lot of work!” said Sansom.

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They listed their sale hours as 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. But when they opened the garage door to put out items at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, two cars were already waiting to be the first in line for the treasure hunt.

“We’ve had a steady number of people since 7:30,” said Hartline. “It takes a lot of time and energy, but for me, I don’t mind it.”

It got overwhelming tagging so many items with prices, so they ended up quoting prices.

“I just charge what I think is fair. I didn’t have many people haggle,” said Hartline. “They just paid what I told them. If they wanted a bunch of stuff, I gave them a deal.”

It turns out that they seriously undercharged for at least one thing.

“How much for these earrings?” asked a buyer.

“$1,” said Hartline.

“I’ll give you $40,” said the buyer, Jerrid Walker from Michigan.

Walker travels around the county, buying gold jewelry to resell. An honest buyer, he weighs the jewelry and pays by weight. He said that the amount he pays is just under 50% of what he hopes to sell the gold for.

“I had no idea what those earrings were worth!” said Hartline. “Do your research before selling things cheap at a garage sale.”

“This is basically recycling at an economical cost. We don’t charge much money,” said Sansom. “It’s not about money. Even if you don’t make a lot of money, you can transfer a lot of stuff to people who want it.”

Santa Claran Julie Montoya stopped off for a look when riding by on her bike.

“I love riding my bike around Santa Clara, finding estate and garage sales and little free libraries,” said Montoya.

She put a small bag of new treasures in her front bicycle basket and pedaled off to visit her uncle.

“This is a redistribution of possessions that we no longer have room for or want. It’s not a true money-making endeavor,” said Sansom.

Although at the end of the afternoon, Hartline confided that they did “very well.”

This was the first garage sale for Hartline and Sansom since COVID-19. They plan to do it again at the next city-wide garage sale on August 9. The City publishes a map of the garage sale locations—just over a hundred this time.

“It’s free advertising!” said Hartline.

“We sold all this stuff but look how much is still out there in the drive!” said Sansom.