Garage sales booming as recession grinds on

GILBERT, Arizona (Reuters) - Cathy and Malcolm Robbins have held garage sales before at their home in suburban Phoenix. But this time it is not about getting rid of clutter, it's about survival.

A trained nurse, Cathy is unemployed. Malcolm, a self-employed industrial appraiser, is not finding the work that he needs.

"The money we make here is going to be used to pay bills. The checks aren't coming in like they used to," said Malcolm as he sat out among the stuffed animals and nutcracker soldiers on offer as pinched consumers hunt for bargains in the sizzling desert heat.

The Robbins are not alone. As companies fold or shed jobs in the worst recession in decades, a growing number of Americans are saying a fond good-bye to their belongings at garage sales to generate some badly needed cash.

Nearly every weekend, listings appear online and on handmade signs taped to lampposts and propped up on street corners coast-to-coast, jostling for space with those announcing foreclosure sales and bank repossessions.

One barometer of their rising popularity is a three-fold leap in garage sales listings on free online classified advertising service Craigslist in the past two years the firm attributes to the struggling economy.

Alfonso Morales, an "open air market" specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said more and more people are trying to turn bric-a-brac -- miscellaneous small articles collected for sentimental or decorative interest -- into cash to cope with the harsh new reality of lost jobs, slashed hours and dwindling incomes.

"People have always been interested in face-to-face commerce, but they are more motivated now because of tough economic times," he said.

Morales said the items being sold off were often acquired when credit was readily available and the American consumer bought early and often.

BARGAIN HUNTERS

As the downturn grinds on, government figures released Thursday showed more Americans signed up for jobless benefits last week, while consumers spent less while shopping in July.

The Commerce Department report showed total retail sales across the country edged down a tenth of a percent after increasing 0.8 percent in June -- although the ad hoc flea markets such as garage sales springing up across the country are proving popular with buyers.

You can always tell which suburban homeowner is hosting a garage sale: A steady stream of cars park, drivers get out and quickly scan portable tables covered with a variety of items, before departing with a purchase or, just as likely, empty handed.

At one recent sale on a vacant street corner lot in south Tucson, Ariz., passers by picked through a miscellany of old tools, plaster saints and other belongings offered by one struggling local builder.

"There's bargains, and obscure things that you wouldn't see in a regular store," said David Dennison, who paid $3 for a bass relief picture of the Last Supper at the sale, where another man paid $8 for a pool-cleaning hose.

Across the country in Washington, meanwhile, book editor Jay Pennington said pricing was key to drawing buyers to a sale at his sixth-floor studio apartment in the city's Dupont Circle neighborhood.

"People love a bargain ... There really seems to be an appetite out there," said Pennington, who put teaser prices of $2 and $3 in an online listing to drum up interest in the sale.

"I've had maybe 20 or 30 people, not too many at once, but one couple at a time ... I am hopeful that I will sell most of it today," he said as he perched on a chair, surrounded by the shelving units, pictures, plant pots and dishes he wanted to sell.

(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Tucson and Washington, editing by Philip Barbara)