Yard Sale Permits: Friendly Regulations or a Nuisance?

Recently we incorporated a Garage Sale Permit Forum on our website to share information on laws and ordinances from municipalities across the country that require yard sales to be regulated and where you can expect permit fees to be imposed.

Based on our findings and reader contributions, most garage sale permit fees are around $10 and some allow you to run the garage sale for the duration of the weekend. Ten dollars won’t break the bank but for some garage sales, this could be as much as 1/10 of the event’s profits – hopefully that is the worst-case scenario.

Another common rule we learned about is that many cities only allow two yard sales per household, per year. Perhaps this is a good thing, as most people wouldn’t be too happy if their neighbor was having a habitual yard sale every weekend.

So we ask:

What is your opinion of garage sale permit fees?

Are they worth the “friendly regulation” and possibly avoiding an ongoing unsightly neighborhood scene?

What would be an appropriate fee for most cities?