Yard Sales come from Sweden

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Most Americans know what a yard sale, or garage sale is. Usually they run on Saturday or Sunday, and it is when people sell their crap, er, valuable items they no longer want, to strangers for a bargain price. The name comes from the sale being done in the garage or yard of a home.

Its a pretty cool concept. I love a bargain, and I love junk. So you can’t go wrong. Sadly, when I moved to the Czech Republic, I was deprived of yard sales. They just don’t have them. They aren’t wasteful when it comes to buying things (maybe due to communism and not having things to buy), so they don’t see why other people would sell stuff anyways. And if you did want to sell it, they wouldn’t really buy it. Well, not completely true, because pawn shops are huge. But nobody does garage sales.

Sweden is a completely different story. If you drive around Sweden, soon you will be seeing signs for “Loppis“. There is your typical garage/yard sale. Not necessarily in somebody’s yard (though it can be sometimes), but it is the same concept. People’s junk they don’t want, trying to sell to strangers. The best part is that most of the stuff is Swedish! Woot!

We have a folketspark (people’s park) across the street where we live, where different events are held. And throughout the summer on Sunday, they have a loppis. Today, I went to check it out. Exactly as I imagined it!

Like I said, some things you find at Swedish loppis‘ are Swedish things. Like take this picture of instance. Can you find the Swedish item (I’ve spoken about it in my blog before). Quick disclaimer, may be a Norrland thing, as it is meant for ice!

Swedish Loppis

Or how about this picture? Can you spot the super Swedish item (hint: think of Swedish holidays).

Swedish yard saleAnd nothing completes any event in Sweden without some Swedish godis!

GodisSo back to the subject of this post. What makes me think yard sales come from Sweden? Maybe they were first started in the United States and then brought over to Sweden.

Well, I say they come from Sweden because Sweden is older than America, and there were a lot more Swedish immigrants going to America than Americans coming to Sweden in the 1800’s, so the Swedes must have brought it over. And now I have officially written it in my blog that yard sales come from Sweden, it is now officially on the Internet, and everything on the Internet must be true, right? So spread the truthiness, and next time someone brings up a garage sale casually say “You know, yard sales come from Sweden.”

5 thoughts on “Yard Sales come from Sweden”

    • Yes and no. It is totally, but it also is for just general garage sales (one person selling stuff, instead of a bunch in a market). And therefore yard sales come from Sweden! 😀

      Reply
  1. I’ve never been to a Swedish garage sale, I’ve actually never seen them before here (Göteborg). What I think is really amusing though is the räggare, those guys with the old 60’s cars, playing country music and wearing Elvis hair styles. Who would have known that would be popular in Sweden =D

    Reply
  2. I’m probably not the first person to point this out, but are you sure you want to call yourself missfoster? Is your name miss Foster, or is it a play on “swedishfreak”, because missfoster is not that kind of freak. It’s probably the worst thing you can call someone in the swedish language.

    Reply

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