Perth has a long history of being the home Garage Sale lovers. Every Saturday and Sunday morning, starting as early as 6 am, perfectly normal people leave the comfort of their warm winter beds, or their that lovely cool morning sleep, to drive the deserted streets of Perth in search of the rare finds and bargains of the Garage Sale.

Now to those of you who do not know what a Garage Sale is, a quick explanation – someone decides that they have too many ‘objects’, ‘surplus treasures’ and they need to find them new homes, quickly without having to pack it into boxes and take it to the second hand shops, or to a Car Boot Sale (what’s that? – later). So they move the cars out of the garage, move the excess “stuff" into the garage. They then carefully label all the items and put them on tables, or just pile them into boxes on the floor. They then put an advert in the newspaper and wait for the first caller at 6 am on the morning advertised. It is usually all over by 10 am, so to get a bargain you need to be out and about early.

What sort of things can you pick up at a Perth Garage Sale? Well have a look at the things for sale on http://www.collect-antiques.com/ . These items are a fraction of the bargains that have been found at Perth Garage Sales by the owner of this site, a dedicated Garage Sale Attendee. He buys the Sunday paper on the Saturday night and carefully plans his early morning route. From years of experience he know the area’s that will yield the best bargain, often the suburbs where young single couples have decided to “move in together" resulting in surplus household items, that they are happy to let go for a song. Or the suburbs where grannies and grandpas are looking at moving out of the large family house, to move into the retirement village, and have to sell their life time of collectables.

Of course the ads in the paper do not always indicate what treasures he will find, but an ad indicating pottery and porcelain is always of interest, especially those beautiful little pottery cottages (http://www.collect-antiques.com/pottery/list_of_pottery.shtml ), so are second hand books (have a look at the list on http://www.collect-antiques.com/books/list_of_books.shtml) with the occasional First Edition a prized find.

DVD’s and computer games are always a bargain, after all once people have tired of that movie they are happy to let it go to a new home for a bargain price. And those wedding presents from Aunt Mabel, well what are you going to do with 20 sets of crystal glasses, may as well let someone else enjoy them rather than have them filling up the cupboard.

So if you are a visitor to Perth and wondering what to do at 6 am on a Saturday or Sunday morning, pick up a newspaper, look for the Garage Sale section, and off you go. You could be back at you hotel, or apartment, before your partner wakes up with a selection of bargain gifts for the rellies back home.