Man gauges recession through yard sales

Tom Zarrilli descends the stairs of a Druid Hills home into a dark, dusty basement strewn floor to ceiling with stuff. Lots and lots of stuff.

To the uninitiated, it looks like one big mess. To Zarrilli, this is a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” moment.

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CURTIS COMPTON / ccompton@ajc.com

Tom Zarrilli photographs Jack Wilkes of Decatur as he rummages through a basement at an estate sale in Druid Hills. Zarrilli has attended such sales for years, but he sees himself as an anthropologist, not a bargain hunter.

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TOM ZARRILLI
Age: 58
Residence: Lake Claire neighborhood of Atlanta
Occupation: Librarian at metro Atlanta elementary school
Prized find: Original Peter Max artwork. He paid $60 for it more than 10 years ago and it's now worth "a couple thousand."
Favorite observation at yard sale: Old bartending guide next to a 12-step book
Toughest yard sale: Kids who didn't want to sell their toys

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An old Royal typewriter next to a spittoon. Old gift wrap. Shelves of college math books. A Burl Ives album mixed in with a Nat King Cole record. A 1949 Emory University yearbook. An ashtray from “occupied Japan.” A hand-crank popcorn popper circa 1935. A couple’s life accumulated over 40 years, now ended by the death of a spouse.

“This is much more of an archaeological find,” he said excitedly, grabbing the camera around his neck and snapping his way through the clutter.

Zarrilli has spent most of his Saturdays for the past 20 years in other people’s basements and backyards, sifting through, documenting — and now blogging — about people’s castoffs. He sees himself as an anthropologist of sorts, not as a bargain hunter, since he rarely buys anything anymore.

His observations offer a glimpse of America’s decades-long march to material excess. And now with the recession, yard sales offer a peek at what consumers are doing to rein that in.

“In America, people are normally very private. You can’t see inside their homes,” Zarrilli said. “They take it out on the street where they have yard sales. There’s books they read, clothes they

wore, videos they watched. It tells us about them and also what they don’t want anymore.”

Or what they can’t afford to hang onto anymore.

That became evident in the past year, after a decade when Zarrilli said he saw “a higher degree of excess.” Back then, yard sales took him into the homes of young, up-and-coming techies who were making money, buying big homes and “designer everything.”

The materialism continued even after the dot-com bust and the recession that occurred after Sept. 11. The housing boom unleashed a voracious appetite for bigger homes and more stuff to fill them. Then last year, he said, things changed as “the market took a tumble and people were being laid off.”

“What’s so shocking is that a lot of people are still in disbelief,” Zarrilli said. “They thought this lifestyle wasn’t going to end.”

Even owners of infills — mansions shoe-horned into older, sedate intown neighborhoods during the boom times — are having yard sales that resemble those in the suburbs.

“A lot more IKEA stuff,” Zarrilli said.

On this particularly sunny but chilly Saturday, Zarrilli is armed with his camera and clad in a black leather jacket he bought a couple of years ago at a yard sale for $10. He hits four yard sales, a garage sale and the Druid Hills estate sale, all before 1 p.m. He gets out early to get a jump on the “hard-cores who pound on people’s doors before you can step on the street.”

Winter is usually a slow time for yard sales. Not this year. Zarrilli said he’s seeing more people unloading more belongings now. Some just want to make a little money on the side. Others want to pare down or move on. Still others have no choice. The yard sale notices, once casual and breezy, have a little more of an edge to them now.

Like the “Help My 401K” sale he encountered not too long ago. And this recent listing on craigslist: Recession sale. Woodstock. Being evicted. Must sell by Monday.

“I’m seeing a lot more of this happening in newer suburbs outside [the Perimeter],” Zarrilli said. “There are a lot more people who seem far more desperate in what they’re selling. It’s definitely reflecting the downturn in the economy.”

In normal times, “you’d have normal things like children’s toys, clothing people no longer are wearing, gifts someone gave them that nobody wanted,” Zarrilli said.

“Now I’m starting to see people really trying to get rid of anything they don’t need — things they could do without that they might not have sold before.”

Musicians Alex Cullen and Ashley Winning are moving to Guatemala and want to travel light. Their Candler Park yard sale drew a steady stream of bargain hunters.

John Hester, a minister and professed yard sale junkie from College Park, picked up a pair of walkie-talkies for his 4-year-old granddaughter for $4. Normally, he looks for “spiritual things, tapes, books” and has picked up a few old Bibles along the way. Nearby, Steve Holton shadowboxed with a boxing alien hand puppet he wound up taking home for $1.

A few miles away in north Decatur Heights, a garage sale turns out to be more of a fire sale on dashed entrepreneurial dreams. Connie Light is trying to unload kitchen cabinets, ice makers, a stove and ornate Italian bathroom sinks. They were intended to be used in a home-renovation company she and some friends were supposed to launch but never did.

“Last year I was buying all this stuff,” Light said. “This year, I’m trying to move it.”

For all the bad news this recession is producing, Zarrilli said it does have its upside: “Recently, I’ve started hearing people ask [each other], ‘Why do you own so much house?’ “

It’s a refreshing conversation, he said, after sifting through years of excess.

While Zarrilli loves going to yard sales, he’s not keen on organizing one for himself.

“I hate having yard sales. They’re a lot of work,” he said. “It’s kind of like the difference between going to a nightclub and owning a nightclub.”

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TOASTERS TO TREADMILLS: AMERICA’S LIFE ON THE LAWN

Tom Zarrilli has been to yards sales here and abroad, including Germany, Ireland and England, where they’re known as boot sales. Along the way he’s collected photos, a leather jacket and a collection of observations:

Yard sale as economic indicator

More yard sales: “Even in the middle of winter when there normally are hardly any yard sales, I’ve noticed a lot more this year.”

More entrepreneurial: People are looking to make money on the side in this recession so they’ll sell new items from their garage.

More urgency: The dire sales are in the suburbs, where Zarrilli says he has noticed more people who have to sell everything.

More collectibles: Comic books, antiques, tools — items people used to hold onto are now up for sale, indicating people “want to make money fast.”

Yard sale as social indicator

Fad diets: As the Atkins diet became popular, people got rid of their bread makers. When the diet fell out of favor, people got rid of their George Foreman grills.

Sports: Treadmills and in-line skates — “you can always tell what sports people have given up on.”

Spoiled kids: People were excessive in what they were giving their children. The spoils ended up in yard sales — $300 science kits.

Downsizing: The recession is making people get rid of clutter and yearn for simpler lives.