To get a permit for a yard sale, you have to go to the mother ship. Park in the back. Having found a place to park, go through the double doors and turn right into the construction/code department. There you will find a counter, and at the counter will be guys wearing work boots and holding papers in their hands. Behind the counter are ladies who seem to have different tasks, but you can’t be sure whom to talk to. Ask one of them to give you an application for a Garage Sale. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a garage. Nobody knows what to call these sales in the Grove.
The Mother Ship (Neptune Township)
The form has 3 pages, but the print is large. You must have your block and lot number, but if you don’t know it, there is a large book there where you can look it up.
So I filled it out, but no clerks were present to take it from me. Soon a woman came to the counter and she said, “Who’s next?” Since I was next, I handed her the packet. She looked at it and, without a word, laid it on the counter and moved on to a guy behind me with an electrical permit in his hand. I felt smoke coming out of my ears, but oh well, I guess I’m chopped liver. Soon another woman appeared who took care of me. I gave her $10.00 and got the permit.
You have to sign twice to prove that you were informed of the law. The pertinent ordinances are printed on the form. I assume that if you break the law, it wouldn’t matter whether you signed or not. Oh well…Anyhow, here’s a run-down on the rules:
If you put a sign or flyer on a telephone pole, the fine is “up to $1,000.00.” We don’t know what “up to” means, so you had better keep the big number in mind. The next section makes it clear that you cannot post notices of any type on “any structure, fence, rock etc.” The “etc. is mine; you need to go down there to read the entire ordinance if you want to know all the details.
Then you are advised that “a license shall be valid for a single premises (sic) only. Participants in a block sale, multiple yard sale
or group sale must each obtain a license.” You can figure this one out as it pertains to “premises and participants.”
Also: You may only obtain two garage sale licenses within 12 months, and the sale has to be between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
Additionally, no signs may be placed in the ground. It sounds like you may have to use your imagination to promote your sale. I wonder if the realtors posting open houses know these rules. We suggest hanging your virtual sign for free on Blogfinger. Or you can pay for an ad in the APP or hang a banner from an airplane. You can consult your lawyer to find out if you can post flyers on your own house. Or, as our neighbor did, stand a sign on an upside down garbage can. Send us your ideas for posting signs without risking a fine.
And finally, join the 13 premises/participants who have signed up so far for our town-wide yard sale on May 12. Contact Eileen (Blogfinger@verizon.net) so we can include you in our fliers with addresses that we plan to hand to shoppers at all locations. (We hope that is not illegal.)
—Paul Goldfinger, licensed official seller of garages.
I don’t remember the guy on Main, but I remember the folks from the old boarding houses on Main stealing stuff from basements and backyards and then selling it off of the porches and at the curb. I especially liked when they offered to sell me back my bike for $25 and when I declined, offered to throw in my boogie board for free.
EDITOR’S CLARIFICATION: At the top of the Garage Sale application, it says ” Garage sale shall include {sales} whereby used items owned by the residents of the premises are offered for sale on the premises.” This would suggest that if neighbors get a sale together at one location, that perhaps every participant would need a license.
But I have spoken today to Noel at Code Enforcement who assures us that only one license per address is required, regardless of who is selling items at that location. PG
I don’t think the issue was the quality of the ‘guy on Main Ave’ wares. There are more appropriate (and legal) venues for selling antiques every weekend than in front of a residence. Obviously multiple people complained. Because let’s face it, the township wouldn’t react with establishing an ordinance if it were just one complaint. We are talking about the Neptune Code and Construction Department here. Their wheels turn very slowly…….
Another thought is perhaps the OGCMA themselves complained. Remember, that grass strip belongs to them.
I lived next door to the “guy on Main Ave” years ago before I moved (just a block, still on main lol) -don’t know who complained about his sales. Definitely not “shanty” stuff. If anyone did have an issue I am sure they would’ve spoken to him directly. It was a great block to live on (for several years) as all the neighbors knew each other and got along. Crazy notion, actually talking to your neighbors.
OhGee : If it was the guy on Main Ave. across from Firemans Park you are referring to, then I do remember that. Had very pricey high-end items for sale. No junk. Antiques and collectibles. Was not noisy. Classy. Do not understand why his neighbors or Neptune got fed up or minded.
Bullets : So what is so wrong with folks selling stuff and having a yard/garage sale more then twice a year? Every day or every weekend might be too much(although I don’t think average person would do so) but only twice yearly is restrictive and unfair.
Stuff sold at yard sales is not commercial. Actually I find items found at yard sales to be way more interesting then most of the generic made-in-China crap sold by the commercial retail stores on Main Ave.
To be anti-yard sales is downright un-American. I am so sick of the manicuring and sterilization of OG.
“Crap up the town”? “Having the town look like a shanty with rummage all over it”? “Tables of unwanted trash”? As the saying goes. “One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.”
In this economy, why crank about people who want or maybe NEED to sell their unwanted whatever for a little extra cash? The shoppers surely aren’t complaining. And who knows, some of them might be tourists who will contribute to the Grove’s commercial district. Any problem in that you crankers?!
Leave a table or chairs on the curb and its just bulk; put a price on it and it’s a yard sale. Nothing looks worse then having a certain resident who sets up tables of his unwanted trash every weekend.
look at the house on Mt Hermon & New York Avenue who leaves children’s toys in the street to save spots; all they have to do is put a price on it and it’s a yard sale.
If there were no limit, what is preventing everyone from selling stuff every weekend? Every day? When does it become a commercial buisness and not just cleaning.
Frank S, the ‘twice a year’ rule was initiated because not too long ago there was a guy on Main Ave near the park that was having a yard sale practically every weekend during the summer. His neighbors and Neptune got fed up. Unfortunately, one bad apple can, and DID ruin it for everyone.
Bullets : Yard sales do not make ” the town look like a shanty.” Actually most OG yard sales are quite organized, neat, and attractive looking. I feel they make our towne warm & inviting, friendly & social, and quaint & olde fashioned and thus in keeping with the character of our towne.
Indeed I love yard sales because it gives me the opportunity to meet fellow Grovers from all over towne who I might never meet otherwise. I get to chat with and get to know them and vice versa. New friendships are made & old ones renewed.
About those regulations….
This is what happens when “Big Government” gets involved with facets of everyday life. They want to control everything that happens on your own private property.
Only two garage sales? How kind you are Neptune. What if you are moving out and have a lot to get rid of?
First garage sales, then what? Slippery slope folks, slippery slope.
Chuck: No one complain? In Ocean Grove? You must be new here
Frank: The fee is to discourage people from having yard sales every weekend and having the town look like a shanty with rummage all over.
So if I decide to participate in this garage sale I would be allowed to only have ONE more garage sale during the year?
There are two antique shows on the Pathway each year and one craft show. All of them bring in thousands of people, so I would think these shows would be most profitable to have my garage sale, but according to Neptune I can only participate in only two. How kind of Neptune.
It’s not that I would even have two garage sales nor do I have the items or time, but to be limited to only two by Neptune urks me.
If you could crap up the town (all of Neptune) every weekend, even every day, by having a Garage Sale, Porch Sale, Sidewalk Sale, whatever, of any kind of stuff they want to put out, I cannot begin to imagine the howls of protest to do something.
Some people were making a business of running such sales regularly in residential areas upsetting the neighbors. I see a problem in need of a solution. Ordinance anybody?
Having to pay a fee to Neptune for this permit is a rip off. Unlike a construction permit, there are no inspection(s) involved. What costs does Neptune have? None. If anyone can give me a valid reason for Neptune to charge a garage sale fee I would love to hear/read it. IMHO it is yet another ridiculous rip off.
It’s a shame all these guys with their Junk Car signs and the like are ruining garage sales for regular folks. Though I will say it is nice to have town look cleaner than its looked in years.
(I also strongly suspect that if you got the signs out early the day of the sale and brought then back in before Monday AM no one would complain. *wink wink, nod nod* )
Editor’s note: If anyone knows what the “junk car” reference is all about, please make a comment. Maybe he is referring to those who make a regular business having yard sales each weekend, but technically, that is illegal. PG
You are too funny!!!!!
How about a ” Moving Sale”? Sell it out of a “Moving” truck, lol!!!
Editor’s note to Sir Laughalot: Reading your comment has been a moving experience. PG