ALLEGAN, Mich. — Garage sale season is officially upon us.
But there's only one wagon sale FOX 17 is able to find locally.
Located at 3333 108th St. in Allegan, you'll find Rich Porter's front yard filled with stuff. Thirty-seven wagons sit outside, for every major holiday weekend in the summer. His sale on Memorial Day weekend will go from 8 a.m.–6 p.m. through Monday.
Rich Porter says he's always loved junk.
“A sickness. Nobody in their right mind would do it, but it’s just something to do. I like junk. It’s just … what I’ve done all my life really,” Rich Porter said.
"Richie," as the neighbors call him, has a little bit of everything.
“I go buy whole estates before they have a sale. I’ll go in and buy everything lock, stock and barrel, haul it home, pile it up and then start it out on the wagons,” Porter said.
His entire front yard is full of items for sale this Memorial Day weekend. Wagons are the most efficient way to put the stuff out.
“It’s the only way you can get this much junk priced, pulled out and ready to sell,” Richie said.
Richie has done the sale for more than 50 years. He's lost count as to whether the official count is 55 or 57 years. But it's a beloved community tradition, nonetheless.
“Most of them are happy. Once and a while you’ll get someone who says, 'Oh, you’re awful high priced.' But I say, 'Go somewhere else and find it.' There’s a lot of things you’ll never see it anywhere. The people I buy stuff from don’t need it anymore. And there’s a lot of stuff out here that if people were alive and using it wouldn’t sell," Richie said.
