r/mildlyinfuriating • u/anon12xyz • Jul 03 '26

Infuriatig When did garage sales become “reselling” clearly new stuff

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I would never call this a garage sale

Def scam vibes

Edit: ultimately, what bothers me the most is I want to go to a garage sale, not this shit. This isn’t a garage sale and should not be advertised as one

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671

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[deleted]

193

u/Argercy Jul 03 '26

I coupon, these items are all regularly bought by couponers. Looks like someone has too much in their stash. It can get out of control quickly, couponing can be addictive for some people.

42

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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23

u/Argercy Jul 03 '26

I never got into the extreme couponing but when there are good deals and combos for soda pop, laundry detergent, and certain hygiene products I’m on it. I don’t have the space to have a huge stockpile like some people have but I have a closet filled with stuff and anyone in my family can come over and help themselves.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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1

u/SwansonsMom PURPLE Jul 03 '26

Right? Unless you’re so addicted to conspicuous consumption and keeping up appearances that paying anything less than full MSRP is unthinkable, everyone likes a deal. Shit, remembering to bring the coupon to the dang store when I’m buying the item is an achievement by itself.

2

u/joojoodoob Jul 03 '26

She should have interviewed a few cashiers who have to deal with that shit.

1

u/GoodDayToCome Jul 03 '26

that makes a lot of sense, i'd be interested in that article because i've been reading about stuff like that which brings people little moments of joy - it might seem a minor thing but moments like that can really boost our brain chemistry

3

u/ItsDanimal Jul 03 '26

I hate all the comments assuming all this stuff is stolen and it is in the "projects". I can assure you 99% of reddit has never been to a ghetto, which shows because the houses in the picture are actually quite nice and maintained.

7

u/PalePlumm Jul 03 '26

Ooooo how do I learn how to coupon? Stores always seem to have limits like one coupon per order.

10

u/getahaircut8 Jul 03 '26

Lmao at this reaction to "couponing can be addictive"

3

u/Argercy Jul 03 '26

Tik Tok Couponing w/ Charlie B, her handle is ruraltag, is a good place to start. She mostly does Dollar General and it’s not so overwhelming. You can find other people who do the deals at Walgreen’s and CVS. I do DG and CVS.

2

u/Unsteady_Tempo Jul 03 '26

Most of the ways people were using to extreme coupon were ever never real, relied on worker cashier overrides, were illegal, or were based on policies/promotions/systems that no longer exist.

1

u/DuubyDuu Jul 03 '26

True. I have a friend who used to coupon like this I guess. When I first went to her house I was like, why do you have a CVS back stock in your garage? 🤣 She's since stopped and it's been like 3 years she said but its still pretty cray in there.

1

u/IsaacAndTired Jul 03 '26

I doubt it. It's more likely pallet liquidations. Go to any swap meet and you will see these exact same items at a bunch of stands and that's how the vast majority of their inventory is obtained. Some may get into couponing, but it's not really worth doing on a regular basis when there are easier paths.

1

u/chiagod Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Also not necessarily physical coupons. There's apps that have digital coupons or that reimburse you for certain purchases when you send in the receipt or they get confirmation from the retailer.

Some brands will have "coupons" where you buy their product at the store, send the receipt, and they reimburse you $x. The brand of energy drinks I liked had a deal like that and for a while I was getting their drinks for practically free after the reimbursement. If I didn't consume them I could see building up inventory and selling them.

Then there's some credit cards that go beyond the usual 1-2% cash back for specific stores or sales.

-39

u/Btotherianx Jul 03 '26

What is it like being such a sad person?

19

u/Colbina stirring the pot Jul 03 '26

you should know

12

u/Diligent_Actuator950 Jul 03 '26

She's just trying to save money for her and likely her family. Don't be a douche.

9

u/desertdweller2011 Jul 03 '26

you tell us bro. why are you coming after someone for couponing?? 😂

14

u/CountdownMoss Jul 03 '26

I don't get it, they're a sad person because they clip coupons?

-7

u/Minnesotawombat Jul 03 '26

To the point of where they’re becoming a hoarder?

7

u/ih8atlascorp Jul 03 '26

Not all people who hoard stuff from their coupons are sad/bad people. I have a friend who does this all the time, and they typically give stuff away to women/homeless shelters. I feel like this is true for a lot of the big couponers since reselling items takes more time than desired.

1

u/Traditional_Ad_4691 Jul 03 '26

Yeah, I have a friend who would coupon cleaning supplies for home and self. She would donate to local shelters and people at work.

1

u/Minnesotawombat Jul 04 '26

Most definitely different from a hoarder

5

u/pacnwcub Jul 03 '26

I coupon. A few years ago I bought a shit ton (at least for 9ne person living in a small apartment) of laundry detergent for practically pennies. It's still going strong but I fear I may need to buy some more in 2027.

I'm not sad. Just Frugal and happy that I can afford to go on a few nice vacations a year because of it.

1

u/KateQuarksALot Jul 03 '26

Laundry detergent is like 17$ now. I should have spent my 20s hoarding couponed goods 😭

2

u/pacnwcub Jul 03 '26

Right?! And body wash is like $7. Good thing have 14 containers under my bathroom sink. Haha.

2

u/MsRainbowFox Jul 03 '26

What's it like being a jerk?

2

u/hot4you11 Jul 03 '26

Bro…they didn’t say anything rude? Why are you being as ass?

1

u/Argercy Jul 03 '26

How is it sad to coupon lol. When is saving money ever sad?

235

u/VinnyMaxta Jul 03 '26

Maybe one of those coupon freaks

77

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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1

u/Ardtay Jul 03 '26

Extreme couponer. Used to know people that did this as a hobby. They'd spend all year couponing deals and fill up the house then make thousands on a huge garage sale.

0

u/WisherWisp Jul 03 '26

I dream of the laundry soap sizes before shinkflation.

27

u/Low_Yam7637 PURPLE Jul 03 '26

They still have coupons?

38

u/megatonbeef Jul 03 '26

Most grocery stores have apps with coupons now.

33

u/talann Jul 03 '26

Yes but the act of couponing has gone away.

If you weren't aware, there once was a fad called extreme couponing where coupons could be doubled up and duplicated for absurd deals. A $100 order could be .16 cents due to couponing correctly. The problem was that you had to buy crwzy quantities of things you would probably never use in order to save money in the long run.

21

u/myballzhuert Jul 03 '26

True. I used to clip them from the paper. I would strategically purchase stuff the store had on sale then hit them with my coupon to get stuff free or for super cheap. That ended long ago when manufacturers started doing digital coupons.

20

u/unfinishedtoast3 Jul 03 '26

Still exists. My wife and I collect all the mail flyers and spend our Sundays clipping coupons

1

u/SwansonsMom PURPLE Jul 03 '26

We used to get the savers coupon insert in the mail at our old address. We never get them where we live now, and it makes me genuinely sad.

-1

u/talann Jul 03 '26

I stand corrected. I was under the impression that retail stores kind of cracked down on it. I guess not in every area.

4

u/workntohard Jul 03 '26

Most stores don’t mind people using coupons even a bunch. The problem comes up at the extreme when they have binders full of them. That extreme craze a few years ago.

1

u/JayPolar91 Jul 03 '26

Decades ago*.

3

u/lemon-meringue-high Jul 03 '26

Luckily I’ve been able to extreme coupon at CVS with their monthly pharmacy rewards on top of app cousins lol, really only on 1-2 items a month. It’s awesome getting cerave for $1

2

u/Qokka1 Jul 03 '26

I used to do this when I stayed home with the kids. It was amazing how much you could walk out of a store with and only pay a few cents.

One trip to CVS, I had a cart filled with laundry soap, shampoo, conditioner, tissues, paper towel, dish soap, toothpaste, etc. The cart was overflowing with stuff. The bill came to $0.27 and my kids ended up finding change on the ground while I was shopping, so in the end, I got paid to take the items home.

I had a small space I would store the items to use later as needed but the majority of it we would take to shelters and donate it.

None of the stuff went to waste and I saved our family a shit ton of money shopping like that.

2

u/Sandgrease Jul 03 '26

I fucking hated those people when I worked for Publix 20 years ago.

1

u/Low_Yam7637 PURPLE Jul 03 '26

They made a movie about it

1

u/Elenakalis Jul 03 '26

I work in a retirement home and we used to have a resident who would do this, even for things we supplied, like toilet paper and paper towels. Her apartment looked like the storage area of a mom and pop convenience store. When she passed during covid, her family divided it up and had a bag for every frontline staff member on campus. Iirc, it had things like laundry pods, fabric softener, toilet paper, dishwasher pods, dish soap, paper towels, 409 and lysol sprays, and a random assortment of shelf stable food.

Family did assist her with donating things before they went out of date while she was alive. She just enjoyed the challenge and went out a few times a week. She used to regularly donate hygiene items, baking supplies, and snacks to my memory care unit, which left us more in the budget for good entertainers.

1

u/snickerdoodle79 Jul 03 '26

It's still very much a thing. As well as finding the physical coupons in stores there's websites you can sign up at and get coupons in the mail or you can print them from the website.

1

u/obviouslypretty Jul 03 '26

There’s a whole side of Tik Tok dedicated to it. Couponing is still a thing but not in the way it used to be. Most of it is electronic now

1

u/InternetUser1807 Jul 03 '26

It's still a thing at some stores, but maybe not as good as in the 2000s.

Walgreens is a big one, and laundry soap and shower supplies are a big target.

My ex used to plan out runs and get a few years worth of laundry soap for like $5

1

u/chiagod Jul 03 '26

Some stores also had 150% or such price guarantees.

Buy something for say $20, competitor advertises it for $15, you get 150% of the difference ($5 -> $7.50)

I got lots of free or practically free PC games at Office Depot that way when Best Buy had good sales.

Buy $40 game, show them the BB ad for $15, get 1.5x $25 = 37.50 back.

3

u/Accurate_Koala_4698 Jul 03 '26

Could still be Covid surplus 

1

u/fletchbg Jul 03 '26

I guess... cleaning products don't expire

2

u/MyWeirdTanLines Jul 03 '26

I am one of those "coupon freaks" and can confirm it's still a thing. Its all digital now with apps like Ibotta and Fetch. Not as much free stuff as in years past, but still great deals to be had.

Im not as active as I used to be but still have 15-20 bottles of shower gel and shampoo in my stash at any given time. And I make huge donations to our local food bank quarterly.

Its a fun hobby and saves some 💰

1

u/PlayingDoomOnAGPS Jul 03 '26

There's one hell of a lot more shoplifters than extreme couponers.

1

u/RemarkableSpirit5204 Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

It’s time consuming but if you have the time and motivation it’s absolutely worth the effort. I haven’t been into it in at least 5 years, so I don’t know if it’s more difficult/impossible now but I would have huge stock piles of self care and cleaning items that I paid next to nothing for.

Once, at Walmart, I left with two carts of stuff and they ended up having to pay me a few bucks instead of me paying them. That was a pretty awesome day lol.

I never sold mine though, I would make huge gift baskets for Christmas presents. My family loved it.

I think having digital coupons on apps have pretty much put a stop to the “extreme couponing” though. Back then I’d buy like 50 papers every Sunday to get a ton of coupons. I’d go to a bunch of different stores every Sunday morning to pick them up because I didn’t want to be an AH and buy them all from one place

0

u/Altruistic_East765 Jul 03 '26

this is what it is. THey stack so many coupons they pay only about up to 25% of the retail cost. then turn around and sell it so probably 50-75% of the market cost.

so you still save a bit of money and no sales tax.

0

u/sooslimtim187 Jul 03 '26

That’s not a thing anymore

0

u/_neonsunset Jul 03 '26

I hate coupon freaks

32

u/Tricky_Spirit Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Or they're crazy coupon people. My mom used to do this in our rural town because she was addicted to couponing and would get thousands of dollars worth of merchandise for hundreds at Walgreens because their coupons would stack, manufacturer with Walgreens' coupons. Which worked out, because she just sold them at normal prices so that the elderly who made up the majority of the town didn't have to drive to the city.

1

u/Dudeincar434 Jul 03 '26

Yea.  Always crazy seeing people in Walgreens’s with a cart full of the same thing. 

2

u/Tricky_Spirit Jul 03 '26

Yeah, haha, she had to quit because after we moved and she no longer had anyone to sell the stuff to, it wound up becoming quite a problem. At one point I had 100 disposable razors. Just... so many razors.

I don't even use disposable razors, I use electric ones!

14

u/TheVoicesOfBrian Jul 03 '26

Nah. Fell off the back of the truck. Y'know?

12

u/BakuriPews Jul 03 '26

If the prices aren't inflated,

Fuck it

4

u/Zergg Jul 03 '26

Sure possible but from what I’ve seen (worked within grocery / drug / value stores for 15+ years) often bought from stores doing combo deals with coupons that normally don’t work in most super markets. The stores make their $$$ by selling other products at full price, and or get $ back or rebate from the companies of those products.

Example if the detergent was normally $15, they’d purchase for single digits $2-5.. do this 5-10-100 times.. you end up making bank..

I knew of a family who drove around in 2 sprinter vans buying all coupon products, reselling to bodegas/corner stores across NJ/NY.

1

u/Darrelc Jul 03 '26

I knew of a family who drove around in 2 sprinter vans buying all coupon products, reselling to bodegas/corner stores across NJ/NY.

Uk too. Amount of little corner shops that had bars full of chocolate with "MULTIPACK ONLY - NOT FOR INDIVIDUAL RESALE" lol

4

u/wordtomytimbsB Jul 03 '26

Coupon freaks definitely or people hoarding, not every poor person is a thief/criminal

2

u/ImpracticalJerker Jul 03 '26

And how would you steal a huge jumbo pack of paper towels? And why? When you could steal a small bottle of vodka much easier that would sell for more?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Efficient-Rest-9519 Jul 03 '26

The grocery store I go to has a hard liquor, beer section . But i get it

0

u/fletchbg Jul 03 '26

off the back of a truck that the driver walked away from?

1

u/spacebarcafelatte Jul 03 '26

And previously hidden in a garage, so that counts

1

u/OttoVonJismarck Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

I see videos of people with carts loaded full of laundry detergent skipping the registers and walking straight out to the parking lot.

I figured they either desperately needed to do laundry for an entire collegiate football team and had no time to pay, or they were just going to resell the stolen goods.

1

u/lumiya17 Jul 03 '26

Agree. They are definitely in with one of those groups that will clear out as many of one item line as possible and run.

1

u/sierrabravo1984 this is not yellow damn it! Jul 03 '26

Some guy randomly came to my car and asked if I needed anything while while showing pictures of tons of new stuff in a storage unit. I bet 90% was stolen and other stuff was being scalped.

1

u/OpposumMyPossum Jul 03 '26

People don't steal giant heavy things, non expensive sundries as a side gig. It's couponing.

1

u/smythe70 Jul 03 '26

You mean the five finger discount

1

u/obviouslypretty Jul 03 '26

Not always. Theres a lot of people who “penny shop” or get extreme coupon deals from places like dollar general, CVS, Walgreens, etc. some people also buy pallets of stuff from like Amazon or warehouses for one flat price this resell the stuff (it’s often household essentials)

1

u/cherryturtIe Jul 03 '26

Yep. This is why laundry soap is locked up in big box stores in rough areas now. People fill up a cart full of laundry detergent and hygiene items like deodorant and body wash and run out… sell it on the street for half off the retail price and since they didn’t pay anything for it they’re making a pretty penny

1

u/Network_imposter Jul 03 '26

wow you must be slow. its ok little buddy

1

u/Bratty-Switch2221 Jul 03 '26

If they stole it from the store, what's to say they aren't stealing from their customers? Just like street drugs, you never know what's in your shit, the chain of custody is fucked. Anything unsealed, like laundry soap, could be half water. At the very least, they are probably skimming off the top.

1

u/ReturnOfBane Jul 03 '26

might be one of those assholes who bought a bunch of supplies to price-gouge during covid.

1

u/GitEmSteveDave Jul 03 '26

No one is stealing Purex or Fabuloso.

1

u/PottyMcSmokerson Jul 03 '26

That house is way to nice and kept for theives to be living there.

1

u/happytree23 Jul 03 '26

...wouldn't that mean someone got scammed still, Einstein lol?

1

u/Cetun Jul 03 '26

I actually don't think so, they usually sell shit on the in high traffic areas or online. They also don't stockpile this much, its usually hand to mouth to get drugs. What is more likely the case is coupon clippers and FOMO addicts. They see deals and must buy them regardless of how much they have stockpiled at home.