It’s almost mid-way through May, which means the 301 Endless Yard Sale is a month away. This year’s 4th Annual 301 Endless Yard Sale, is taking place the third Friday and Saturday, June 17-18, beginning at 7am and ending at 5pm daily.
Planning this event for the hundreds of vendors and thousands of shoppers takes a lot of time and a lot of passion. But, it also means that the Johnston County Visitors Bureau answers a lot of varied questions. One question they decided to ask this year was what is the difference between a yard sale and a flea market? Why is it called the 301 Endless Yard Sale? Why not flea market? Garage sale?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a Yard Sale is a sale of used furniture, clothing, etc., held at the seller’s home and a Flea Market is a usually outdoor market in which old and used goods are sold.
For long stretches of the 301 event, since its beginnings and even now, the sale consists of primarily locals selling items in their yard – furniture, books, toys, clothes, boats. Some local artists sell things they’ve made, like jewelry, or they sell items they’ve purchased and up-cycled themselves.
The 301 Endless Yard Sale did begin and remains partly to this day one big, long yard sale. But, to be fair, it could also be called the 301 Endless Flea Market, because it has organically grown into that as well. There are spots along the route where antique stores, auctions, community organizations, and even unrelated businesses offer up their parking lots and sidewalks to vendors interested in selling goods. Vendors who rent these booths usually don’t have a yard on Highway 301 to sell out of. They are also normally selling antiques, vintage, or handcrafted items as a legitimate business, not trying to get rid of the extra lawn gnome gathering dust in the garage.
Now going into the 4th year of the sale and having expanded to encompass five counties in NC, the 301 Endless Yard Sale is, by definition, both a yard sale and a flea market. Along the 100 miles and over two days, shoppers from near and far can find many unique items.
