9 Items You Should NEVER Buy At A North Carolina Garage Sale

As the weather warms up and daylight stretches longer, many are inspired to fling open their windows and engage in extensive home cleaning and decluttering.

9 Items You Should NEVER Buy At A North Carolina Garage Sale

This post-spring-cleaning spree heralds what we affectionately dub "garage sale season." From April to June, opportunities for treasure hunting start as proactive individuals purge their homes of excess belongings. They aim to turn a profit, while you aim to snag some fantastic finds at irresistible prices.

However, before you dive headfirst into the garage sale circuit, experts advise exercising caution with certain purchases.

Read More: The FBI's Most Wanted Person In North Carolina

Here are nine garage sale items you should never buy and why...

9. Car Seats

Graco, a popular brand that makes car seats, wants parents to know that car seats have an expiration date, just like food does. They say that car seats get worn out from being used a lot. This doesn't just mean using the buckles many times, but also exposing the plastic to extreme temperatures, which makes it degrade over time. Plus, safety rules and technology keep changing, so an old car seat might not be as safe as a new one. Lastly, if you buy a car seat secondhand at a garage sale, you might not know if it got damaged in an accident.

8. Mattresses

Experts say don't do it. Why? Bed bugs. If you see rusty blood spots on a mattress or notice a musty smell, it could mean there are bed bugs. These bugs are thin and flat, so they can hide in mattress seams. It's not about blaming the homeowner, because bed bugs can infest anywhere from fancy hotels to college dorms. Once they're in your home, they spread fast, so it's best to avoid garage-sale mattresses. And besides, who wants to sleep in someone else's sweat and body fluids?

7. Cosmetics

If you're thinking about buying used makeup, it's best to avoid it altogether. Once makeup is opened, bacteria and other germs can grow in it, leaving you sick and grossed out.

6. Laptops

If you’ve always wanted a Macbook, what seems like a steal at a garage sale may be too good to be true. The experts say that laptop computers, no matter what the price, aren’t a good garage sale buy. Even if it looks like it’s in good shape, you don’t know how many times it’s been dropped or spilled on. You also don’t know if its internal battery is nearing its end of life.

5. Running Shoes

Buying used running shoes is a big no-no, according to almost every expert. But we don't need their advice to tell you why. We've run enough marathons and half marathons to know that running shoes typically last between 300 to 500 miles. Many fitness apps like Garmin Connect and Strava can track your shoe mileage and remind you when it's time for new ones, to avoid leg, knee, and foot soreness or injuries. When you buy used running shoes at a garage sale, you don't know how many miles they've been through. Plus, we're familiar with how smelly our own shoes can get after a long run. Do you really want to wear someone else's stinky shoes?

4. Cribs

Just like with car seats, safety is the main concern here. Safety rules for baby products are always changing, but if the seller stopped having kids a while back, they might not be up to date. For instance, drop-side cribs were banned in the US in 2011 due to the many injuries and deaths they caused. While US retailers can't sell these cribs anymore, there's little chance the government will intervene in a local garage sale. Even if the crib has fixed sides, it's hard to know its age and if its parts have been damaged from storage. It might also be tricky to figure out if it's been recalled in the past.

3. Used Video Games

When you buy old video games from a store like 8-Bit+ or VIP Game Store, they make sure their games work. If you find out your game doesn't work after you get home, they'll help you fix it. But if you buy games at a garage sale, you can't return them if they don't work. Unless the seller lets you test the games on their game system, it's better to pass, even if it's a game you've been wanting for a long time.

2. Bike Helmets

The advice to avoid buying bike helmets is similar to what we said about baby products earlier. Safety rules are always changing, so a helmet from a garage sale might not be safe enough. It's also hard to tell if the helmet was in an accident. Even if it looks okay on the outside, the inside padding could be damaged from a crash.

1. Vitamins

The main thing that sets vitamins apart from medicines is that vitamins are seen as supplements, so they don't go through the same strict checking process. Many sources, like Reader's Digest and USA Today, suggest being cautious about what's really in those pills. It's been a while since Consumer Reports tested some cheap dollar-store vitamins, but when they did, they found out that the labels weren't accurate. Some pills also took a long time to dissolve in your body, so you weren't getting any benefits from taking them.

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