If anyone tells you otherwise, they are trying to hoodwink you.

Unfortunately for the local cities trying to squeeze every last drop of money out of people, a garage sale hardly qualifies as "interstate commerce".

Now, this does not mean that they will not try to bully you into going down and getting a garage sale permit or that they will not issue you a fine should you hold a garage sale, it simply means that they have no lawful right to do so.

What they are doing is simply trying to intimidate people into paying them extra taxes in the form of permit fees.

They have tried to tell me that I can only hold three garage sales per year without a permit, but I hold them whenever I want to and completely ignore them.

How I deal with a government agent who comes to my garage sale and tries to tell me what the law is:

First, I do not give them any information about me whatsoever. Sure, they know where I live, but without a name they have to do extra work and are generally too lazy to do so.

Second, if they try to tell me that it is "against the law", I ask a couple of quick questions to let them know that I am not your average submitizen:

1. What is your full name?
2. Who do you work for?
3. Do I know you?
4. Please provide me with the section of the constitution that specifies that "free people do not have the right to hold garage sales", the contract between me and (his employer) where I have agreed to hold no garage sales without a permit, or the section of the constitution that clearly states all people are slaves of (his employer) and must obey it.
5. What cause of action am I being charged with?
   

Usually they get a bit mad at that point and storm off. If, by chance they ever send a policeman around to write me a "ticket" or access me a "fine", I will do exactly the same thing to him.

And should he decide to arrest me, then the fun will start in ernest.

Common sense dictates that if you want to sell your own things and you are doing so on your property without harming others, you have every right to do so.

Of course, your mileage may vary if you do not know what the law is, what your rights are, or what your relationship with your city hall officials is.

The first thing to comprehend is that any "law" passed by a city ( more correctly, a dejure or defacto municipal corporation ) that is not clearly enacted to protect all of the people must necessarily be a private law rather than a public law.

As a private law, it can only apply to employees of the corporation. Unlike normal corporations, municipal corporations have various levels of employees, one of which is called "citizen".

Of course, the people who run these cities and whatnot would like us all to believe that anything it claims to be true is the truth. However, they tell us the truth right up front by how they name their laws. Ordinances are weapons. More specifically they are silent weapons for quiet wars. They are designed to attack your rights while appearing to protect us from each other.

You can see this clearly once you understand the real law of the land in this country that was overwritten by the current crooked system of commerce we live under long ago. That law was purportedly that you were free to do whatever you wanted so long as you did not harm others, their rights, or their property. That law is where "ignorance of the law is not excuse" comes from.

So, when you have a garage sale are you:

• Harming someone else?
• Trespassing against someone elses rights?
• Harming someone elses property?

If the answer is not to all three, then it is perfectly lawful to have a garage sale whenever you see fit.

However, in order to stand up to those who would oppress you, you must know who you are. You must realize that you are not their citizen, they are your servants. You must overcome your fear of their threats.

Once you have the proper mindset and know that you are not who they say you are, you can easily break any ordinance that it not inherently criminal with impunity. This is because ordinances are not laws, they are weapons.

If you are being harassed by people claiming to be from the government and they are telling you that you cannot have a garage sale, you need to learn the rules of the commerce game if you want to beat them.

While it would take far too long to outline the entire thing here...and it would not help until you took time to verifiy it and know it to be true, here are some tips that work great when dealing with anyone claiming authority over you.

Tip #1: Admit Nothing

Do not admit to anything. Do not provide your name, do not provide any license or registration, do not help them prove their case against you in any way. You have the right to be silent as well as the right not to testify against yourself. Use them both wisely.

Tip #2: Never Disagree. Agree conditionally instead.

When you are told something that you know is false ( or suspect of being false...or even suspect of being true ) by anyone who you do not trust, do not disagree with them.

Disagreement is controversy. Disagreement is dishonor. Courts can only have any power to adjucate when there is a "case in controversy" before them. Why give yourself an opening to be invited into court?

Rather than doing so, simply note that you are unaware of any such "law", but will admit to the existence of it once the following conditions are met:

1. The law is proven to exist.
2. It is proven that the law was signed by your expressly authorized representative ( I don't vote ).
3. It is proven that the law applies specifically to you.
4. It is proven that the law is valid under the constitutions.

Tip #3:Learn court process

Doing so will help you know exactly how to do things such as bring suit against an official and get void judgments dismissed.

Also, realize that the actual law in this country is whatever the supreme courts state that it is. You cannot trust anything written in a statute or ordinance. If there has been no supreme court ruling on something, then it is an unknown and, until a case concerning it makes it to the supreme court, any action taken concerning it will have unknown results.

Because of this, if you can do things properly, governmental agencies will drop all charges if it appears that you have a chance of winning and are willing to go all the way to the supreme court. They do not like the idea of risking that a judge will rule their edicts unconstitutional or illegal as that would force them to give up some of their cash cows.

Tip #4 : You can do that which you fight for with knowledge

The reality is that unless you spend the time to learn what is really going on, you will continue to be the victim of various parasitical laws passed for the express purpose of making other peoples wallets fatter.

I wish that we lived in the "land of the free" where justice left the honest alone and dealt judgment equally without regard to status...but the simple fact is that we do not. In america, some men and women rule other men and women and treat them as indentured servants. This will not change until we start shedding our ignorance and forcing them to do what is right.

If, like me, you have a ton of odds and ends that you want to get rid of and find yourself holding garage sales on a semi regular basis, you might consider getting organized and holding a virtual garage sale.

Basically, set up your own "store" online and, time permitting, start adding items from your garage sale to it.

When looking around for someplace to sell ( provided you aren't comfortable setting up your own site and shopping cart ), you might want to consider what you are looking for.

For my purposes, I wanted something low cost and simple and ended up using a site that allows me to do the following.

• Let me post items up for free, paying only when they sold (if at all)
• Let those shopping know if I was local and give them the option to pay online and pick up their stuff.
• Put the prices I want up, but let people make me an offer on either individual items or groups of items.
• Get free items that are available to those who make a purchase.
• Chat with those that are looking at my stuff, if they are inclined to do so.
• Not pay taxes to other men and women.

So far, it has been excellent and the people have been great.

The only down side is that as I have garage sales I need to note down anything that I have sold which is online and delist items as I sell them. Not a big deal if you have a laptop...but even a simple list on paper works well.

If the city you live in claims that you must get a license to do business in order to hold garage sales, polilely ask them to provide you with proof.

Typically, such matters are in the "city municipal code".

Where I live, they claim you have to get a business license in order to hold more than three garage sales per year ( the period changes depending on the city employee making the claim ). However, when you look up the code, it does not exist.

If, however, you voluntarily go down and get a business license to hold garage sales then you suddenly become subject to the rules of business.

If a "code" does actually exist, read over it carefully and check every word in the code against Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 6th edition. Seriously, every word.

Keep in mind that law works as follows:

• All people are subject to natural law.
• People become persons by joining a society.
• All persons are subject to their societies generally applicable rules.
• Persons submitting an application for registration are volunteering to become subject to the rules of those they submit to.
• Persons claiming to be the citizen of a corporation become an object/thing as a matter of law.

Going and submitting an application for a permit to hold a garage sale is seen as volunteering to become subject to the municipal corporations garage sale edicts. Don't let them fool you.