Yes, you read that right, the $10,000,000 yard sale. Last week at the Lincoln Highway Association annual conference in Dixon, one guest speaker was Mike Hocker, the Executive Director of the of the Ohio Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor, and one of the key organizers of the annual Buy-Way in Ohio. Mike, who says he does not like yard sales, estimates the annual Lincoln Highway Buy-Way Yard Sale brings in an extra $10,000,000 to the economy in Ohio, mostly for gas and lodging, without counting the yard sale profits themselves. Mike convinced the Ohio Department of Transportation to conduct three traffic counts during the yard sale last year. Compared to a ‘normal’ weekend, the traffic is up on yard sale weekend.

The first year, there were 250 sales in Ohio along the Lincoln Highway and it grew to around 1,000 yard sales last year. He and his wife traveled the length of the state, saying hello to as many of those hosting sales as possible. The Buy-Way in Ohio is a well-organized event that takes months of planning by volunteers, advertisers, businesses, and yard sale enthusiasts. An April edition of American Profile magazine which appeared in many of the Sunday papers all across the United States, featured an interview with Mike about the Lincoln Highway Buy-Way Yard Sale. Read the rest of this entry