Cayuga County, NY Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Chapter 218 licenses secondhand dealers Countywide, but § 218-4A(1) carves out garage, yard, estate and moving sales, defined collectively as a 'garage sale,' from that licensing requirement as long as four conditions are all met: the seller owns the items being sold or is authorized by the owner to sell them; the sale runs no more than 96 consecutive hours; the same seller does not hold more than three garage sales in any consecutive twelve-month period; and none of the items were bought for resale or taken on consignment for resale.

A seller who exceeds the three-sale-per-year limit, runs a sale longer than 96 hours, or sells consigned or resale-bought merchandise loses the exemption and, under § 218-16, is treated as an unlicensed secondhand dealer subject to Sheriff licensing, fingerprinting and recordkeeping unless the town, village or city where the sale happens already regulates the activity itself. The exemption tracks the seller, not just the sale: a person running a fourth sale in a twelve-month window forfeits the exemption for that sale even if it otherwise looks like an ordinary yard sale.