Diane Rawls had a lot of experience and success making money from yard sales, until she decided recently to raise money for her daugher's honeymoon.

In the past, some of Diane's yard sales had pulled in $1,800 — collectors flocked to her assortment of depression glass and other antiques, items she and her husband received over the years as aunts, uncles and parents passed away. And Diane was never shy about using newspaper ads to catch the eye of potential buyers. But this time, none of the usual tricks worked. Even the regulars didn't show up.

No one officially tracks garage sale statistics, but Nielsen data shows that online auction site eBay saw traffic decline in April and May 2009 both consecutively and year-over-year. Page views fell 6.8 percent in April 2009 compared to the previous month, and dropped another 7.9 percent in May 2009. eBay page views for May 2009 were down 32 percent from a year ago and were down 40 percent from four years ago in May 2005.

Anecdotally, Diane says people just aren't shopping for things they don't need these days, and that includes extras like yard sale goodies.

Meanwhile, she and her husband are still paying for the wedding, and the honeymoon is still on. They'll try the yard sale again at her daughter's new house just a few blocks away. Maybe when the economy is looking up a bit.