What do you love about having a successful garage sale?
Obviously, making some money, and getting rid of things you don’t want anymore.
What do you hate about having a garage sale?
Obviously, having to set it all up, hang around waiting for people, clearing up afterwards, and the fact you can’t even have one unless you’ve got enough stuff to sell.
There’s a new idea online that gives you all the things you love and none of the things you don’t. You can just hold a virtual garage sale, make some money and get rid of things you don’t want, without any of the things you hate.
“What’s a virtual yard sale?” you ask?
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It’s basically a yard/garage sale you hold online, but obliviously you won’t be selling stuff to people thousands of miles away, you just deal with local people.
Now there are a few ways to do this, like holding a Facebook yard sale that I talked about a while back. But there is also another site that is strictly focused on making online garage sales as easy as possible.
The website is called VarageSale.com.
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So, What Is Varagesale?
VarageSale.com is simply an online marketplace where you can sell stuff that you would put into a garage sale, but do it from the convenience of your computer.
It was started in 2012 by someone who didn’t like the difficulties of existing online marketplaces, and decided to simplify the process.
It is local, and it determines from your ZIP Code where the nearest VarageSale community is based.
They say they have more than 300 communities set up at the moment. You use your Facebook account to register with VarageSale, which tends to discourage outright scammers from logging on.
They also have an app for both Android and iOS devices that make it easy and quick to set up a virtual yard sale.
Here are the links to the app:
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How to Hold an Online Garage Sale
The site (and by extension the app) is very easy to use.
Once you’ve registered you simply have to gather all the items that you no longer want, and post them online. It may help to save time if you group together similar items and offer them as a lot, although you could probably make more money listing them one by one, provided they all sold individually.
When someone’s interested in something you’re selling, they will send you a private message and you can negotiate.
The sale is strictly between you and the buyer, and VarageSale takes no further part in the transaction.
Once the sale is agreed, you have to arrange to meet, being cautious about your own safety.
Although the Facebook registration should discourage bad people, you still have to act responsibly. You might choose to meet in a public place, such as a Target or Walmart parking lot, and could even take along a friend.
You should also be cautious about accepting anything other than cash.
Benefits of Using VarageSale
There are several advantages to using VarageSale over other forms of online selling:
- they don’t charge any fees – most selling sites like eBay charge a percentage or a flat rate.
- listing is generally much easier than on other selling sites, you simply take a picture of the goods and write a short description.
- it seems easier than selling on Facebook, and keeps your selling separate from any social networking.
- unlike Craigslist, you have at least some idea of who the people are, as they had to use their Facebook identities to register.
Final Thoughts
There aren’t many easier ways to sell unwanted items.
It’s amazing how much stuff you have that you never use, and if you look around your house with a critical eye, you’ll find uncluttering can be exhilarating as well as profitable.
A few years back, my GF and I held a garage sale where we sold our unused stuff (clothes, books, shoes, hand tools, etc) and in one weekend we managed to earn a little over $1000.
Although it was well worth it, the hassle of setting things up and after all that work, end up with some garage sale leftovers at the end of the day is a little too much for some people. So using a service like Varagesale to hold a virtual online yard sale is a great way to avoid the hassle and still make money.
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