Online garage sales
The 21st century has brought a new kind of garage sale! It’s the online garage sale, posting to sites where waiting customers review your items and connect with you by email. Virtual garage sales are an easy way to make money from your clutter as well as eliminate unwanted goods.
There are many advantages. Online garage sales are typically free. You can post your item any time day or night. You take pictures, prices your item, and upload your information typically anonymously. Writing a detailed description, including size dimensions, brand, and other details make your item more attractive to buyers. The best way to price your item and see if it is valuable is to check the prices of similar items on E-bay site’s “completed listings” section after the auction has ended. For a local online garage sale any items, regardless of size and weight, can be sold. You can meet your buyer at another location and they pay cash for your item. For national sales, think about the cost of shipping and price your shipping in the cost of the item. Be sure to receive payment in advance of shipping.
In Houston and nationally there are many online garage sales.
- Craig’s List and Ebay are the best known online garage sales.
- Post your item on an local online garage sale. In the Houston area, sites include KingwoodYardSales.com, TheWoodlandsonline.com, houston.bookoo.com or chron.com.
- Use Gazelle.com, a trade-in and recycling firm, that helps sell all sorts of items, from cell phones, laptops and tablet computers to digital cameras and video gaming consoles.
- Sell your used cell phones to www.cellforcash.com to get top dollar for your used phone.
- If you are still wanting to rummage for more traditional garage sales, you can use Yard Sale Treasure Map and Garage Sales Tracker to find a live garage sale too!
As we just had an actual garage/tag sale, I really appreciate all these additional ideas about doing this virtually. What a great list of resources you’ve come up with, Ellen. Thanks so much.
We moved during the winter, when a real garage sale wasn’t an option, so we had what we called an “online garage sale” but was really an email garage sale. We prepared a list of the large items we weren’t taking with us, and emailed it to people we knew. We sold a lot of goods to those people and to their friends. It worked well because we didn’t have to pay for advertising, maintain online listings, or worry about strangers coming into our home.
Thanks for the tips! I have a lot of things laying around the house that I never use, and I am moving soon. So, this post is useful and appropriate timing for me. I am too busy to put on a yard sale, but I will try selling some of my unwanted goods on Craigslist and Ebay.
And thank you for stopping by my blog!
Loved your blog!
Glad to know you are decluttering too!
Good idea! I love that we can use our resources to share our goodies!
Loved looking through your garage sale posts! I know you loved sharing them too!
Huh, would have never thought about an online sale! I suppose having one would also create a sense of urgency to sell something, akin to an auction.
I had never thought about doing a “garage sale” this way – a nice creative twist, thanks!
Thanks Tracy! Making this more of a baby step makes things happen!
Hi Rashelle,
I agree, a sense of urgency can make organizing happen! Thanks for connecting!