Have you heard of ongoing town or community yard sales on Facebook?
They are catching on all over the country!
I just recently heard about this mini-version of Craigslist and this past weekend, started one for my town.
I asked administrators of other town yard sales about their groups before I launched this one and the overwhelming feedback I got {okay, from two towns :)} was that I should make this yard sale a closed group, to minimize scammers and issues. Essentially this is an invite-only group, but anyone can join as long as they are invited by a member. The benefit of a Facebook yard sale for a town is that instead of buying or selling from total strangers like we do on Craigslist, all transactions in a town yard sale are in theory friends of friends of friends, and of course all items are local.
Here’s how it works:
To set up a community yard sale:
I selected “Create Group” in the Facebook sidebar. This area allowed me to post a description of the group and invite people to join. I thought about using “community” in the title of our town yard sale, but I didn’t want this group to be confused with a non-profit and mislead anyone that the profits of these sales would be going back into the community. I also put the state name in the title so if someone from Norfolk, MA does a search for this group, they don’t inadvertently join the Norfolk, VA yard sale (there is one already in VA!) Consider the title of your yard sale group carefully.
I invited everyone from my town that I am friends with on Facebook, plus friends that live in nearby towns. These invitees are automatically members of the group. They can in turn invite their Facebook friends to join. As the administrator, I get a notice to add these friends as they are invited and simply click on an “add” button to give them access to the group. Easy peasy. The yard sale group that I started less than 48 hours ago is at the moment 270 members strong and growing by the hour.
I posted rules for the group, along with a disclaimer to protect me as the administrator (see below). I ask each member to read those guidelines before participating in the yard sale.
If you are setting up a site like this, there is some responsibility that comes with it, but it’s minimal (in my experience so far.) Add members who have been invited, check over the posts to make sure it’s all on the up-and-up, and if not, delete.
To post items to the yard sale:
Every member can immediately post items for sale, by adding a photo and description, just like you would in a regular social Facebook post. Interested parties can comment, or send the seller a private message. My new yard sale is already going strong!
So far we have furniture (a beautiful table and chairs for $100!, bunkbeds, desks), framed prints, sports equipment, toys, and even free stuff! Also a few people have thrown out wanted posts (“looking for boys hockey skates, size 3-4”) and have connected with other people in my town who have this sitting in their garage.
Why do I get a kick out of the fact that these people have connected? I don’t know, it’s just cool!
I didn’t even have the cash from the sale of this tray in hand yet {thanks, Patti!} …..
….before I bought this (the very table in my Facebook photo above) with it! {thanks Kim!}
Okay that was fun, now time to sell, sell, sell!!
If you’re interested in setting up a Facebook yard sale like this for your town, here is….
The fine print:
Another town {Canton, MA} very graciously let me copy their guidelines, which I tweaked. If you’d like to use this text, please feel free to copy and edit per your needs!
Please take a moment to READ THE GUIDELINES before participating… thank you!
Welcome to the
xxxx YARD SALE!
**The administrator of this group is not responsible for any sale and cannot be held responsible for any transactions. All transactions are at your own risk. If you would like to participate in the xxx Yard Sale, you are responsible to handle your transactions in a proper manner and abide by these rules.**
This site is for YARD SALE CONTENT ONLY. Please DO NOT ADVERTISE your business or post products sold through your store/outlet. These posts will be deleted.
RULES FOR POSTING:
-Take a picture of your item for sale, post it on the group wall, and include any necessary information in the description of the item/photo.
-If you post an item and someone inquires about purchasing it, please consider them as “interested” and wait for them to pass before offering to next in line. This same thing applies to each person in line who inquires. Give each person 24 hours to pass before going onto the next in line. This will make it fair. If your sale is “best offer”, give the first person in line a chance to match or better the offer.
– Be fair and share: please wait 24 hours before “BUMPING” your posted items, albums, videos to the top of the group wall. Every time a comment is posted under an item, the post returns back to the top of the page. For this reason, we ask that you limit commenting under posted items. Try using private message via facebook, chat, phone, text, email, etc., to contact other group members. General conversation is not permitted.
– Once an item has SOLD, please delete your posting. Find your item on the Photos page, click on your photo, select “Options” under the photo, then select “Remove Photo”.
– If you are posting items from OUTSIDE THE TOWN OF xxxx, please print your town name along with the description of your posted item. If you do not, it is assumed that you live in xxxx.
– No foul language or abbreviated foul language.
– Please do not “flip” items on this site.
– IT IS AGAINST THE LAW TO SELL RECALLED ITEMS.
– IT IS AGAINST THE LAW TO SELL KNOCK OFF GOODS.
**THE ADMINISTRATOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO DELETE ANY LISTING OR REMOVE ANY MEMBER AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON.
Please be aware if you have complaints against you from other members of this group or other groups, the administrator has the right to ban you from the xxxx Yard Sale Facebook group. If issues arise in a transaction, please try to work together to fix it.
Thank you for being honest, fair and abiding by the xxxx Yard Sale rules.
If you have any questions about the set up or use of a Facebook yard sale, send me a message and I’d be glad to help you get set up! {And if you live in or around Norfolk, MA and want to join this yard sale, let me know!}
I have never been more motivated to clean out my basement and get rid of stuff I’m not using – but something tells me there are going to be some more furniture makeovers in my future!
I’m sharing this idea at these wonderful blogs.
