We've all heard about Craigslist and eBay for buying and selling things online. While eBay is focused on an auction platform Craigslist is about buying and selling locally. Yes, you may be able to sell and buy things on Craigslist but does it really make you want to? The platform isn't visually appealing AT ALL and there's the whole problem of identity. Remember the Craigslist killer!? There's a better way – VarageSale!
VarageSale is platform to buy and sell new and gently used items with your local community. A virtual garage sale if you will. Unlike Craigslist VarageSale is built around trust and real identities. In order to become part of a VarageSale community you must sign up with Facebook. By doing this you are able to see a picture and real name of who you may be potentially meeting instead of a completely unknown stranger.
You won't be contacted by someone selling an item saying they can give you more money than requested (like that's legit) to cover shipping costs like the SO many I've received on Craigslist. I can't count the countless number scam emails I've received from Craigslist. It's crazy! But with VarageSale all members have been vetted by local admins and moderators to help ensure you're conversating with a real people and not scammers.
VarageSale was founded by a former elementary teacher, Tami Zuckerman, in 2012 after she became frustrated using other sites to buy and sell online. She approached her husband, a programmer, and the two collaborated together to create something more user-friendly with a better experience than existing classifieds sites or social networks.
VarageSale has hundreds of local communities across 42 states, and millions of users. Just by entering in your zip code you can find the communities closest to you and join any that you meet the requirements to. As long as you are willing to meet people outside of your specific area you can join as many as communities as you want increasing your selling/buying candidates.
Lucky for me two new communities just opened in my area – East San Antonio and Central SA/Alamo Heights. And with something new comes some perks you can take advantage of.
New VarageSale sign-ups who join a newly launched community will earn $5 for every item they list for sale (up to 25 items). That’s potentially $125 up for grabs!
BONUS: every item listed for sale is also an entry into a state-wide contest to win a family vacation (up to 5 people) to the most magical place on earth in Orlando, Florida (Disney World). Pretty awesome, huh!? To take advantage join these two new VarageSale Communities – East San Antonio and Central SA/Alamo Heights.
Super Seller cash offer available to new VarageSale signs-ups only, and only eligible in new VarageSale communities. Limited to first 100 new sign-ups per community. Disney contest is available to new and existing VarageSale users and is state-wide. Full terms at terms.varagesale.com/tx
I've signed up for three communities so far but to start I picked the closest one to my home. The neat thing is if you sign up for other communities after already listing items to sell in your first community you can automatically import those listings to any future community you may join. It saves a lot of time!
VarageSale is free to use, and available on iOS, Android and online at www.varagesale.com. I am a huge fan of their app. It makes listing items for sale a cinch. With the use of your cell phone camera a listing can go up in no time! And buying items is just as easy. Everything is sorted into easy to read categories.
You even can customize your news feed so that only the categories and items you care about, show up! The app even uses location technology to sort the news feed based on what’s closest to you. Oh, that's right you didn't know just how social VarageSale is.
I like to think of VarageSale as the best parts of Facebook, Pinterest, and eBay with a Craigslist mentality. All items listed for sale within a community go into a feed for everyone close-by to see. From there you can say you're interested in an item, comment, or share the listing. It even shows how many watchers an item has!
The whole platform is so visually appealing making you want to take part in everything that it offers. You want to buy items at a fraction of the retail price (some up to 90% off!). You want to earn extra cash by decluttering your home and selling unused items. You yearn for a notification that someone is interested in your item (you get sent push notifications and emails!). I love it! It's everything I didn't know I wanted in a selling/buying platform and MORE!
I've been using VarageSale for a couple weeks now and I'm in love. I sold my first item in less than a week and can't wait to sell more! I highly recommend VarageSale to anyone looking for a better, more social, ABSOLUTELY stunning selling/buying platform!!
Have you heard of VarageSale?
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