Selling a lot of things at once can be a daunting task, no matter how you choose to do it. Many like the yard sale route which always seems to be pretty effective. However, that option isn’t always available. Sometimes you don’t live in a prime location or it simply isn’t the season for yard sales. So what do you do then? Well, many move to one of the two popular online venues: eBay or Craigslist. I’m going to let you in on my new method of selling that doesn’t involve either of those. In fact, I owe all my thanks to Tumblr.
Yep — I created a blog dedicated to selling my possessions. eBay and Craigslist are both great for many different, specialized cases but they couldn’t handle everything I needed to sell. Because my list of things for sale was so broad (think everything from mixing bowls to peripheral cables to children’s instruments) it didn’t seem likely I’d find a buyer searching for them over the great digital planes of eBay or Craigslist. I wanted to create a single location where people could begin to browse maybe for one thing, and then stumble upon another and decide they need that as well. Additionally, I will be constantly altering the list (adding and subtracting) so I wanted to create a place where everyone can easily see what is and is no longer available rather than constantly update Craigslist postings.
Here are some steps to help you set up your own:
- Decide what you want to sell as well as take photos of the items. This process is crucial since presentation is very important. You can often very easily convince people to buy something through a persuasive image. It doesn’t even need to be staged or highly elaborate. Place your possessions on an unobstructed table with a clean background and photograph them in sunlight. I swear they’ll look many times better (see examples).
- Choose a blog platform to work with. I like Tumblr because it is an easily editable, searchable, and linkable platform. Many people have followed my blog through Tumblr as well as reposted my links which only means more advertisement for me.
- I selected a theme that was minimal and seemed conducive to selling items. I also tinkered with the CSS a bit in Tumblr’s customization window. I wouldn’t recommend this unless you’re familiar with coding. Since there are so many themes available at least one should suit your needs without any tweaks.
- Create a new page in your theme which will be the "Information" page where visitors can understand what you’re doing and how to contact you. My page briefly explained the reason I was selling my things (moving), that I was willing to sell both in person and online, that items will be updated frequently so people should check back often, and provided an email address to contact me.
I have hosting and a domain name, I chose to create a subdomain for this blog as well as a custom email address to be used exclusively for deals that way I could keep everything straight. Even if you don't have your own domain name, I highly recommend making a new Gmail account or similar free account. It is going to be much easier to manage the responses when you don't have to sift them out of your personal account.
- Begin to insert your items one by one (one post per item). Use a strict format that will remain continuous and is easily readable. I like to keep my descriptions very brief (1-3 lines) in bullet point format. No one wants to read a paragraph about why they should buy a medium sized mixing bowl from you. State the price, flaws or highlights, and you’re done.
It is important to note that some of your items will probably fetch a higher price on eBay. For instance, I had some rare records that I knew would draw some high bidders so I simply listed those few records on eBay and provided a link in my blog.
- Once you have input some or all of your items, you can begin promoting it. I made a large Craigslist post and filled it with examples of things for sale (and did plenty of name dropping to hit good keywords) and provided a link to my website. Additionally, you can post flyers around town such as your school or coffee shops. I also promoted my blog through various message boards I’m a member of. Once you begin leaking the information out bit by bit, you’ll be surprised how quickly word of mouth can spread.
- It’s good to have some kind of analytics system behind your blog so you can track who is viewing it and where they’re coming from, etc… I highly suggest Google Analytics. Their free service does a stellar job at recording my traffic and statistics.
That’s basically it. Once purchases come in, of course be punctual and friendly in your responses. If you treat people well they’ll probably turn around and recommend you to your friends. And remember to mark sold items as such on your blog. I wouldn’t recommend deleting them out right. It is nice for people to see past things that were available because a) it shows that people are successfully buying from you and b) it can give people an idea of the variety of things you have to offer. If you only have 3 things posted on your blog when someone visits, it may not bring many people back. I also recommend listing things as “pending” if they’re pending a sale. This could prevent a lot of questions about an item that is already spoken for.
This is in no way a promotional stunt for my own blog so I won't be linking it here. I’m happy to answer any other questions about the process, however. My 3-week-old blog has been very successful with people from not only my city but across the world already purchasing many items. It may seem a bit strange at first but I'm living proof this method can work. Frankly, I believe many people are growing tired of the typical Craigslist/eBay model and the more personal, customized, and friendly approach a unique blog brings will often draw people's attention.
Good luck with the digital yard sale!
(2nd image: Flickr member CaptPiper licensed for use under Creative Commons.)
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Hello,
Interesting idea. But how do you manage shipping fee ?
Thanks
I've used Gazelle for electronics a few times when I didn't want to use eBay. However, their rates are usually far lower than what you'll get on eBay selling it yourself. If it's something that has very little value, then I'd use Gazelle since they just send you a paid shipping box. But for anything of value I use eBay.
I've been wanting to do something like this for a while, so I opened up my store on a wordpress site: joeforsale.com
Thanks for the tips!
@ MrBoris: I typically use one of the USPS flat rate boxes so I can give accurate shipping quotes. No one seems to mind the prices. Also, it is key to ship out in a timely fashion 90% of my shipments go out same day or next day. This is a really important feature because many people want things as fast as possible and if they get them quickly, they're more likely to recommend you to their friends!
Also, ALWAYS get delivery confirmation when you ship. It is only an additional 79 cents and it gives the buyer a tracking number so both of you know where it is.
@ Joseph Rosario: Awesome! Best of luck.
Failing the above, you can always open you own free shop quickly and easily on http://shoply.com
Great idea! Even though your reason for writing this was NOT to advertise your site, would you be willing to post the address? I'd like to peruse it and get some ideas. Thanks.
@ dschaller: Thank you very much. I'll provide it here because it is out of the original post and I hope it can inspire you:
trade.othercommunications.com
If you have any questions specific to my site, I'd be happy to answer them. *You will note the top navigation bar is not yet working. I'm still trying to find the time to set that up.
for the categories to work: in the code for your menu section you need to change the link from "/tech" to "http://trade.othercommunications.com/tagged/tech"(or whatever you tagged the post as)
its a pretty simple fix.
@ _uncanny: Simply brilliant!! As you can tell, I'm a newbie coder. Merci!
Great post. Tumblr is indeed a great platform for something like this. Did you use Paypal or something else for payment processing?
@ washburn112: Paypal all the way due to it's ubiquity, ease of use, and protection policy for seller and buyer.
Really enjoyed this. So smart. Much easier, too, I think than EBay and CL. Done them, laborious. This makes much more sense. Do you just invoice the customer for the price of the object(s) plus shipping, and then ship when payment is complete? Thanks for the great detail!
@ KFitz: that is exactly right. So far most of my deals have been in person, but whenever someone would like me to ship something, I quote them on the price, they pay me through Paypal, and I ship same or next day depending on my schledue.
You're correct — it is very simple and quite fun actually. It is much more personable than eBay and strangely enough, Craigslist too. People have been much more conversational with me during our exchanges. I think people can associate with this unique way of selling items, so they're more open to talk about how they stumbled across my site, or what they plan on using the items for.
haha schedule** — don't know how I screwed that one up!
@other : Thanks :)
Wait...how is this without using craigslist? Didn't you just slap your stuff up on a webpage and then post the URL to craigslist?
@ eeka: You're over simplifying my instructions. Firstly, when I speak of eBay and Craigslist, I'm referring to their sales model. I wanted to introduce a new avenue for getting rid of a wide variety of possessions as efficiently as possible. Yes, I recommended that once the blog is complete, people use Craigslist as one of many ways to promote the site. I've made one Craigslist post since I began my blog. It doesn't need to be entirely dependent upon CL as its only source of traffic. Out of all my sales I've made, about 25% or less have been thanks to the Craigslist listing.
Alternative to estate sale or auction? I'm curious on thoughts of using this or some other medium to liquidate a loved one's estate after their passing. An estate sale or auction seems outdated and seems like there would be better options such as a website to liquidate items. Thoughts?
Sales model? I get the eBay thing, but isn't the sales model on Craigslist that you post pictures of your stuff and people contact you? Which is the same sales model you're using? Plenty of people post a redirect to pictures slapped up on their own site rather than on CL.
I'm curious; are you actually collecting data as to how the people state that they found your page, or are you just looking at site stats? I just looked at the stats for a page that was specifically a photo dump for a CL item, so the only place I had put the URL was craigslist, and only 30% of my traffic came from CL according to site stats. This means that people bookmarked the URL and referred back to it or e-mailed it to themselves or whatever, or possibly forwarded it to a friend, but it doesn't indicate that my page was anything other than a CL photodump.
I think your tumblr is snazzier than a simple CL ad, and likely to get you more business since standing out as nonsketchy is a plus on CL, but really, I'm not convinced it's anything other than a regular photodump like other people use. If that's not the case, tell me how other people are finding the site.
High five for owning The Life Aquatic. Love that movie.
Another alternative to CL and Ebay is www.krrb.com
I've used http;//krrb.com too and it's super easy. Only problem is-- there's lots of great stuff that you might want to buy on there as well!!
ooops, I meant http://krrb.com. darn fingers 'aint what they used to be!
Thanks so much for this post! We had been struggling with how to hold a yard or garage sale when we have neither a yard nor a garage. We set our online garage sale up on Wordpress about a week ago and have sold several pieces already. The Wordpress platform is very easy to use and has built in site stats, which is cool. I publicize it by putting ads for what I think the popular items will be on Craigslist, which generates lots of traffic. I also posted a few links in my Facebook timeline and asked friends and relatives to spread the word. Thanks for a fantastic idea!
Is your site still operating? Link doesn't work, and I'd love to see it.