The Simplest Way To Sell Your Stuff: Easy Ways To Hold A Virtual Yard Sale

Do you desire a simple way to resell your items? Hold a virtual yard sale on Facebook. Bless your friends with great prices on things they might need, earn cash, and get rid of clutter– it’s a win-win-win. And if you rather not sell to friends, this article shares other ways to use Facebook plus several other free apps and free websites to sell your items virtually.

How I Created A Virtual Yard Sale On Facebook

I don’t know how often I have heard my friends say after I tell them what I sold at my yard sale or on eBay, “Oh, I wish I would have known you were going to sell that; I would have bought it.”

So one day, when I was getting ready for an upcoming Craigslist clearout, I decided to take all the photos I had taken of the items and create a virtual yard sale on Facebook.

Don’t worry if you don’t want to bother your friends with an online yard sale on your personal Facebook page; I will also go over other ways to sell your items online in this post.

Steps To Creating A Virtual Yard Sale Using Facebook

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1. Gather Your Items

I have a great resource that is free for subscribing to my newsletter list that will help you go through your entire home from attic to basement and everything in between, decreasing your home’s clutter while building up a pile of lots of items to sell.

Here is the blog post that goes with the free printable that provides lots of tips and tricks to help you gather as many items as possible.

This blog post will help you decide if the items are worth your time to sell or if you should perhaps give them away or toss them in the garbage.

2. Clean Your Items And Take Great Photos

This step is crucial for selling items fast and for top dollar. Make sure you take the photos in good light, with little in the image’s background and from various angles.

Check out this post for more tips that will help you get top dollar for items you want to sell.

3. Create An Album On Facebook And Upload Your Photos

The first time I did this, I created an album labeled  “Things Headed to Craigslist.” I later re-labeled the album “Virtual Yard Sale” and found I got more response–probably because it shouts, “I am selling these items!” better than the first title. You might want to be even more obvious and label the album “Items for Sale.”

I have seen some people create a group or event instead of an album, but I think an album gets seen by more people. Those who are not interested in my items can scroll on by.

A new album can be made on both the desktop and the app versions of Facebook. They keep changing where it is offered, so it might take a bit of hunting to find it. Currently, it is under the photo tab on your home page on your desktop, and in the app, you will find it by clicking on the area where you would make a status update and then clicking the “album” tab in the top corner.

4. Describe Each Item In Great Detail

In the description area of each photo, I added as many details about the items as I could, including condition, measurements, age, brand, size, and price.

Be honest about the item’s condition; if the desk has a few scratches, take a good picture of them and include them in the listing. This will save you and the buyer time. Once they see the item in person, they will see the flaws you tried to hide and more than likely not buy the item as they will rightly feel cheated -this wastes their time and yours.

When you show the flaw in the photos, the potential buyer has a chance to figure out if they are willing to fix the item or live with it as is. When they contact you to buy it despite the damage, you will have a firm buyer –resulting in only having to set up a time to sell the item once.

5. Share The Album More Than Once

I shared the album just once a day, at various times of the day, for an entire week. This way, the album had a better chance of being seen by more people, including the early risers, the afternoon “baby is napping time for a break” readers, and the night owls.

Each day I showed a different picture as its album cover. Each time I posted it, I talked about the item on the cover in the text box above the shared post.

6. Keep The Album Current

When someone asks a question on your listing, try to answer it as soon as possible. If something sells, change the description to SOLD (and yes, do use all capitals) instead of taking it down immediately so that it might catch the attention of more friends who might then look at what is left for sale.

Remove it from the album twenty-four hours after you have marked the item sold.

7. Do What You Can To Increase Engagement

The more comments and attention the album gets, the more Facebook will show it in the feed, thus giving your items more chances of selling. So do what you can to attract your friends’ attention as they scroll through the feed.

If you don’t care as much about the final selling price of an item, you could try attracting more comments by listing the items up for auction. Each bid a friend places is interaction on the post and will help other friends see the album.  To ensure things don’t sell for a penny, you could start the bidding at a few dollars below the lowest amount you want for the item.

8. Set A Time Limit

If you shop “in-person” yard sales as I do, you probably know about the awful perpetual yard sales. These are sales where people put out the same stuff year after year or week after week if their subdivision allows it.

Don’t be a perpetual virtual yard sale. Put in the album description on Facebook an end date for all sales. I usually let mine go on for a week, sometimes two, and usually, by that time, I have at least half my items sold, if not more. I then give what is left a chance on Craigslist, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or in an in-person yard sale, and after that, it’s off to the thrift store they go.

The Benefits Of Selling Items To Facebook Friends

You know these people in real life, so there are no worries about stranger danger. 

There is a greater chance that you cross paths with these people in real life throughout your week, which makes arranging an exchange of the item easier.

There is greater security in accepting other payment options besides cash or cashier’s check, such as Venmo and Paypal.

You can accept a personal check from just the right friend, but always as a last resort. Checks can make for an awkward situation should you lose it and have to ask for another one. If their check bounces,  you may feel like they should notice without you telling them and promptly offer to pay the bank fees –but they may not feel the same way. And then there are those times you forget about their check for months and wonder if it is still okay to cash it.

The Drawbacks Of Selling To Facebook Friends

Some people on Facebook get irritated by selling posts. To avoid ruffling the feathers of friends who dislike sales, keep your selling photos to one album, and don’t reshare it more than once a day. Also, don’t create a different album every week of the year. I would suggest making a virtual yard sale album no more than twice a year.

Another drawback is that haggling with friends can be awkward. I tend to price my items a little lower for Facebook friends than I would if I were selling them to strangers because they save me the hassle of listing and shipping or arranging meetups. In the description area of the item, I write firm after the price, which eliminates awkward haggling with friends.

Accepting personal checks can make for awkward situations, as I stated above, but this can be avoided by writing in the description of your item that you will not accept a personal check, followed by a list of forms of payments you will accept.

If the item doesn’t live up to their expectations, it could put a strain on your relationship. This can be avoided by being “nit-picky honest” in your posting of the item, describing and showing each and every flaw in pictures, no matter how tiny.  When your friend comes to pick the item up, go over all the flaws with him or her in person.  Before they take the thing off your hands, tell them that should the item not function as they think it should, you will take it back and give them a refund.

Other Ways To Hold A Virtual Garage Sale

If your stuff doesn’t sell to your real-life friends through an album on your personal Facebook page, it doesn’t mean it won’t sell elsewhere. The saying is one man’s trash is another man’s treasure; you didn’t find the right individual for the item in your pool of Facebook friends, but they are out there.

Or perhaps you feel like selling your items to your personal friends could put an unneeded strain on your real-life relationships. Maybe you don’t want your friends to see you sell items they gave you as gifts?

Whatever the reason, there are numerous other places where you can hold an online garage sale.

If you want to offer local pick-up, only try:

• Facebook Market Place
• Facebook Buy And Sell Groups – see my tips for selling and buying in these types of groups here.
• OfferUp

The following suggestions work best for those living in larger urban areas.

• NextDoor
• VarageSale
• Bookoo

One last suggestion is Craigslist, but I am finding that fewer people frequent Craigslist for items to buy with each passing year. However, I think Craigslist is still a good option if you are selling large higher, price items such as RVs, specialty bikes, leather couches, etc. Be mindful of scams that seem more prevalent here than on other selling platforms.

A few words on safety when selling to strangers in person.

• Meet in a public place. If the item is too large to lug around, place it somewhere on your property where others will see you, such as your front porch or driveway.
• There is safety in numbers, so take a friend along, or if selling at home, make sure another adult is around.
• Cash is always the safest. To help ensure the buyer has no excuse not to pay in cash or to lowball you with the “but I only have…”  meet in a bank parking lot during their business hours.

If you are willing to ship your items:

I would stick to the following platforms for selling items you are willing to ship as they have more security measures to protect sellers and buyers. These websites do charge fees.

• eBay
• Mercari
• Poshmark -for brand name clothing and accessory items only
• Amazon Marketplace  – books only

If you just want to give away your items but don’t want to (or can’t) donate them to a thrift store:

Sometimes I want to see my items go to people who could use them free of charge. Usually, if I want to do this, I will do a “free items, come and get it ” album on Facebook to give my friends first dibs, but they usually don’t want all these items.

When that happens, I donate them to my local thrift store, but recently, there have been times when they are not accepting any more donations or any more of a specific type of item.

Here are a few places and websites to consider if this happens to you.

These first three suggestions are best used by people who live in large urban areas.

• Buy Nothing Facebook Groups
• FreeCycle.com
• Nextdoor

One last way to eliminate items is to set up a free yard sale—no need to man it since there is no money involved. However, clean it up at the end of one day so you don’t irritate the neighbors. Or, in many communities like ours, you can place items with a free sign on them in your back alley, and they will be gone quickly.

Here are a few recommendations of where you might be able to giveaway specific types of items:

• Got a pile of current books, check out the Little Free Libary website or app (available for android and ios) and see if there are any of their libraries near you that you could place your books in for others to enjoy. If there isn’t, consider signing up and creating one.
• If you have a box of assorted craft items, reach out to the teachers in your life. Or call a local preschool or daycare to see if they would like them.
• Did you give up on knitting and have a yarn stash you don’t want? See if local knitting groups in your area knit items for charities, such as Knots of Love or Warm Up America.
• Have a stack of worn-out towels. Check with your local animal shelter to see if they accept them; many do.
• These are just a few ideas of where you can donate items besides thrift stores.

I hope this guide to selling your items was helpful, and I wish you the best of luck with your reselling adventures.

For more Reselling Hacks,

• Visit my reselling resource page, where you will find links to all my posts about reselling.
• How to Have Your Most Profitable Yard Sale Ever
• Yard Sale Finds Worth Reselling On eBay