Tips on Hosting a Virtual Rummage Sale

Whether the pandemic is to blame, or whether it was just a matter of time, just about everything is moving online. Virtual stores, virtual galleries, and, of course, virtual rummage sales! Social distancing and community safety are great and urgent reasons to consider hosting your rummage sale online, but they certainly aren’t the only benefits.

One drawback traditional rummage sales have is that everyone’s schedules need to line up. With virtual sales, you can have them up around the clock, and respond to messages and offers when you have the chance. You aren’t dependent on nice weather, and, thanks to shipping services, you can extend your reach out as far as you’d like! But how can you make sure your virtual rummage sale goes smoothly? Here are some tips.

Great pics and great descriptions

Seeing is believing, and one thing that isn’t on your side in a virtual sale is that guests can’t pick up and inspect your items. This means that fantastic pictures and detailed descriptions are paramount. Make sure to take plenty of well-lit pictures with a decent camera, showing off different angles and, in particular, any defects the item may have.

The description should reflect the good and the bad. If your items are in mint condition, that’s great! If they aren’t however, passing them off as such might end in complaints and trouble down the line. Try to anticipate any questions potential customers might have and, as questions start coming in, update descriptions to reflect the most common ones.

Find your platform

This is easier said than done and will depend mostly on scale. If you have just a few boxes of things to sell, and you’re only reaching out to those in your neighborhood, you can probably pull off an Instagram rummage sale. The great thing about Instagram is that instant messaging and commenting is built-in, descriptions can be edited, comments can be turned off once items are sold, and you can include multiple pictures per post/item. However, processing payments formally will likely have to happen offline. The larger your sale grows, the harder this might be to manage.

Facebook has an integrated marketplace that can let you manage sales a bit more fluidly, and virtual garage sale platforms like VarageSale already have the infrastructure laid out. Ultimately, you will have to know your crowd. Where are they more likely to visit you online?

Set boundaries

This isn’t just an important part of a healthy relationship, it’s an important part of selling online, too! Set boundaries to not get your heartbroken, and set boundaries to know when customers are taking advantage of you! It’s normal for guests to want to haggle prices, but with the buffer of a screen and the internet, people can be a lot more daring (and rude) than they might be in person. The other side to that, of course, is that it’s easier to ignore them. If someone insists on offering a lot less money than you’re willing to accept, being abusive or rude in your interactions, or causing you discomfort in any other way, don’t be afraid to block them! A virtual rummage sale can be a lot of work, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of your emotional wellbeing.

Get the word out

“Once it’s out there, it’s out there.” It’s true, once something goes online, it probably won’t ever be completely erased from the internet. That being said, not everything that goes up goes viral, including your rummage sale. Just like with a regular yard sale, advertising is a crucial part in making sure you have a great turnout.

More or less the same principles apply to good advertising for virtual rummage sales. You won’t want to put a sign up at the entrance to your neighborhood, but you should advertise in places relevant to your community. Post in community social media groups, send the link out in a community email chain, pay for a social media advertising to target the people near you, even post a QR code at your local coffee shop and public library. Don’t forget, of course, to advertise right here on the biggest yard sale ad platform on the internet: Yard Sale Search.

Pandemic safety, flexible hours, or whatever your personal reason might be, take those pictures, get those descriptions ready, and long live the yard sale!