Facebook Yard Sale Groups – 13 Tips & Tricks For Finding Deals and Selling Your Stuff

If you are on Facebook, do you realize that in your area there is more than likely a very active Facebook group that consists of people just like you buying and selling items?  To find your nearest group, type in your city name and then yard sale or garage sale in Facebook.

Once you find the group (or groups) in your area, click on the name of the group and then “join group” on the page.  See example:

Some groups are private, so the administrator will have to confirm your request to join.  Some are not, and you’ll immediately become a member.  Either way, it is a short process.

Once you are a member of the group you will start to see the flurry of activity and you will soon realize how easy it is to sell your items and to find deals.

We’ve had great luck with the yard sale groups, selling unwanted items such as a ride along toy car we bought and then did not need, big mirrors, extra flooring and more.  These big items were far to awkward to sell on eBay (our most favorite site for flipping items for profit or just selling off items we no longer use).  Craigslist is also an option, but that can take some time.  The Facebook yard sale groups move fast and what is nice too is that people tag other people that they know to help promote your items for sale.  It’s free marketing!

Based on our experience, here are our tips

Facebook Yard Sale Groups – 13 Tips & Tricks for Finding Deals and Selling Your Stuff

Selling tips:

• Take good photos of the items you wish to sell.  This is the main way you will capture the potential buyer’s interest and if your photos look crappy they may think the item is too.   Don’t lay clothing on the floor (that is just gross);  hang it or lay it on a table or your bed.  Don’t have your kitty or dog sitting on the sofa you are trying to sell – that is a huge turn off for people that may not be pet-crazy like you are.
• Explain the item, being sure to point out any defects.  You don’t want to mislead people.  Honesty is always the best policy.
• Stick to the rules of the group.  You’ll find most Facebook yard sale groups have a list of rules which may include things such as how many items you can list for sale a day, how long you can leave your photos on the page, how often you can comment on your own post to “bump” it up on the page, etc.  Glance over the rules to be sure you are  complying.
• Meet in a public place to close the deal.  We often meet in school parking lots, or at McDonald’s for example.  This is common sense, but worth repeating.  99% of the people you will encounter are perfectly fine but that 1% is iffy and you want to be sure you are in a public place just in case anything gets weird.  Take your cell phone with you and always tell someone where you are going and who you are meeting.  (If you are selling something big that needs to be picked up at your home, we recommend having someone else at home with you when the buyer comes to pick it up.
• Set a fair price, but expect to haggle.  Just like a garage or yard sale held at your home, bargaining is often part of the deal.  When you set your initial price keep in mind you may be offered less.  It is up to you if you will accept the lower offers, counter-offer or just say no.
• Once you post your item and photo, you can “bump” your post back up to the top of the group page by commenting on it.  Do this every few days, so it stays fresh and in front of prospective buyers.  Depending on how many members your page has, posts can get buried fast if there is no interaction on them.

Here is an example of a post we just created this morning to get rid of this TV:

Buying tips:

• Meet in a public place to close the deal.  We often meet in school parking lots, or at McDonald’s for example.  This is common sense, but worth repeating.  99% of the people you will encounter are perfectly fine but that 1% is iffy and you want to be sure you are in a public place just in case anything gets weird.  Take your cell phone with you and always tell someone where you are going and who you are meeting.  If you are buying something big that needs to be picked up at the seller’s home, take someone with you.
• When you see something posted that you want, comment something to the effect “want” or “interested”.  This is how the seller knows you want the item, and how others know someone else has already claimed it.  If it is a hot item, many people may be eager to jump on the sale;  in most groups it is proper to sell it to the first person that commented.
• Take cash to pay;  often times sellers will not have change so it is up to you to have the correct amount of cash to complete the sale.
• Ask questions before you commit.  Most sellers will leave off information unintentionally that you may find critical to your decision to buy.  Ask questions on Facebook in their post to find out more.  You can private message the seller as well, if you would rather not have the conversation public.
• Buyer beware.  Again, just like a garage sale – not every seller is ethical and trustworthy.  If you are buying something that is being sold as “working”, it never hurts to double check before you leave after meeting for the completion of the deal.  Sometimes that is not possible and you have to go on human faith, but if at all possible try it out.
• Post “in search of” posts on the group’s page to find what you are looking for.  We’ve had great success with this method!  Usually the common abbreviation is ISO on the pages.  Here is one ISO we posted last week looking for jeans and shirts for a project.  Notice there have been 32 comments!  As a buyer we can easily filter out those people who have what we are looking for.

• When you have found someone selling what you are looking for, ask questions to see if they have other items you may need.  For example, we saw a post that someone was selling latch hook rug kits, 5 of them for $10.  We commented that we would be interested in buying them and set a time to meet the seller.  During the conversation on Facebook she mentioned that she had many more in storage;  we told her we would be interested in seeing those as well so she stopped at the storage unit, picked them up and brought them to the meet up.  We bought them all, helping her free up space and turned her $10 sale into a $55 sale.  We found just what we wanted, without having to search and search for them.  Ask questions!