Posted by megan
Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:08:00 GMT
If you want to know everything there is about creating first-class signs for your garage sale and have them done professionally, this is the site for you. And sassysigns.com isn’t just for those holding a garage sale – this site can be used for creating signs of all kinds, from FSBO home sales to awareness promoting signs (e.g. for the Breast Cancer Walk).
Sassysigns is all about creating professional, fun one-of-a-kind signs with a bit of attitude. You can create your own signs, or you can order pre-printed signs with space for you to put in your details.
The signs promoted seem to be of excellent quality, but they may be a bit on the expensive side for those holding a small one-off garage sale. However, if you think it’s worth it, or if you are creating signs for a larger garage sale held by an organisation, then the signs definitely are worth it.
The site, like the signs it sells, is bright and colourful, and is very easy to navigate. The curly lettering and the cheery pink and green colour scheme may not be to everyone’s taste, but this reviewer finds it attractive. The sales area of the site is professionally done, with all the features you would expect from an online store there and working – including product reviews.
Posted by megan
Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:27:00 GMT
YardSalers.net is an archive of newsletters related to garage sales, yard sales and EBay auctions. It is also a site that has a number of garage sale-related books (written by the site’s creator) and resources for sale, which subscribers can sell via an affiliate program. A lot of the site (and each newsletter) seems to be dedicated to those who comb through garage sales and online auctions to find items that can be re-sold at a profit, rather than those of us who go to garage sales for fun or to find household items on the cheap. Yardsalers.net seems to have a competition where subscribers can share their story about how they snaffled something really cheaply and then resold it for a huge amount.
The site takes a bit of time to navigate and get used to – the archive of old newsletters is extensive. It also takes a bit of time to work out what the site creator means by “flips” (it refers to an item bought cheaply and then resold for a higher price). The site also puts a lot of emphasis on EBay and less on the traditional yard sale.
If you take the time to read through the newsletters, you will learn a fair amount about how to spot collectibles, vintage and antique items, and get a rough idea of what these sell for.
The list of links is also very useful for directing you to other resources related to garage sales. The home page also directs users to a list of tips and hints for holding a garage sale, which seems to be excerpted from one of the books. It’s not easy to read, but it does have useful information.
Posted by megan
Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:01:00 GMT
Yardsalequeen.com is very informal, bright, cheerful and chatty and makes a fun read even if you aren’t planning on either holding or visiting a garage sale. Each page is packed with personal stories and anecdotes. And the site has a real sense of humour, which is one of the most likeable things about the site.
Yardsalequeen.com has a lot of useful advice for both those holding garage sales as well as for what the Yard Sale Queen calls “yardsailors.” The advice ranges from tips on how to hold a sale to revolting things she has seen for sale that should be avoided (e.g. dentures). Links to other garage sale sites, including a sign provider (with a useful coupon for a discount), are also easy to find.
The site’s layout could be better, but if you dislike page after page of plain black and white text on the screen, this is one downside of the “tips” pages – the list of tips is quite long, but only the standard site graphic is shown at the top of the page. The advice is well worth reading, but can get a bit hard on the eyes. The blog and the “bad signs” pages come complete with graphics – the examples of good signs and atrocious signs are a good chuckle. One page is dedicated to YouTube clips and is entirely there for amusement purposes.
This is not the site to use if you want to find garage sales in your area or if you want to list your sale, but it is well worth viewing for entertainment value as well as the excellent advice.
Posted by megan
Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:38:00 GMT
Estatesales.net is a US-based site dedicated to estate sales. Estate sales held by individuals as well as companies are listed on the site, and the site also allows estate auctions to be listed.
For those wanting to list an estate sale, using estatesales.net is very easy. The first step is to sign up, which can be done for free. Companies and individuals can sign up to list their sale. Sales throughout the USA – including Alaska and Hawaii, but not territories such as Puerto Rico – are listed, and are categorised further by city as well as by state.
If you wish to search for sales in your area, again, estatesales.net is simple to use. Select the state you are in then refine it further by city. You will then be presented with a list of sales in the area. If no sales are on in the area, the site will let you know – and will invite you to subscribe to a mailing list to be notified about when sales are on in your area. You will also be told how many other subscribers are in your area – this is very handy for those wishing to list an estate sale, as they will know how many people will be notified automatically about the sale.
If you search for sales, you can also filter the results by type of sale. Options for filtering include estate sales, moving sales, auctions and store sales.
You can also use estatesales.net to find companies who can handle the estate sale for you if you don’t want to go down the garage sale channel. As estatesales.net is independent, it does not push one particular company over another, but it gives you the opportunity to choose. A list of handy tips for dealing with and choosing companies is included (which has pieces of advice ranging from how pricing works to “do not throw anything away before meeting with the companies”). Users are able to locate companies in their area in the same way as they would locate sales: by clicking the relevant state and then refining by city.
The overall tone of the site is very businesslike and professional and no-nonsense. Unlike other sites, it keeps things neutral and somewhat impersonal rather than cheerful and gossipy. However, it is very easy to navigate and to use. The site is attractively laid out and all buttons and menu tabs are easy to read. On the date of that this reviewer explored the site, all the links were operating without any “oops this page appears to be missing” problems.
One of the downsides is that not all sales are listed on the site. When this reviewer gave the site a trial run using a random state (Hawaii), no estate sales were listed at all in any city. For the city of Boston, only four estate sales were listed, all of which were posted by companies rather than individuals. However, all areas investigated by this reviewer had subscribers listed that would be notified of the sale, so signing up and listing your estate sale on this site is not a waste of time – the process is quick and easy (as well as free) and will help get the message about your tag sale out there.