Have you ever tried to sell something on any of the web sites like Craigs List, E-Bay, or Etsy? Let me tell you it is not for the faint of heart. I can't even begin to imagine going on the web site called Deal Dash.com. That one looks like a total nightmare to me.
Back in the day of the dinosaurs the big place to get a bargain was "John's Bargain Store". At least that was where my mom did all her gift shopping when I was a kid. We didn't have much money but come Christmas and birthday I always had several gifts to open . . . thanks to the wonderful bargains at Johns. I think Johns Bargain Store evolved into Cheap Johns which in turn became our modern day Dollar Store.
Up here in Northern Michigan my favorite place to browse is the Dollar General store at the bottom of the hill on the way into town. Unlike my wonderful Dollar Tree store in Florida where EVERYTHING is only ONE DOLLAR the Dollar General and Family Dollar stores carry things that run up to and sometimes over twenty dollars. (As was the case with the little vacuum that I bought The Man for his birthday. I just couldn't stand using his broom that has bristles pointing in every direction. When I would try to sweep something up it flies off in all directions and makes you then play hide and seek to find it. Frustrating !!). Also the Dollar General store sells those wonderful drinks in a bag that I have written about.
Anyway . . . . I am not looking to buy any more stuff for this place . . . . We ARE looking to sell as much as we can. Remember how I have told you about the vast amount of STUFF that fills this house and garage? Well The Man has FINALLY decided to get rid of some of it and this is where the internet comes in to play.
Before the internet people had Yard Sales, or Garage Sales, or Flea Markets where you stuck a price tag on your stuff and hoped it would be just what someone was looking for. NOW we have the internet !
I am the CEO of this business venture. I also do publicity, advertising, photo shoots where I "stage" the items to show off their best features, and when the crap doesn't sell I get to be the person in charge of disposal. I'm not quite sure what roll The Man plays in all this other than to ask me twenty times a day if I got any messages about possible sales. Oh Yes, I am also in charge of the switch board, (I Phone and computer), and communications. I get to read all the inquiries about our items and I get to write back to all of them. And when something does finally sell . . . guess who gets to deliver it ?!
It is NOT a simple case of, "Hey, wanna buy this?" . It requires hours of preparation and even more hours of follow through. The questions we have gotten about a single portable sewing machine blow my mind. I have had people asking me to take pictures of the BOTTOM of the machine . . . It is blank ! But I took a picture. Then they wanted to know when it was made, what is the serial number, would I take a picture of the bobbin . . . We posted this sewing machine on Facebook Market place two and a half weeks ago and if I had a dollar for every question I have been asked about it we would have more money than we are asking for the damn machine. FINALLY . . . today someone asked the ONE question that no one else has thought to ask . . . "DOES IT WORK ?" Up to this point I have been so busy measuring, photographing parts and researching the history of it that I have never plugged it in to see if it actually runs! IT DOES ! In fact it runs so well I am tempted to keep it for myself !
But back to the web sites. We began our foray into marketing with Craigs List. That is the one name that stuck in my head so we tried to post our items on there. After two days of frustration I finally called my daughter-in-law who is a genius with anything on the internet. We discussed the in's and out's of selling on Craigs List and then she asked if we had tried Facebook Market Place. She said it was super easy to work with and anyone who has a Facebook account can go to it and see what you are selling.
JACKPOT !!!! Love this venue for selling our stuff and so far we have sold three things and met some REALLY nice people. We even had a husband and wife drive nine hours to buy a bunch of things related to weaving. They had seen one thing that we had posted, called us about it and ended up making the trip to see what else was here. They spent A LOT of money and went home happier than the Alpacas and Llamas that they raise. And we got rid of a ton of stuff.
Although you would never know anything was gone because there are still ten ton's of stuff still here.
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