VarageSale: Now Available in Georgia!

Two weeks ago on a rainy, yucky day,  I dragged my sale tables outside, placed items up and down my driveway in perfect order and waited for everyone to come sift through my "store." After pricing and placing and promoting for a week, I have to admit it was a little tough being offered $1 for something I priced at $15.  It can be pretty disheartening!  But I had clutter to get rid of and I figured it was the easiest way to get rid of it all while still making a little cash.

Or is it?  I'm so excited about a new app called VarageSale.  VarageSale is basically a virtual garage sale for your phone.  You can buy and sell until your heart is content all from the comfort of your couch!  The free app (available for iOS and Android devices) is the brainchild of a former elementary school teacher who used to buy and sell items with existing classifieds sites and social networks.  Uninspired by the experience, she urged her programmer husband to create a more user friendly mobile app.  And VarageSale was born!   

I only wish I'd known about VarageSale weeks ago before I decided to sit outside for 8 hours haggling over quarters!  I feel like I could have made more money if I'd taken my time and used an app like VarageSale, instead of "fire-selling" everything at the garage sale just so that I wouldn't have to bring it back inside.

During my garage sale, I sold a perfect condition swing for $17.  I purchased it back in the day for $150!  On VarageSale, swings are definitely going for more reasonable prices than $17, but still for less than half of what I paid for it new.  So it's a good deal for sellers and still a great deal for buyers too!  

VarageSale has just launched 10 new communities in Georgia and now covers both the Atlanta and Savannah areas.  To mark the Georgia launch, VarageSale surveyed 500 Georgia parents and found some interesting data about their shopping and spending habits.  Here's what the survey found:

•Most parents have no problem buying secondhand items to save money. 

• Their kids can’t tell the difference between old and new toys anyway.
• 62% believe their children can’t tell the difference between secondhand toys and new ones 

•Spending and clutter are hurting parents’ love lives.

• Clutter kills the mood. 77% think household clutter kills the mood more than a lack of sleep.
• Money spent on toys causes fights. 26% have had disagreements over how much money they’re spending on their kids’ toys. 

•Parents are ‘toying’ with their kids.

• Most toys don’t get played with. On average, Georgia kids from kindergarten to 8th grade only play with 36% of their toys on a regular basis.
• •So parents are secretly regifting them. More than half (53%) of Georgia parents have re-gifted one of their children’s toys.