Garage Sales, Meet the Digital Age

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Shelley Piehl Shearer is no stranger to the world of online shopping.

While living in Las Vegas, she and her husband made a living tracking down collectible or marketable items from garage sales, auctions and through friends and then reselling those items online at popular auction website eBay.

But eBay's allure began to fade in 2007, Shearer said, as competition grew and the economy began to crumble. And when Shearer moved to Eagan in 2009, she began looking for another way to satisfy her drive to shop and sell online.

Enter Facebook.

In recent years, Shearer said, more and more families have been turning to the power of the world's largest social network to conduct the equivalent of digital garage sales, forming local, tight-knit communities that post and sell items using Facebook's "groups" feature.

After learning from friends in the Litchfield and Hutchinson areas who created online garage sale groups, Shearer decided to create her own Facebook garage sale group for the Eagan area.

The premise of the garage sale group is simple: Community members request permission to join the group from a group administrator. Once they are members, they can post pictures and information of items they're selling. Other group members can view the items and message the seller if they're interested in purchasing the item.

Using Facebook as a platform to host digital garage sales offers several advantages over eBay and Craigslist, Shearer said. Since administrators must approve users before they can post, the Facebook groups are safer and less prone to online "spamming" by fake accounts. Unlike eBay, buyers don't have to worry about competitors swooping in to outbid them at the last second, and less-marketable items sell easier, Shearer said.

Shearer, who started the site earlier in May, already has 168 users. But the ambitious online shopper is hoping to find more local residents willing to participate.

Already, users have posted items like a bed and matching dresser, shoes, children's toys, a wedding dress and a bevy of other items on Shearer's Facebook group. Others have posted addresses and times for their own garage sales on the website.

Members are asked to abide by a set of rules, which prohibit bidding on items and advertising business services. The rules make the group a more constructive, friendly place, Shearer said.

Shearer said the popularity of Facebook garage sale groups—and the market for second-hand goods—have risen in recent years, owing largely to the recession. Some Facebook garage sale groups, like the Litchfield Area On-Line Garage Sale, boast more than 1,000 members and a thriving marketplace featuring hundreds of items.

"It’s so much more acceptable to use Craigslist, and now this is the new thing," Shearer said. "I have seen an incredible change over the years, especially when the economy fell. When the decline hit there were more people out there buying and selling [second-hand] because they were losing their jobs."

Some of the appeal, Shearer admits, may also come from the convenience of a Facebook posting.

"Imagine how nice it is to make money and not have to clear your garage, price everything, or worry about rain," Shearer said. "You can sell your things as your time permits."