Oh where, oh where have the yard sales gone?

From the looks of things, it appears to be a slow yard saling weekend, particularly if you use the NYS yard sale postings as prophetic of what the weekend will hold. Only 10-11 yard sales per day. :-(

How does this compare with past weeks?
Last week there were 27.
On August 29, there were 48. Wowsers!

Why the slowdown? Perhaps people are too busy with getting the kiddos back in school. Perhaps there is still some recovering from the Great American Yard Sale. Perhaps it's the Labor Day weekend where everyone vacations and takes a break from laborious yard saling. Given the above factors, it is more than likely (and my wife's greatest hope) that this is the calm before the storm....:)

She's....so pop-u-lar!

Who's the most popular person on NYS?

Judging by referrals, it's Patricia, who has invited over 200 people via NYS. I wish I had that many friends....

Judging by items, it's Debbie, with over 40 items currently listed. My wife has bought some items from her as well, so we know she's got some good stuff.

By dollar amount of stuff sold, it seems Patricia is in the lead, again. I won't tell you how much she's made, but I wish I'd made that much. :)

Communitize Me (or "The Angle Grinder Story")

One of the side benefits of NYS (besides offloading our surplus basement storage and filling it up again) is the helpful community that starts to enshroud otherwise mundane transactions. I posted "Wanted: Angle Grinder" so that I can sharpen my lawn mower blade that cuts like it is made out of bar stock (used on too many thick weeds, I suppose). And CK responded, "hey, Lowe's had some of these on clearance yesterday for $20." Now, maybe he's just a Lowe's employee trying to drum up more sales, but I give him the benefit of the doubt: he's just trying to help out a fellow community member, with no direct benefit to himself. *warm fuzzy*. I don't get that on eBay. :)

There is more of that "community" than is readily visible - another side benefit of NYS. And, of course, we'd love to hear if you have a story to share....

Media week - extended

Don't know if there is something like a "baker's week" where you get one extra day, but we're extending media week through today (an 8-day week) to include some props from the blogosphere via Rick Klau. His post here highlights Naperville Yard Sales while referring to an elusive yard sale junkie friend named Becky. Sounds like an inside joke. :)

Update: Apparently her name is Betsy since I can't remember her name for two minutes while switching between blogs...

A picture is worth a thousand words, part 2

Someone reported to us that they got suckered into buying something they never intended to: they were searching for a "table" and ended up buying some "wooden vegeTABLEs" for their kids to play with (how could you turn that down? Teach the kiddos good eating principles for cheap!). While we don't feel too bad about this unnessary purchase, this does bring up a good point for our sellers:

In the item description, be descriptive. (huh?) Okay, post similar words. If it's a couch, include "sofa" or "loveseat" or "sectional". Use synonyms and think of what other people might think when they search. Most people browse, but as the number of items increases, so do the searches. Don't be deceptive (i.e. if you're trying to sell a toilet seat, don't put the words "solid oak brand new bedroom set" in your description).

And, include a picture. It doesn't help with searching the description, but it sure is nice.

So, in summary, include pictures with your items, but also include a few more descriptive words - maybe not 1000, but a few.

A picture is worth a thousand words....part 1

Some people wonder what the difference is between items with pictures and those without. Here's the scoop (statistically speaking, and very rough):

*Items with pictures get ~5 times the number of views as those without pictures
*Items with pictures get ~2 times the number of messages from interested people

So, it's worth it to get your duff off the couch and learn how to use that digital camera. Maybe someday we'll write a cool code snippet to allow you to take a picture with your cell phone, send it to an address, and have it post automagically. But, until then, keep snapping those pictures.

If you're one of those rare breeds without a digital camera, you can find some very cheap, basic ones online. If you're one of those rare breeds that isn't comfortable finding some online, give us a shout and we'll find some for you....:)

Happy One Month Birthday - to NYS

Regardless of how you define a month, NYS turned 1 month old this week. In "celebration" (?) we sent an email to all our sellers. For whatever odd reason, I've decided to post that email here. Who knows? Maybe you'll find something useful inside....

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Dearest NYS sellers,

Okay, so the infamous "test" email was broadcast to the world instead of just one person. Thanks to all of you who responded kindly (some with humorous sarcasm, you know who you are!) despite the unintentional blooper.

In any case, just wanted to drop a quick note to all of you to celebrate our one month birthday. Yes, NYS is now one month old, a tad big for its age I suppose. Though still in its infancy, NYS is growing quickly and will continue to do so as word spreads (did you see that sweet-looking furniture set on NYS?).

And a few selling tips to help you move your stuff into someone else's storage unit:
1) Include pictures (one is worth a thousand words!)
2) Price it right (i.e. consider reducing the price if it's not selling)
3) Tell a friend about NYS. Then maybe your friend's cousin's neighbor's aunt will be interested in that leftover burnt-orange wallpaper from your mother's house you just can't seem to sell for some odd reason.
4) If you don't have a friend, then we feel sorry for you. But we're sure you'll make one on NYS....:) (try buying something - that's a quick way into someone's heart!)

Anywho, that's enough blabbering for now. I need to go refresh the NYS home page to see what new treasures I might discover that I never knew I needed....

Happy selling!
Austin

p.s. If you didn't see us on TV, you can watch it online here (yes, I'm the goofy-looking one):
http://nctv17.com/businessconnection.htm#yard

This must be media week

First with NCTV 17 providing a 7-minute spot on Naperville Yard Sales (beginning on Monday and lasting 3 weeks), then with this article from the Naperville Sun, NYS has had a fair bit of local media attention. Droves of new folks have joined us (welcome!) and joined the forays into cyber yard sale addiction. We may need to launch a recovery program for true junkies (my wife will likely attend).

The only downside of the Sun article? Seems like Julie hasn't been able to sell anything (at least at the time of interview, like two weeks ago when NYS was a true baby). I fully endorse Julie's items for purchase so we can clear the record book. :)

Obligatory "Welcome to the Blog"

Okay, short and sweet: this is the official (accept no substitute) blog for the comin's and goin's of NapervilleYardSales.com. Things are moving quickly, so it's probably a necessity to keep a blog running to keep the community well-informed. A place that we can store all past and current news for the gee-whiz types as well as maintain a (hopefully) fun and amusing perspective on what is happening on NYS. May the fun begin!