When most people think of local buying and selling sites, they think of Craigslist or eBay.
While those are great options, they’re not the be all end all either. Here are five equally awesome, if not better, sites and apps worth exploring in 2017.
#1 OfferUp
Offerup.com was founded in 2011 by Arean van Veelen and Nick Huzar and has had over 23 million downloads to date. It’s definitely one of the heavy hitters when it comes to local, peer-to-peer commerce.
The purpose of OfferUp is to help people sell their used goods in a safe, easy, and effective manner. Given they’ve had billions of dollars worth of transactions pass through their app, they must be doing something right!
All messaging and deals take place within the app which keeps your personal information private and they also include user ratings to help you figure out which buyers and sellers are worth your time.
The app also has added security measures in place and optional features such as ‘TruYou’ which allow users to validate their identification through the app. All transactions take place in person, so the more people who validate their ID the more trust and safety there will be.
While the app is free for buyers and sellers, there is a premium listing feature called ‘Bump’. This boosts your item to the top of the ‘feed’ so more people can see it and you can sell your item quicker. Based on my research, this costs $1.99 which is pretty low.
You can browse the listings on their site, but to sell you need to download the free app from the Google Play store or iTunes.
URL: https://offerup.com
Countries: United States
Best For: Buying and selling general goods within the US
Pricing: Free/ Bump $1.99
Pros: Popular, safe, and easy to use peer-to-peer marketplace for selling unwanted stuff.
Cons: Limited to the US and quite a few customer service related complaints.
#2 GSALR
GSALR.com makes it easy to find garage sales in your area. Once upon a time, people put signs up directing people to their garage sale, it seems this site brings things into the 21st century.
GSALR was launched in 2007 with Michael Judkins listed as the owner of the domain. It’s free to list any sale in the directory which gives you a listing, 50 photos and an email sent to folks in your area.
It’s very quick and easy to get something listed on this site, and finding local garage sales is a matter of selecting the area you want and seeing what’s happening.
You can also upgrade for more exposure which gives you larger image sizes, priority listings, listings on partner sites and a shoutout on their daily email newsletter.
URL: http://gsalr.com
Countries: United States
Best For: Garage sales, yard sales and estate sales
Pricing: Free basic listing/ $9.99 upgrade listing/ $29.95 to list across five partner sites
Pros: Quality service that makes finding and holding garage sales easy and profitable.
Cons: Don’t disclose upgrade fees on website until after you list your item.
#3 Hoobly Classifieds
Hoobly.com began back in 2003 and has a fairly small, but steady place within the local classifieds space. It is run by CEO Peter Grigor.
You can setup a free account and post up to 10 free ads on this per month. There is a messaging feature within the site and app which allows you to communicate and agree on deals, with meetings taking place in person in most cases.
The free option means you will see Google ads while browsing and within your ad space when people click on your ad. This is a fair deal though, the site needs to make money somehow.
The upgrade options range from $9 to $249 per month, the more you pay, the more ads you can post, the less ads you and potential customers will see and you can post in the employment section.
Also, they include ‘flag protection’ on the paid subscriptions. From what I can see though, every single ad gives people the option to ‘flag’ it as a scam, so I’m not sure why buyers or sellers would pay for this feature. Perhaps it’s a way for sellers to stop their ad from being removed automatically, should people unfairly flag it. That’s my guess. If you know, chime in below.
You can buy and sell directly on the website with Hoobly, and they accept Bitcoin for payment. They do have an app, but the Apple version doesn’t look very good.
Countries: Global
Best For: Buying and selling all kinds of stuff locally, in your home country
Fees: Free/ $9/ $24/ $59/ $249
Pros: Simple and easy to use, it’s free for general use, and decent number of listings.
Cons: App doesn’t have good reviews for Apple, and no user ratings.
#4 LetGo
Letgo.com is a local peer-to-peer marketplace that lists everything from home and garden, fashion right through to vehicles.
The platform was founded by Jordi Castello, Alec Oxenford, and Enrique Linares in 2015 and has become one of the fastest growing sites/ apps of it’s kind.
In a recent video on Bloomberg, Alec says it’s the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning that is making their app a favourite among users. They have had over 45 million plus downloads to date which is a staggering number.
They recently merged with a site called Wallapop, and own the rights to operate within the US exclusively. Wallapop has a massive user base of over 30 million, so LetGo is positioned to dominate this space in 2017.
Apart from a better user experience, the idea is very similar to other sites in this space. List your item using their app and negotiate with potential buyers, with the final sale taking place in person. Given their popularity, it looks like it’s working very well for people.
This is 100% free to use for both buyers and sellers, and they are yet to announce any premium features. As with OfferUp, you can browse listings on the site, but you need to download the app to start selling stuff.
URL: https://letgo.com
Countries: Global
Best For: Buying and selling all kinds of stuff locally, in your home country.
Fees: 100% free
Pros: High quality platform, great user experience, and very popular option.
Cons: Apart from the usual complaints with sites like these, there’s not much to dislike.
#5 Recycler
Recycler was founded by Gunter and Nancy Schaldach back in 1973, and began as a print based local classifieds company. Recycler.com was launched in 1995 for the companies Southern California readers, and went nation wide in 2010.
The site is a great way to buy and sell anything from cars, pets, general goods and even real estate. You can list for free, and your ad will run for 1-3 weeks and they also have paid options depending your preferences and the details of the sale.
You also have the option of print based listings with their own classifieds and partner publications which may be useful.
There does not appear to be an app for this site.
URL: http://www.recycler.com
Countries: United States
Best For: Buying and selling all kinds of stuff within the US.
Fees: Free/ numerous paid options available
Pros: Plenty of listings, easy to navigate, print based options as well.
Cons: Ads only run for a few weeks unless you pay to upgrade, not a huge user base.
Conclusion
There are many ways to buy and sell locally online, some better than others.
While eBay and Craigslist are definitely great options, there are some very worthwhile alternatives to consider. In some cases, it may be worth listing on several sites to increase your chances of selling, and as a buyer, the more options you have, the more chances you have of finding the products you are searching for.
Got something to share about these, or similar, sites? Leave a comment below!
I recently saw one launching soon with enhanced safety features where you can message up to 5 friends to let them know when the transaction is taking place and in an emergency can shake your phone to send out an SOS to authorities.