‘Garage Sales Tracker’ Teams With Community Paper Sites
There was a time when it looked like eBay would replace garage sales — or the Goodwill box. But putting things up for sale was probably too much work. In fact, garage sale postings in 2009 were up 80 percent on Craigslist last year.
Craigslist, Oodle and PennySaver have been among the leaders in online listings. Now add Garage Sales Tracker to the list. Based in Boca Raton, Florida, the start-up provides a full platform for local media companies, including community newspapers.
Launched in January 2009, Garage Sales Tracker posts sale locations on an embedded Google Map, and includes useful tips for sellers (“have plenty of single dollar bills on hand”). It also provides related information about local consignment shops, and allows users to filter their search by item or geographic location.
Garage Sales Tracker can also be white labeled by the media partners. It is also a destination site in its own right, selling ads to related categories, including self storage (U-Store-It) and foreclosure listings (RealtyTrac). Mortgage brokers are envisioned too. The site also earns revenues from featured listings. Otherwise, listings are free.
Mobile also plays a significant role in the site’s development. Garage Sales Tracker currently has an iPhone app, which helps garage sale shoppers on-the-go. An Android app is currently in development.
There’s always a time in which the “new” seems a very obvious replacement for the old, but history has proved that to be wrong over and over, specially when deeply rooted habits and traditions are involved. Photography didn’t replace painting, nor TV replaced the good old radio and the list goes on.