Whatever your feelings on it, lots of people are creating places to compete with eBay. One of them is Yardsellr.
We believe people are natural-born buyers and sellers. In the tradition of neighborhood garage- and yard-sales, we make it easy for you to sell or buy whatever you want. Best of all, the buying and selling is done by regular people like you. That means you get great prices from folks you can trust within your network or within a friend’s network.
First of all, it isn’t “easy” because you have to commit to the place before you even know what it is all about as Yardsellr requires you to login with Facebook to use the joint. And that means, if you don’t use Facebook, they don’t want you as a member.
Secondly, don’t you already have access to people in your network? I mean you can already tell them, in person, on the phone, via Facebook, etc. that you are selling something? So what’s the point of using Yardsellr?
When you put something up for sale, Yardsellr will spread the word about your item within your online neighborhood: “blocks” of other Yardsellr-s who love what you love, and in the news feeds of millions of Yardsellr fans on Facebook. No matter where they are online, Yardsellr finds other folks who are buying what you are selling.
OK, so maybe the “blocks” idea is interesting… But finding blocks was not easy. I currently am a “block of one” for Fargo, North Dakota, ruling out the “ease” or working with my geographical neighbors. And navigating the site was not as useful as I would have liked, particularly because, like so many rummage sales, it’s easy to find piles of used baby clothes but not easy to find the antiques and vintage items.
Also, for collectors, a lot of what we sell isn’t what we want to buy; i.e., we bought the auction lot for the two books in the box, not the assorted glassware, so we keep the books, sell the glass. So you’ll have to be in a lot of blocks.
Interestingly, Yardsellr does not charge any fees for sellers — Yardsellr charges the buyer the fees, called the Yardsellr Slice. That’s quite a different shift in fee collecting. In exchange, buyers are given credits called Photon$; more on those in a minute.
For the buyer, Yardsellr is just as easy. Sites like Craigslist and eBay have become pretty crowded and hard to use. It’s tough to know who you can trust and even harder to find great deals from everyday people.
Umm, if you don’t actually know these people because they aren’t really in your network or even your geographical area, you are in the same boats as eBay and Craigslist.
As you can tell, I’m not a fan of the Yardsellr.
Even when they throw free money at you.
The “free money” is called Photon$. You can “find” or earn them by purchasing and by doing random things on the site.
Photon$ are like money that you can use to buy anything on Yardsellr! You can win Photon$ by taking certain actions on Yardsellr.com, like buying and commenting on listings. Look for the $ for opportunities to win Photon$.
It involves some sort of math, which I find confusing. And Photon$ cannot be used to pay the Yardsellr Slice. But worse than confusing, Photon$ are frustrating.
Photon$ have a “half-life” which means they will decay whenever you aren’t using them.
You lose Photon$ at a rate of 1 per second — logged in to the site or not. Which means even if you join and start searching the site intending to buy something, your “free $5 to spend” dwindles quickly. If you don’t start shopping immediately, the next time you login, you may have none. It rather sucks the “free” out of things, if not the fun.
I’m not the only one frustrated by the Photon$ program. There’s a long list of negative comments about them on the site. So you don’t have to join to see it, I’ve put a screen capture at the bottom of this post. (Click to enlarge and read.)
Overall, I don’t see any point to Yardsellr.
It’s confusing.
It’s frustrating.
If the point is to sell to people you know or in your network, just use the social networks you already have.
If the point is to sell and avoid shipping, sell on your own real world block or neighborhood by having a real yard sale or using Craigslist, eBay, Listia, or good old classified ads.
E-commerce sites completely lose me at the door with virtual money gimmicks like, ahem, Photon$. Maybe I’m getting old and cranky, but when we start talking anything other than physical legal tender I have to wonder how serious they are. You know who could get away with distributing Photon$ – eBay, because like it or not, they’ve been around and are a trusted platform. Though heck, I shuffle so much money in and out of PayPal without ever actually seeing it that it may as well be Photon$.
I think it depends upon your motivations for buying and selling… I love Listia because it’s a way to convert what I don’t want (and what often doesn’t go at eBay) into something I do want (and may sell at eBay or other venues — like the antique railroad switch key I got there which I cannot sell at eBay but will take to a flea market). The “credits not cash” thing there (at Listia) has me thinking about what money really is… At least in terms of trading. Like beads for blankets 😉
I can see the need for different sorts of marketplaces. And I thought the notion of buyers paying site fees was interesting. But Yardsellr is just too frustrating and annoying. (Just in case my review didn’t make that clear lol) Which sadly means that I/we won’t be able to judge that buyers-pay-fees framework possibility in any real sense. *sigh*
As for comments on eBay, especially in terms of antiques and collectibles, well, I know things I should not. I can’t divulge them; so in that way I wish I never knew them 😉
Gosh your cryptic eBay comment has me wondering!
I use Yardsellr and Listia a lot and sell a lot on both sites. I love both and they are both far better than Ebay that charges outrageous fees! I’ve sold almost $17,000 worth of items in 8 months on Yardsellr, so you will never see me complaining. Photons are free cash, and better than Ebay or any other site gives you. So, if you’re not happy then you can always sell on other sites, but I personally LOVE Yardsellr!
I find yardsellr very lacking, no customers to buy my goods, Tons and Tons of resellers selling items you can waaaay less anywhere on the web. Photons thing is a joke. Bad reviews all over the net about this place. Not getting paid, getting kicked for no reason. See that Lacreta posting a lot on these review sites. You are a rude person.
I think it’s a great place to give out your personal information to strangers. It a nice place for teenages and college kids. They make a production out of something that could have been a new and maybe profitable place to try and sell your items. I don’t mind the payment options , but i do mind the listing options. I don’t need Facebook to try and sell something. A little wierd for a website.
Great article! I was considering Yardsellr, but like many of the folks here didn’t like 1) the Facebook connection; 2) the Photons are just stupid. Thanks so much for the tip on Listia. Sounds like fun!!!
I was going to use the photons to buy something. It was a $15 item already. The photons knocked it down to 6 or so I thought. I went to checkout with paypal and saw it was $10 and htought okay they charged me for shipping. I saw it said Slice and didnt realize you as a buyer need ADDITIONAL payment to buy, which I think is ridiculous and probably hurts the sellers. I didnt see it UNTIL I checked out with paypal and noticed different amount. I think this happened earlier when I boought my first item and didnt notice but for a second thought it was higher.
The,employees are,all useless pieces of,shiit..they dont have a customer service phone number yet you trust them with your money.. From what I have heatd they do not pay people like,they should, and now they are asking for peoples , checking..routing number for direct deposit..lmfao wow whoever agrees to do that is an idiots. Its facebook …wow stupid people.ys wont be around much longer..and,i,am pretty sure they are,stealing from people..the Ca atty general will fibure it out…stay away from this site and if anyone ever sees that lisa [edited] bye..
Yes I can spell but then again im talking about ys and the employees they understand lol
I wonder how much ebay paid the Deanna to write this “review” of yardsellr.
John, that’s hysterical.
It’s easy to provide a protected account, just create a new one just for Yardsellr. It works for Paypal, and it works for Yardsellr. Duh. I’ve always found the CS adequate. They obviously don’t have a large staff, so I don’t think 48 hours for a response is that bad! Sure beats the hell out of eBay! Photons shouldn’t expire, wish they’d change that. But overall, why the FRACK would you want to cut down another eBay alternative!