Facebook Has Ruined Yard Sales

If you ask me, Facebook has taken all the fun out of yard sales.

As a lifelong yard sale fan, and someone always on the hunt for the next incredible deal, there was always something about waking up early on a Saturday morning and hitting the road going from yard sale to yard sale.

Of course, first you’d want to get the classified section of the local paper so you could find all the best sales.

The true connoisseurs knew which neighborhoods in which towns likely had the best stuff, and they also knew it didn’t always mean going to the ritziest areas or wealthiest communities.

Then, the hunt was on as you drove from town to town, on the lookout for brightly-colored (and usually handmade) signs that led you in the direction of treasures waiting to be discovered.

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As social media became more prolific, that changed a bit. No longer was the newspaper the place to learn about that weekend’s yard sales; they were instead advertised on websites like Craigslist or in town-specific Facebook groups.

Then came the “Online Yard Sale” Facebook groups, allowing people to post items for sale and then meet up with the prospect buyers to make said sale. The proliferation of those groups helped bolster the success of what became Facebook itself’s “Marketplace” feature for selling items – which effectively turned your local Craigslist into a ghost town.

However, as this year’s yard sale season has commenced, I have noticed something that is happening more and more frequently: people just posting photos of their entire yard sale, and allowing people to claim items to be held until they arrive.

The excitement of a yard sale has been ruined.

Now, you’ll already know what you’ll find when you get to the yard sale, so there’s no thrill of discovery. On top of that, you may see something that you’d like to purchase, and be told, “Sorry, we’re holding that for someone” even though you’re standing there practically throwing cash at them for the item.

Am I the only one that feels this way about posting your yard sale pics on Facebook? Or do you prefer knowing what’s there before you spend the time driving to somebody’s house?