One of the best things about smartphones is how they can create new types of interactions -- and even transactions -- among strangers. Inspired by its namesake, the Yardsale app is a vehicle through which you sell and buy things from within your community, allowing you to meet your neighbors, all without the chaos and planning that's required of an actual yardsale.
"Ed and I really wanted to build a utility, something that makes our lives better and connects us in a meaningful way," co-founder Ryan Mickle told Wired via email. "Early on with Yardsale, we were really excited to see that we made the experience of selling items so easy, our community was often selling just to meet their neighbors."
It takes as little as about 30 seconds to post a listing to the app. After snapping a few pictures of what you want to sell, you just write a short description, select a price, and add the listing on Yardsale. The app is set up so you can easily cross-post your item on Craigslist, too.
For browsing what others have posted, the default range is 5 miles, but you can look at items as near to you as one mile, or as far away as 50 miles, either ordered by freshness (how recently the sale was posted) or by proximity to your own location. You can also search for specific keywords, and set up alerts to keep an eye out for something in particular.
If you find something you like, you can make an offer to the seller with the click of a button. To complete a transaction, Mickle says most people pay either with Square or with cash.
Yardsale isn't alone in its mission to use smartphones as a digital marketplace. Rumgr serves a similar purpose, allowing you to list items you don't want, and view what the people nearest you are selling. But rather than letting you search for specific items, Rumgr goes for a more serendipitous approach to item discovery, simply letting you see what's available by distance from you. There's also a slew of Craigslist apps, but because Craigslist is still a web destination, these apps can't fully leverage the iPhone's GPS and location awareness capabilities.
Yardsale sets itself apart by keeping the experience super simple and straightforward, and focusing on building a friendly community destination rather than just a smartphone version of the classifieds.
Thus the biggest challenge for the team is ensuring the community continues to attract the kind of people that make Yardsale really fun -- and who are "less sketchy," Mickle said.
Yardsale is free from the App Store.
