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Online yard sales offer low-budget bargains
  
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By STEFANIE THOMAS
If someone tried buying a Nintendo DS Lite at a retail business for $50 or less, the sales personnel would likely laugh the hopeful customer right out of the store. After all, even savvy shoppers pay an average price of $130 and up for the popular handheld game system.
But Norma Torres of Kingwood found a great deal online: including games and accessories, she paid $30 for one of the hottest items around. Best of all, she didn’t have to wait for a package to arrive in the mail, or pay for shipping. Instead, she simply pulled up in front of the local seller’s home, paid cash at the front door, and was on her way.
For many area families, Kingwood Yard Sales - an online portal where anyone is invited to sell, buy, barter and trade locally - is a treasure trove of great deals and extra income. Once a local best-kept secret, the website, akin to e-Bay, has exploded since its inception five years ago and currently boasts about 4,000,000 hits from approximately 50,000 visitors each month.
Torres said that the money she earned from selling odds and ends on KYS when she first signed up three years ago was a lifesaver.
“I was working a full-time job, but my husband was sick and couldn’t work,” she said. “When I found out about Kingwood Yard Sales I became addicted. I was able to sell enough to pay all our bills for one year.”
Torres said she spent up to 10 hours per day, monitoring her items for sale online, chatting with potential customers via e-mail, and scheduling pick-ups. Her husband has since recuperated, but she still remains glued to the site for three to four hours each day, selling mostly clothing and toys and keeping her eyes open for deals too good to pass up.
New items for sale are listed on the site daily, every minute even. The wares offered on KYS range from household items, children’s wardrobes and trinkets, to electronics, furniture, even cars. Some of the merchandise is brand-new, tags still in place. Even free stuff is up for grabs.
Rhonda Schnitz said she was disappointed when she moved to Kingwood and learned that yard sales are prohibited.
“Before I moved here I used to have three yard sales a year. One during spring cleaning, one in the summer for back-to-school, and another in the fall to earn some Christmas money,” Schnitz said. “I didn’t know what to do when I heard I couldn’t have a yard sale here. Then I found out about Kingwood Yard Sales and it’s great. It’s even easier than putting on a regular yard sale.”
Schnitz, whose online name is CAS, said that she has earned more than $1,000 total since she signed up on KYS, once even $300 in a week. She sells two or three items a week, she said, ranging in price anywhere between $1 and $150. Perfect for the season, she pulled a newborn Santa outfit from a closet stacked high with KYS stuff. This adorable suit, she said, will sell for $5.
Amanda Slizeski, of Atascocita, has the perfect stroller to go with Schnitz’s baby outfit. It bears the brand name Baby Trend and looks almost new. Cost: $12.
Sitting at her computer beside a stack of vinyl records, a fake potted plant and a host of other items ready to find a new home, Slizeski said that she abhors clutter and tries to keep her closets as tidy as possible.
“The kids grow out of their clothes so fast,” she said. “Rather than just throwing them out, someone else might be able to use them. And for me it’s a little extra money.”
When Adam Allgaier moved to Chicago just a couple of months ago, he quickly realized that the climate up north was not nearly as gentle there as it was back home in Kingwood.
“I had one sweatshirt when we moved up here,” Allgaier said. “On the first cold day we had here, my wife found a lady on the local Yard Sales up here who sold long-sleeved stuff. She came back with 20 pieces, a whole winter wardrobe, for 50 bucks. We’re the biggest addicts, maybe the biggest users around. My wife has a laptop by her bed and she’s up until 11 at night, checking the website.”
Adam Allgaier, 33, and his brother Austin, 31, are the founders of Kingwood Yard Sales. It’s been five years since a need of their own to hawk their stuff became the motivation to create what turned out to be an online phenomenon.
What started with fliers passed out at local garage sales and home-made cardboard ads on top of their cars to promote their novel idea, has since turned into an international network of about 100 localized Yard Sales websites, including a dozen or so in Europe.
“People loved the idea and Kingwood Yard Sales became very popular really fast in Kingwood, but we never expected it to take off like that,” Allgaier said.
By popular demand, the Allgaier brothers soon created a business version of Kingwood Yard Sales called Bilooga.com. They also host the local chat room Kingwoodunderground.com. It all adds up to the ever-growing Rolera family of websites.
Despite the websites’ overwhelming success, the Allgaier brothers, formerly employed by ExxonMobil in Houston until the Yard Sales ventures took off, still do most of the work on their own computers.
“We work out of the house, out of a library, anywhere we can get Internet access. It’s ultimate flexibility,” Allgaier said. “We have a hosting company and some people who help us with customer service and marketing. But my brother and I do all the development, all the maintenance, most of the marketing and business partnerships.”
Buying and selling on KYS is free, Allgaier said, but premier memberships for people who would like to post photos of their merchandise are available for a relatively small fee.
Much to the chagrin of serious KYS addicts, the site is closed Sundays. Especially those users who turned selling on KYS into a full-time job often don’t appreciate the restriction.
“When we closed on Sundays we got hundreds of nasty e-mails, people saying it’s the only time they have to shop and sell,” Allgaier said. “Obviously there is a religious component to that, but that’s not the only reason. Sundays have always been slow, but it still took a lot of time and attention, and Austin and I found that we spent 24 hours, 7 days a week, maintaining the site. We also realized the sharks are constantly waiting for the best deals to pop up and they needed a break sometime, too, without worrying about what they’re missing.”
Allgaier said he couldn’t remember the last time he or his wife purchased children’s clothes at a retail business for full price.
“We don’t buy anything at the store anymore. Toys, clothing, tools, everything we buy is from the Yard Sales sites,” he said. “I don’t understand how people pay so much money for new stuff when they could get it for so much less. People are always cleaning house, there’s just tons of stuff. Kingwood Yard Sales is a great place to find great deals.”
Web link
www.kingwoodyardsales.com
But Norma Torres of Kingwood found a great deal online: including games and accessories, she paid $30 for one of the hottest items around. Best of all, she didn’t have to wait for a package to arrive in the mail, or pay for shipping. Instead, she simply pulled up in front of the local seller’s home, paid cash at the front door, and was on her way.
For many area families, Kingwood Yard Sales - an online portal where anyone is invited to sell, buy, barter and trade locally - is a treasure trove of great deals and extra income. Once a local best-kept secret, the website, akin to e-Bay, has exploded since its inception five years ago and currently boasts about 4,000,000 hits from approximately 50,000 visitors each month.
Torres said that the money she earned from selling odds and ends on KYS when she first signed up three years ago was a lifesaver.
“I was working a full-time job, but my husband was sick and couldn’t work,” she said. “When I found out about Kingwood Yard Sales I became addicted. I was able to sell enough to pay all our bills for one year.”
Torres said she spent up to 10 hours per day, monitoring her items for sale online, chatting with potential customers via e-mail, and scheduling pick-ups. Her husband has since recuperated, but she still remains glued to the site for three to four hours each day, selling mostly clothing and toys and keeping her eyes open for deals too good to pass up.
New items for sale are listed on the site daily, every minute even. The wares offered on KYS range from household items, children’s wardrobes and trinkets, to electronics, furniture, even cars. Some of the merchandise is brand-new, tags still in place. Even free stuff is up for grabs.
Rhonda Schnitz said she was disappointed when she moved to Kingwood and learned that yard sales are prohibited.
“Before I moved here I used to have three yard sales a year. One during spring cleaning, one in the summer for back-to-school, and another in the fall to earn some Christmas money,” Schnitz said. “I didn’t know what to do when I heard I couldn’t have a yard sale here. Then I found out about Kingwood Yard Sales and it’s great. It’s even easier than putting on a regular yard sale.”
Schnitz, whose online name is CAS, said that she has earned more than $1,000 total since she signed up on KYS, once even $300 in a week. She sells two or three items a week, she said, ranging in price anywhere between $1 and $150. Perfect for the season, she pulled a newborn Santa outfit from a closet stacked high with KYS stuff. This adorable suit, she said, will sell for $5.
Amanda Slizeski, of Atascocita, has the perfect stroller to go with Schnitz’s baby outfit. It bears the brand name Baby Trend and looks almost new. Cost: $12.
Sitting at her computer beside a stack of vinyl records, a fake potted plant and a host of other items ready to find a new home, Slizeski said that she abhors clutter and tries to keep her closets as tidy as possible.
“The kids grow out of their clothes so fast,” she said. “Rather than just throwing them out, someone else might be able to use them. And for me it’s a little extra money.”
When Adam Allgaier moved to Chicago just a couple of months ago, he quickly realized that the climate up north was not nearly as gentle there as it was back home in Kingwood.
“I had one sweatshirt when we moved up here,” Allgaier said. “On the first cold day we had here, my wife found a lady on the local Yard Sales up here who sold long-sleeved stuff. She came back with 20 pieces, a whole winter wardrobe, for 50 bucks. We’re the biggest addicts, maybe the biggest users around. My wife has a laptop by her bed and she’s up until 11 at night, checking the website.”
Adam Allgaier, 33, and his brother Austin, 31, are the founders of Kingwood Yard Sales. It’s been five years since a need of their own to hawk their stuff became the motivation to create what turned out to be an online phenomenon.
What started with fliers passed out at local garage sales and home-made cardboard ads on top of their cars to promote their novel idea, has since turned into an international network of about 100 localized Yard Sales websites, including a dozen or so in Europe.
“People loved the idea and Kingwood Yard Sales became very popular really fast in Kingwood, but we never expected it to take off like that,” Allgaier said.
By popular demand, the Allgaier brothers soon created a business version of Kingwood Yard Sales called Bilooga.com. They also host the local chat room Kingwoodunderground.com. It all adds up to the ever-growing Rolera family of websites.
Despite the websites’ overwhelming success, the Allgaier brothers, formerly employed by ExxonMobil in Houston until the Yard Sales ventures took off, still do most of the work on their own computers.
“We work out of the house, out of a library, anywhere we can get Internet access. It’s ultimate flexibility,” Allgaier said. “We have a hosting company and some people who help us with customer service and marketing. But my brother and I do all the development, all the maintenance, most of the marketing and business partnerships.”
Buying and selling on KYS is free, Allgaier said, but premier memberships for people who would like to post photos of their merchandise are available for a relatively small fee.
Much to the chagrin of serious KYS addicts, the site is closed Sundays. Especially those users who turned selling on KYS into a full-time job often don’t appreciate the restriction.
“When we closed on Sundays we got hundreds of nasty e-mails, people saying it’s the only time they have to shop and sell,” Allgaier said. “Obviously there is a religious component to that, but that’s not the only reason. Sundays have always been slow, but it still took a lot of time and attention, and Austin and I found that we spent 24 hours, 7 days a week, maintaining the site. We also realized the sharks are constantly waiting for the best deals to pop up and they needed a break sometime, too, without worrying about what they’re missing.”
Allgaier said he couldn’t remember the last time he or his wife purchased children’s clothes at a retail business for full price.
“We don’t buy anything at the store anymore. Toys, clothing, tools, everything we buy is from the Yard Sales sites,” he said. “I don’t understand how people pay so much money for new stuff when they could get it for so much less. People are always cleaning house, there’s just tons of stuff. Kingwood Yard Sales is a great place to find great deals.”
Web link
www.kingwoodyardsales.com
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