Moser River Seaside Park - Traveller's Rest & Nature Park Takes Lots of Hard Work

One of many online yard
sales on the Eastern Shore

The Eastern Shore Goes Viral

There's a new venue for bargain hunters in rural Nova Scotia via the convenience of the internet. 

Local folk, weary of the distance and difficulty in attending yard sales in the Halifax/Dartmouth area, are setting up yard sale groups on Face Book,  usually within a twenty km drive, saving gas, aggravation and the bonus of not having to clean the garage,  set up tables, price items, buy or make signs and balloons and advertise!

These local online yard sales are busy as can be. For the sellers and buyers both, the Face Book groups are a win-win situation and many Eastern Shore yard sale groups have attained incredible reach over the past winter.

Here's a quick list of four of the main Face Book Groups and Pages from my own Facebook Directory but there are many more, including specialized links to Antiques and Collectibles or Arts and Crafts or individual local shops,  which are usually on Face Book Pages, not Groups.

Highway 7 Online Buy and Sell Groups (east to west)

Antigonish-Sherbrooke Buy and Sell
Sheet Harbour to Sherbrooke Buy, Sell and Trade
Porters Lake and Surrounding Area Yard Sale
Dartmouth / Halifax Online Yard Sale

Sellers can post one item for sale at a time or several -- but they don't have to work for days cleaning up the garage and setting up tables, making highway signs with balloons and marketing their garage sale. Plus, they don't have to wait for warm, sunshiny spring or summer days. The real bonus is not having to blow your budget on gas to save a few dollars on a used bbq or kayak, furniture, appliances or the hugely popular 'kids clothes and toys' category.

In fact, clothing is the category that is the fastest moving, with women involved almost exclusively. The popularity of online clothing selling has prompted the group administrators to establish ground rules which are rigid in some groups and not so important for others. Breaking the rules, such as not categorizing your item in the correct category album means your item will get deleted at the end of the day.  For others, that's not important, nor is clothing as evidenced by the group called Sheet Harbour to Sherbrooke - A Little Bit of Everything, but No Clothing.

Another group of mention is the Sheet Harbour to Sherbrooke FREECYCLE, a great group to give away those items that aren't really sale-able, but too good to throw away.

To use the the Buy and Sell Groups, first, click Like. That gives you membership to the Group in question. Then, check along the top of the page for the "Photos" link and Click it to browse through the various category albums. To sell, click "Add Photos" and give a description of your item. 


Yet, with any community driven action, there are those who make rules and others commit to no holds barred on their online yard sale groups.  From the Halifax-Dartmouth Yard Sale with its rigid "play by our rules or we delete you" to the "Sheet Harbour - Sherbrooke's Post Anything You Want" group, be sure and find out what the expectations are before doing all the work of posting that guitar that Bobby left when he went to agricultural college to the 7 kittens your cat blessed you with.

In any case, a quick run through the various photo albums is worth a few hours entertainment. And who knows, you just might find the bargain of a lifetime.

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The Eastern Shore Current is an eclectic Blog for Nova Scotia's Highway 7 Online.
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