Hello and welcome to my final blog in my series. I’m so appreciative to everyone who has visited my blog and I hope you learned a lot from it. I have saved what I believe is the most interesting for last..online marketplaces. Whether you sell your gently used items at a yard sale, flea market or on-line site, resale is a booming business.

Obviously advertising and shopping go hand-in-hand and I love them both. You can’t do one without the other. The creativity and luring of the human mind are what intrigues me. It makes me wonder why someone is buying this product instead of that product. It also amazes me that there is a lot of money to be made in selling used items such as clothes, purses, shoes and electronics just to name a few. There are many online sites, and I will briefly touch on a few.

Just about everyone has heard of eBay. This is an online auction site that was established on September 3, 1995, and allows users to buy and sell items. Almost anything can be sold whether it is new or used. Sellers set the terms of the auction, including the shipment options, payment methods and return policy. Some items are sold with bids, and some are just sold outright. According to eBay, sellers are charged basic fees for most categories depending on the amount of the sale.

Other sites are Poshmark and Mercari.  Poshmark was founded on May 10, 2011, is based out of Redwood City, California and has over 80 million users. Mercari was founded on February 1, 2013, is headquartered in Japan and has over 15 million users. Both sites are similar, and you can buy or sell new and secondhand fashion, home goods and electronics. Buyers usually are charged a shipping fee and sellers pay the site either a flat rate fee or commission. Sometimes if you “like” an item on all these sites including eBay, the seller will offer a discount. Other sites fun to visit are Craigslist, Offer Up and Facebook Marketplace.

Lastly, I’d like to talk about M@C Discount. This is an online bidding platform where users from the Pittsburgh and surrounding areas can place bids and the highest bid wins. My parents visit this site quite frequently! M@C buys truckloads of closeouts merchandise and customer returns from major retailers. They have both new and used items sold individually at huge discounts. All bidding starts at $1 and there are auctions daily. They don’t offer shipping, so you have to pick up your winnings at one of their warehouses. For a $5 fee they will ship some items to a warehouse located closer to you. You pay your winning bid plus $2 and an add on of 15%. They auction off anything from furniture and appliances to exercise equipment and dog food. It is a fun site but very addictive according to my family!

So today I decided to talk about something different than advertising but that doesn’t mean it’s not my passion. Whether you are buying or selling new or used products you still need proper advertising to get your business started. Always remember fresh and new ideas are best and never question originality. If you have something to add, make sure to comment down below. As always if you have any questions and/or comments feel free to contact me on any of my socials linked on my home page. Good luck, happy marketing and blogging!!