This help page was created in February 2011 and last updated in November 2016.
It is far from comprehensive and will evolve over time as I become aware of problems people experience
on the Sydney Garage Sales Finder website. If you get stuck and do not find an answer here, please
contact me and I'll try my best to solve your problem.
The map is what this site is all about. For it to work you need to have JavaScript enabled in your web browser.
The map is generated with Google Maps and shows all listed garage sales with
a standard Google place marker (red with black dot). The green marker with the Y indicates your position or address.
If you click on the markers you can get more information. The garage sale markers also provide links to detailed information
and a directions page. This site works best if it knows your position or address. Without it, you cannot get
directions and you cannot do any distance searches.
If you are registered and you do not move around you must enter your address only once. The green marker takes the location
from your registration. Alternatively, you can enter or update your location by filling in your location/address details and
clicking on the "Put your address on the map" button. Location details entered with this button are saved
as a cookie on your computer and last 90 days. If you are registered, they will be replaced with the location details
from your registration the next time you login.
The list is a very simple textual display of all garage sales listed on this website. It only has two buttons, one to get
directions to the garage sale and one to display all the detail information. As I think that, over time, people will
prefer the map display and neglect the list, I have kept it very simple. If I should be wrong about this and you
would like things like buttons to change the sort order, please let me know and I'll add them.
The search page is one of the main features of this website. It lets search the listed garage sales by keyword,
sale date, item category, suburb and distance from your location. If you use a combination of search criteria
all conditions must be true for a garage sale to be returned in the search results. At this stage, there is no
provision for an "or" search.
-
If you enter a search term, every single field in my database is searched for that term. That includes, title, description,
location, category and picture descriptions. This is very useful if you are looking for a specific item.
-
The data range search is useful if you are planning to find a garage sale on a certain day. If you enter this information
the search will return all sales that are held between the start and the end date. If you do not enter a date range
the search returns garage sales on any date. For for the date search to work you must enter the two dates
in the correct format, YYYY-MM-DD. An example of this would be, 2011-06-07 for the 7th of June 2011.
Important: Do not enter garage sales more than one month in advance as your ad will expire after
that period and not appear in searches and the listings any more.
-
The category search is useful if you are looking for certain types of items, like clothing for instance. Just tick
the categories you are interested in. If you are looking for a category that is not listed, enter it as a search
term at the top of the form. If you do not select a category, the search returns garage sales from any category.
-
This is a convenient way of finding garage sales in your suburb. The selection box lists all the suburbs in which
garage sales are listed and you can choose more than one suburb if necessary. If you do not select a suburb,
the search returns garage sales in all available suburbs.
-
The distance search is useful if you want to find garage sales within a certain radius of your location. The
distance is the direct line from your location to a garage sale calculated using the spherical law of cosines. If
you are interested in the driving distance you can click on the directions link to get driving instructions and
driving distance from Google Maps. Distance searches require your location and if you enter a new or change the location
that is already displayed you have update the longitude and latitude by clicking on the "Geo-code my location"
button. If you do not select a distance, the search returns garage sales within any distance.
-
The return type lets you specify whether to display the search results on a map or in a list
You need to be registered and logged in to list a garage sale. If you are not logged in when trying to list a sale the
system will tell you and provide a link to the registration and login pages.
Listing a garage sale is a two-step process. First you enter the main information such as address, date, description
and the type of items you are selling. Once you submit this information, you can enter detailed descriptions for
each of your sale categories and upload one picture for each of the selected categories. Any information you enter
here will be indexed by Google and the more details you can provide the bigger your chances for someone to find your
garage sale.
-
This field is very important as it will be indexed by Google and queried by the searches on this website. When
deciding what to write here think about what someone would look for. "Huge Garage Sale outside Sydney Town Hall"
would be a good example for a title because it would tell people that there is a garage sale happening outside Sydney Town
Hall. "We are selling everything" would be a bad title because nobody would search for any words in it.
-
This field is also important. Here you can list the types of items you have for sale and describe any special
items that you might be selling. It's also a good place to provide additional information such as starting end
times and price ranges. As with any other field, the more detail you can provide, the bigger your chances
someone finds your garage sale on the Internet.
-
The default address for your garage sale is the address you have entered in the registration panel. If you want
to hold a garage sale at a different address you must change all address fields. If you change
the address you must make sure that the longitude and latitude are updated. This should
happen automatically as your cursor leaves the postcode field but if, for some reason, it does not happen you
can force the update by clicking on the "Refresh Geo-codes" button. In general, you should not
have to edit the address fields.
-
The longitude and latitude are required for Google to place your garage sale on a map. You do not need to edit those
fields as they are being populated automatically by Google and this website. These fields are only displayed for
illustration purposes and for you to check that the values change when you change an address or the values are
generated when you add an address. In general, you should not have to worry about these fields.
-
These fields describe the date of your garage sale. Some people make their sale last both days of the weekend
in which case the start date would be the Saturday and the end date the Sunday. If you plan to only have a one day
garage sale then both fields should have the same date, the date of your garage sale.
For the date fields to work on this website they must be in the
specified format, YYYY-MM-DD. An example of this would be, 2011-06-07 for the 7th of June 2011.
-
This field is optional and cannot be searched but the search engines might index it. It allows you
to enter contact details for prospective buyers who want to find out more about your sale. For privacy reasons,
I suggest you leave this field blank or use a free on-line email address from providers like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo that
you can discard without any problems if it receives any unwanted attention. In the future, I might build a message relay system
into this website that can relay messages between sellers and buyers without revealing the identity of the seller.
-
This field is a privacy measure. If you select "Yes", your garage sale will be deleted from my records
once it reaches its
expiry date after one month. If you have any privacy concerns you should select "Yes" here and read
my privacy policy in which I explain how I use your data.
The drawback of selecting "Yes" here is that, if you want to have another garage sale further down the
track you cannot use the re-list option and must re-enter everything from scratch.
-
Categories make it easier to describe what types of items you are selling at your garage sale. Categories
can be searched and the search engines might index them. You can tick none, one or several. If you
later decide to delete a category all related descriptions and pictures will be deleted as well. If you
cannot find a suitable category, you can create a new one by filling in the "Other Category" field.
In the detail section, you can describe and add one picture to each of the selected categories. This information
can be searched and the search engines might index it. That's why it is very important to be as detailed
as possible. With the "Submit" button you can upload all information at once. The "Update description"
button only updates the description. Once a picture is uploaded, a "Delete this picture" button appears
which lets you remove a picture. The "Browse" button lets you search pictures on your computer.
-
Pictures give you the opportunity to show off your best items. If you add a detailed description people looking
for that item might be finding your garage sale. For instance, "Nearly new size 8 Adidas Rome sport shoes"
is much better than "sport shoes". You can enter up to 120 characters for the picture description.
The size limit for pictures is 10MB and jpg, gif and png formats are accepted. The upload facility automatically
resizes the pictures and creates thumbnails.
-
The category description field can be searched and search engines might index it. It allows you to list
and describe the items in each category. You can enter up to 800 characters in this field and the more detailed
your description the more likely your garage sale is going to be found on the Internet.
This site requires all advertisers to register. Without registration, you cannot list a garage sale. This is necessary
to avoid spam and to allow subsequent editing of a garage sale listing. The address details entered during the
registration process are later used as default values in the garage sale listings.
-
If you do not enter a valid email address, I cannot contact you if there is a problem.
-
The nickname is an optional field that allows me to address my users individually without using real names.
-
The address fields are mandatory. They are used as the default values for the location of your garage sale
listing. When your cursor leaves, the postcode field your address is automatically sent to Google Maps
for geo-coding and the latitude and longitude are automatically saved in the respective fields. This is
necessary to display the locations of the garage sales on the map and to get directions and calculate
distances
-
The longitude and latitude are required for Google to place your garage sale on a map. You do not need to edit those
fields as they are being populated automatically by Google and this website. These fields are only displayed for
illustration purposes and for you to check that the values change when you change an address or the values are
generated when you add an address. In general, you should not have to worry about these fields.
-
This field is optional and it is used as the default in your garage sale listings.
For privacy reasons,
I suggest you leave this field blank or use a free on-line email address from providers like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo that
you can discard without any problems if it receives any unwanted attention.
-
This field is mandatory but if you leave it as it is you will never get a newsletter from me. My newsletter mailing list
is opt-in and you only get one if you specifically request it.
-
Passwords are a necessary pain. They are required to protect your information. At this stage I have no automatic
password reset facility if you forget your password and you need to email me from the email address you have signed up with
so I can fix it manually. Every time you change your registration details you must re-enter your password.
-
Comments are optional. They allow you to pass additional information to me
My contact form gives you two options to contact me. You can either click on the email address to automatically
start your email program or fill-in the provided form. If you use the form, please make sure that your email address
is correct as otherwise I cannot get back to you.
-
This is your email address. If you do not enter it correctly I will not be able to get back to you.
-
Here you enter what you want to tell me. This can be anything from a comment or request to a complaint.
I am working on this site in my free time and it is still work in progress. I will start charging
a small fee for a life-time (live time of the site) membership when I think it is worth while
paying for it.
If you do not register you cannot change your ads later. Registration
also reduces the amount of spam that is posted.
Go to the sitemap page, If
you can't find it there it probably doesn't exist. In that case, just
send me an email and I try to help you
as much as I can.
Please read my privacy policy here
Please find the terms and conditions here
There will be small (around $10) fee for a life-time (live time of the site) membership
and unlimited listings.
Future payments will be handled by PayPal. PayPal is an easy and convenient
way to process payments on the Internet. You do not need to have a PayPal account
to make a payment and you can also use credit cards
This happens mostly when you try to update your account details or an ad
with exact the same info as it has already. Usually this is nothing to worry
about.
The rules for garage sales are different for each council. You can get some ideas
here but it is your own responsibility to make sure you adhere to
all restrictions imposed by your council.
The short answer is no. I have thought about this a long time and decided against it for several reasons.
Many councils don't allow garage sale signs in public places because they distract drivers and end up as litter
if they are not removed after the garage sale is finished. Fines for unlawfully placing signs can be up to $300.