MIEP Virtual Yard Sale (MIEP-VYS)

Our Annual MI Yard Sale (benefiting MIEP) is restricted to a one-day-a-year event. Many items will/may not sell at that event. If one posts to the Island Net a list of the items that did not sell, those items may also not sell immediately, and new potential buyers might not know how to go look for them. So, Kurt Steinbach had a thought: let's create a "virtual yard sale" (benefiting MIEP) to be available 24/7 throughout the year via this MI EP website.

DO NOT follow this process if you can NOT view the Island Net Messages archives.

Click here to see if you can view the archives. If you can't, it is because you do not have a Yahoo Id, or you can't use your Yahoo Id. Click here to get or fix your Yahoo Id. The reason is that you must be able to delete your previous post that lists your yard sale items if you every post a new list because you sold something or added something new. The reason that this is important is that you and other subscribers will be searching for the tag "MIEP-VYS" to find all MIEP Virtual Yard Sale posts. Click here to do that search. Multiple MIEP-VYS posts from the same person will be confusing. There shall only be ONE MIEP-VYS post per person.

The basic plan is that you post a note to the Island Net listing your yard sale items and tag the Subject line or the body with "MIEP-VYS" so that other subscribers can do a search for "MIEP-VYS" and find your and other MIEP-VYS posts. We strongly recommend that you take pictures of your sale items and provide links to them in your post.

If you like what I (Pete Hubbard) have done, I'll describe my process below.

  1. First, I created a Google Doc (GD) (click here) to compose my post to the Island Net listing the items I want to sell. I could have used MS Word or composed the post in my email program. I chose GD because I wanted to make it available to interested readers to bookmark for later review. Click here to learn a tip about creating a Google account which you will need to create your GD. It is very simple.
  2. I used the following format for each sale item.
    1. Brief description of item(s) - SRP $nn; Asking $nn; ?% ($nn) to MIEP.
      1. Click here to view photo.
    2. If I can find a web page that describes my item and shows a "Suggested Retail Price", I add "SRP $nn".
    3. I changed "?%" to the percentage I'm willing to donate to MIEP. 20% is suggested.
    4. I changed "$nn" to the donated amount.
    5. I converted "Click here to view photo" to a link to that photo in my Picasa Photo Album..
  3. I took photos of each items and upload them to my Picasa system on my PC, then I clicked the option to sync them to my Picasa Photo Album. (Click here to learn more about Picasa on the web.)
  4. I added the tag "MIEP-VYS" to the Subject line so potential buyers can a do a search (click here to do the search) for ALL MIEP Virtual Yard Sale posts, including mine.
  5. I COPied my list from my GD and clicked the "Rich-text Editor Post" section on the Island Net and PASTED in my note, then I hit Send.
  6. I clicked here to search the Island Net Messages archives for ALL posts containing "MIEP-VYS". NOTE: If you do this search immediately AFTER you post it, you may NOT see your post. Sometimes Yahoo needs a few minutes to load your post on their search engine DB. Try the search again in 5-10 minutes.
  7. I'll update my GD when an item is sold or when I want to add a new item.
    1. I'll move sold items to the "Sold items section" at the top.
    2. I'll add new items (if any) under the "New items section".
    3. I'll COPY the GD and PASTE it into a new post and post it.
    4. VERY IMPORTANT: Immediately after I make this new post, I will click here to find my OLD post and delete it so I do not have two (2) posts out for me with the tag "MIEP-VYS". NOTE: If you do NOT do this for YOUR posts, I will delete them for you and moderate your future posts.