Hey everyone,

Quick update. Users can now edit their listings straight on HappySale’s website. When you view your listing on the web, you can tap the “Edit Sale” button and then edit all the fields of your listing.

In the edit page, you can change the listing’s status to “Sold” and edit the various fields – Description, Item name, Condition, Price and add hashtags. You can also change your item’s location and edit your contact details.

Please note that editing and changing the details of your listing DO NOT “bump” it up. If you want to “bump” your listing, and get it back to the top of the feed for users to see, you should open it in the app and “repost” it from the listing page.

This is the first step we are taking to provide web users full control of the HappySale content and functionality in the browser. By the end of August we will launch a more advanced web experience that will include the ability to post items without using the HappySale app.

Please let us know if you encounter bugs or errors while using the “Edit Sale” page, please contact us at http://support.happysale.com

Cheers,

Doron

Hey Everyone,

Long time since we updated our blog, and some great users posted on our support website that they want more posts on the blog. So this one’s for you.

It’s been a crazy work for us at HappySale. 3 days ago, in the afternoon, someone posted a piece of shrapnel from the Saturday attack on Tel Aviv. It took about 2 hours until Israeli website rotter.net posted the listing on their forums, and from that point on international media started to take notice.

First were Mashable, with Uri Blau’s story on the listing and how these things happen in the middle of the attacks on Tel Aviv, and then other sites followed (Buzzfeed, Vocativ and others). The article on Mashable exploded, with over 500 shares in the first 30 minutes and 1000 shares altogether. All in all, this little listing got over 6000 views in 48 hours. Pretty crazy for an item on our marketplace. We actually had to check if selling this stuff is even legal (which apparently it is).

It’s not the first time we see unusual items on HappySale. About 3 months ago, a listing came up from NJ. It was a large amount of weed, and according to the seller, it was “Magical OG Blue Dream” type. We took it off immediately, but a lot of jokes were told that day at the office: “This puts a whole new twist on HappySale”, “If a stoner can post something at 4am in the morning, this means our listing creation flow really works!” etc.

Stay safe, stay happy.

Doron@HappySale.com

Need a new car?

We’re thrilled to see automobiles on HappySale. It’s a huge milestone that they are up within two weeks of our app launching. From slightly used to lovingly restored, these autos will be perfect for their new owners.

Here’s a classic Porsche, for sale in Israel:

Michael is from Ramat Gan and has a business for selling laptop batteries. About 4 years ago, as a birthday present for himself, he decided to travel to Germany and buy this car. He says he owned one just like it back when he was 21-22 and had wonderful memories from it.

So he flew from Israel to Germany, and there he bought the car. Drove it all the way to Antwerp, loaded it onto a ship and had it shipped to Israel.

He has been re-building it from the ground up for over 4 years now. Engine is completely overhauled, The car is in amazing conditions. Now he sees this project as complete. He feels its the right time to pass on the car to someone who will enjoy it more. He thinks its time for a new project.

Both overseas and in the US, cars are getting posted to the HappySale community. Here’a a BMW available in the Bay Area:

Details like pricing are available right in the app. And you can simply click the Contact button to ask questions or purchase the car.

It’s great to hear the stories behind the cars on HappySale. Download HappySale and you could find your next car!

Last weekend, Laura and I hosted a successful clothing swap party. A group of friends all got together with their once-loved clothes, shoes and accessories.

We traded old for new and, of course, introduced them to HappySale to post anything without a home at the end. Every participant thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and it’s an easy-to-repeat event that has big returns.

If you want to host a clothing swap of your own, here are some pointers:

Label clothing
We asked each attendee to clearly label clothes – we provided pins and clips for them to attach their names to the clothing. This way, each person would not only adopt an exciting addition to their wardrobe, they would also have a story to accompany it.

Provide options for display
Whether it’s a garment rack or a shelf, offer some designated space for items to be properly presented and looked through. We purchased a low-end garment rack to hang items and used dining chairs as individually labeled display areas.

Offer a space to try on
We had a spare room and a bathroom for ladies to try on clothing. We also got a low cost full length mirror in the main room, so they could see how they looked with natural lighting – and a crowd of supporters.

Have a theme
Clothing, accessories, games or kitchenware – it’s best to specify what people should bring to and expect to get from the swap. You can then provide themed snacks, beverages and goodies to reflect the party and make it more memorable.

All in all we had a great afternoon with many items getting happy new homes and posting the remaining items to HappySale. Have you hosted a swap of any sort before? Any tips to add to our list?

As a single woman in a big city, my accumulation of apartment furniture consists of IKEA purchases from my 20s, items from ex-boyfriends, and some newer, nicer pieces I’ve bought in the last year or two. One goal of mine for 2014 is to make some headway on my furniture situation, to swap out older things for those that reflect my taste.

This will be a somewhat slow process as I will have to save up for replacement items before getting rid of large pieces, but a great first step is adding some smaller things to HappySale.

For example, here are some lightly used desktop speakers, now available for just $15.

My second posting is this TV stand. It’s time for me to move on to one that matches my style, and has more than one functioning door. But this is perfect for someone with a large TV who needs some storage too.

This is free, just come pick it up.

Do you have any new year resolutions for your home?

When posting your HappySale, you have two options for sharing to Facebook. You can of course share to your own network and we recommend doing this for anything you post. But an even better idea is to share your HappySale to Groups you belong to on Facebook!

Look for neighborhood groups, reselling or swap organizations, flea and vintage groups or garage sale fans to join and share to. You can also find groups specific to your sale – gaming groups for games or sports groups for athletic equipment.

The above post was shared to a ladies group I belong to. It’s well targeted, and gets the HappySale notice out to a network beyond Natalie’s immediate Facebook friends.

Other benefits? It’s likely to be seen by more people, because a group feed is a destination. And, group feeds generally don’t get updated as often as a home feed so it has more time to spread and be shared.

I’d just add a comment encouraging group members to share this to their friends as well – especially any chocoholics!

One of the most awesome racing games to come out on Playstation 3 is Gran Turismo 5. Friends and bloggers have posted about the gameplay and graphics.

And I was able to get it in under forty-eight hours using HappySale.

I saw the game posted on HappySale, from a friend who works at an advertising school in the Tel Aviv port. It’s one I had not played yet but had read reviews raving about how great it is. Now was my chance to get my hands on it and try it out!

I contacted him via his cell phone and we agreed on a price for me to purchase the game within minutes. Two days later the game was waiting for me at the school, on the way to my office. I picked the game up and was playing it later that night.

Using HappySale meant I got the game more quickly and for less money than I would have anywhere else online. It was a great experience for everyone involved!

One of the best ways to find clothing with a history is by shopping flea markets and vintage sales. Where LA shines is its vintage collections and markets.

Our friends Linde Sayles and Hillary Justin run Just Say Native Vintage Studio on the side of their full time jobs. They offer a personalized shopping experience and offer amazing finds from the past.

A selection of vintage finds from Just Say Native

LA Vintage offers both a warehouse for shopping, and an online catalog, so if you aren’t in town you can still shop.

According to blogger Gala Darling, there are just three required Vintage stops in LA: Hidden Treasures, Playclothes and Shareen. Each looks amazing and unique.

Are there any other classic vintage spots in Southern California?

Yesterday we launched the new version of HappySale to the Android app store. The most major feature added was posting to Facebook Groups. It’s the first time we approached groups and to our knowledge we’re the only consumer application that uses the FB groups API to post ANYTHING from the outside to FB Groups.

Like all good features, this one has a story behind it. Play this clip as a soundtrack while you read it…

Gil Hirsch, the incomparable former-Face.com-CEO-turned-FB-Product-Manager is a good friend of mine. He’s one of the smartest guys I know, and is extremely focused on where the value lies when it comes to consumer products. Gil heard about HappySale in its very early stages last summer, and immediately offered to join and invest. Since then we’ve been having product conversations, mostly trying to tackle where the value lies in the creation of a new type of social used-goods-eCommerce experience. In a conversation we had a couple of weeks ago I brought up an idea raised by Reem, my awesome co-founder, to post directly to Facebook Groups and even create groups specifically to serve as a HappySale marketplace on FB.

Gil was stoked. Apparently Facebook employees have a private marketplace group just for that, and he saw tremendous value in an app that posts directly to that group. Developing the integration flow was done super fast, and the main part was how to filter the groups in a way that most users find relevant. The FB groups API proved very powerful, sorting groups in the order of activity once permissions were given.

So what can you do now with HappySale that you couldn’t have done before? most importantly, if you feel conscious about posting to your Facebook wall, and not wanting to “trash” it with your HappySale, you can post directly to your favorite groups. This could be a local group created by your friends, or a group that has only people from your neighborhood, or maybe its a group/marketplace that revolves around your workplace. As always, the main idea is to help you sell your stuff on social networks easily and happily.

Keep on Sellin’

D.