Skate and Dresses Sales

[FigureSpins]

We've all had kids outgrow skates overnight and not know who had a good used pair left over from the last sale.

Our rink/skating programs have hosted Skate Swaps once or twice each year in the past.  Two of my friends are spearheading this year's campaign and they wanted to put the listings online to help throughout the season, with a one or two actual "swap dates" for kickoff and year-end events.

We all know about myskatingmall and ebay; they don't want to deal extra commissions and shipping. They want to hold a local exchange, and they'll act as intermediaries for the actual buyers and sellers.  I think that Craigslist can be part of the plan, but I'd like to get ideas on promoting the swap and getting people to sell items.

Any advice and tips for having a successful sale would be appreciated.

[Sk8tmum]

Okay.  We do this at our club a lot as an inperson swap, and things that help:

[Organize tables and have the skates arranged by size. Put a friendly but effective guard on the table to prevent the skates from walking away.  Put a price on the skates themselves, and fasten pairs together.
Be prepared with printouts of current list prices on models so people know how much they WOULD be paying.
Get a bunch of experienced skaters to help out for fitting. Lots of parents don't know how to fit a pair of skates. It also cuts down on people damaging the skates by banging them around.
Set up a "fitting area" with carpet and chairs. You don't want people wrecking blades or floors.
You can also do a "blades only" area for people who have blades to sell but not boots.

I don't know how well an online sale would work. It's hard for people who don't know how to fit skates to buy them from a picture- ? And if they don't fit, you don't want to be caught in the middle of a "return due to poor fit" thing. But, then again, I've always been amazed at the things that people can and will buy online.