People buy and sell property and possessions for a number of reasons. There are more than ten thousand estate/garage sale companies in the US and an even greater number of consumers who are interested in buying people's goods.

Large estate dealing companies already have their own websites with online auction capabilities, which are quite expensive to create and support. These websites only display the company's own goods, and this decreases the audience of their prospective buyers.

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These companies would do well to list their goods in larger virtual malls, which attract a wider audience at a much lower cost.

The majority of estate/garage sales companies are small businesses, and many have no websites of their own. Some of them are proud to be hands-on people and practice the traditional walk-in approach only.

A practical tool based on the idea of a virtual local mall may have some additional important features and benefits:

It does not change the traditional business model of estate/garage sales or auctions. It just adds new technology benefits to the old process.

Provide more information to buyers with listings that include detailed descriptions of the seller's goods.

Provide buyers the option to bid on listed items both before and after the date of a real estate sale. A time span of 2-4 weeks gives sale organizers more time to prepare for successful sales.

Sale organizers should be able to collect bids 24/7, and buyers should have the opportunity to bid higher or lower than the item's start price; this increases sale flexibility.