A new spin on the yard sale

This episode explores innovative approaches to yard sales and the evolving dynamics of personal selling and buying in the digital age.

1. Digital platforms are revolutionizing traditional yard sales, making them more accessible and expansive.
2. These platforms not only facilitate selling but also help in creating micro-economies and communities.
3. The shift towards digital yard sales is part of a broader trend of digital transformation in all aspects of commerce.
4. Participants benefit from the convenience and expanded reach of digital sales, impacting how consumer behavior is modeled.
5. There is an increasing trend towards sustainability and re-use, promoted through these digital yard sales.

1: Introduction to Digital Yard Sales

Explores the concept of digital yard sales and their growth. Discusses how these platforms have expanded the traditional notion of a yard sale. Amy Scott: "Digital platforms have transformed traditional yard sales into expansive online events."

2: Economic Impact

Analyzes the economic implications of digital yard sales, including their role in the gig economy and local economies. Expert Comment: "These platforms create significant economic opportunities by connecting buyers and sellers nationwide."

3: Consumer Behavior

Discusses changes in consumer behavior due to digital yard sales, focusing on convenience and the environmental benefits of reusing items. Consumer Insight: "I find digital yard sales more convenient and environmentally friendly."

1. Utilize digital platforms for buying and selling to increase reach and convenience.
2. Consider the environmental benefits of purchasing used items.
3. Explore local digital yard sales to find unique items and support local economies.
4. Use social media to promote items for sale to increase visibility.
5. Stay informed about the latest platforms and tools that facilitate online buying and selling.

Many states are making it easier for homeowners to subdivide their single-family lots. But those with space to spare may not know how to develop it. Now, new companies are offering cash for the land. Also: Profits are up, but probably not because of “greedflation,” and federal grants aim to get solar panels on low-income families’ roofs.

People

Amy Scott

Companies

Shopify, Greenlight

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

Shopify
Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launcher online shop stage to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is there to help you grow. Plus, Shopify's award winning help is there to support your success every step of the way because businesses that grow grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period@shopify.com.

Marketplace all lowercase. Go to shopify.com Marketplace now to grow your business. No matter what stage youre in. Shopify.com Marketplace Hey Marketplace listeners, you know. Around here we like to think youre never too young to learn about the economy and financial basics.

Greenlight
Thats why were bringing the million bazillion live tour to schools to teach important lessons about budgeting, investing, saving and more. Its all the fun of the podcast, but now live, immersive and interactive. Special thanks to our tour partner, Greenlight, the debit card and money app for kids and teens. Learn more about greenlight@greenlight.com. Million.

That is greenlight.com million. It's peak earnings season, so get out your green eye shades. We're doing some accounting from american public media. This is Marketplace in Baltimore. I'm Amy Scott, in for Kai Rysdal.

Amy Scott
It's Monday, April 22. Good to have you with us. Okay, so I was kidding about the accounting, but we are going to be hearing from a lot of companies this week about how they fared during the most recent quarter. Verizon reported earnings this morning. Google's parent company Alphabet follows tomorrow.

Microsoft and Tesla are reporting this week as well. Investors will be paying close attention to the usual data points, sales, cash flow and of course, profits. And regarding that last one, a survey of business owners, economists and industry leaders out this morning from the National association for Business Economics found that profit margins are at their highest level since October of 2021. Marketplaces Justin Ho has more. This time last year, more survey respondents said profits were falling, not rising.

Greenlight
But Michael Urich, chief economist at 7th Point Analytic Consulting and a survey analyst for the National association for Business Economics, says the trend of increasing profits isn't exactly new. It goes back to the last few surveys, and we've had pretty strong economic health reflected in the survey for a while now. One reason is that a lot of companies input costs have eased up. Shannon Grine, senior economist at Wells Fargo, says that includes the cost of labor, raw goods and other inputs. And just given as supply chains have normalized, I think the cost environment has also normalized.

But Grind says this is a very different environment from 2021 and 22 when corporate profits were surging and so were prices. Labor was in short supply, supply chains were out of balance, there were inputs that you just simply couldnt get your hands on. And I think it was easier to explain why a firm was raising prices. And that kind of behavior. Call it capitalism, call it opportunism, call it greedflation, just isn't as easy to justify.

George Perks as macro strategist at Bespoke Investment Group we're not seeing the sort of over the top consumer demand that underpinned very, very strong price increases where people would just pay whatever would be charged. Overall, Perk says companies will still raise prices to protect profits where they can. But there's just no reason to think that the greedflation story is relevant for the 2024 economy like it was for the 2021 2022 economy. Instead, price increases in this economy right now are looking more like they did before the pandemic. I'm Justin Ho for Marketplace.

Amy Scott
On this Earth Day, the Biden administration announced it's awarding $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects. The money from the Inflation Reduction act is meant to help more than 900,000 low income and disadvantaged households benefit from solar energy through lower electric bills. And to make a decades old technology more widespread. Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes looks at the past, present and future of solar the first. Practical use of solar cells was during the space race in the 1950s.

John Perlin
John Perlin, author of the book Let it the 6000 year Story of Solar Energy, says the cells became widespread in powering satellites, but not in homes. The government at the time was promoting nuclear power as the panacea for future energy needs, as solar was put on the back burner for a very long time. Now it's on the front burner. But as of 2020, only 4% of single family homes in the US had solar panels installed. Danelle Baird, CEO of the clean energy company Block Power, says cost is a big reason.

He estimates installation can run between five and $25,000, which can include updating your house. Do you need a new roof because you don't want to put new solar panels on an old roof? He says solar panels have had their. Early adopters, but then there's this like valley of death before you get to the mass market, and that's kind of where we are, Baird says. Solar is on the way out of that valley, but there are still challenges.

Even with a big investment like the one announced today, one is technical know. How we are missing a generation of skilled construction workers in America and in Europe. Another issue is trust, especially in low income neighborhoods, says Anya Schoolman, who leads the nonprofit Solar United Neighbors. She also advised some of the Biden administration's solar grantees on their applications. You're working in communities who've been ripped off for years.

Amy Scott
Most people are inclined not to believe, you know, hey, I have a free solar system, and you can save money for the next 25 years, she says. Building that kind of trust takes time, and a lot of people want to know someone who's gotten solar panels before they get them, too. I'm Stephanie Hughes for Marketplace. The sun was shining on Wall street today. We'll have the details when we do the numbers.

Depending who you talk to, we are anywhere from around a million to 7 million units short of the housing we need in this country. And for the past several years, cities and states have been changing laws to allow for more housing in some single family neighborhoods. Since 2018, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Austin, Texas, and Oregon and Washington states have all moved to allow two or more homes on lots that of used to just house one. Think duplexes and those backyard accessory dwelling units, or adus. In California, a similar law has yet to produce a lot more housing.

Many homeowners dont have the resources or the know how to become home builders. But for those with space to spare, some new companies have emerged with an offer. Cash for your backyard KQeds Erin Baldassari explains. Gail Tremaine walks up a short, steep slope in her backyard, stopping where the hill plateaus. So this is a big space.

It's big space. And then turn around and look at your view. Wow, isn't that gorgeous? The Silicon Valley city of San Jose spreads out in front of us with its downtown skyline rising in the distance. You see the whole valley.

And in the fall, when the leaves change, it's just beautiful. Gail and her husband, Brian Tremaine, are planning to give up this view, though both are mostly retired, Gail from real estate and Brian from the tech industry. Now that they're in their seventies, Brian. Says, we're getting to the age where we want less land. So right now it's just become an area.

Greenlight
We need to do the weed control, and the county gets after us if the weeds get too high. So they decided to sell this portion of their backyard. Theyre able to do that thanks to a California law that went into effect in 2022. It allows for the lot split and for developers to build two homes on each new lot. But despite a major housing shortage, across the state, the law hasnt produced much in the way of new housing.

These types of projects are really costly and complicated for a homeowner to take on. Theyre basically asking the homeowner to be a developer. Ben Bear is the CEO of build Casa, the company that bought the tremaine's lot. He wants to make it easier for homeowners to benefit from the law without having to do all the work themselves. Homeowners can get anywhere from $50 to $400,000 in cash while keeping their existing home and mortgage.

Erin Baldassari
Bayer says his clients make, on average, just over $100,000. In exchange, they get a closer neighbor and smaller backyard and potentially lose up to 10% in their existing property's value. That's according to Bayer and another company that does these deals. So there's a major sort of positive benefit when you compare those two numbers. A growing number of companies are specializing in particular aspects of the new law or offering similar services.

Typical clients tend to fall into two camps. Retirees looking to downsize, like the Tremaines in San Jose, and younger homeowners hoping to upsize, like Jamel Mason. The 34 year old is a former track athlete who made his career in real estate. He bought his home in Los Angeles a little more than four years ago. He was looking for ways to pull equity out of his house without taking on more debt.

Greenlight
I put everything I had into purchasing this house, so when I found out that I could pull the money out, I was like, wow, that's actually a really cool way to leverage what I have. He says he'll receive a six figure payment for his backyard from a company called Yardsworth, where he's since taken a job as a sales manager. He plans to use that money to buy an investment property in Texas. I'm like, forward thinking, like, what's the best way for me to set myself up so that I can retire or just be somewhat comfortable in the later half of my life? As for the duplex that'll rise behind his small two bedroom home, he says he's bracing for it, along with the construction zone that'll come with.

That is also a sacrifice. But, you know, a short term sacrifice for a long time gain is not a bad idea to me. And that's what these companies are banking on, that they can entice more homeowners to sell their backyards and make a dent in the state's housing crisis. In San Jose, I'm Erin Baldassari for marketplace.

Amy Scott
Stephanie Hughes talked earlier about federal dollars for residential solar projects. Tackling climate change is also going to require significant investment in the electrical grid, including transformers. Those are the metal canisters you see attached to utility poles. They convert high voltage electricity from power plants to lower level electricity that's safe for homes and businesses. There are some 60 million transformers nationwide, and we're going to need a lot more of them as the US continues to electrify everything from cars to homes.

One of the metals that makes up those transformers is steel. And the kind of steel matters. The Allegheny Front's Julie grant reports. If the Biden administration is going to meet its climate goals, it needs to look for energy savings everywhere possible, including those electrical transformers that are so critical to the grid. Last year, the Department of Energy proposed using a different kind of metal inside of transformers.

Greenlight
It would have moved the US to adopt world leading technology called amorphous steel. Andrew Dulaski is director of the Appliance Standards Awareness project, which advocates for energy efficiency. We thought the proposed rule was really headed in the right direction, but some. In the steel industry disagreed. Here's the backstory.

Amy Scott
For some 75 years, transformers have been made from something called grain oriented electrical steel. Amorphous steel is comparatively new. The efficiency of amorphous is just simply better, much better, than green oriented electric steel. June Coy is a materials scientist at the Ames National Laboratory. He explains that the metal inside a transformer is rolled into super thin sheets or ribbons, and the thinner it is, the more efficiently it conducts electricity.

And amorphous material is naturally thin is. About 30% or 40% thinner than the thinnest electric steel you ever seen. And that means less energy lost when electricity moves through the transformer. That's why many new transformers sold in Canada contain amorphous steel. But there was a problem with the DoE's proposed rule.

Amorphous is produced at just one plant in the US, metglass in South Carolina. Sourcing a new transformer of any kind can already take a couple of years or more, and could take even longer if all new transformers had to be built with amorphous material. Plus, the domestic producer of the old steel said the rule could lead to the closure of its plants. This is ridiculous. Daniel Vicente is regional director for the UAW union, which represents 1500 steel workers at Cleveland Cliffs in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

He points out that while amorphous steel is produced in South Carolina, some of the raw materials are imported from China and other countries. Vicente says rather than switching all transformers to this newer metal, the US should ensure there's enough business to keep traditional steel plants open. Why would we cede the last domestic manufacturer of electrical steel. The energy Department ultimately walked back the efficiency mandates when it finalized its transformer rule this spring. Now amorphous steel will be required in only 25% of new transformers.

The DOE's final rule will reduce CO2 emissions by nearly 85 million metric tons over 30 years. But efficiency expert Andrew Dulaski says that's just a third of the CO2 that would have been saved by the proposed rule. The risk here is that we're doubling down on old technology. And since transformers can last up to 50 years, he says, it's locking in inefficiencies for decades to come. I'm Julie Grant for Marketplace.

Shannon Grine
Coming up, I incorporate people and sometimes pets. Art for sale. But first, let's do the numbers. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 253 points, nearly 710 percent, to close at 38,239. The Nasdaq added 169 points, 1.1% to finish at 15,451.

Amy Scott
And the S and P 500 packed on 43 points, about nine tenths percent, to end at 50. Ten, as I said, busy earnings week. So here's one to kick us off. Verizon saw revenue rise a bit in its last quarter. The company says it benefited from higher prices for its voice and data plans.

Still, Verizon fell short of earnings expectations. Shares dropped 4.6%. Bonds fell. The yield on the ten year t note rose to 4.61%. You're listening to marketplace looking for the.

Greenlight
Highest interest rate on your cash@public.com. You can earn 5.1% APY with a high yield cash account. And while we can't say it's officially the highest interest rate out there, we can say it's a higher rate than Robinhood, a higher rate than SoFi, a higher rate than Marcus, a higher rate than wealthfront, frankly, a higher rate than capital one, a higher rate than ally, a higher rate than Barclays, a way higher rate than bank of America and Chase, a higher rate than Citi, Wells Fargo, discover. And it's a higher rate than American Express, too. So if you want to start earning 5.1% APY on your cash, check out public.com dot.

We can't say it's the highest interest rate, but it's pretty darn up there. This is paid for by public investing, 5.1% APY as of March 26, 2024, and is subject to change. A high yield cash account is a secondary brokerage account with public investing member FINRA SIPC. Funds from this account are automatically deposited into partner banks, where they earn a variable interest and are eligible for FDI insurance. Neither public investing nor any of its affiliates is a bank.

Us only. Learn more@public.com disclosure High Yield Account Shopify. Is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business, from the launch your online shop stage to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders? Stage. Shopify is there to help you grow.

Shopify
Whether you're selling shipping supplies or promoting productivity programs, Shopify helps you sell everywhere, from their all in one ecommerce platform to their in person POS system. Wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers, with the Internet's best converting checkout up to 36% better compared to other leading commerce platforms. Plus, Shopify's award winning help is there to support your success every step of the way because businesses that grow grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period@Shopify.com.

Marketplace all lowercase. Go to shopify.com Marketplace now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com marketplace this is Marketplace. I'm Amy Scott. We talked earlier about the perennial housing shortage.

Amy Scott
The obvious knock on effect is rising homelessness. The number of unsheltered people in the US was up by 12% last year, according to a count from the federal government government to more than 650,000 people, the highest total on record. And communities are struggling to figure out how to respond, as we're seeing in a current case before the Supreme Court. The court heard oral arguments today over whether efforts to enforce a public camping ban in Grants Pass, Oregon, violated the 8th amendments protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Abby Van Sickle is Supreme court correspondent with the New York Times and joins me now.

Abby, welcome to the program. Thanks so much for having me. So you listened to oral arguments in court this morning. What was that like after having actually reported in this community grants pass? I thought it was just a fascinating argument, especially after having gone to grants pass and spent time, you know, in the encampments and speaking with local officials about this case.

Abby Van Sickle
And, you know, the justices were wrestling with a lot of the same issues that local officials and unhoused people and grants pass think about, which I thought was pretty fascinating. Yeah. So talk about this community and what you saw when you reported there, because I think sometimes this argument gets a little academic, right? Yeah. So Grants Pass is a town of about 40,000 people.

It's in the foothills of southern Oregon, and it's a former timber hub, and the town has been sort of struggling with what to do as residents began to complain that there were more and more people who were homeless and in the downtown area and also camping and sleeping in some of the city's parks. And so local officials stepped up enforcement of a series of local ordinances that basically make it so people cannot sleep with bedding in any public space in the town. And a group of homeless people filed a lawsuit challenging that, saying that the city was violating their 8th amendment rights, that it was unconstitutional, cruel and unusual punishment. Now, what did you hear in the courtroom to give you any indication of how the justices might lean? Yeah, so I would say that the liberal group of justices had a pretty impassioned back and forth with the lawyer for the city of grants pass about the implications of making it so people could not sleep.

They argued, this is essential human function. People must sleep. And so if you cannot sleep outside anywhere and you don't have a place to go, you don't have a shelter bed or a house, what are you supposed to do? And many of the conservative justices seem to be wrestling with sort of the practicalities of enforcement. You know, how does a city decide whether, you know, there are enough shelter beds or not on a particular night?

You know, how do police actually sort of make these individual determinations so that, you know, those are kind of the major threads that I heard in the argument today. Of course, the ruling will have implications for so many communities that are grappling with this issue. Can you talk about how what you saw in grants pass reflects the housing situation throughout many parts of the country, especially in the west? Of course. You know, I think this is one of the most important things to understand about the case is that this is not just a case about, you know, a small town in Oregon.

This is a case that has drawn the attention of cities, you know, especially on the west coast and in the western states, but throughout the country, about how cities can deal with and sort of what the boundaries are for regulating homelessness at a time when homelessness has increased and when the case was coming before the court? We've seen front of the court briefs by leaders across the political spectrum who are asking the court for clarity on, you know, what can cities and states do? What can they not do? And, you know, how are they supposed to wrestle with this question? Yeah, I mean, there are obviously no easy answers, but advocates for the unhoused say the cure to homelessness is housing.

Amy Scott
Are you hearing that in the arguments that communities really need to provide housing for these folks if they're going to clear them out of these encampments. You know, that was not a big part of the oral argument today. It was definitely something that came out in some of the briefs to the court about affordable housing. That it is certainly something that came up in interviews in grants pass where they have seen increasing rents, increasing housing costs, and, you know, very limited options for people on low or no income. So it's certainly looming in the background of the case.

Abby Van Sickle
But it wasn't, you know, it wasn't sort of at the heart of the legal argument today. Abby Van Sickle covers the Supreme Court for the New York Times. Thanks so much for sharing your reporting. Thank you so much for having me.

Amy Scott
At the top of the program. Justin Ho talked about higher profit margins among businesses. That's the macro story. To check on how things are going on a more micro level, here's the latest in our series. My economy.

Shannon Grine
My name is Julia McGuigan and I am the owner of Julia M. Illustrates in Omaha, Nebraska.

I would describe my work to someone who has never seen it before as being detailed architecture in my community. Sometimes landmarks, buildings. I incorporate people and sometimes pets. All of that I sell at markets and online and also in my shop. I started business paying taxes and on my business and everything.

In 2017, it was official, but my brick and mortar didn't open until 2022.

Business has been a little bit stagnant through the winter. It was difficult, but I am hopeful about the summer because my business thrives mainly on being at in person events. A lot of the farmers markets happen seasonally. So may through October is our, our season, and there's tourists that come to those types of events out of towners.

Having my own business, the biggest challenge has been not knowing what I'm going to make month to month. You know, having a family, our goal is to someday buy a house. And with my income as a freelance illustrator and all the expenses that go into a product based business, it doesn't show that I make a lot of money.

I've made the decision to go back to teaching next fall. I'm hoping that it will work well with my artist schedule because with a teacher's schedule, you get summers off and that's when the market season is. I feel very good about the decision because it will be. It's like a weight off my shoulder knowing that I have a salary. Like, I can't say how huge that is.

That's how I'm feeling right now is just like, I can breathe.

Amy Scott
Julia McGuigan, illustrator, business owner and soon to be teacher in Omaha, Nebraska. You know we can't do this series without you. Tell us about what's happening in your economy@marketplace.org. Myeconomy this final note on the way out today as I set up top Tesla. Tesla is among the many companies reporting its quarterly earnings this week.

Tomorrow, in fact, ahead of that release, Bloomberg is reporting that Tesla has cut its new marketing team as part of a wave of layoffs. Citing unnamed sources, the story says the entire us growth content team of about 40 people has been let go, though some marketing staff remains in Europe. For years, Tesla has avoided advertising, but last year, CEO Elon Musk said the company would try it and see how it goes. Apparently, it didn't go well. In response to Bloomberg's story, Musk said, on x, quote, the ads were far too generic.

Could have been any car. Our daily production team includes Andy Corbin, Elise Hasan, Maria Hollenhorst, Sarah Leeson, Sean McHenry, and Sophia Terenzio. I'm Amy Scott. We will be back tomorrow.

This is APM. With access to so much information, it's hard to feel like an informed, discerning citizen. That's why on make me smart, which is a podcast from Marketplace, we make it easy for you to stay in the know. Hi, I'm Kai Rizdahl. Every weekday, Kimberly Adams and I unpack the latest from Washington, DC, the Senate.

Minority leader has announced that he will step down as the republican leader. What's happening in AI? I mean, don't buy at the top, but holy cow. Artificial intelligence and all the companies related to it are the hot new thing. And we do the numbers so as a refresher.

Inflation is the rate of increase in the prices of things. It's not just sort of things getting more expensive, it's a speed at which things get more expensive. Because in a world that's constantly changing, we all need to stay smart. Listen to make me smart. Wherever you get your podcasts.

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