Mountain Brook Trading moving to new site

At 54,000 members, Mountain Brook Trading is bigger than creator Laura Silsbee ever imagined. She started the Facebook page in 2012 to sell her children’s outgrown clothes, but it blossomed far beyond Mountain Brook into a trading community with dozens of items bought and sold every day. Now, Silsbee is moving her virtual marketplace to a brand new platform.

On Monday, July 28 at 7 p.m., Mountain Brook Trading will transition to its own site on varagesale.com, an app built specifically for online buying and selling. Silsbee has been searching for the right site for over a year because the Facebook page has caused headaches for her and many other members. Between disappearing posts, a cluttered “wall” and a broken search feature, Facebook simply became too difficult to work with.

“I can’t tell you how many times I would post stuff on the Facebook page, and stuff would disappear,” Silsbee said. “It was driving me crazy.”

The Varagesale pagewill be better organized and will offer better technical support for Silsbee and the users. In fact, Silsbee has spoken with the company founder about her site’s transition. Among Varagesale’s features are a discussion board and a personalized page where users can track and manage their items for sale. The site will also include filters so members can see only the items that interest them, such as baby clothes, furniture or specific clothing sizes.

“It’s going to be so much more convenient for the members,” Silsbee said. “I think that people will love it. It’s going to be so much easier than what people did before.”

Silsbee expects the transition to go smoothly, though she knows it will take a while to reach 54,000 members again. She has heard hesitation from members who do not want to use the app, which requires a Facebook sign-in, but she believes users will soon love the new Mountain Brook Trading.

Members can join the group by visiting varagesale.com or downloading the app through the App Store, Google Play or Kindle Fire, but they will not be able to use the site until its official opening on July 28. Silsbee has also “pinned” a post to the top of the Mountain Brook Trading Facebook page with a link to the new site for users to make the switch.