Terms of Service

Effective: 1 January 2026. By using Nearby Garage Sale you accept these terms and our Privacy Policy.

1. Eligibility & account

  • You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority where you live) and not barred from using the service by any law.
  • One person — one account. You are responsible for every action under your account.
  • You must provide accurate information and keep it up to date, including your country and contact details.

2. Country-lock & local law

Nearby Garage Sale is a hyper-local marketplace. You may only list to, buy from, or message users within the country saved on your profile. Attempts to circumvent country-lock (VPNs, fake addresses) may result in suspension. You must comply with all applicable local laws, including consumer-protection, tax and import/export laws.

3. Listings

  • You must own the items you list and have the legal right to sell them.
  • Descriptions and photos must be accurate and current.
  • Prohibited items include (non-exhaustive): weapons, ammunition, illegal drugs, prescription medications, counterfeit / trademark-infringing goods, live animals, human remains, asbestos, hazardous waste, recalled goods, stolen property, adult/pornographic material, ivory and other CITES-regulated goods. See Trust & Safety for the full list.
  • Additional category-specific laws apply (e.g. tobacco/alcohol in the US, electronics with CE/UL certification in the EU, KC mark in Korea, etc.). It is your responsibility to know these.

4. Transactions

All payments happen in cash at pickup, directly between buyer and seller. Nearby Garage Sale is not a party to your transaction and does not hold, process, escrow or insure any money. We do not verify items beyond community moderation and user reports.

5. Buyer-interest queue

When you tap "I'm interested" on an item:

  • The seller may Confirm you as the buyer, Add to queue, or Decline.
  • Queued buyers are promoted to the next spot if the seller's earlier pick declines.
  • Once the item is marked sold, all other queued buyers are notified automatically.
  • Expression of interest is not a legally binding offer; both sides may withdraw at any time until a confirmed pickup occurs.

6. Ratings & reviews

Both parties may leave a rating at two points: (a) at request time, after "I'm interested" is confirmed, and (b) after a successful pickup. Reviews must be honest, first-person, and not contain personal data, spam or illegal content. We reserve the right to remove reviews that violate these rules.

7. Acceptable use

  • No harassment, hate speech, threats, stalking, doxxing.
  • No scraping, automated bots, or reverse engineering of the service.
  • No spam, off-platform solicitation, or moving conversations to untraceable channels to defraud users.
  • No uploading of malware, exploits, or content that infringes others' intellectual property.

8. Disputes

Buyer and seller should first try to resolve disputes directly via chat. If that fails, contact our Trust & Safety team via the Report button. Our moderators may intervene, issue warnings, remove content, or suspend accounts — our decisions are based on policy, not on adjudicating monetary disputes.

9. Liability & explicit disclaimer

⚠️ Important — please read carefully

Nearby Garage Sale is a listing platform only. We are NOT a party to any transaction between buyers and sellers, and we do NOT inspect, verify, authenticate, store, deliver, insure, escrow or guarantee any item, payment, person, listing, location or claim made on the service.

The service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, or that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Nearby Garage Sale, its officers, employees, contractors and affiliates shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, opportunity, or substitute goods/services, arising out of or in connection with:

  • any item bought, sold, donated, given away or exchanged through the service (including defective, unsafe, counterfeit, stolen, recalled or illegal items);
  • any in-person meeting, pickup, transport, payment or interaction between users;
  • any personal injury, property damage, theft, fraud, harassment or assault occurring during or after a transaction;
  • any communication between users (including chat, calls, ratings and reviews);
  • any reliance you place on listings, prices, locations, photos, ratings or descriptions;
  • any loss caused by service interruptions, bugs, security incidents or third-party services (maps, SMS, payments by users in cash);
  • any tax, customs, licensing or regulatory consequence of your transaction.

You use the service entirely at your own risk. You are solely responsible for verifying the identity of the other party, inspecting the item before paying, choosing a safe meeting place, and complying with all applicable laws.

Where any liability cannot be excluded under mandatory local law (for example the Australian Consumer Law, EU statutory rights, the UK Consumer Rights Act, India's Consumer Protection Act, or US state consumer-protection statutes), our aggregate liability to you for all claims arising in any 12-month period is limited to USD 100 or the amount we received from you in fees during that period (whichever is greater) — noting that the service is currently provided free of charge.

Nothing in this section limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited (e.g. for fraud, gross negligence, death or personal injury caused by our willful misconduct).

10. Intellectual property

You retain ownership of content you post. You grant Nearby Garage Sale a worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, display and distribute your content strictly for the purpose of operating the service.

11. Termination

You may delete your account at any time from Settings. We may suspend or terminate your account for serious or repeated violations of these terms, or if required by law.

12. Governing law & venue

These terms are governed by the laws of the country of your account, with Australian federal law applying as a fall-back. Mandatory local consumer-protection rights remain unaffected.

13. Changes

We may update these terms. Material changes will be notified in-app at least 30 days in advance. Continued use after that date constitutes acceptance.

14. Contact

Contact form · legal@nearbygaragesale.com