Selling alarm gear? Meet your match on new website

Looking for a pair of used Osborne Hoffmann 2000 receivers? How about a mix of Philips Lifeline 6800 and 6900 PERS units? Or maybe you have a security item to sell but you don't want to pay to list it?

Welcome to AlarmClassifieds.com. It's the brainchild of Josh Garner, CEO of Ogden, Utah-based AvantGuard Monitoring, who launched the free website in May because he saw a need for it among his dealers and in the industry at large.

“Last year, I had a number of our dealers who emailed me a list of equipment or tools that they were trying to sell, and they asked me to broadcast out to our entire dealer base that they had these items for sale,” he said. “I knew there had to be a more effective way for dealers to sell things to other dealers. So I went out and bought the domain.”

In addition to providing classified advertising space, the website features a directory where people serving the alarm industry can list their names (or the names of their companies). The classified ads expire in 30 days, but the directory items stay online for a year. All listings are free.

“I envision every vendor who is serving the alarm industry would want to put a directory listing up specifically in their category,” Garner said. “Why wouldn't they? It's free advertising.”

Categories on the site include brokers, consultants, manufacturers, marketing, software providers and RMR-enhancing services. There are more than 20 categories listed, and Garner said if you have one to add, “tell us and we'll create it for you.”

Garner modeled the site on the popular KSL classifieds that serve Web customers in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. KSL is the NBC news affiliate in Salt Lake City that has basically replaced Craigslist in the region with the advertising section on its home page, he said.

“If you want to buy something, if you want to sell something, you go to KSL.com for free,” he said.

The only mention of AvantGuard on AlarmClassifieds.com is small text block and company logo introducing the website. There is no other display advertising.

“This isn't about revenue,” Garner said. “It's a service to my dealers, but it's really only a service to my dealers if the rest of the industry uses it. It's about giving something that's of value to the industry that I think is needed.”