Selling Things One Doesn't Need
 

Hola,
We all have things lying around the house that hasn’t been used in years. When was the last time you wore that sweater with the pine trees on it?

After purchasing a great monitor/ TV , I was wanting to sell my old monitor and TV. There are a few other things like a bike, some PC components, and anything else that I can get my greedy hands on.

Any advice on selling some of these things?

I’ve never taken an ad out in the newspaper, or sold anything on eBay; I could ask a former coworker for some advice on the eBay route.

How many of you are addicted to ebay? Do you have anything interesting that just laying around and haven’t used in ages (ex. Electric dehydrators :) )

I have no patience for Ebay because of dealing with the shipping details.

When I have crap that I want to unload, I'm a big fan of www.freecycle.org, which is a yahoo mailing list where you can post crap you want to give away via a message list, and people in your immediate area will email you back, tell you that you want it, and pick it up from you at your convenience.

You don't make any money from it, but you get rid of stuff.

I dunno, mal...my experience with freecycle was people trying to unload crap that was in to bad of shape to donate to the thrift stores, to big to sit out on trash day, and didn't wanna spend the $25.00 fee to get into the dump.

I've given away a lot of good stuff on freecycle, and I know people have gotten good stuff - -guess it's a regional thing... (I have seen people pick up stuff on freecycle and then resell it on ebay so it can't be that bad)

freecycle works great here in NYC.

so does craigslist.

http://www.half.com is great.

PS: Love your avatar.

The problem with you going thru ebay, other than the listing fees and the time involved, is that you are new at ebay, which means you have no feed back, some items you might have a problem unloading because of no feedback.

Overstock.com has an auctions site, that the listing fees are a lot less than ebay, the audience isn't as wide, but its new and everyone has pretty low feed back..

There are "reseller" types you can go to, drop all your crap off with them. They will photograph, and list the item for you. They will know what a fair price is, and they will ship the item if it sells, all for a pretty hefty commission, but it's better than doing it yourself -- and they often have the feed back it takes to get sales.

For a minute I thought that someone was pondering the life of a salesman who sold things that people generally don't need. *WHEW* I'm glad nobody asked me that question.

:lol: Now I'm tempted!

I have tons of things lying around the house that I don't need. I will sometimes sell them on eBay, depending on the size (for shipping purposes) and the marketability - I'm not going to have a hard time selling a microwave around my neighborhood, but how many people want that obscure Paul McCartney book I bought in 1991? eBay made more sense for that item, and I made a pretty penny off of it. (freaky Beatles fans.)

The key to eBay is good preparation, research and presentation. I do searches for a few weeks of items like mine, to determine what the going "rate" is. I figure out the right way to label it so it comes up in searches. I take LOTS of pictures. For the above mentioned book, I included pictures of the front and back cover, and another two shots of the inside. I could have just found a pic of the cover on the 'net, but it doesn't give anybody an idea of what it REALLY looks like.

I haven't used Craigslist to sell anything but I do hear positive things. We've done Freecycle a few times, but of course, that doesn't really answer your intial question about selling things. If it's something that is only going to interest a few people, I'd do eBay; otherwise a local bulletin board or newspaper could work.

I agree, Freecycle has great potential. Sign up to one of the groups, and just monitor the activity. Lots of items being exchanged there, of all kinds, from dresses to rubber stamps to computer parts to books to coloured pencils to bizarre offers/requests like wrestling shoes, wigs, used car tires, etc etc. Amazing what people share.

WHile i personally find it deporable... because it's not in the spirit of Freecycle, I've come across lots of people on my local list that will take stuff and then resell it... so if you are crap collector.. it's a good place to be in.

You'd be amazed at what people will take... and offer... for college kids it's great for cast off furniture...

In major metro areas, though mainly SF, LA, and NY, craigslist is good for selling the kind of stuff you'd sell in the classifieds or at yard sales -- electronics, furniture, cars, car parts, etc. -- at low/medium prices. Craigslist generally isn't good for selling high-end specialty items or collectibles except at deep discount. There is a "free" section of all craigslists for things that are offered or desired for free.

I liked craigslist because it's local. People come by your house, as they would if you advertised in the paper. But you can also be as private and compartmentalized as you want; anonymous email forwarding is an option most people use for replies.