Another man's treasure...
As I move through this slow process of de-cluttering my life, I find some things that I need to purge from my life but that others might love to have. So I decided to start selling them. In the past, when my ex husband and I worked very hard through the Dave Ramsey plan of paying off our debts, we would sell things on Craigslist or have a yard sale. Well, right now I don't have much of a yard since I only live in a townhouse. And I always felt that yard sales were a lot of work for little reward. We had a lot of success on Craigslist however. But in the past few years as I've tried to post things to Craigslist I haven't been getting much interest.
So I wondered if this was no longer the main way to sell things and decided to try some of the new apps and Facebook marketplace. I had always been hesitant about Facebook marketplace because I thought that would mean all my friends would be notified I was trying to offload my junk. It seems more appealing to me to post that embarrassing fuzzy lamp or ridiculous dress anonymously. But I have become a little hard up for cash these days too. So I gave it a shot. The two apps I decided to try were LetGo (based on a recommendation form a relative), and OfferUp (based on it's 5 star review on the iTunes store). My experience so far is that Facebook Marketplace has given me the best results. I got a few hits from LetGo but nothgin from OfferUp despite its rave reviews. But I have come to the conclusion that whichever app or website you get the most responses from is partly dependent on your geographic area. I think some sites/apps just might be more popular in different areas, but that's just my theory.
The other thing I have noticed is that it really depends on the item how much traffic you get. The first things I decided to sell were some collective figurines. They are really cute but they were gifts from my ex mother-in-law and symbols of my failed marriage. So they had to go. But they are really popular figurines and I got tons of responses! I have also learned through experience that to sell things second hand you have to price them accordingly. You can't really expect to get what you paid for it. You might have to do a little research and see what price the item is being posted by other sellers and try to undercut them a little. Another good rule of thumb for "garage sale" type items is to look up the retail price and list it for about half that much. Yes, some of your items will go so fast that you might feel like you should have priced them higher. But you didn't want them anyway and now you are $10, $20, $30 richer.
So I wondered if this was no longer the main way to sell things and decided to try some of the new apps and Facebook marketplace. I had always been hesitant about Facebook marketplace because I thought that would mean all my friends would be notified I was trying to offload my junk. It seems more appealing to me to post that embarrassing fuzzy lamp or ridiculous dress anonymously. But I have become a little hard up for cash these days too. So I gave it a shot. The two apps I decided to try were LetGo (based on a recommendation form a relative), and OfferUp (based on it's 5 star review on the iTunes store). My experience so far is that Facebook Marketplace has given me the best results. I got a few hits from LetGo but nothgin from OfferUp despite its rave reviews. But I have come to the conclusion that whichever app or website you get the most responses from is partly dependent on your geographic area. I think some sites/apps just might be more popular in different areas, but that's just my theory.
The other thing I have noticed is that it really depends on the item how much traffic you get. The first things I decided to sell were some collective figurines. They are really cute but they were gifts from my ex mother-in-law and symbols of my failed marriage. So they had to go. But they are really popular figurines and I got tons of responses! I have also learned through experience that to sell things second hand you have to price them accordingly. You can't really expect to get what you paid for it. You might have to do a little research and see what price the item is being posted by other sellers and try to undercut them a little. Another good rule of thumb for "garage sale" type items is to look up the retail price and list it for about half that much. Yes, some of your items will go so fast that you might feel like you should have priced them higher. But you didn't want them anyway and now you are $10, $20, $30 richer.
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