One man’s trash is another man’s treasure! This week we are doing a roundup of all our favorite sites for selling your extra stuff.
Best for: Used Items, Furniture, Cars, Large Items
How to: Craigslist makes it super easy to create a listing, their site is VERY basic so that means that posting is fairly simple. You should upload lots of photos and give as much detail as possible. It’s always a good idea to price your items on the high end and assume that customers will haggle. You may even get a few offers and can pick the best price.
Pros: Craigslist gives you a listing-specific email address that masks your own address so that you don’t have to give out any personal contact information.
Cons: Though there can be amazing finds on Craigslist, there are plenty of scams, be sure to do your research and I always prefer to have another person with me when I am buying or selling. If you are selling a big ticket item (like a car) you can request a certified check to help weed out the scams.
Things We’ve Sold: 2005 Honda Accord ($6000), Flower Bud Vases ($2/ea)
Best for: Brand New Items (with tags or in box), Small Items (easy to ship), Electronics!
How to: Stella opened Laura‘s eyes on this one very recently. Ebay’s site allows for easy listing uploads with 12 images per item and search engine optimized title and description fields. Alternatively, they also offer “eBay Valet,” where you send in items and their team photographs and lists them (for a larger fee than the normal 10% eBay cut).
Pros: Easy to integrate PayPal and USPS for payment/shipping. You have lots of options for shipping, you can offer it for free, charge the buyer and even select if you want to ship internationally. Be sure they submit payment before you ship out the item, eBay will email you when they do and you will have the funds in your PayPal account pretty quickly.
Cons: Pretty saturated, but great for listing electronics or other unique items
Things We’ve Sold: New in Box Google Home ($100), New/Sealed Atelier Lotion ($30), Jack Rodgers Shoes ($80), New in Box Clarisonic Alpha Fit ($70), Ubiquiti Camera ($120), random CDs ($20-$50)
Facebook Groups and Marketplace
Best for: Items Your Friends Want (i.e. wedding decorations)
How to: Facebook’s simple interface makes it easy to create a listing, just go to the marketplace and click “+Sell Something” and follow the steps from there. Another great way to utilize Facebook is to promote your listings in groups you are in (Local Alumni Chapters are great for this). You can promote listings you have in Facebook Marketplace or use the links from Craigslist or other platforms to post about what you are selling.
Pros: You can self-promote your items to your friends, it’s great for getting the word out!
Cons: When selling to friends, they often want a deal – go with the price high and expect to haggle tacktick to get the most out of your sale.
Things We’ve Sold: 2001 Toyota Echo ($1100), IKEA Bookshelf ($50), Bedside Tables ($25)
Best for: Fashion Items (bags, clothes, perfume, jewelry)
How to: This is a new favorite of Laura’s, and relatively easy to do. The Poshmark app allows for easy uploads of up to 8 photos per item. It then has fields for title, description, category, size, brand, color, original price, and listing price. It also shows you how much of the listing price will be your earnings once sold. It takes a fair amount of activity within the Poshmark-sphere to get your items “popularized,” but it’s also the kind of thing you can set and forget and just wait for people to find your listings. Once your item has been bid on and you accept the offer or sold at the listed price, Poshmark automatically sends you a prepaid shipping label using USPS. If you weren’t aware, USPS will send you free shipping supplies that you can order form their website!
Pros: Free and easy shipping!
Cons: The marketplace is pretty saturated, which can make sales slow. Also, they make it so easy to use your earnings to purchase other people’s listings! Not great if your whole goal is getting things out of the house 😉
Things We’ve Sold: Used Henri Bendel Backpack ($25), Dagne Dover Purse New with Packaging ($115), JCrew Tank Top ($6), Ballet Flats ($20)
Best for: Furniture, Large Items (sell locally), Weird Items
How to: Nextdoor is a private social network for your neighborhood that allows you to talk to your community online. It is often used for event alerts, researching nearby businesses, asking for help, etc. But a great use-case for it is to sell things! Whether it’s a large item that wouldn’t ship easily or one hyper-targeted to your locale, Nextdoor is teaming with listings to offload items.
Pros: No shipping! Generally better than Craigslist as far as no-shows go.
Cons: Lower sale prices as your audience is smaller and highly targeted.
Things We’ve Sold: Drill Press ($50), Office Chair ($20), Dirt (free! but we really wanted to get rid of it)
Best for: Anything you can’t sell 🙂
How to: Most local Goodwill locations will take drop-off donations at any time; however, some (especially if you’re in a big city) are trying to limit the number of items coming in their doors. Check your local establishment for hours, drop-off limits, etc.
Pros: Will take pretty much anything! Tax write-off.
Cons: Not getting any ca$h for your stuff!
