How To Succesfully Sell Clutter [Archive]

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Cypress

10-10-12, 1:30pm

I have several items I hope to sell and wonder what is the best way to reach a target audience. Items include a 16’ extendable aluminum ladder, an armoire, collectible artwork (i.e., Beatles, Native American), women’s long leather coat, a hard hat and chaps for riding horses. I have tried placing notices on craigslist with no responses. All items, to my eyes, are in good condition and ready for a new home. My prices are competitive.

The other end of this query is the buyer. From time to time I post offers on Freecycle and even that can be problematic. What I mean is missed pick up times, lost information from interested party, etc….maybe SLN folks are more organized in general. I want to sell, I am not a natural sales person. I almost cringe at the process of calling, responding, waiting, following up with potential buyers. Yet, I want to move this clutter. What worked for you?

Grazie,

Miss Cellane

10-10-12, 1:47pm

If you want to continue with Craigslist, lower the prices. Everything will sell at some point, the price just has to be right. Check Ebay for completed sales on similar items to see what they are actually selling for. You can't just check current auctions, because those show the prices the seller hopes they will sell for. I have found that ads on Craigslist in my area work best if I post the ad on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Weekday postings don't generate as much interest.

The best ads on Craigslist have pictures. They also list a reasonable amount of information on the item being sold. For your armiore, I'd have the dimensions, the type of wood (if you know it), pictures of both the inside and outside. That way, people won't be contacting you as much with questions like, "How big is it?" or "What color is it?"

For the artwork, clothing and furniture, consider consignment stores. You don't have to do the work of selling, but the store keeps a percentage of the profits. For the riding gear, I'd find an on-line board that has classified ads, search out a used sporting goods store to see if they handle that sort of thing, post ads at local barns/riding schools. See if any horse-related organizations in your area ever hold tag sales to raise money.

Or you could donate everything to the Salvation Army or Goodwill and take the tax credit.

nswef

10-10-12, 2:18pm

I'm in the "just give it away" camp. Good will has gotten many items that might have been sold...but the hassle just isn't worh it to me. I figure someone will be thrilled to find a deal and it is OUT OF THE HOUSE! We do take the tax credit now, didn't used to but I'm sending much more there.

SteveinMN

10-10-12, 2:43pm

Cypress, you have to balance money with time. If you want/need the money, you have to allow that craigslist may take a while. No one looking now may need riding chaps, but someone may in three weeks. Or three months. I know I price my cl stuff to move it fast (for me, that's the whole point of it), yet it still sometimes sits for weeks on end. There are some items I've pretty much given up on selling on cl, out of their sheer ubiquity or because it is such a discretionary purchase that people can't value it correctly (them or me). Around here, armoires are a dime-a-dozen. Unless there is something compelling about yours, or you can offer delivery as part of the price, you might just want to give it away and take the tax credit. The artwork also may take a while to sell at your price; if you donate it to GW or some other non-profit thrift store, though, you can claim the value of it, not just what someone is willing to pay you for it. I think Miss Cellane has some great ideas on how to get additional exposure for the items you have for sale.

And since you touched on the problem of giving stuff away, it's been my observation that even though an item is free, the people who say they want it don't seem to think it has any value, either. Too many giveaways have become a jangled symphony of flaky messages, no-shows, and people who schedule a pick up the item before they tell you that they don't have transportation for it. Anymore if I have a giveaway item that GW or another thrift store will take, I'll donate it to them. At least I know they will take it when I'm ready to get rid of it (seasonal items excepted; GW is getting strict about those).

Gardenarian

10-10-12, 4:20pm

I generally give things away, but right now I find myself with a lot of things that are *worth* the time to sell. I am going to post some of them individually (Coach handbags) and some as groups (girls clothes) on Craigslist, but I am going to have just a one day sale. So kind of a specialized yard sale. I don't want to deal with waiting around for no-shows or involved negotiations. Basically, "Here's what I've got, This is the price, Come and get it Saturday."

If anything doesn't sell, out it goes! We have a community online bulletin board where people post stuff for free, sale, or barter, so I will post my leftovers there first. I'd be happy to get some fresh eggs for a necklace I never wear. The rest, to Goodwill.

try2bfrugal

10-10-12, 6:33pm

At our neighborhood garage sale we just kept lowering the prices until everything sold. At a low enough price point the eBay and flea market resellers will come and buy up every single item.

The people that I see that really sell out stuff at garage sales put up lists of items with pictures on Craigslist and sell everything at very reasonable prices. A lot of the stuff I see on Craigslist offered for sale can be bought easier and cheaper at Walmart or Amazon when you factor in gas, your time, getting a new versus used item, credit card reward points, sale prices, extended warranties from using a charge card, low price guarantees, etc. So if you want to sell your used stuff quick (or maybe even at all) you usually have to offer significant price discounts over new items.

Spoony

10-10-12, 6:59pm

iris lily

10-10-12, 9:39pm

mtnlaurel

10-11-12, 7:45am

I posted some furniture items on Craigslist for a friend and would repost them every 2 days or so, so they would remain at the top of the list.
It was a kind of time consuming though as I would go back and delete old post then execute new post, but I could get it done in about 10 minutes by the end.
They did sell in about 2 weeks and I kept dropping the prices until they did.
I included multiple pictures and detailed dimensions.

I am pretty cheesy and sales-y (as sales is what I've done off and on through out my career) so I put in original retail price and dorky things like "I'm getting lots of inquiries just can't connect on pick up, come get it by this Friday at 7 and it is yours for only ___...".
The Lord blessed/cursed me with a high threshold for embarrassment. ;p

I am slowly purging my house to a part of the attic and plan to go on a full force sell binge next spring.

Float On

10-11-12, 8:29am

I'm suprised the ladder didn't sell quickly. I sold two on CL within hours of posting. I've sold antique dressers and a antique school cabinet within 2-3 postings. I sold a leather coat after 2 postings. Groups of Lawn furniture in a single posting.
I've found art a harder sell on CL and I'm not interested in trying Ebay. Currently anything that could be considered something that bedbugs could live in are much harder to sell.

Remember that CL is just an on-line garage sell so garage sell prices are key.

SteveinMN

10-11-12, 9:34am

I put in original retail price and dorky things like "I'm getting lots of inquiries just can't connect on pick up, come get it by this Friday at 7 and it is yours for only ___...".
mtnlaurel, you reminded me that I've often seen something like that done on cl -- the stated price and then a second, notably lower, price for pickup by a specified date (even "today"). No idea if it works overall, but it seems like a good incentive.

Another thing I've done (with documented success) is to be clear about pickup. When I was working, I used to put in the listing that the buyer had to pick up after 6 pm on a weeknight or on a weekend. That established that I was not delivering and that I wasn't going to deal with it during the day. For free items I made it very clear that the item may be free, but my time is not, and if they are a no-show, to not even bother contacting me with an excuse. I'll just go on to the next requester -- and there always were plenty of them around here. I sometimes worried if being that blunt about it makes me sound like a &$#%, but, well, can beggars be choosers? Of course, now most of it goes to a thrift store; that's even easier than negotiating a pickup time with a cl-er.

pinkytoe

10-11-12, 10:08am

Our experience is that craigslist is very unpredictable as to what sells or not. Some things (a newish bathroom vanity) sold immediately; others like vintage lamps sit there. I have found that posting early Saturday morning brings better results. And keep reposting. Great pics help too. What works around here is to post items on our neighborhood listserve - everything goes that way. Just today, DH is taking some old Levis and bomber jackets to Buffalo Exchange to consign. I will be curious to see if they pique any interest. I am just happy he agreed to get them out of the closet. If you just want things out of your space, take to a consignment store and let them sell.

Cypress

10-12-12, 9:11am

Grazie per i rispondi.

My community does not have a local community board, else I would utilize this. Would anyone post their mobile number on craigslist? I do not have internet access at home and if somebody does want to contact me Saturday, it's all I can think of to help that happen. My ladder is posted for sale and comparable to other listings. There are not many, besides, you can search craigslist and not rely on what is on screen. There are about 100 listings per day. It's hard to weed through the pile.

Ciao

SteveinMN

10-12-12, 9:52am

My community does not have a local community board, else I would utilize this. Would anyone post their mobile number on craigslist? I do not have internet access at home and if somebody does want to contact me Saturday, it's all I can think of to help that happen.
All we have are mobile phones (no land line), so if we were to list a number, that would have to be it. I tend not to include my number because I just don't answer the phone unless I have a good idea who is calling (too many people "not trying to sell" me things); I'll do that once I contact the buyer. I have seen people list munged phone numbers, like 612-5five5-121two or 6!2-555-l2l2 (where the ones in the last quartet are lower-case Ls). No idea if that works; I have to think people have better things to do than troll craigslist for phone numbers to spam.

My ladder is posted for sale and comparable to other listings. There are not many, besides, you can search craigslist and not rely on what is on screen. There are about 100 listings per day. It's hard to weed through the pile.
The Twin Cities area probably sees 6,000-7,000 listings a day. :help: That's why I don't quite understand why people repost their ad "to keep it at the top". The volume here is such that you pretty well have to search for what you want, so as long as it's in the first 100 posts returned by the search, you're fine. Right now for "ladder" (no other qualifications), there are 3-1/2 days worth of listings on the local cl. Surely specifying "extension" or "6 foot" or such would return even more days of listings.

sweetana3

10-12-12, 10:29am

Ciao, I successfully use the craigslist search function. It does only work for those ads that include enough descriptive words to search on but I have found furniture that I like under the category and things like yarn, fabric, etc.

I always let good sellers know what worked and how they can make later ads even better.

www.searchtempest.com while not great does help quickly search on craigslist words and give results over a wider area.

Cypress

10-12-12, 12:32pm

My ad reads Aluminum ladder 16' Extendable $$

Float On

10-12-12, 12:46pm

Cypress, what category did you list it under? I put my ladders under "materials" because that has more construction type listings than "tools" did.