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Thread: Time Wasters? Selling stuff on Craigslist vs. Donating it....

  1. #11
    Senior Member SiouzQ.'s Avatar
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    When I am doing a household purge, I offer things I don't want or need to my friends on Facebook, sometimes for free or a nominal price. I got rid of my futon mattress that way; still in pretty good shape but I was not able to sleep on it comfortably. I posted it on Facebook and a neighbor up the street took it to make a couch for her guest room after she bought a futon frame off Craig's List. I was happy to help her, and it was an easy way to get it out of the house so I could get a real mattress in.

    Other stuff that I know has value I sell at our local consignment shop. Every few years I pay $15 for a year's membership and again, when I am ready to purge yet another layer, the more valuable stuff goes there. This summer when I was off work from the broken foot i helped my mom go through her myriad jewelry boxes and weeded out a lot of items that she no longer needed. Many pieces had vintage value and I know she will get money for them. I recently made $68 by selling two coats and some jewelry to a vintage shop on campus - one jacket was a fringed '70's suede that a friend gave me when he moved out of state, and the other was a long wrap coat that had a vintage feel to it that I acquired at a clothing swap. I wore it once or twice and decided I was done with it. I was thinking maybe I'd get $40 or $50 for the lot, so I was pleasantly surprised when the owner of the shop wrote me a check for $68, seeing that both items were "gifted" to me!

    The moral of the story here is, I don't make it too much of a time consuming effort to sell items, but I have a good instinct about the value of items and current going prices for them, and knowledge of outlets in my area to sell things at. I don't bother with yard sales anymore, especially in my neighborhood where people try to bargain down the price of a $1 pair of shoes. Other stuff that I am done with at home, or clothing I am ready to give up just goes back to the thrift stores, from whence they came!

  2. #12
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Yesterday I found myself thinking about, as I walked around a few stores of vintage stuff, which items I have that fit in with the store's stuff. I could DONATE the items to these stores, I'm fine with that.

    My main goal in getting rid of stuff is to get it into the hands of someone who wants it. So in the vintage clothing store
    I was suddenly reminded of my mom's striped bathing suit from the 1940's. I don't know what I'll do with it otherwise than give it away. It's a funny piece.

    I do have two fabulous vintage coats that I'm not ready to give up yet, but when I am, I'll take them to a vintage shop and donate them, they are completely marketable.

  3. #13
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    I agree about posting only substantial things on Craigslist.

    I see the most ridiculous tacky things on Craigslist and I wonder who these sellers are who think their ticky tacky little pieces of junk are worth $7 and how did they arrive at the price of $7, and how they have time in their lives to fuss with this junk?

  4. #14
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    I tend to research what I want to get rid of on CL. Is there a lot of them? Do the listings seem to disappear (and if a lot, what price range, etc)? What price am I asking, verses what is my time worth? So IMHO, a lot of smaller things at the same time, tend to be better via Garage sales (where you still get people haggling), or post in the barter section of CL ($price or this), then Freecycle, or donate.

  5. #15
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    who these sellers are who think their ticky tacky little pieces of junk are worth $7 and how did they arrive at the price of $7, and how they have time in their lives to fuss with this junk?
    I've often wondered the very same thing.

    My cutoff for craigslist is $20 and even then there's only so much time I'll put into it. My general rule is that the buyer has to come to me (or a public place near me if practical). I'm not driving halfway across town to sell a $20 item. In fact, I had that very conversation this past week via email with someone interested in a piece of audio gear I'm parting with: She asked if I would drive out to her, across town (despite my ad clearly stating pickup near me), because her car has very bad tires on it. The adult in me wants to shake her to get her attention and suggest that if her car's tires are that bad maybe she should put the money she's giving me (for this very optional piece of electronics) into tires. But she's (theoretically) an adult. As it is, I suspect she's going to flake out on the buy. And (probably) not buy tires.

    Anyway, if the items haven't sold in the craigslist 45-day expiration period, I'll donate them someplace. The lower-value items I'll donate right away. Why waste my time with fielding emails/texts, arranging pickups (oddly, the hardest stuff to part with is the free stuff; what is wrong with people?), etc. when I can drive up to Goodwill and a smiling attendant will take the items out of my car and hand me a tax-deduction form?

    Heck, half the stuff probably came from GW in the first place...
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  6. #16
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    we sell lots of stuff on our local facebook auction site. We don't work too much anymore so we have time. I guess we make $50 a month or such, some months more, some months less. My dh spends his money, I use mine to go out to lunch.

    We leave everything in the back porch with a money box and we have never had any problems. We are in a small town though.

  7. #17
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    I list things on CL quite a bit - usually $35 and up in value. The one thing that I cannot get rid of is a top of the line 90s TV armoire. Neither Goodwill or furniture consignment places will take these diinosaurs. To get it out to the street for someone to haul off is a job in itself as it is huge and solid wood. I may just dismantle it and put the pieces out just to get it out of here.

  8. #18
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pinkytoe View Post
    I list things on CL quite a bit - usually $35 and up in value. The one thing that I cannot get rid of is a top of the line 90s TV armoire. Neither Goodwill or furniture consignment places will take these diinosaurs. To get it out to the street for someone to haul off is a job in itself as it is huge and solid wood. I may just dismantle it and put the pieces out just to get it out of here.
    fortunately we never purchased one of those. we repurposed a big black lacquer Chinese style chest for one TV and just plopped the other one on a table. I can't remember if we drilled holes into the Chinese chest or not, but If it does it's no loss It's a modern piece of furniture and
    I am finished with my Chinese phase anyway.

  9. #19
    Senior Member pony mom's Avatar
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    pinkytoe, do you have a Habitat for Humanity Restore near you? They're always loaded with those types of pieces. I think they will pick it up too.

    I was lucky to get rid of a mattress and entertainment center on Freecycle. Both were in excellent condition and would be a pain to dispose of. The furniture was taken apart and I labeled all the pieces so it could be reassembled easily.

    Most things just get donated to places suited to what I'm donating: animal related things to a rescue thrift store, books to a local library sale, etc. Anything worth decent money I will try to sell on Craigslist if I can. We have a 1950s bamboo framed sofa with original cushions sitting in my cousin's basement--these sell for over $300 if someone is willing to pay that.

    Once it's gone, I don't even think about the item anymore so the loss of money is forgotten.

  10. #20
    Senior Member kib's Avatar
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    I think I'd sniff farther than Craigslist - ebay, or maybe a site devoted to the genre - if I had something that might just be a collector item, like IL's bathing suit, and donate the rest or have a yard sale. Listing and selling small low-profit things one at a time and having to deal with individual offers and buyers over weeks or even months would drive me nuts.

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