What's the minimum you'll sell something online for?
 

$100? $1000? $5?

Time to clean house. I can't be a hoarder forever. Last week, I took pics of 4 items, and put them all for sale on FB for about $25 a piece.

In the past, this is well below what I would mess around with online selling for. Not worth the hassle, but, it's a new year, and time to clean.

In the last week, only one of the four got any bites. One responder didn't read the description. The next lowballed me on a $25 item. The next wanted a commitment to buying, yet is delayed in responding.

The point of this wasn't to make much money, but to be positive, and to give it a fair shot, and toss if no love given.

The time I have invested in corresponding makes these items a loss leader. "Leader" isn't an appropriate word either. It is currently a loss. It is not worth time even meet the people for the price given. I guess that's "my bad" for being willing to go so low.

Folks, I don't want to dump good stuff at the dump, but at what point does this become "not worth it?" I have removed the listings, and am tempted to tell the person who I committed to selling to that I have placed the item outside for him to pick up for free, and if not picked up within a week, will be trashed.

This just isn't worth it, and ironically tears at my inner TABS desire to save and make good of everything.

The problem I'm having here, (or opportunity?) is realizing a 25 dollar item is not worth losing much sweat over, yet, cumulatively, those 25 items add up... So I'm perplexed.

Signed,
Meaning good karma for my worldy possesion confused....;)
R

Yard sale. One day only, Saturday. Spend a week or two getting it ready. Have fun with it and make a few hundred bucks. Put the stuff that doesnt sell on the curb or take it to charity for the write off.

Or, take all of it to a charity and write the whole shootin' match off on your taxes.

:) That's funny too- Several years ago, I tried to sell my daughter's outgrown 16 inch PK ripper for 60 bucks at a yard sale. Nobody knew what it was. No takers. It sat. I relisted it for $200 in the right group and it sold immediately.

Specialized stuff seems to need the time and research to make it stick. The Ripper was worth it. Other things, not so much.

Cheap tractor weights?
Bike rack?
Train tracks?
Attic fan housing/blade- no motor?

Tip of the iceberg I tell ya! :)

Maybe next spring I will try the yard sale thing (again)

Believe me, I'm the worst when it comes to "I know what I've got". And it shows. My house is pretty full.

Yup, :D
I know what I got. I am an adonis of cool stuff that is too good to toss!

Some things are best sold locally....yard sale, CL, FB MP, Nextdoor......

Others can be sold on eBay with a global market available to you.

You just have to decide which is which.

To some degree there's always going to be an aggravation factor.....so make it worth your while - is the key.....

I can't really help but...

My life is cluttered but most of what I have I still use. At some point I'll have to start simplifying things.
I'm even thinking about getting a smaller house.

I don't want my kids to be burdened with my stuff once I'm gone (I'm not sure why).

Tractor weights? For a lawn tractor or compact?

The other stuff, there are people that will take anything metal for scrap, a guy in Greene saved me hauling a dead pool heater to the dump.

GT 12 inch rims plastic weights. I wish solid metal. (smaller than you'd want) The plastic is punctured, but could be refilled with a bag of mortar to get back to new. $25(weights)+ $6 bag of mortar= $100+ in metal weights.

In my redneck world, this adds up. Somewhere a 50+ yo male hoarder awaits! :)
I've since "upgraded" to all metal weights, but I'd hate to toss em'.

And this is my conundrum. My dad was a big hoarder. I've got his genes, so I appreciate it (well... some of it), but I also realize what a horrible burden it is on other (namely myself). I have nightly nightmares his house is still a mess, not in order, and the ceiling is literally collapsing- as it literally was.

I can't pass that on, yet my inner Tabs says I need it when the SHTF.

For example, the attic fan I'm going to toss. This would be a piece of gold depression era. Once could put it to good use. I hate to see it go. My dad never used it. I haven't either. It sits and collects rust. I need to think "bigger" than a bent ceiling fan mentality, but it's tough.

I think this is what I inadvertently tripped this week. It was worth a shot though!

I need to stay calm and let the guy who committed respond. A part of my psyche is "type A get it done NOW!"

The rest of the world isn't running on the same metronome.

They need to step it up! :D

I've been dropping stuff off at the dump shop. And if they don't want it I carry on up the road a bit and that's the last I see of it.

Online selling. All of that answering questions, packaging it up, dropping it off... Can't be bothered for anything under a couple of hundred I guess.

Yard sale, 2 days (Fri & Sat), assuming you have enough stuff, the more the better. Obviously, weather plays a factor, if you've got snow, you probably need to wait for no snow and better weather. Find out what time they usually start in your area. In our area, it was usually the butt-crack of dawn (7am). We'd get up at 530 or 6 and move all of the crap out to the yard/driveway, and we'd have folks stopping in the dark while we were moving stuff out.

My wife used to have yard sales (4-5 in 14-17 years). She'd wait and do a thorough clean out of all of our crap, anything that needed to go or might need to go probably went. Get it all together, think about what you want for it and then add some, so if you want $10, then set the price at $12-15, and let them talk you down. I think it depended on the weather and volume of folks stopping, but we'd usually stop selling and move everything back into the garage between 12 and 2pm. The next morning (Sat) would be the same, but we'd often stop selling a bit earlier, and on Sat, my "I'd like $10" would start to creep down (usually to somewhere in the $5-$8 range). On Sat I'd tell folks "if you want something, let me know. I don't want to have to move anything back inside." I'm not a people person or a seller, but I think I actually did a really good job engaging with folks, talking to them, and making the deals (because I really didn't want to have to deal with moving anything back in or taking it to the thrift store afterward). We usually had a ton of crap and usually made $1500-3000.

Determining shipping too- It's a process. For larger items, I can do, but I'm getting perplexed.

This especially true of p-car parts. I dumped some 66 chrome steel rims at the dump. Lemmerz? They were rusted, some were bent? Am I a bad person?

I will rot in p-car hell!!!!

I need a strategy like this. I will share with my wife this weekend during our "rain/snow" of the century.

This is also something I am envious of. Some people I know have the "yard sale" touch, and can walk away from such an event with a fistful of cash. In the past, I have let them handle such sales, although, they aren't available at the moment. I've had good success just giving them my crap and saying "do what you can" and they come back with some real cashish for me (even with their cut). I miss those days.

I used to have good luck getting rid of things on Craigs List, but something changed.

Any chance there is a local thrift store? We have a ReHome place that takes donations of anything but clothes and books. I unload a lot of stuff there.

"train tracks" like toy/model trains. There are model train clubs. I've got a buddy in a model train club here in Houston, they put on "shows" with huge setups of trains, terrain, etc.... Most of the money is in the trains and train cars, but I'd assume someone would want that stuff. I'd think a bike rack would sell. Attic fan housing and blades but no motor, that sounds like a tough sell to me, but then I don't know what the attic fan market is like.

I am retired so I have time on my hands. Ive sold stuff for $25. The buyer has to meet me at the gas station 2 blocks from my house. And not be a jerk. I had an s10 fender listed on marketplace 18 weeks ago and sort of forgot about it. A kid messaged me this week wanting to buy it. I met him and he gave me the $50 I had it listed for. I gave him $10 back and explained that he needs to negotiate. He was very nice and looked like he needed a break so I gave him one. Now I need list some more stuff to forget about.

At least a c note.
Unless it’s chickens…. Those are 20 bucks each (halal).

Lately, I've found myself giving things away.

I make it a habit of never wheeling the garbage cart to the curb...until it's jammed full.

If the normal bags take up half the space, I find unused items to fill it.

Win-Win.

Sometimes trying to get people to get off their butt and come over is really hard. You practicaly have to pay them to come and get your stuff. The stuff I put on fb is only because its too big to ship. Stuff like lawnmowers and the like is usually what i put on there and usually not less than 40 bucks or so. Garage sales are alot of work but very good at clearing out if you have enough to make it worth people coming.

I had a tenant called Tracey Welman do a runner owing a month or two of rent. She left the complete house lot of furniture, fridge, crockery, cutlery, beds, couches... I phoned about five charities and all of them said no they didn't want it. I said to Salvation Army it's everything to set up a family in a home. They said bring it all in and we'll see if there is anything we want. NO. I gave the fridge away, sold the two couches for $700 and took the rest to the dump.

Me as well. If I think I can get $50+ I will list it on CL and when the buyer arrives I offer them no charge to take other stuff. No that I have a truck I will be hitting local goodwill with stuff I am just sitting on and taking space.

I actually sell quite a bit online. Mostly using Facebook marketplace.
To answer to OP’s question, for pricing, I determine a basic value ( I look for similar items, if I can’t spitball a price), then decide how much I would pay for it…and then reduce it by 25%.
That is for my initial listing price. Is it to low, maybe, but most things sell like hotcakes.

My philosophy is that I want to get rid of this stuff. Any money is better than no money. I don’t have to haul it all over gods green earth to dispose of it. Someone that wants it comes and gets it. My hands only get dirty from handling the money.

I have sold in excess of 2.5 k in 2023 just casually clearing out stuff. This year will probably at least double that amount.

Good luck

I sell a fair bit of stuff on Marketplace. I price things very fairly, on the low side, then I stick to my price. I only drop my price for big items that I want gone for space reasons.

I ignore low offers, or I reply and say, 'Sorry, I have lots of people interested in this item, the price is firm'. This reply works surprisingly often.

I also NEVER change my schedule for buyers. I tell them when I'm home (or at work) and what pick-up times work for me. If buyers don't show up as promised , I don't really care.

I sell stuff for as low as $10, and things that don't sell get donated. Or relisted a month later.

Told this story before. Sold a 1961 Schwinn Jaguar "gas tank" on Craigs list for $60. Back and forth. Down to $50. Guy comes over and says how about $45. I'm PO'd now and say $60 and he caved.

I'd have to divorce myself from the drama becaue it's always present in some form or another.

^^ +1

Watched this unfurl at a garage sale.

Owner had a nice detailed pattern Pewter coffee mug.

He was asking $10 bucks for it.

Buyer offers $2-3 dollars.

Irked owner says no, $10 firm.

Buyer sighs, and says they'll offer $5 and no more.

Owner chuckles, takes the Pewter Mug over to his garbage cans and smashed the Pewter shattering it to pieces. I think he handed the cup handle to the buyer.

grins. True Story.


For me, I was born into a garage sale / Thrift Store visit every weekend Mom. She'd literally draw out a map to hit several on the same day. It was a game to her. While she didn't low ball people, half the fun WAS the bartering. On a 50 cent item she'd offer a Quarter, the seller settled on 35 cents. For me, if someone is asking a buck for something I just pay them the buck. Pissed my Mom off to no end that I didn't haggle.......grins. Today at any one time I have about a dozen items up for sale on Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, or Ebay.

It bugs me when people make a low ball offer on something they haven't even seen or touched it yet. That's just rude in my book. I price things typically 1/2 price of new with room to negotiate. But sorry no, I won't take $200 for my fairly priced $300 item for sale. My standards to sell is a minimum of $20-25 bucks an item. Otherwise its not worth my time to handle and sell it.

There is a Facebook group called "Declutter365" offering tips to clean out old junk.

I try to never take an half-full garbage can to the curb. ALWAYS something else you can add to it.

I dug through my Pantry and Spice shelves and tossed out 20-30 old jars of crap recently.

walk through your house or garage with an empty Hefty sack and really purge the area of excessive crap. Heck I scanned the freezer and noted I had 12 boxes/pounds of butter in it. I gave 4 boxes each to a neighbor and sister of mine. Finding Expired meat too during a deep freezer dive.

^hehehe!!! :)

Yesterday, I gave the buyer numerous options/times for pickup.
No response. I just wrote back that if he doesn't respond by high noon*** today, I'm moving on to the next buyer.
***tumbleweeds roll***

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I've seen opossum's with better motivation than this guy. :rolleyes:

I rarely sell anything on CL or FBMP. Only if it’s over $200-300. I stripped the interior of my 330 and although many things had value, I loaded it in my truck and threw it in the dumpster at work. I just didn’t want to spend time or space to get rid of it all.

I have an alley in back. This is the most efficient way of ridding things. It's anyone's guess where if ends up unless it's metal. This year there will be a couple crates of Christmas decorations.

I'm still holding onto 911 S brake pins. I don't know why and I don't know where they are. I just know what they are. At on time NLA, but I'm sure that has changed.

I started a thread yesterday to maybe help Pelicans get rid of stuff they don't need. I thought offering it here first before doing something else with it would be a great idea, since we have common interests. Unfortunately, no on has visited the thread, so the only stuff there is mine.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1153271-just-pay-shipping-handling.html

^Thanks.
I've got some stuff I want to put up there, but it might be a while. I cancelled my existing listings, and it might be a week or two before I get around to messing with other stuff. One thing I want to look into is the P-Car stuff, I'm guessing it needs to go straight to marketplace, even if it is free. For example, I've got a 66 911 front lower strut assembly just sitting on my trailer. Seems to have good bearing/spindle, etc. Lots of other p-car and non p-car trinkets too. I've also got a bunch of older gauges. I'm guessing they go straight to markeplace?

Thanks again.
Ron