Selling Your Stuff {Part 3, Consignment/Amazon/Half.com}

Wrapping up my little series on selling your stuff leaves us with three categories: Amazon, Half.com, and Consignment Shops.

If you missed them, here's Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

First up, Amazon.

Many of us buy from Amazon, but did you know you can sell with them too?  For most searchable items, you will see an option to "sell one" on the right hand side of the screen.  After you set up a seller's account, it's really simple to sell with them (far simpler, than eBay even).   You don't even need to take any pictures of your item because you just use Amazon's image.  This of course means you can only sell things Amazon already sells.  All that to say, if you're trying to sell something that is searchable on Amazon, then it's probably a pretty good place to try selling it (as opposed to eBay, Craigslist, consignment).

I sold that wireless router I pictured earlier on Amazon.  They reimburse you for some of the shipping charges too.

Probably my favorite Amazon sale ever was this huge printer.

It was given to me by my previous employer and when I left my job, the company didn't want it back.  We didn't need such a large printer (with really expensive replacement ink cartridges!), so I thought I'd see about selling it.  I could have done Craigslist (and I may have tried, can't recall), but I ended up listing it on Amazon. After shipping, I made about $50 for something I never even bought in the first place!  I have to tell you though, that thing sat in our basement for a long time before I got my favorite kind of email.

Patience is a virtue, my friends.

Next, a lesser known avenue for selling--Half.com

Maybe most of you are already familiar, but for those who are not--Half.com is an eBay company, and it is a great way to sell (and buy!) books.  It works much like selling things on Amazon.  Look up the book you want to sell, fill in the information about the condition of the book, etc, and set your price (I suggest a competitive one).  What started out as a joke when Philip deemed me totally cra-cra for sitting up one night and listing all sorts of books from college I no longer wanted on half.com has now become a completely legitimate activity.  Granted, maybe it's a tad strange to be found sitting on the couch with an eraser in hand, removing stray pencil marks and underlining (who knew I would regret that underlining many years later?!?!) so that I could list book after book, but really, those are just details.  The point is--I get emails that look like this!

 

It is most satisfying, I assure you :)  And quite worth all the erasing.  

Ok, we are in the home stretch.  Quite possibly my favorite way to sell things remains (actually, I love them all, can't commit to a favorite)

Consignment shops!  

They are fantastic, largely because as the seller, you needn't do much.  Once you've made sure your things are nice and presentable, you just haul them off to a local shop and wait for your moolah.  

Unless it is broken or dirty beyond any hope of cleaning, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant said items may be (assuming it's not better suited to one of the aforementioned avenues for selling), you should take it to a local consignment shop.  Seriously.  This is the place for unwanted picture frames, miscellaneous kitchen items, random linens, various kid's toys, etc etc etc.  We generally have a bag (ok, a large box) that we keep out of sight, but that can house these sorts of things as we come across them.  When the bag gets full, off it goes to consignment heaven.

This item was ideally suited to a consignment shop for resale.

I should probably explain here that in my experience there are a couple different types of consignment shops.  For the types of things that I described above, I'd recommend finding a local shop (ideally one that doesn't charge you an initial fee, though a minimal one would be ok) that takes home goods where you can set up an account.  (If you're in Lynchburg, VA, I love the ETC Shop :)  They all work a bit differently, but typically they give you a portion of the sale of your items once they've sold.  Obviously, the bigger your cut the better.  It is SO fun to get a check (however small the amount may be!) in the mail for things you didn't want anymore anyway!  

When it comes to consigning clothes (ones where it didn't make sense to sell on eBay), I've had the best success with upscale shops that sell only clothes and accessories. (love Clementine and Indigo Avenue in Richmond, VA!) They can be pickier than the more "thrifty" type consignment shop, but if you're willing to be patient it can really pay off.  If something doesn't sell there, you can always add it to your growing bag of smaller items.  Remember that when it comes to consigning clothes, you need to be thinking a season ahead.  Don't go through your winter stuff at the end of the season and expect to be able to sell them then...

I would also like to say that I do think it's wonderful to simply donate things. Without this kind of generosity, there would be no treasure-hunting at places like the Goodwill.   With that said, I hope all of this infomation was helpful.  Please know it would bring me great joy to hear your selling success stories :)

Happy Selling!  

Selling Your Stuff {Part 3/eBay}

I don't claim to be an expert at selling things on eBay, so this post may be short and sweet.  I think it goes without saying, though that selling on eBay can really pay off.  In my opinion, the biggest advantage to selling on eBay is that it provides sellers with a really large captive audience.  With Craigslist you are limited to a local audience.  Consignment stores are local and you'll only get a percentage of how much the store sells your item.  With eBay you have the world wide web :)

Used pair of Chaco's I sold for a friend (you know who you are:) this past summer for $65.

While eBay does take a cut of your sale price, it's pretty minimal.  In my opinion, the only real downside to eBay is the time you have to spend photographing your item and listing it on the site.  For this reason, I'd say my biggest piece of advice when it comes to selling on eBay is to make sure it's worth your while.

What do I mean by this?

I only list things on eBay that I have good reason to believe people are specifically searching for and that are going to bring a decent amount of money.  I have personally had the best luck with clothes and shoes.  You want to stick with brand names that people are out there looking to purchase for less than retail prices.  That sweater made by a brand you've never heard of?  Send that baby to a consignment shop where you'll have people coming through, looking at the selection (and excited about your cute sweater! :)  For someone to spot your sweater on eBay, there's got to be something about its description that brings it up in search results (ie. the brand name).  The same is true for small household items--don't waste your time listing them on eBay unless they happen to be made by a brand that is going to be sought after and bring money.  As cute as your silver picture frame that you no longer want may be, it's probably better off at a consignment shop (unless of course it's made by, say Tiffany & Co. :)

My mom got me these at the Clearance Store so I couldn't return them (they're the wrong size), so I'm selling them right now!  {There's still time to cast your bid :) }

While I don't have experience with this myself, I would imagine eBay is a great place to sell other {smaller--remember you have to ship it!} items made by desirable brands.  Think china patterns, linens, jewelry.  Just keep in mind your item's title and/or description needs to have some brand name/keyword that's going to bring a buyer to it.  I hope I'm not overstating the obvious?  Also, remember to take nice, clear pictures and provide a thorough and accurate description.  Oh, and I recently read that some study apparently showed that the best day for an auction to end is Sunday.  Who knew.

My cowboy boots I featured in a previous post deserve a little more explaining.  I actually bought them at a yard sale for $10!  I really loved them and was so excited to keep them for myself, but after I wore them around a little, I realized they were just not quite big enough :(  I figured I could sell them one way or another and at least make up my $10.  Little did I know that after a quick eBay search of their brand, they were likely to bring way more than $10.  Can you imagine my excitement when I got this email from eBay after the auction ended:



The way I see it, there are two lessons for us here:  Number 1, shopping at yard sales is a very, very good idea.  Number 2, selling your nice items at a yard sale is not such a savvy idea!

Had I sold them at a consignment shop, I never would have made this much once the shop took their cut.  Selling them on Craigslist could have taken forever.  Of course, I really did wish the boots would have worked for me, but making nearly $100 off of them helped to ease my sadness :)

I think that's all I've got regarding eBay.  If anyone has other tips, I'm all ears!

Selling Your Stuff Series {Part 2/Selling on Craigslist}

I hold Craigslist very near and dear to my heart.  Name any room in my house and I can generally find at least one to two (larger) items that I have found via Craigslist.  And while it is a great place for buyers, it's also great for sellers!

Perhaps this is obvious--but I will state it anyway--Craigslist is best for unloading larger items (furniture, appliances, larger kid's items); things where it wouldn't make sense to package them up and mail to someone if you sold it to them on a site like eBay.  While you can sell smaller items on Craigslist, I typically think it works out better to go a different route with those sorts of things (more to come in a later post!)

With this in mind, here are my tips for making the most out of your Craigslist seller's account.

1. Spend some time cleaning up the item

{This really applies no matter which avenue you choose for selling things, but it needs to be stated nonetheless}.  The fact is not everyone can see the great potential whatever you are selling has, so you may need to help them out with that :)  If you've spent any time on Craigslist, you've likely seen pictures of real diamonds in the rough--and while this can be great when you're the buyer (think great pieces for cheap!), as a seller, you want to make your item shine so that you can maximize what someone is willing to pay you for it.  Clean old furniture, wipe down appliances, set up the kid's toy you're trying to sell.  Bonus points for accessorizing your item!  While you don't want to go over the top and make something look so personal that you turn off potential buyers, I think it pays to help your prospective buyers picture your piece in their home.  Think of it kind of like staging your home--it should look nice, but not overly personal.

I wish I had a 'before' picture, but imagine this table with a not-so-appealing dated wood finish.  I painted it myself (use leftover paint if you can to minimize your costs) and probably got twice the money I would have gotten if I had sold it unpainted.   I had fun styling the top to add some interest, but notice I didn't place personal items like picture frames on it.  

2.  Take quality pictures and upload them to an external site before you add them to your listing.

You've spent the time making your item look good; now you need a nice picture to prove it!  I'm no professional photographer, but I generally think pictures look the best when you have ample natural light and you don't use your camera's flash.

I also think it helps improve your listing if your pictures are large.  To achieve this, you need to upload your image to an external site (I use photobucket) first.  Once you do this, you simply copy and paste the HTML code into the 'description' section of your Craigslist post.  Once you add your pictures in this manner, you won't be adding them during the next step where Craigslist actually prompts you to add photos.  Clear as mud?

Once you advance beyond Craigslist's photo adding page, you should see your large image.

 3.  Describe the item using terms that are commonly searched.

Try to think like a buyer.  If you're selling a bookcase, throw in a couple extra keywords into your description to attract more potential buyers, such as "bookshelf" and "shelves."  If I'm selling something old, I'll use the word "vintage" in my title and/or description cause it's trendy and I know folks like that :)  Of course, you also want to be accurate in your description--don't say something is in excellent condition if it's clearly not.  

I was clear in my listing that the pillows weren't included in the sale of the futon, but I'd like to think they helped the picture stand out a bit :)

4. Price your item appropriately.

This is a really important part and here's why:  You have to decide how patient you want to be in getting your item sold.  In other words, if you just want your old couch out of the house, you need to know you're probably going to get less for it than if you're willing to wait until the right buyer comes along.  I recommend searching for similar items for sale on CL to give you an idea of how to price yours.  There is a fine line between pricing something unrealistically high (because you paid so much when you bought it new!  I know, I know) and practically giving it away (This happened to me once when I sold a rug for $20. I must have gotten 20 emails for this thing within the first day!). I typically kind of enjoy the process (weird, I know), so I'll generally price something on the high side and see if I get any bites.  If I don't get any inquiries within 5-7 days, I'll generally keep the same price, but repost my listing, which brings me to my next tip.

Ready for a fresh look in our entry,  I was happy to sell this rug for about the same price I paid for it off of eBay.

5.  Repost, Repost, Repost!

Obviously, this doesn't apply if you fall into the category of wanting to get rid of your stuff right away. But if you're really interested in getting the most you can out of something (or if you're just not getting any bites), you're probably going to need to repost your listing at least a couple times.  This is especially true if you've posted something in a really popular category.  Dozens of couches get posted for sale on Craigslist each day; your listing that went live on a Monday morning is easily near the bottom of a very long search list by Tuesday night.  You want your listing to be visible, so you need to ensure that it stays near the top of the search results.  Now, you don't want to become one of those annoying people who are constantly reposting the same ad, but I typically repost every few days for an item in a really common category.  All you need to do to repost and bring your listing back to the top is follow the steps as if you were going to delete your post.  Craigslist will give you one last chance to keep your post live by selecting 'repost.'  Make sense?

I remember reposting this baby many times.  I finally sold it for $50.  Not bad for an outdated tv :)

6.  Adjust your price as necessary.

Only you can decide when you're tired of reposting :)  For me, if I've reposted several times over the course of a couple weeks, and I haven't gotten any inquires I may drop my price by 10% or so.  See what happens.  Generally, this pattern has worked well for me, and I've been able to make some decent money off of things we no longer want.

*******
A few notes on safety and Craigslist:

-There can be a fair amount of scamming on Craigslist.  In my experience this has not seemed to be dangerous so much as annoying.  If you get an email response to a listing and it seems vague at all, I suggest following up with a simple email and asking the sender to identify the item they are interested in.  Typically if they are a scammer, they won't reply.  Obviously, if you get an email from someone telling you they are going to wire you the money or some other nonsense, there is no need to even reply.
-Because of the prevalence of email scammers, some people will only provide a phone number in their listing.  I haven't found this to be necessary, but I thought I should mention it as an option.
-When arranging for someone to come and see an item you're selling, it's a good idea to set up a time when there is more than one adult at home. Of course, you can always agree to meet in a public place as well.

So, what did I miss?  Anybody else have any Craigslist selling tips to share with the rest of us?

Selling Your Stuff Series {Part 1}

Many who know me well can attest to the fact that I have a zest for selling things I no longer want or need.  The way I see it, couponing, for example, does for some folks what selling things here and there does for me.  I am not sure what it is--but I find it to be so exhilarating to identify and compile items I'm ready to part with.  I guess it just feels cleansing (and productive!) to send these things on their way, especially when I can expect to make a little cash in exchange for my efforts.

I loved these boots and was so sad to see them go!  Check back for the details of where I got them and how and why I sold them!

For whatever reason, my kids never played with this toy very much, so I sold it before we put our house on the market last year.  

Prior to moving to Illinois this past year for Philip's residency, we lived on a pretty modest budget thanks to a monthly stipend from the Air Force and some loans we took out for living expenses.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn early on that with a little bit of effort, I could actually sell nearly everything I came across that we didn't need anymore.  This of course came in handy when I needed to come up with the money to buy something new*.

A bit of household decor I was ready to pass on.

I'd had this book for years from when I did some Pilates training.  I was rather elated when I sold it for $25!

Over the past several years I've gained quite a bit of experience selling things in a variety of ways--eBay, Craigslist, consignment stores, even Amazon.  I'm by no means an expert, but as friends of mine have expressed that trying to sell their stuff feels overwhelming to them, I've realized that I actually really enjoy helping with this.   To that end, I'm going to make an effort at being a conscientious blogger and post each day this week my tips on the best approach for making money from your unwanted wares.  I hope you'll stop by and pass along any tips you may have as well!

An old wireless router we had lying around in our basement!  Who knew it could bring $20 bucks?

*Admittedly, my hobby of selling things so that I can buy new things can feed a tendency toward materialism, but that's perhaps a story for another day :)