14 Best Ways to Sell Your Stuff for COLD HARD CASH
Have you ever wanted to sell your stuff but didn’t know how to? Hopefully, this list of the 14 best ways to sell your stuff for COLD HARD CASH will help you out! Good luck!
GET RID OF STUFF
In previous posts, we have mentioned that we had to sell and get rid of a lot of stuff before we went full time in our RV. And being we spent multiple years selling on various sites, I thought we ought to make a post about our experience with different sites. Below, are our recommendations for selling through different platforms.
Here, not in any order, are some of the best ways to get rid of your items:
#1 – FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE
Facebook Marketplace is one of the best ways to sell your stuff. It will take you less than 5 minutes to list an item. The hardest part for me was meeting people; on multiple occasions, I’d have time scheduled or blocked out and the person wouldn’t show. It is understandable and not a huge deal especially because Facebook Marketplace doesn’t charge you a fee to sell your items. However, you can pay to boost your visibility, but that wasn’t necessary for us.
Facebook Marketplace was where we sold most of our items. We used it long enough where we found great ways to maximize the effectiveness of the platform.
Always try to meet people in a public space or at least not alone. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
#2 – FACEBOOK GARAGE GROUPS
There are many garage sale groups on Facebook. You can usually find one right in your area.
#3 – ESTATE SALES / RUMMAGE SALES / GARAGE SALES / MOVING SALES
If you want to get rid of your stuff on a weekend. Have a sale, but be prepared to do a lot of work. Over a three year period, we had around 12 to 15 sales in trying to get rid of our stuff. Depending upon the items you possess, this can be a very lucrative way to get rid of stuff. Otherwise, you can hire someone to help run the sale. Again this may or may not be worth it depending on how much stuff you have. For instance, if you are trying to downsize, calling an estate sale planner could be very helpful.
#4 – CRAIGSLIST
Craigslist can be a great way to sell your items. We highly recommend that you meet the buyer in a public place. It’s free like Facebook Marketplace. We advertised our garage sales on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. After polling our customers for where they heard about the sale, about 1/2 came from Craigslist and 1/2 came from Facebook Marketplace. While it takes a little longer to list something than let’s say the Facebook Marketplace, it still is an extremely useful way to get people out to your garage or estate sale or for selling individual items. For most items that we would sell individually, we would list them on both platforms. If it sold, we just took the listing off the other platform. Marketing your items to a larger audience is always a good idea.
#5 – eBay
Another great platform for selling items is eBay. There are some fees associated with selling on eBay but it can be worth it because they have such a huge following. Be prepared to ship items. It might be enticing to want to open up your items to different countries to have a larger audience bidding on your items. We’ve found that a lot of fraudulent buyers come from different countries. It takes a long time for packages to arrive across the globe and sometimes just as long to get the package through customs. Customers get antsy and want to give poor feedback about shipping times. Overall, we’ve found that it’s best to stick to the US only.
• Listing costs
Since there is a cost associated with eBay some research has to be done on how much you want to price your item to make sure it sells. eBay is a fantastic platform with a huge following. We used to have an online store and ended up getting well over 14,000 feedback ratings.
• Shipping Costs
Keeping shipping costs in mind is a key factor as well. On eBay, they don’t like to show your listings if the shipping price isn’t free. So you have to build the price to ship the item into the overall listing price. Larger items can cost much more to ship by having an “oversized package.” Even if a package doesn’t weigh a lot, if it’s big enough, it can still cost a lot. Make sure you have a good handle on what the package will cost to ship to help keep your costs in check. It’s never a good feeling when you sell an item on eBay and realized it cost you more money to ship it to the customer than you received.
#6 – ETSY
ETSY has been typically pegged as a craft website for artists. This site has definitely evolved into more than just that. We did not use this platform but heard it is a great way to sell your items. Be sure to check out the fees associated with the site. I do believe that they are cheaper than Amazon and/or eBay.
#7 – OTHER ONLINE AUCTION PLATFORMS
K-Bid, Webstore, Listia, OnlineAuction.com, Atomic Mall, Ebid, Liquidation, Ubid, to name a few. Do your research and see if anyone of these will work for you.
For K-Bid we had to have a yearly auctioneer license. It was a very fast way to get rid of a lot of stuff. We mainly listed in bulk but didn’t get great prices for our items for the amount of work it was to take all the pictures and list everything.
#8 – AUCTIONEER OR AUCTION HOUSES
An auctioneer and/or an auction house might be the answer for you. Typically an auctioneer would come directly to your estate if you have a lot of stuff. If you have an auction house near you, you can bring items to the local auction house but call to set up an appointment before just driving a truckload over.
#9 – AMAZON
Amazon has been one of our best ways to sell items. My mom has a huge Amazon Store, so she let us sell our nicer items on Amazon. You can list anything on Amazon but may need to get permission first. They don’t have a listing fee but typically charge you a price per item once it sells. Additionally, Amazon can take a good chunk of your profits. Furthermore, make sure to check their current fees because they are always changing.
#10 – CHARITIES
Donate. We donated lots of items and it felt great! It goes to a good cause and we got rid of our stuff. That’s what I call a win-win proposition.
#11 – CONSIGNMENT SHOPS & Antique Stores
We took our clothes, jewelry, and household items to consignment shops. Some of the clothes we made money on, but most of them we sold just to get some cashback.
Antique stores – I had a hard time finding very many antique stores that would take items on consignment. That was a big thing back in the day, but now it may not be easy to do this. And if you do find someone to take your items, you will likely have to pay a hefty price, somewhere in the range of 25% – 50%.
However, a good workaround might be that you work at the antique shop for a while and/or partner up with a person who is renting a booth.
#12 – INSTAGRAM
I just recently found out that Instagram is one of the best places to sell online. We have not figured out how to do this yet, so if anyone would like to share their knowledge that would be awesome. Leave a comment.
#13 – BONANZA
Bonanza is another online marketplace where sellers list their items to be sold. Buyers can easily find what they are looking for because it is divided up into categories, similar to most online businesses. All items can be sold for a particular price and/or a buyer can negotiate with an offer.
#14 – GIVE TO A FRIEND
Give items to your friends and/or family members. This is the best! Besides, whenever they look at the item it will remind them of you. 🙂
MORE SITES
Some other sites that I don’t know much about, but have heard stuff from other people are VarageSale, LetGo, and OfferUp. I have used both the latter two but didn’t get into either that much because I was focused on selling on Facebook Marketplace. Ruby Lane is a good place to sell more expensive items, but their fees are very high. Lastly, if you are looking to sell electronics Swappa, Glyde, and Gazelle are good places to go.
I hope this was informative and interesting. If you did like this article you may also find this helpful too: How to Downsize – Full Time RVing
PRO TIP
The best platform we found to sell on was the Facebook Marketplace. This may be different for everyone depending on the area you are in.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
What platforms have been the most successful for you to sell your items?
COMMENTS
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Chuck and Sandi
