I have alot of stuff i would like to attempt to sell but im not sure if i should try something like ebay or host a garage sale before donating it all. I want to try selling first stuff i have around the house.
What do you think, what has worked for you?
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I’ve sold a fair few things on eBay. It’s much easier now than it used to be - and if you ship with Evri, you don’t even have to go through the faff of going to the post office.
There was a period, ten-fifteen years ago, when there were so many rules that it really wasn’t any fun to sell on there. It’s much more streamlined now.
My experience nowadays is mostly from selling Transformers toys. Can’t really fault it.
What I don’t like about ebay is that as a seller you appear to have few rights or recourse in a dispute, while being a buyer comes with little protection or assurance either.
Just goes to show which party is being protected. I know I’m horrible for buying from Amazon, but easy returns and shipping are worth any money you may save on ebay.
It depends what you are selling. It has to be an item valuable enough to make the shipping hassle and seller’s fees worthwhile. Search for the thing you want to sell, and then hit the Completed Listings filter. That will show you what it has been selling for. I generally do not bother selling anything that will go for less than $30 or so.
I use eBay to buy/sell used bicycle parts and miscellaneous outdoor gear. Also sometimes used clothing if it’s niche or higher-end. Getting screwed by other users is very rare in my experience.
Craigslist is still sometimes useful, though it isn’t active like it used to be. It’s best for things you just want gone: post them in the free section and leave them out on the curb.
Over a decade of selling on EBay big time and about every other major platform or my own shopify stores. EBay is nice, its streamline to sell on. The caveat to it is, expect to lose 30 percent of your items value or close to it. They calculate their fee after they’ve added shipping and tax and processing card fee. So your 300/330 dollar item, total shipping and all say comes out to 371, then they subtract their percentage which is category based rate. I cleared 283. That was a GPU I sold with real numbers.
If you can swallow eating that type of margin loss because your cost of goods is low or your margin is super high then go for it, or you are a super savvy shipper. Just check the selling fees and know your strategy and master it. EBay is easy to sell on, compared to amazon, Etsy, insert your platform*
I am an 80 percentile top rated seller in my category overall. I also dominate my niche as THE seller of nearly all of my single product. That being said I’ve sold ww2 items to stuffed animals and anything you can think of. I used to buy whole estate sales and barns out right. Auctions, and about every major platform I’ve been on. I’ve sold international to national. You’d be hard pressed to think of random items I haven’t sold. I know big multi million dollar sellers who run warehouses. ASK ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE. Its late in my timezone so I’m groggy and can’t think. I’ll be fresh tomorrow. I’ll help anyone who needs it.
I only have one question and hopefully you won’t get a warning for sharing it but what is your eBay account?
Start with a garage sale, so you don’t have to ship as much shit. It’s a major hassle when there’s a lot. Based on what’s left, you can either sell or donate.
NextDoor, facebook marketplace are decent local alternatives to eBay, but you’ll have to deal with a lot of annoying haggling.
Garage sales are for making a couple of bucks getting rid of stuff. eBay is for odd items that have value, just not to the general public.
uhg im not sure how. my ebay account is nearly 30 years old and i stopped trying ~10 years ago… so many hoops to jump through. so many fees. blech
ebay is basically a poor mans amazon nowadays. ok for purchasing (carefully), but selling just seems like a massive pain in the asshole
I sell to locals first always, but some stuff you just can’t. Nobody around me knew for example what a PC Engine Duo was when I was selling off my console collection. eBay is good for that.
I’d garage sale first, local buy&sell websites/apps second, then go eBay for whatever remains of enough value to bother with.
Facebook marketplace is unfortunately the place to go, lots of traffic and cheap/easy to use. This is the only reason I still have an account on there because its the best place to buy and sell
Just load it into the back of a van and stop random people outside the grocery store. That’s how I got my stereo.
eBay is a major pain these days for small sellers that just want to unload some stuff.
I say that because I’ve tried to get a business going on eBay several times over many years and always run into issues directly with eBay (eventually, even if for short periods it’s ok)
A lot of bad actors go there first to run scams, and eBay just blocks sellers left and right if you do anything that even raises an AI bot’s virtual eyebrows.
Try apps like Mercari, Whatnot, Posh/Vinted (for clothing), and Facebook marketplace. I think you’ll find all of these are friendly to one-off sellers and easy to conduct business.
I’ve sold a few things (games and electronics and such) on eBay within the last year without much hassle.
EBay is worth it for anything that is easy to ship (read: small) and has decent value. Particularly if that thing is fairly niche so you need a wider net to catch people. Do note there are effectively zero seller protections on EBay, it’s not hard for a buyer to scam you.
For anything that is hard to ship or has wider appeal, Cragislist or FB Marketplace is a much better stop. And, since you sell with cash, the deal is complete once you part.
eBay banned me after I sold about twenty things. They refused to say why, or to reverse the ban. Just be aware that’s a possibility.
If you have anything valuable or bulky, I’d take it to a proper auction house anyway.
I’d try marketplace, Craigslist and Nextdoor
Sure! Why not?!
