selling on ebay and craigslist

[ffdad]

I have recently been selling lots of stuff on ebay and craigslist. We have tons of stuff that has been stored in the basement for years and we will never use so I have begun purging and selling it all online. I also have collected some interesting architectural salvage pieces and a bunch of running lawn mowers from odd jobs that I hope to sell on craigslist this spring.

I have been playing in my head with the idea of buying things at yard sales and selling them online as well.

It has become an extra source of income I can make while at home and the yard sale hunting I hope could be a fun way to spend a weekend morning with my daughter while the wife sleeps in.

Anyone else on here doing this? I thought It might be fun to start a thread that we can share some tips or our experiences.

[tt3]

I have found it difficult to get postings up, frustrating to have people "kick the tires" and never follow through then if they do, try and low ball. A couch I was selling cheap had a couple come out, they wanted it and then tried to low ball my price. "Would you take $40 for it?" "no, there are four other people after you".

Good luck, man!

[Hockeyfan]

Originally Posted by tt3

I have found it difficult to get postings up, frustrating to have people "kick the tires" and never follow through then if they do, try and low ball. A couch I was selling cheap had a couple come out, they wanted it and then tried to low ball my price. "Would you take $40 for it?" "no, there are four other people after you".

Good luck, man!

Yeah people suck balls. I just stick to my guns and tell them no. Sorry. I have many others interested. Bye. They know the price coming in. If it's 100 bucks and they offer 50 they can piss off. If they offer 90, I may think about it. Just depends on the offer. I usually price my stuff to sell so I don't have much lower I can take. I just want it sold and gone quickly. I don't want to deal with 10 people and trying to meet them and all that jazz.


The only time I've lessened the price was when selling baby type stuff and the people who came up were obviously not in the same position in life as we are. So I've either done good by them or added something to the sale. Hey would you need a few #$%$#, I have some kicking around. Not sure why, but I do.

OP. I don't do this to make money. Just to clear out old stuff. It's bothersome to me. EBAY is a bit easier, but still a pain. Many go to goodwill to find treasures as well to sell on EBAY and make lots of $ doing it, but you really have to know what you're doing and be educated in what to buy and look for. Not everything that is old is a valuable antique. Plus reproduction crap is everywhere.

[sao95]

yard sales are a great way to pick up stuff cheap, and money can be made but from what I've seen you can't resell it back in the city, go to a more rural town and sell and you can double what you pay for it in the city. I know a guy who buys entire yard sales and then has his own yard sale and resells the shit and makes bank. Craigslist is a pain, I have sold a lot of stuff on there, but I always meet people somewhere other than my home, and then sometimes they will try to lowball ya like tt said, or they decide they are not interested or they don't show up, it end up being a pain and you can't mark stuff up on craigslist as there are so many people selling all the same crap.

[Mark B.]

I got rid of some furniture on Craigslist that did not work in our new home. Initially I went to a consignment store and had them sell a couple of items for me. I ended up wit half the sale. After that I just decided to have them appraise the other items (usually via e-mail pics) and then sell them on Craigslist for half the appraisal price since that was all I was getting anyway. Things moved very quickly.

[Riggs]

I really need to do this with some of my stuff, have some hard to find car parts to get rid of on ebay. Just can't seem to want to bother, other than a few things on CL. Good luck if you try to make money on it, might be able to make it work.

I'm always up for tips. Like do you really need to spell out phone #'s on CL, or does that just make it hard to call your ad? And how do you get by the way feedback is really weighted toward the buyer on ebay (seller can't leave negative)?

[ffdad]

I've made a little over $800 so far this month with ebay. I have mostly been selling collectable toys from down in out basement and a some stuff I have pulled out of distressed property clean out jobs working with a buddy of mine.

I have found so far that bidders will pay more for an item if shipping isn't included in the price. Initially I was offering free shipping and just padding the price to reflect that. I have had better success offering a lower starting bid and then add in separate shipping charges. Also... Canadians love collectable toys.

I have lots of larger items, mostly old architectural salvage and lawn equipment to sell in the spring once I can get to it. It's all in an outbuilding burred in snow. It's unreal what people leave behind. I even have half of a 200 year old railroad car out in the back corner of the field. I found it dissembled in a basement. The timbers on this thing are mind boggling. Originally I was going to use it for building another barn but I may sell it now and just buy new lumber.

So far not a bad little gig for very little effort I've been making out ok. I'm hoping to bank enough to get a new tractor for the property.