For low-priced items, you can eat up your sale price in short order. But on Craig's List (now owned by Ebay by the way), you can post for free and repost as often and for as long as you want. Quite a nice deal when you want to clean up your closet so to speak.
I guess the downside is that with Craig's List, you can only sell to the local marketplace, because most sales are cash and carry away. So buyers must be in driving distance, and you must be willing to give out your address, which can be a bit risky. But have a big guy present when people come to pick up and voila, problem solved.
On the other hand, with Ebay you have no worries about strangers knocking on your door [unless you invite pick up that is], but you do have the expense of packaging or boxing up the items you have for sale. You also have to absorb the shipping fee, such as UPS, or add the fee on to your item's sale price. Now, for low-priced items, once again, a shipping fee can drive the price up and chase customers away.
So for us, Craig's list is a fabulous solution! In fact, it worked so well last year, we are doing it again this year.
Last time, we posted a car for sale and got about 30 callers within 24 hours, 3 were hot to buy unseen, and one showed up, paid cash and drove off with the car the very next day. Fast and fun. We were pleased with the full-price sale and the new owners were a delight. We are happy that they found what they needed. It was a win win.
This year we are seriously downsizing. We simply have too much stuff. Over the years, our home became storage for items we don't use but just didn't want to part with. It was time to purge. We went through each room, cubby by cubby. Before we realized it, our garage was filled up with all that extra unneeded stuff that used to be in our home. [Yikes! What were we thinking keeping and storing stuff we never used?] I am guessing there are many people who do the same thing.
I used my iPhone [nothing special - no fancy camera needed]. I took a picture using my iPhone camera, clicked the Photos button on iPhone and emailed the photo to myself. I then opened my email and saved the attached photo to my computer desktop. I logged into my Craig's List account, wrote a description, browsed and uploaded the photo I took and posted the item on Craig's list. Easy.
We had our first inquiry within four hours and our first sale the next day. [Nice]
In the past, we may have simply given these items away to Good Will or some charity like that. But taking some time to find someone who could use the items we no longer needed is rewarding in so many ways. We are able to help our neighbors [so to speak] and gain a bit of moolah for ourselves.
I am a big fan of Craig's list, and I feel good about selling on Ebay, too [which I have also done]. The method of advertising and selling your home goods really depends on the price. Ebay works well for high-priced items that you can reasonably ship via UPS, FedEx or even the US Mail. Low-priced items get a better result on Craig's List. But in all, it's the item, too. How many people do you think will be interested in the items you want to sell? That's the real question. If you're not sure, post it on Craig's List because it doesn't cost you money, just patience, waiting for the right person to find the treasure you have for sale.
That's all for today. What's your opinion? Post your life advice on this. Comment? Questions? Share. Let me know you were here.
