When getting rid of ‘stuff’, the easiest way to reach a large audience of customers is online. I’ve sold quite a few items online, using Amazon, Craig’s List, and eBay’s half.com. I don’t use eBay for reasons I’ll detail below.
Craig’s List
For large items, I prefer Craig’s List because I don’t have to ship that way, can deal with people face to face, and they transport whatever it is off site.
Where I could have traded in my Honda Accord, the dealership only wanted to give me $3,500 for it. Being armed with the blue book value ahead of time stopped me from putting that sort of pressure on myself. I politely declined and listed the car on Craig’s List. It took two weeks to sell it, but I ended up getting $4,800 for it. The biggest problem with CL for me was no-shows.
When attempting to sell electronic items, I got a lot of requests to ship the product to TX, Mozambique, etc. and the “buyer” (read “scammer”) would pay via wire. Obvious scams. One email would come in all nice and normal, the second in all caps telling me how someone’s grandkid in Sierra Leone really needed this graphics card for their Mac Pro. Right.
eBay Family
I used to trade a lot of music via half.com, but my disillusionment with their parent company eventually turned me off to the eBay family. While I’ve never been burned personally by eBay, I’ve had several friends get severely ripped off to the tune of $1,000+ and eBay did nothing to intervene.
Amazon
Any music, movie, or games I sell now go to Amazon. Yesterday, I posted 7 games, sold 6 to the tune of $140, and I had to just enter the category and name of the product to get started. The process was amazingly easy to complete, and the only time spent was keying the names and prices in and filling out the shipping envelopes. I couldn’t be happier.
If you want to shift a lot of product at once, Amazon also has a “small potatoes” version of their amazon fulfillment program where you can ship to them in one box the products you want to sell, and they’ll list them all for you and ship them when they sell. This is a pretty sweet deal that I may take advantage of for getting rid of some of my DVDs. There is an additional fee involved, and you can’t really make anything back from shipping and packaging allowances, but it would be an incredible savings of time.
Tips
With Craig’s list, you have to beware the scammer and the no-show. For small items, meet in a public place like a food court. I conduct all my camera equipment-related transactions this way. For big ticket, you have no choice but to let people into your home. With cars, they’re going to want to test drive or take it to their mechanic. Either go with them to the mechanic or hold something like their license as safety.
On eBay, you need to watch out for scams, buying and selling. Ignore or contest any bids from winners who claim they will wire you. State precisely what you will take as payment, and I would say only PayPal at that, unless you have a vendor account with a credit card processing service.
On Amazon, consider whether the price you are putting the product up for is worth the effort. I like Amazon for listing products because it is easier than half was for me. If you can’t make what you want on Amazon due rock bottom prices, go to your local CD store and trade the item there, if possible. Just make sure they pay cash and not store credit.
I’m currently looking for tools to optimize picking prices and other methods of getting the most value out your sales, and I’ll post my findings later.
Effectively selling online
When getting rid of ‘stuff’, the easiest way to reach a large audience of customers is online. I’ve sold quite a few items online, using Amazon, Craig’s List, and eBay’s half.com. I don’t use eBay for reasons I’ll detail below.
Craig’s List
For large items, I prefer Craig’s List because I don’t have to ship that way, can deal with people face to face, and they transport whatever it is off site.
Where I could have traded in my Honda Accord, the dealership only wanted to give me $3,500 for it. Being armed with the blue book value ahead of time stopped me from putting that sort of pressure on myself. I politely declined and listed the car on Craig’s List. It took two weeks to sell it, but I ended up getting $4,800 for it. The biggest problem with CL for me was no-shows.
When attempting to sell electronic items, I got a lot of requests to ship the product to TX, Mozambique, etc. and the “buyer” (read “scammer”) would pay via wire. Obvious scams. One email would come in all nice and normal, the second in all caps telling me how someone’s grandkid in Sierra Leone really needed this graphics card for their Mac Pro. Right.
eBay Family
I used to trade a lot of music via half.com, but my disillusionment with their parent company eventually turned me off to the eBay family. While I’ve never been burned personally by eBay, I’ve had several friends get severely ripped off to the tune of $1,000+ and eBay did nothing to intervene.
Amazon
Any music, movie, or games I sell now go to Amazon. Yesterday, I posted 7 games, sold 6 to the tune of $140, and I had to just enter the category and name of the product to get started. The process was amazingly easy to complete, and the only time spent was keying the names and prices in and filling out the shipping envelopes. I couldn’t be happier.
If you want to shift a lot of product at once, Amazon also has a “small potatoes” version of their amazon fulfillment program where you can ship to them in one box the products you want to sell, and they’ll list them all for you and ship them when they sell. This is a pretty sweet deal that I may take advantage of for getting rid of some of my DVDs. There is an additional fee involved, and you can’t really make anything back from shipping and packaging allowances, but it would be an incredible savings of time.
Tips
With Craig’s list, you have to beware the scammer and the no-show. For small items, meet in a public place like a food court. I conduct all my camera equipment-related transactions this way. For big ticket, you have no choice but to let people into your home. With cars, they’re going to want to test drive or take it to their mechanic. Either go with them to the mechanic or hold something like their license as safety.
On eBay, you need to watch out for scams, buying and selling. Ignore or contest any bids from winners who claim they will wire you. State precisely what you will take as payment, and I would say only PayPal at that, unless you have a vendor account with a credit card processing service.
On Amazon, consider whether the price you are putting the product up for is worth the effort. I like Amazon for listing products because it is easier than half was for me. If you can’t make what you want on Amazon due rock bottom prices, go to your local CD store and trade the item there, if possible. Just make sure they pay cash and not store credit.
I’m currently looking for tools to optimize picking prices and other methods of getting the most value out your sales, and I’ll post my findings later.
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