I’ve always gifted friends lots of baby clothes and equipment and subsequently toddler items when we no longer needed them. I also make numerous donations to charity. However, I have developed a bit of an obsession with de-cluttering by selling things online.
It all started when I bought a cheap little car for my husband when he was learning to drive. He passed his test, and shortly after I discovered I was expecting twins. My lovely sporty saloon wasn’t going to be any good for three car seats; we had to buy a sensible family car. That meant we had three cars, which was ridiculous. We hadn’t decided whether to keep my car, but one thing was certain: the little car had to go.
I’d never sold anything online before but as the car was old and not worth much, I thought it was the best way. I listed it on Gumtree as a few friends had mentioned that they’d bought things off the site. Straight away, I was inundated with responses and someone offered very close to my asking price. I was bitten by the bug.
De-cluttering smaller items
I had some wedding shoes, which weren’t the shoes I ended up having on the day. They had no sentimental value so I thought I’d get rid. I did a search for a similar item to help me with my pricing and I came across the Preloved UK. It seemed more targeted at women than Gumtree and my immediate impression was that it would be better suited for selling clothes and shoes. I sold the shoes quite quickly, which surprised me as I wasn’t convinced that someone would buy their wedding shoes online. This spurred me on.
With three children, I amass so many clothes and these require some serious de-cluttering. As well as the aforementioned sites, I also find selling pages on Facebook great. There’s even one specifically for Mini Boden and Joules childrens’ clothes!
So in addition to the car and the shoes, I have also sold:
- Medela Pump In Style Advanced breast pump
- Harmony Duo Twin Feeding Cushion
- iCandy Peach Blossom
- Silver Cross 3D Pram System
- Bike
- Maxi Cosi car seats and the FamilyFix system
- Maternity wear
The breast pump was expensive to buy new, but I’d spoken to a few mums that had bought them second hand, so I thought there was probably a market for mine. Similarly the feeding cushion is pretty pricy. This is the only item that I have bought secondhand. I then re-sold it afterwards.
Top tips
- Good pictures are vital
- Be realistic, if you price too high you’ll put people off
- That said, don’t go too low as you might be bartered even lower
- Descriptions should be informative but succinct
- For something like a buggy, people will want the instruction manuals, without these you can’t expect to get as high a price
- Regionalised ads are good as if someone can come to pick items up it saves a lot of faffing
- If you are sending items by post, don’t buy posting and packaging until you have received payment (or at least a deposit)
- Be prepared for time wasters and learn how to spot them
- If someone is coming to pay in cash for a larger item and requests you take it off the market, then you need to get a deposit
- If you’re not doing a face-to-face transaction, then PayPal is the way to go
You might also be interested in reading Mum2Mum Market – My First One
8 Comments
Great tips, we’re just about to move (fingers crossed) so will need to do a lot of clearing out. We also sold a lot of CDs and DVDs on Music Magpie recently – you don’t get very much for them at all, but it’s probably more that you’d get on eBay x.
A lot of my friends have sold CDs on Music Magpie. Sometimes it isn’t all about the money, de-cluttering is so cathartic!
Good luck with the move. Where did you decide to move to in the end?
So what’s the clearest indicator(s) of a time-waster?
I’ve found the number one, one to be people who ask questions about the product that are quite clearly answered in the advert. Or those who ask lots and lots of questions and request lots more information. If it’s a product they are genuinely interested in/specifically looking for, they would usually already know that kind of info.
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