Gumtree selling site for big items

I’ve had a lot of success on Gumtree over the years when selling big, collect only items. I’ve sold numerous cars, a freezer, a bike, a dining table and even an oak front door. The site is easy to use and creating ads is quick and simple. There are no listing fees and you can add up to 20 images at no charge. There are additional paid for services should you want. These include adding a link to your website (£5.21) and numerous ad promotion options.

Go to: https://www.gumtree.com/

De-cluttering baby equipment

I amassed so much equipment when the children were babies especially as the twins needed additional specialised items. I found Preloved UK a great selling site for this type of stuff and items such as feeding cushions, a Medela Double Electric Breast Pump, the iCandy Peach Blossom and a Silver Cross 3D Pram System were snapped up.

The site is extremely easy to navigate. Again it’s free to list and you can upload three photos for free. If you’ve subscribed to Preloved Premium membership, you can add unlimited photos. You can set a specific price, invite offers, say you’ll accept near offers, very near offers or offers above ‘x’.

Go to: https://www.preloved.co.uk

Selling children’s clothes locally and further afield

Outgrown clothes accumulate quickly so serious de-cluttering is needed regularly. I find the local selling pages on Facebook great for bundles of lower valued items as well as higher value pieces. My go to is Kidz Stuff Surrey. This is great as people can see exactly where you’re based and can usually collect, which saves on faffing on postage and packing. There are also even more localised selling groups. For designer/high end items there are some brand-specific groups such as Mini Boden and Joules childrens’ clothes. The audiences on these sites know exactly the worth of the items listed so these are the perfect venues. However, you are likely to have to post the items. Facebook marketplace is also a great option.

Vinted for children’s and adult’s clothes

I’m quite new to Vinted, but am finding it a good platform, which is really easy to use. You can add up to 20 photos and there are lots of drop down menus that help you to describe the item as well as select the brand. I initially thought that the suggested prices for items was too low, but soon discovered that this is recouped on the shipping costs, which are paid for by the buyer. Vinted even generates the shipping label for you. You also receive updates about the progress of the order and you’ll be alerted as soon as the buyer receives.

Go to: https://www.vinted.co.uk

Top tips for selling online 

• 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
• 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

De-cluttering with a Nearly New Sale 

Keep an eye out for local Nearly New Sales. These are great for shifting large volumes of items in one go. You have to pay for a table (and rail if you want to hire), but if you’ve got a lot of stuff and some higher value items, it’s very easy to recoup and make a healthy profit. They are often publicised with posters at church halls and community centres and you can use the following links to find out where your local NCT sales and Mum2Mum Markets are taking place. These two are the biggest out there. Whilst I haven’t done an NCT sale, I have done a number of Mum2Mum Markets. You can find out more about this here.

Happy de-cluttering!

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A Mum2Mum Market is essentially a nearly new sale where you can sell and buy children’s clothes, baby equipment, toys and books etc. Of course dads can buy and sell too!

My Mum2Mum Market in Surrey

The markets are held all over the country and you can find ones local to you by visiting the website. Prices for your ‘pitch’ vary according to location. I paid what looks to be the highest amount at £25 (that’s Surrey for you!). This gets you a decent-sized table with plenty of room around it to display items. After paying that, you keep 100% of your takings. I wasn’t sure how much I’d actually make as I had lots of clothes to sell – so not high value items like high chairs, buggies or cots. I’d already successfully sold these sorts of items via Preloved UK. As I was a bit chicken, I decided to do it with a friend so that we could share the initial cost.

The ladies behind Mum2Mum Markets do a great job of marketing the events and will ask you if you have any specific items that you want to promote, which they’ll then push via their social media channels. They provide sellers with notes about all of the logistics. They also include some helpful tips about what they’ve found works selling-wise based on their experiences.

Here are my tips:

• Don’t get too hung up over what you initially paid for something. People are looking for a bargain. Think about whether you really want to lug something back home to sit back in the loft
• That said, you can always start with prices a little higher and see how you go in the first half hour (that’s when we were busiest) and reduce a bit after this time. You’ll quickly judge if you’ve priced too high
• Get a hanging rail to display any really good quality clothes you’re selling (if you can’t borrow one, they have them to hire for £5)
• I was trying to shift clothes in large volume so I made boxes of items for 50p and age ordered them. Mum2Mum Market say that secondhand baby and children’s clothes are the least profitable items to sell. Therefore you have to be realistic. This method worked well for me. It also worked particularly well alongside the rail as people could differentiate quickly between the more select items and the more every day stuff
• Don’t take every single item you’ve got stored at home as it risks looking like a jumble sale, which is off-putting. Keep it seasonal for a start
• It’s good to have a variety of things on your stall (and not all piled high). This is where sharing the stall with a friend helped. My friend had more major items, I had mainly clothes. This meant that the stall captured more people
• Make sure you have a good float with you

I did reduce quite a few of my things in price as the morning went on (sales last for two hours), but there were a couple of designer items that I really felt I couldn’t part with for a hugely discounted rate. People kept looking at them but didn’t buy. I don’t think this was the right place for them. I sold these on Preloved UK.

I’ll definitely do one again.

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