Selling Stuff

I'm in the process of trying to sell all my worldly belongings in anticipation for my move to the UK. I have ample time (5 months) and would like to get as much buck for my bang. So far I've separated out all the stuff I'm planning to sell, and I'm planning on listing large furniture items on Craigslist fairly soon, followed by a garage sale.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for garage sales, Craigslist, eBay, Amazon.com or any other methods for selling goods? Even the story of your move would be helpful. Inspiration is much appreciated, too.

Thanks in advance! 

I had a really successful garage sale last May, so I'll offer some tips based on that experience.  First, I put an ad in the paper, which was expensive but totally worth it.  Several people told me that they had come by on purpose because of it.  If you are selling anything name-brand or from a well-known store, be sure to mention that.  I had stuff from Pier 1 and Pottery Barn that sold really well.  Also, be willing to negotiate.  Some people will pay the asking price, but many want to bargain, which took me by surprise.  You might consider marking things at a higher price than you really want for them, just in case (though not too high that people will be put off--it's a delicate balance).  Paperback books are good sellers if they're cheap or if you offer a deal (.25 each or 5 for $1, say).  My furniture and housewares also sold well.  The clothes and knickknacks, not so much.  Also be prepared to be discouraged and even a bit upset.  It can be emotional to watch strangers pawing through your stuff, even if it's stuff you don't want anymore.  Finally, presentation is really important.  So often people just toss their stuff haphazardly on old tables or in boxes.  I set mine up like it was a little shop, put cloths on the tables, offered people water (Southern California in May, so it was hot).  Many people commented on how nice everything looked, and I think some of them may have bought a little something because they could see I'd put a lot of effort into it 

Good luck!

I sold all our furniture and cars through craigslist, and hardly lost any money on original purchase prices. The best advice I can give is to take good photos of your stuff. I made sure there was ample lighting, usually taking things outside, if possible. I also used html to display photos, rather than craiglist's photo uploading tool, as I think the quality comes out poor.

We had a garage sale as well, but I don't think they are good for selling anything with value. We had really nice mint condition kitchen appliances, but people just want things for free. For example the $8 price tag on our $50 pristine blender wasn't good enough, and I still had people bargaining. I guess that's what garage sales are about.

Check around first to see who is selling what for how much, and in a month or so, check back to see if prices are up.  Start with Amazon, unless the item is rare and collectable.  
On Amazon, price your item to be just under or equal to the lowest price.  
Use eBay for rare or collectable things.  Check ended auctions to see what recent sell prices are.  Pick a start price that you can live with, don't expect there to be a bidding war.  
On Craigslist, list furniture and electronics (things people want to try before buy).  Offer shipping when reasonable.  Don't overprice (or slightly inflated to accomodate haggling).  Use good quality photos.  

Sounds like you are on top of this, but my strongest recommendation is to start as early as possible.  I sold bits and bobs in the months prior, but waited for the last month to sell the things I was using.  By the time I got to garage sales, I was letting things some quality pieces go for a pittance.  I had 3 weekends of garage sales, and pocketed a good amount of cash, but it was a significant time investment and a ton of stress on top of other stress.  

Days before the move I still had a giant amount of crap to get to the thrift store - I was still dropping off loads on the day I left.  Despite my best efforts, I ended up leaving a huge pile out for the trash.

I have been selling off stuff on Craiglist for several months now.  Some advice in case you are new at it.

1.  Ignore all the strange requests and post local pickup only/cash only.
2.  Don't spend too much tme coddling Craigslist buyers or you will become frusterated.  Most people are impulse e-mailers and aren't actually serious.
3.  Make people commit to firm pickup times or you will spend your whole afternoon waiting around.
4.  Try to herd Craigslist buyers into coming at the same time to your house for greater efficiency.
5.  Never, never gloss over faults or overrepresent things.  More often than not, the buyer is really into that kind of product and is an expert.  This gets tough when you aren't and it is something you picked up twenty years ago.

For more expensive furniture items, you may want to consider an upscale, used furniture reseller.  There seems to be a limit on how much people on Craiglist/garage sale will bring in cash to your house.

If you have items that are odd (i.e. Russian rubles from 1910, Civil War belt buckle, baseball cards, etc.) you may want to put those on EBay for national exposure.  There will likely not be the demand in your metro area on Craiglist when you post.

If you don't know how to Ebay then try one of the Ebay drop off places that will photograph it & post it for a fee.

Thank you so much for all of your helpful suggestions! I feel really confident about this!

One additional question... I have two rare books and took them to my two local shops and neither were interested. Anyone know if there's an online resource for selling/buying old books?

I don't know about the book things but another tip on craigslist, people don't show up often so be prepared!  Good luck!

Rare books fall into the category of limited interest at a given time in a given market.  Probably nobody in Portland wants a first edition of Steinbeck's East of Eden at a given time.  When I lived in Boston (which is a bookier city than most), there were bookshops in Cambridge that really specialized in rare books and new their value.  I would see if you can find your book on Ebay and use that as a medium.  Perhaps, if they are truly unique, you could get quotes from book shops on the internet.  They would probably be very concerned about the condition and details of the book (i.e. first edition=valuable while first edition book club=worthless).

Did a search for 'online rare book buyer'

Powell's Books is an example.  (I don't think we are supposed to direct link here).  However, they look picky.

You could check bookfinder.com or Alibris. When I worked at a library we used these sites to come up with an approximate value for our rare book collection.

One thing I learned doing that, the rare book market can be very illogical. We had books that were hundreds of years old, very rare, that were worth very little; and books from the 1970s that seemed mass market but were very valuable. It really made no sense. If you can't get a good price for your books now, you may want to hang onto them for a while.

On selling stuff generally, I can't improve on what others have said; I would just add that it helps not to be too set on selling everything. It can be more stress than it's worth trying to sell clothes, for example. If things are hectic before the move, it's a lot easier doing a drop off at the charity shop than faffing around with websites and potential buyers and pickups. I ended up selling all my books and furniture on craigs list very easily, but I wasted a lot of time trying to sell clothes. I ended up donating them to charity and I wish I had just done that to begin with.

Good luck!!!

If you have a garage or shed, move your items you are selling on Craig's List there before having strangers come over to your house. Don't list your house number in the ad, just your neighbourhood, and maybe the closest corner.  I sold several items, including my car, successfully through CL and never once had anyone in my house or aware of my house number (fortunately, my mom's house is on a corner and had a huge rose bush out front).  Create a junk email address to use just for CL, too just to keep it out of your regular email, and because you will get ridiculous offers (someone offered me $300 for my 1997 Chevy Cavalier in excellent condition when I had it listed at $1100!)

I'll second the newspaper ad thing -  use the small local paper (we have one called advertiser) as well as the major town paper. It'll cost a bit to put ads in both, BUT it's so worth it.  Then, put signage out.  Post signs in local stores, on lamp posts, etc. and the day of put a day-glo sign on your street corner (and if you're in a development, directional signs from the entrance).  and post your yard sale to Craig's List, too.  And other local online communities.  You never know.

Don't go for community-wide yard sale days, but do offer to share with a neighbour (especially if they'll go in halves on the ads!)

I'd list things on Craig's List first, too. Like, if you have a complete dinner service for 4, try selling it all together on CL first.  At a yard sale, a lot of people are only interested in buying pieces they might need, and you might get a better amount trying to sell it as a set! 

The most important thing on CL and eBay is pictures.  Take photos outside in natural sunlight if you can, try to focus only on the item, and crop out anything personal from the photo (you don't know how many eBay ads I've seen that have a cat in the background!)  Laying things out on your bed works, too.

If you have good looking clothing, consider taking them to a consignment shop.  you won't get as much as if you sell it on eBay, but you'll get more than a yard sale price for it and the shops often will have an option where if your items don't sell within 3 months, they donate them to a shelter automatically.  But watch out for rip-off consignments shops. a 50/50 split or 60/40 is good.  70/30 is not.  Some consignment shops only work in seasonal clothing though, so if you have a lot of winter clothes, you might have to hold onto them until August to consign.

Oh, and don't forget the UKY classified ad section.  You never know, you might find a UKYer who wants what you have

Good luck!

If there is a university with a Special Collections department nearby, they may be interested in your rare books.  If not, then alibris, as someone else mentioned, is good, or Amazon has a feature that lets you sell your own books.

If there is a university with a Special Collections department nearby, they may be interested in your rare books.  If not, then alibris, as someone else mentioned, is good, or Amazon has a feature that lets you sell your own books.

I've heard the Amazon re-sell thing isn't all the greatest.  A friend of mine tried it out and priced a book at $3, and by the end of paying the fees to Amazon and everything else, she wound up barely making anything off it!

Some used bookstores will buy books, too.

I had fantastic luck with my yard sale, put the furniture out there and all, and most EVERYTHING was gone before 11 am on that Saturday morning. There were people buying things out of the trunk of my car before I even pulled them out to put in the yard!    The thing with that is, though, we had it at my great aunt's house, which I have to say is in a rather urban, low-income location, and also right on the corner of a busy street. There are loads of bargain places and dollar stores around there, and people in that neighborhood get up early on Sat mornings to go looking for yard sales so they can get the best stuff before it's gone. Since my family is really keen on yard sales, over the years they have tried every relatives yard, and historically, her's is the only one that seems to work. My mom has tried in her lower middle class sort of neighborhood, but people don't seem to want to buy things unless they are in perfect condition (where's the fun in that?) So, in my opinion, location is absolutely key in yard sale action. Just try to think of the best, busiest place where people might be searching for bargains and you've got no problems at all! Or if your area has a huge flea-market type place, maybe you could rent a booth there and hock your stuff. Good luck!!!

My best CL advice, especially in these tough economic times (*groan*), is to be very flexible on the price.  I sold off most my big furniture last summer with a couple of exceptions.  I had a great dining set that nobody bought because my price was too high...I didn't want to be flexible, because *I* felt like it was worth more than the lowball offers people were throwing my way, but now I wish I had taken one of those lowball offers and not been so picky because I ended up donating it and receiving NADA for it.  Not that there's anything wrong with donating furniture, but...