We may often hear people talking about selling clutters and they make it sound so simple and easy. But some of us may have been trying for a while and find it’s not that simple and easy to sell clutters online.
Below are 7 tips on selling clutters online:
1. Know Which Marketplace To Sell
If you’re selling an old TV, a sofa, a table, and all relatively large items that won’t fit in a mailbox, you may want to consider local pick up instead of shipping them. While eBay has a ‘local pickup’ option, there are other better places to sell. Here in Australia, we have Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree among the most popular places to sell large items.
2. Take Pictures with a Plain and Clean Background
Make sure that the background of the item you’re taking a picture of is plain and clean. No abstract patterns and too many other items in the background, making the main item sort of ‘disappear’ with all the things in the background.
3. Take Enough Pictures
You can simply take pictures using your mobile phones. But of course, you can use a better camera if you have one.
Place yourself as a buyer. What do you want to see when you’re looking at a second-hand item? As a buyer, you may want to see all sides of the item (front, back, left, right, bottom, top sides), and you may also want to see the type of material by taking a picture of the item in a close-up view.
4. Edit Your Pictures Accordingly
Crop, straighten or increase/decrease the brightness of your pictures accordingly. Most cell / mobile phones have built-in photo editors. If yours doesn’t have one, you can download a free app like Pixlr, PicsArt, or Snapseed.
5. Set the Price Right
Selling second-hand items at the right price can be quite challenging. First, we have to see the condition of the item, and second, we have to see what price people are willing to pay. To do that, the easiest way is to go search for a similar item on Ebay. For example, you’re looking for a price for a second-hand mini blender.
First, type in the search box “mini blender”, and then in the left-hand column, check the “Condition” category to “Used” and/or “For parts or not working”. Then scroll down (still in the left-hand column) to the “Show Only” category and check the “Sold Items”
With the above filters, you can see how much people are willing to pay for a second-hand item similar to yours.
6. Write a Clear, Honest, and Interesting Description
Write the description clearly, honestly, but use interesting wordings so that our item doesn’t sound as ugly or as unwanted as it actually is.
Clearly means you include everything that’s included with the item. If it includes the touch screen stylus, don’t forget to mention it.
Honestly means the condition of the item. Apart from mentioning it has been tested and works great, you should also be honest that it has some minor wear and tear marks.
Interesting refers to the wordings you use to describe the item. For example, if you’re selling a Nintendo DS because you were bored with it as you have another more interesting device to play with, you don’t want to say “Boring Nintendo DS”. You may want to use the wordings like, ‘unique’ or ‘rare’ (because it’s kind of rare to have a Nintendo DS these days).
7. Decrease the Price when It’s Not Selling
What to do when an item is not selling? It depends on your storage availability and how urgent you need the item sold. If the storage is available all the time and you have no urgency, you can just wait patiently until it’s sold.
Generally, you may want to wait for a week for a large item to sell. If it doesn’t sell, it’s highly recommended that you reduce the price.
If it’s a small item, you may want to wait or keep reposting with the same price for a month. If it’s not selling within a month, then you may need to bring the price down to attract buyers.
