Help me de-stuff my life!

June 14, 2007 10:30 AM

Like you, I've got a lot of unused stuff. Also like you, I could do with some extra money. Do you have any tips or experiences to share with regard to selling specific types of items?

Most of my superfluous stuff comes in one of the following flavours:

-Books
-Furniture
-Electronics (computer and other)
-Audio and music gear

FYI:

this is in or around Europe (so localised services etc. are of limited usefulness)

yes -- it IS ok to contact this poster with personal anecdotes or other useful stories

posted by pantone292 to home & garden (8 comments total)

audio and music gear will do well on ebay

electronics too, as long as its not too weighty

books (antique) will but probably not newer books

def not furniture (unless it's the super expensive sort)
posted by Salvatorparadise at 10:35 AM on June 14, 2007

Craigslist.
I've made about $100 so far selling off crap in my garage.
Make sure you provide pictures for everything via a digital camera.

Good luck!
posted by Carnage Asada at 10:35 AM on June 14, 2007

photos are a MUST.
also give lots of descriptions...measurements, any flaws, model, etc.
posted by cloudgazer at 10:50 AM on June 14, 2007

For cheap crap, try to get involved in whatever your neighborhood equivalent of a jumble sale or group garage sale is. You state that you're somewhere in Europe but I don't know where. In Paris, there are "vide greniers" where people on a certain street or district sign up to have a stand, and you drag your stuff out there on the appointed morning, set up, and start selling. I've done two this year with friends and it's very fun, as well as being profitable.
posted by hazyjane at 11:42 AM on June 14, 2007

I don't know if amazon.com offers their marketplace service in europe, but I recently cleaned my place and had a giant stack of books, cds and dvds to either donate or recycle. On a lark I listed them on amazon and within a week got rid of the entire pile and made almost $800 with virtually no effort. Their commission is more reasonable than ebay, you don't pay to list items and they stay listed for 90 days.
posted by bcnarc at 11:54 AM on June 14, 2007

I sell a lot of stuff on Amazon (in the United States). It's easy and I like having Amazon be responsible for the moneyhandling.
posted by neuron at 12:04 PM on June 14, 2007

Maybe Craigslist is workable in some big cities in the UK, but in Europe in general it’s useless, IME. I’m not sure what European city SFO is (heh) but Ebay has a huge presence in Germany, at least, so if you’re here I’d look into that. Kijiji.de is also pretty successful in .de. Or you could open a stand at a flea market; ask around for when and where they’re on, and be prepared to haggle.
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 12:21 PM on June 14, 2007

You might take at least one item to Freecycle... although you won't get money for that item, most Freecycle groups ask you to post one item for giveaway before posting requests. You could set yourself up for free stuff in the future.

UK Freecycle
posted by IndigoRain at 5:16 PM on June 14, 2007