Do you sell cheap stuff on Craigslist/Facebook/etc.?

[Villanelle]

I see lots of people on my various Facebook groups selling items that are $5, or less.  Things like one used children's outfit or a small decorative home item.  When I've sold stuff, I've dealt with flakes who don't show up, or who show up having "forgotten" their money and ask if they can have it for free, or other really annoying things. Dealing with that, as well as creating the post and taking the picture and fielding questions and all that gets frustrating.

It hardly feels worth it to me for less than $20.  I'm wondering what others do. 

I do also live on a small military base, where everyone knows everyone, which tends to help with respect of one another, so I'm considering listing smaller things and just telling the person I'll leave it on my doorstep and asking them to leave the money under the mat.  If I do this on Facebook, I likely have their name, though they could always claim someone had stolen it before they arrived. That way, I'm not waiting around for late people, I'm not there for them to try to haggle with after we've agreed on terms, and it takes up almost none of my time. Anyone use this approach? 

[Cranky]

I couldn't even stand giving stuff away for free on Freecycle! People were so irritating about it.

[BlueMR2]

Nope.  I've had no luck with those methods.  People never show up.

Even freecycling was a hassle.  I'd give pictures and descriptions and still have people complain about it not being what they thought it was.

I've given up and now either throw away or recycle (if able).  Trying to sell stuff is a complete non-starter.

[Erma]

I usually give those things away for free and place them in front of the house or the letter box so I don't have to be around. Most of the times people who get the stuff leave something to eat as a thank you, but I do not expect this.

[Adventine]

Yes, I do sell stuff on local Facebook groups and OLX.ph (kind of the local Craigslist, although there is a specific Craigslist site for my city). I mostly sell my old electronics and books. I haven't had any serious issues so far.

[postvmvs]

$20 is my minimum. If I don't think I can get $20 it is not worth my time.

I have twice sold things via craigslist where the item is already outside and the buyer just leaves the money and takes the item when I am not there. It wouldn't be my preferred method. In the one case I had previously met and sold something else to the same person.

[Secretly Saving]

All of the small items (that might be interesting to a child) I put into a big bag and give to teachers for their treasure boxes.  Anything that comes into our house that we don't need gets recycled that way.  Plus then teachers don't have to spend their own money on little goodies like this.

[Ryland]

Neat question. I love participating in the Cragislist economy. They way I think about it is "What is an hour of my time worth?"

If it takes 1hr to sell something (getting item out, photos, upload, post creation, etc.), then I should make $10, $20, $40. That number is up to you. Pick a number that your time is worth and only sell then.

Also giving things away for free is a great way to build friend/community equity. Don't hesitate to do that if you are already in a good place. It could pay back more in the end. :)

[Lanthiriel]

I've had really good luck with my local Facebook Buy-Sell-Trade group, but I agree: $20 is my minimum of what something has to be worth before posting. Sometimes I'll post a group of items with lower values, but only if I expect they'll sell together.

[SimpleSpartan]

Sold my grandparents truck, camper, and 13ft aluminum boat on craigslist. For all three, they  went fairly well and the buyers knew that they were priced right and they sold easily. I found that you simply cant have too many pictures and a good cleaning made all the difference.

For items less than $500?
I would definitely sell on Amazon or donate. The cheaper the item, the more scummy the buyers tend to be.

[RobFIRE]

It has also been our experience that with cheap items, or even items you are giving away, people can often be problematic (they want your free item but can't come and collect it, will you deliver it to them for free...). So with lower value items, we will either give up on getting any money and drop them off at a charity collection point (clothes, shoes etc.) so there is no hassle with other people, or if the item can be sold I sell via eBay and give all the profits to a charity. Of course has to be something where the postage cost is low to sell online. Selling that way there are fees involved and you have to write up the listing, but you avoid the hassle with people because they are not collecting from you, you can write a full description to avoid the obvious silly questions, you can simply ignore anybody who does send silly questions without buying, and you only post the item once they have paid. If something of low value doesn't fit into the drop off donation or low-postage eBay sale options, we tend to give up and take to recycling. Not ideal if a usable item is recycled rather than re-used, fortunately we don't need to use that option too often.

[KarefulKactus15]

I used to sell small items for cheap and really make people day.

However the people of craigslist have devolved to a bunch of time wasters.   I dont give shit away for free any more either.  ALWAYS a hassle.



I now take any items of value to the goodwill if its not above the 20$ threshold.

SOOOOO many time wasters.....

[mcneally]

I've listed stuff for $5 that I would have been willing to give away but want it to go to somebody who actually wants it. The people who will respond first to the 'free stuff' ads are vultures who just say they want everything that's free to try to resell and a lot of it probably goes in the trash. It's much more the environmental aspect than the $5 being worth my time.
ETA: I guess Goodwill may be a better option for small stuff anyway.

[accolay]

Small stuff gets donated. I would have to be really broke to churn used stuff for 5 bucks. Not worth my time.

[mindy]

I've sold a ton of stuff on Facebook. I was part of a regulated group of military families selling/buying stuff, which helped a lot. Any time a buyer didn't show up or didn't have the money, you could contact the moderator and tell them what happened and they would ban them from the group. It was a great system. It also benefitted the buyers since they could tell a moderator if the seller didn't show up or gave them something other than what was advertised. We rarely had problems since all group members knew the rules were strictly enforced and they would get banned and lose out on a lot of really good deals. I recommend checking out if your military community has a group like that. Most of the bases I've been to had them. If not, you could always start one. However, you'd probably have to put in a lot of work and be the moderator, which might not be worth your time.

[travelbug]

Anything for under $50 I donate.
Clothes ect, I donate as I have had problems on eBay of people finding a stitch undone, or a speck of paint on a child's hat and I have had to refund. I try to take photos representing the item exactly, but would rather donate the clothes and have $5, 10, $20 of feeling good.

I have a few larger items to list like bikes and prams that our children have grown out of but I am procrastinating as I am dreading dealing with the prospective buyers. And some high end brand name scarves too, these are worth $100s each.

I will pop the kids stuff on FB as it's easier not to deal with postage, but will sell the others on eBay and hope for the best.

[dilinger]

$20 is my cut-off. Anything cheaper than that goes to Goodwill. I give away a lot of stuff on craigslist also, but usually it's building materials or other things where it would be more of a hassle to bike it to goodwill or pay for city disposal than it's worth. Tons of people on craigslist flake out, so I'll just leave free stuff out on the porch so as to not have to deal with waiting around for them.

[ketchup]

I mostly sell stuff on eBay.  I won't bother selling on there if it's worth less than $50, or maybe down to $20 or so if it's something small and easy to ship like a video game.

Craigslist I only use for selling things worth more than $100 that would be a pain to mail, like a bicycle, a car, or a piano.  Otherwise it's just too much hassle to be worth it.

The rest goes to Goodwill or the curb.  People take stuff from the curb all the time.  A few weeks ago, I was astounded that someone took my old office chair.  That poor thing was cheap when it was new, had been beat to hell over the years, looked like shit, two of the wheels were broken, and the back had fallen off and been bolted back on at least twice.  And someone wanted it.

[MBot]

I do sell cheap items on Facebook groups, but

- I usually group it (eg 5 items for $10).
- I usually leave it in my mailbox or hanging from the mailbox in a plastic bag. They leave the money in the mailbox.

Giving away free things is more hassle. If people say they'll pay $3 they usually show up.

[cakie]

I donate things unless they are easy to post. When I moved last month, we had two big furniture items we wanted to get rid of. One was free to us, other had been bought cheap from op shop. So we stuck them on the kerb then I put an ad up on local bss facebook group. Both times they were gone within an hour! No extra effort required!

[Helvegen]

I don't bother. The one time I tried, it was pretty irritating all the tire kicking questions I was getting about it. It was $10 not $10,000.

[GoBigRed]

Unless it is a bike part or tool, or something that has a real market, typically no, I just donate.  I found that some of the bike parts/tools sell pretty easily.  But lucky for me I live a short 3 minute walk from a park.  I simply have them text when they leave and arrive, then I head over.  If they are a no show, it is no harm.  I stopped having people show at my house unless it is a big item, because I didn't want to wait around all day if they were a no show.

[tallen]

Unless it will sell easily for $20 or more I donate those things to the local thrift store that supports our local homeless shelter and food pantries.

[Classical_Liberal]

$50 is my limit, otherwise it goes to the local second hand store as a donation. 

One of my friend's sisters is big church organizer for a huge local church.  Once, to save hassle of selling some bedroom furniture on CL, I thought I'd ask her if she knew a family who might need it for free, as luck would have it, a day later she had a taker.  When the guy showed to to get the furniture, I helped him load it. Afterwards he proceeded to tell me I was going to hell for about 5 minutes and handed me a bunch of pamphlets.  Thank his god that his kids were there, so I didn't feel obligated to tell him what an ass he was being... Never... Again!  I'd rather deal with craigslist flake outs or negotiators any day of the week.

[gliderpilot567]

CL stuff for at least $20; but if someone bothers to show up and they lowball me, I will usually accept the offer. Usually this is when I'm selling something like a kids' bike that has been outgrown; I'll list for $20 but take any offer because it's going in the donation in a few days otherwise.

On Ebay I will only list stuff that I expect to make at least $30, because of the expected time investment of printing postage, packaging and handling, etc. However, whenever I list such an item, I also list a bunch of small items that may only sell for $5 or so, and set them to expire on the same day as the big item, because then I can take all of them to the post office at the same time. It's a way to get rid of crap.

I start all my auctions at really low prices, like $0.99, even if it's an expensive item. Low opening bids attract more early bidders and make your item look hotter... I've noticed the lower I open, the higher I eventually sell for. It's weird.

[Dicey]

$50 is my limit, otherwise it goes to the local second hand store as a donation. 

One of my friend's sisters is big church organizer for a huge local church.  Once, to save hassle of selling some bedroom furniture on CL, I thought I'd ask her if she knew a family who might need it for free, as luck would have it, a day later she had a taker.  When the guy showed to to get the furniture, I helped him load it. Afterwards he proceeded to tell me I was going to hell for about 5 minutes and handed me a bunch of pamphlets.  Thank his god that his kids were there, so I didn't feel obligated to tell him what an ass he was being... Never... Again!  I'd rather deal with craigslist flake outs or negotiators any day of the week.

Just curious, did you let the church know what an ass he was?

[KarefulKactus15]

$50 is my limit, otherwise it goes to the local second hand store as a donation. 

One of my friend's sisters is big church organizer for a huge local church.  Once, to save hassle of selling some bedroom furniture on CL, I thought I'd ask her if she knew a family who might need it for free, as luck would have it, a day later she had a taker.  When the guy showed to to get the furniture, I helped him load it. Afterwards he proceeded to tell me I was going to hell for about 5 minutes and handed me a bunch of pamphlets.  Thank his god that his kids were there, so I didn't feel obligated to tell him what an ass he was being... Never... Again!  I'd rather deal with craigslist flake outs or negotiators any day of the week.

Just curious, did you let the church know what an ass he was?

I'm not sure they would care.      As they see it, this nice man was trying to save another guy from eternal damnation and fire and brimstone.     

[MayDay]

Our town Facebook group does a lot of small stuff. But it's always on porch pickup.

So far no one has scammed- if they did they would get blasted on the town group and ostracized. Keeps people honest I guess :)

For 5$-10$ items I am happy to list them on the FB group and leave them on the porch, but lol for days that I'm meeting you somewhere. Yes, people ask.

I do occasionally have no shows, but no big deal, it took five minutes, and now k to the goodwill pile it goes.

[acroy]

Under about $20 I just donate and take the tax deduction.
Occasional things we give away on NextDoor.
Oddly, Goodwill does not take a lot of baby items (car seats, etc) apparently due to safety/liability concerns. I put them on the lawn, put it on NextDoor and it's gone in an hour or 2.
IF you have Mini-Mustaches: it can be a good way for them to learn how the internet & money works. Dear Son #1 is busy ebay-ing off a couple hundred hand me down books from friends and relations. Some are worth $20-30, others barely cover shipping, but it's good experience.

[VeggieTable]

I sell small stuff on FB, but not Craigslist. I *only* do porch pick-up most of the time now. I've been burned by planning to meet people who flake out at the last minute, so I make everyone pick everything up at this point. Item on the porch, they come whenever they want, they leave money under the mat. I've never had anyone not pay or short me, but it wouldn't be that big of a deal if they did for just a couple bucks. Soo much less hassle, and I don't have to wait at home for them. I like it b/c there are some things that are just not worth selling on eBay -  like anything that's heavy and would be more expensive to ship than it's worth.

[Prairie Stash]

Lots of posts at once, often you get one person picking up several $10 items at a single time.

Some items, like my old contacts, I posted as a good deed or Karma if you will. I had $80 of new eye contacts I sold for $5, the other person got a great deal. In a way its a method of helping others be mustachian/frugal. Having been on the receiving end of great deals I appreciate when others take the time.

In my mind its more about repurposing items than the money. I'm also to lazy to take some of the items in, a quick pic and post is easier for me.

[LiveLean]

We live on a fairly busy road. Monday is our trash day. We've found we can put out ANYTHING on Sunday afternoon and it will disappear. In the 18 years we've lived here, we've put out toilets (taken out during remodeling), broken chairs, busted up doors, and a teal bathtub (again, remodeling), among other things.

I've had many great scores on Craigslist -- furnished an entire beach house in under three weeks with near-mint stuff, bought seldom-used paddleboards for 20 percent of new and a BlendTec for $50. Selling takes time and I set a $50 minimum. I usually have 3-4 things posted at any given time.

As for OP's original question on cheap stuff, heck no. Not worth the time.

[financiallypossible]

I'm currently selling multiple items on Craigslist and have before at times in the past as well. Cheapest item I've sold is $2 and I haven't run into any of the issues documented here (flaky buyers, people not showing up, etc.).

I've done at least 20 transactions from Craigslist (I'm usually on the selling side). How have I gotten so lucky?

[FIRE Artist]

I couldn't even stand giving stuff away for free on Freecycle! People were so irritating about it.

Ditto.

I now just give the stuff to a local charity.  Every time I make a trip to drop off stuff, the experience drives home for me, once again, the need to buy and bring less crap into my house.  I need to put in place preventions to buying crap, not trying to mitigate the problem through recouping costs on a resale market. 

The above comes from a position of not having to clothe and entertain young children, I get that they come with the need for many accessories.  Perhaps the best approach is to buy those accessories off of the resale market to begin with, then sell them as a lot instead of individually.  So maybe do a once a year cull of kids clothing and/or toys and it is a take it all or nothing kind of deal. 

[ariapluscat]

I'm also in the less than $20 means donate.

[dilinger]

IF you have Mini-Mustaches: it can be a good way for them to learn how the internet & money works. Dear Son #1 is busy ebay-ing off a couple hundred hand me down books from friends and relations. Some are worth $20-30, others barely cover shipping, but it's good experience.

Ooh, I like that idea. Maybe in a year or three when my kid's old enough to handle the logistics, we'll give that a try.

[ToTheMoon]

My minimum is $10.  I always leave the item in a bag at my front step so they can pick it up at their leisure, and ask them to leave the cash under the mat.

I don't believe I have ever had anything stolen, and if they did not leave cash I would not be fussed as the item will be heading for the thrift shop anyhow.  The best part is that I sometimes forget about the cash, and find it when I'm doing a sweep up.  Always feels like free money!

[alleykat]

I couldn't even stand giving stuff away for free on Freecycle! People were so irritating about it.

Ditto.

I now just give the stuff to a local charity.  Every time I make a trip to drop off stuff, the experience drives home for me, once again, the need to buy and bring less crap into my house.  I need to put in place preventions to buying crap, not trying to mitigate the problem through recouping costs on a resale market. 

The above comes from a position of not having to clothe and entertain young children, I get that they come with the need for many accessories.  Perhaps the best approach is to buy those accessories off of the resale market to begin with, then sell them as a lot instead of individually.  So maybe do a once a year cull of kids clothing and/or toys and it is a take it all or nothing kind of deal.

I agree, I have donated most things and have sold very little.  I don't have the time or patience to deal with the whole listing mailing or coming over to see thing.  It is matter of putting preventions in place to be begin with.  As much as I know, I still make the same mistakes although greatly improved.

[I'm a red panda]

Less than $10 I prefer buy nothing group or freecycle. I've never had a no show on a free item, and this way I just put it out on the porch. Not worth the money to have to open the door.

(Though I like the idea of "stick the money under the mat". If they don't- who cares.)

[Erica]

Yes but I leave the item out on my doorstep and they leave the $$ under my mat.

Never had an issue of non-payment yet but it's for items $25 or under.

We do lock up our bicycles before they come over.

[The Happy Philosopher]

When I factor in my time and the tax deduction from donating to charity, I can't justify selling much of anything other than high value items (cars, expensive bikes, etc). And I'm lazy by nature. When I use TurboTax to calculate the value of items, often they value it higher than I could reasonably sell if for unless I  put a lot of time into it. Part of this may also be due to the fact that they use thrift store pricing which you would expect to be higher than what you can sell for on Craigslist. YMMV. Unless you enjoy this sort of thing you need to calculate how much you are actually making per hour of your time. That said, when my mom moved recently a friend of hers who is very savvy on Facebook selling helped her unload a few thousand dollars of merchandise. It made sense because we batched it into a few days and was very time efficient.

[brute]

I sell my cheap stuff on ebay usually. I have more boxes than I ever know what to do with, and the packaging material that goes with them. (I do almost all shopping online aside from food, so there's a delivery of something every other week). I usually net $1k a year off old books, games, knives, and other stuff that I've received as gifts or picked up free along the way.

For more expensive (or really heavy) stuff, CL is my go to. Never meet at the house though. People creep my out, and the last thing I want is anyone showing up at my place pissed off that the speakers they just bought died after they left them out in the rain (true story)

[Just Joe]

Goodwill. Sometimes I'll just park it next to the dumpster at the trash transfer station (rural area). Sometimes it doesn't even touch the ground before some fellow appears and asks if he can have it.

Plenty of no-shows when I've given stuff away online or requests for deliveries!

When we are cleaning out the house, I want it gone now. Don't want to break the rhythm of cleaning.

I don't have room to stage it. Don't have the will to auction it anymore (pictures, acquire boxes and packing, tape and boxing, trip to the post office, etc). Not going to host a garage sale.

If it isn't worth $50 I just happily give it away. Plenty of people have been kind to me over the years so I'd rather just pay it forward.

[NESailor]

Actually, all the time.  Even for $5 or for free.  I always arrange it so that people come to ME when I'm at home.  It hasn't been much of a hassle.