Is Listing Your Items Online Worth the Hassle?

[dsh10ksr]

Hello All,

Me and my partner are interested in setting up our own business within the ecommerce industry.

Without going in to too much detail and revealing the masterplan. I wanted to gauge interest and see if there is at least some demand for this service.

So my question to everyone is how often do you throw away items which would be perfectly reusable? How often is that you would buy second hand items (electronics, furniture and clothing)?

Is listing your items online worth the hassle for the potential monetary return?

I myself believe that it is worth the hassle if you get the right price however I know of a few friends of mine who seem to just throw away or hoard outdated items.

I realise that the "second hand market" is growing at the moment and thanks to multiple online selling platforms the idea of buying used goods seems to be more appealing.


Look forward to hearing your responses.

Cheers

 

[Mr D]

If listing items to sell is a hassle then avoid doing it.

The actual selling may be worthwhile. Expect some returns which will reduce your profits.
Clothing is great, people can order a half dozen outfits then return them the following week for a refund. After wearing them.

 

[UKSBD]

I personally never bother selling stuff 2nd hand, but when you see the likes of shpock and how easy they make it look I might one day.

 

[Maxwell83]

Is the plan to list items on behalf of the owners and take a cut when it sells, or something similar?

If so, that sort of thing could be right up my street depending on the terms, and I doubt I'm alone.

I hate throwing away stuff that is still good, and I hate listing on ebay/gumtree due to the hassle & timewasters, so often find myself in a conundrum. Some stuff you can give away, but I often end up with things that you can't donate to a charity shop, can't easily dispose of, don't know anyone personally that needs it but really really don't want to have to deal with selling.

If someone were to deal with the selling on my behalf, and insulate me from any possible BS that may arise, I would happily go 50/50 with them. These aren't things I would be getting rid of for the money, I'm getting rid of them for the space!

 

[Mark T Jones]

Recent experience:

A year ago, the lady & I merged homes, so sold loads of stuff on Gumtree, NextDoor & Facebook.

As a broad rule, cheapish tat sells well, quality less so. Might be the obvious, that people buying quality want it new.

For some reason, giving stuff away attracts loads of timewasters, so always put a price tag on.

I just bought an under-counter freezer to go in the shed - the first 3 I enquired about had been snapped up within 3 hours.

I buy & sell pushbikes on the above platforms. My current frequent-use bike is a Marin, a little frayed but excellent working order cost me 10% of ist price. Just after lockdown 1, I sold a Ridgeback, which sold and was collected within an hour of listing.

Which would generally suggest that these platforms are pretty vibrant, though I'm not sure which niche you are looking to exploit?

 

[Darren_Ssc]

If people want to flog stuff they no longer need than there are plenty of places already well established. If I was short of cash, these are the places I'd go to.

The only opportunity I can think of atm is a friction-less system that requires no effort at all.

For example, in the drawer next to me I have a smartphone worth something. In the next room I have a nearly new printer, 2 windows wireless keyboard/mice sets (one brand new still in box), a brand new office chair (still in box) and various other bits and piece that have some value and will never be used again.

Can I be bothered listing all these things and then dealing with time-wasters for what, £100? No.

What I want is someone to knock on my door and ask if I have any such stuff that I will sell for cash, there and then. Any more effort than this and I'm not interested.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

For some reason, giving stuff away attracts loads of timewasters, so always put a price tag on.

Absolutely, the lowest price always attracts the lowest quality of customer and free stuff worse than this.

 

[UKSBD]

What I want is someone to knock on my door and ask if I have any such stuff that I will sell for cash, there and then. Any more effort than this and I'm not interested.

The problem is, rightly or wrongly, the people who knock on doors are really looked down upon and considered trouble.

If a stranger started knocking on doors round here, WhatsApp and facebook would be red hot warning about the ex con casing out the village, by the time you got to the third door the pitchforks would be out

 

[Emre Eldar]

In my opinion, the second-hand market is needed too. There are some people who like to use second-hand items. You just need to find your target audiences.

 

[Alison Moore]

I always sell my second hand stuff, as I hate to see waste. Facebook marketplace is also quite good for certain items. However, there's a lot of 'freebie' facebook groups that has popped up in lockdown whereby people are giving away some very good items rather than selling. Whether that will remain outside of lockdown, I don't know, but since they have sprung up, I've seen less demand for people purchasing second hand goods. Whether there's a business for a 'middle man' to sell second hand goods on behalf of someone else I doubt though as if it's and expensive item, people will just use an auction house, if it's not expensive they'll just donate to charity or sell themselves.

 

[Socio South West]

The idea is good... but your big issue is how to generate enough traffic in a relatively small geographical area to overcome the likes of Facebook, Gumtree and others that are well established and offer cheap - or even free - adverts.

 

[JustGettingOnWithIt]

My first thought was 'I don't see any profit in it'. Go for the smaller items say for a tenner and you will end up working for less than the minimum wage by the time you have set up listings, taken payments, put up with the hassle of selling, paid your own costs, tax etc.

Then I got to thinking about what I would do with an idea like this. I would specialise from day one. Here is my worthless plan - feel free to ignore and I am not saying it will make your fortune either but may get you thinking.

Take a big ticket consumer item. In this example I would think about baby prams. (staying away from electricals as the market is flooded and I imagine are a lot of hassle) Prams are often used for a short time, cost a lot of money and anything to do with babies will sell (I know this from my day job). Going for bigger ticket items will have more commission and you need to sell fewer to make the same money than you would on lots of cheaper items.

Get a cheap roll up photography background off ebay and take some pics in good light. This would put me apart from the other listings on gumtree or wherever and get noticed. I would also have an MOT style tick box checklist for each item so it can be listed quick and easy with all relevant details. e.g. if boxing is included, age range, squeeky wheels etc. Go where the customers are. Get on mumsnet and facebook for grandmas etc. Talk to your local schools to get a stall at their seasonal fairs when they start again for a few quid to school funds. etc.

Like everyone else has said, the reason that many don't sell second hand is because it isn't worth the hassle, you need to make sure it is worth the hassle to you and most importantly you can earn enough to pay your bills. Also I would say make sure you read lots of the setting up a business posts on here and plan as much as you can so you don't fall down the holes others do. They have helped me a lot over the years.
Good luck!

 

[dsh10ksr]

Is the plan to list items on behalf of the owners and take a cut when it sells, or something similar?

If so, that sort of thing could be right up my street depending on the terms, and I doubt I'm alone.

I hate throwing away stuff that is still good, and I hate listing on ebay/gumtree due to the hassle & timewasters, so often find myself in a conundrum. Some stuff you can give away, but I often end up with things that you can't donate to a charity shop, can't easily dispose of, don't know anyone personally that needs it but really really don't want to have to deal with selling.

If someone were to deal with the selling on my behalf, and insulate me from any possible BS that may arise, I would happily go 50/50 with them. These aren't things I would be getting rid of for the money, I'm getting rid of them for the space!

Hi Maxwell,

Thank you for response, it is interesting to hear that you would be interested in this sort of service. The plan be to be a middle man of sorts and perform the tasks included with selling your old items online for a cut of the profit, essentially taking on the aspects of the selling which people may consider either a waste of time or not worth it.

Of course there are some things that you can give away however it is the things which still hold value however may be a pain to package, move and sell yourself etc. due to things like time wasters and various other nuisances that come with selling online yourself.

The focus would definitely be on sustainability and to not just provide a selling service however take on the responsibility of packaging and clearing away items which are taking up unnecessary space. Which I do believe there is a market for as like you said selling online can be a hassle due to time wasters and various other factors. In which case our service would take care of all these matters for you.

 

[dsh10ksr]

If people want to flog stuff they no longer need than there are plenty of places already well established. If I was short of cash, these are the places I'd go to.

The only opportunity I can think of atm is a friction-less system that requires no effort at all.

For example, in the drawer next to me I have a smartphone worth something. In the next room I have a nearly new printer, 2 windows wireless keyboard/mice sets (one brand new still in box), a brand new office chair (still in box) and various other bits and piece that have some value and will never be used again.

Can I be bothered listing all these things and then dealing with time-wasters for what, £100? No.

What I want is someone to knock on my door and ask if I have any such stuff that I will sell for cash, there and then. Any more effort than this and I'm not interested.

Hi Darren,

I completely understand that all of these tasks may not be worth it for the little profit you would end up making. If someone were to essentially knock on your door and offer to do all these things for you would you consider it if they were to take a percentage of the profit?

Considering that it often seems to be people are more concerned with wasting space or wasting perfectly good items rather than making a profit. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on whether or not you would use a service of this nature.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

If someone were to essentially knock on your door and offer to do all these things for you would you consider it if they were to take a percentage of the profit?

Absolutely, I'd be more than happy to go 50/50 just get rid of stuff that's essentially just taking up space.

 

[dsh10ksr]

I personally never bother selling stuff 2nd hand, but when you see the likes of shpock and how easy they make it look I might one day.

Interesting, would there be any particular reason for this? Personally I believe even if the profits not great it is a good way to clear some space in the house and repurpose useable items that may have been thrown away.

 

[JustGettingOnWithIt]

It sounds like your new venture will be mainly offline especially for the awkward/large items. I would spend time letting people know you are there and building trust rather than listing individual products. Would someone trust you to walk out of their house with a sideboard or electricals that you will sell for them if you knocked on their door? I would say it needs some trust first, bricks and mortar presence in town maybe?

Hi Maxwell,

The focus would definitely be on sustainability and to not just provide a selling service however take on the responsibility of packaging and clearing away items which are taking up unnecessary space. Which I do believe there is a market for as like you said selling online can be a hassle due to time wasters and various other factors. In which case our service would take care of all these matters for you.

Sustainability and profit as they don't always go hand in hand. I used to go to a charity shop regularly. They had an arm chair for sale for £20. It looked like new but week after week it was there, they put it down to £10 and then free to get rid of it. It ended up in the skip. The lady in the shop said that people wanted the full 3 piece and not just a chair and it happens a lot. What happens if you end up with the chair? You still have bills to pay and you will ultimately have to pay storage on the chair. What I am saying is that you will need to develop an eye for the kinds of product that you think that you can sell and weigh it against your desire to be sustainable and just take anything for the sake of it being unwanted.

Selling online takes time - lots of it. People selling may not spot the half hour you spend listing an item and needs your time to be paid for, which is why I said go for the bigger ticket items to start with or go for awareness instead.

The seller might not be bothered about a profit but if you want to pay your bills you need to be bothered and have a realistic budget - your overheads will be higher than theirs. Don't forget you will be competing with the sellers doing it for pocket money and the charity shops too.

Not saying it to put you off, just things to think about.

 

[UKSBD]

Interesting, would there be any particular reason for this? Personally I believe even if the profits not great it is a good way to clear some space in the house and repurpose useable items that may have been thrown away.

The thought of having to collect stuff up, arrange nicely to photo, create an account somewhere, create a listing, deal with requests, arrange for delivery, take payment, trust that there are no scams, for anything under £50 put's me off.

 

[itsnathanhere]

Generally if I can't be arsed to eBay it then it goes to the charity shop.

 

[Mitch3473]

If you are selling mid range items £100 plus I'd consider finding a decent courier and offering a courier service, at their expence and risk. It will open your market up. However, remember that there are always the tyre kickers, time wasters and general idiots out there who will string you along if they can.
I sell into a niche market (£200 plus per item) as a hobby and there is still the odd chancer in a market I wouldn't have expected.

 

[Mitch3473]

Absolutely, the lowest price always attracts the lowest quality of customer and free stuff worse than this.

As a rule yes, however there are the odd ones that are the exception to that rule, unfortunately.

 

[Mr D]

My first thought was 'I don't see any profit in it'. Go for the smaller items say for a tenner and you will end up working for less than the minimum wage by the time you have set up listings, taken payments, put up with the hassle of selling, paid your own costs, tax etc.

Then I got to thinking about what I would do with an idea like this. I would specialise from day one. Here is my worthless plan - feel free to ignore and I am not saying it will make your fortune either but may get you thinking.

Take a big ticket consumer item. In this example I would think about baby prams. (staying away from electricals as the market is flooded and I imagine are a lot of hassle) Prams are often used for a short time, cost a lot of money and anything to do with babies will sell (I know this from my day job). Going for bigger ticket items will have more commission and you need to sell fewer to make the same money than you would on lots of cheaper items.

Get a cheap roll up photography background off ebay and take some pics in good light. This would put me apart from the other listings on gumtree or wherever and get noticed. I would also have an MOT style tick box checklist for each item so it can be listed quick and easy with all relevant details. e.g. if boxing is included, age range, squeeky wheels etc. Go where the customers are. Get on mumsnet and facebook for grandmas etc. Talk to your local schools to get a stall at their seasonal fairs when they start again for a few quid to school funds. etc.

Like everyone else has said, the reason that many don't sell second hand is because it isn't worth the hassle, you need to make sure it is worth the hassle to you and most importantly you can earn enough to pay your bills. Also I would say make sure you read lots of the setting up a business posts on here and plan as much as you can so you don't fall down the holes others do. They have helped me a lot over the years.
Good luck!

Or learn to spend only the time the item warrants on the listing.
Half hour? I might spend that for a £5k stamp book describing some of the valuable stamps in it.
With of course tons of pictures which take a couple of minutes total to take.

I list stuff on ebay - usually new - and if I spend more than 10 minutes on listing something it had better be worth a grand or more total.
Can get decent results for just a few minutes work.

I have sold second hand - mostly small items such as stamps, trains, flock, wallets etc.
Time spent should be minimal.

 

[Paul Norman]

To make a viable business out of this, you would need to shift decent volumes of stuff.

There are, however, two businesses I can think of locally that do just this, and are still going after several years at it.

To do it exclusively on line would require either using Ebay or similar, with the associated costs of paying their slice, or to create a website that gets bit traffic volumes. That would require a substantial marketing budget, because your competitors - namely Ebay or similar - can simply out gun you.

It's not impossible, of course. But taking pictures and listing the stuff is not the biggest hassle. Indeed, it is barely any hassle at all.

 

[Pembroke99]

You need to look at other outlets as well. Don't be afraid of selling off job lots if you can't shift lots of little items you can pitch them at boot fair sellers. Sell other stuff through offline auction houses most have general sales that are idea for getting rid of hard to sell or bulky items. If you've got a warehouse space offer a service to locals who sell on ebay etc. who want to sell their big stuff 'click and collect' but don't want tot publish their home addresses.

Most of all though, high quality photos and lots of them, no tacky headline list titles. Stuff them full of keywords, learn how people buy on ebay, for instance most don't use categories they type keywords into the search box so pay more attention to keywords than to categories. Photos and descriptions are all that buyers have to go on when they look at an item for sale so get that right.

Also check out amazon, they seem to be opening up more markets, it's crafts this time and although their market place for other sellers is big they still sell second hand books, DVD's and CD's as they did when they started.

 

[Kevin Joseph]

Listing them on classifieds like gumtree, ebay, OLX etc is quite a time waste. I found it difficult to sell a cycle without getting calls from spammy folks. Facebook marketplace combined with a facebook ad strategy should do you good

 

[Vin Gupta]

Hello All,

Me and my partner are interested in setting up our own business within the ecommerce industry.

Without going in to too much detail and revealing the masterplan. I wanted to gauge interest and see if there is at least some demand for this service.

So my question to everyone is how often do you throw away items which would be perfectly reusable? How often is that you would buy second hand items (electronics, furniture and clothing)?

Is listing your items online worth the hassle for the potential monetary return?

I myself believe that it is worth the hassle if you get the right price however I know of a few friends of mine who seem to just throw away or hoard outdated items.

I realise that the "second hand market" is growing at the moment and thanks to multiple online selling platforms the idea of buying used goods seems to be more appealing.


Look forward to hearing your responses.

Cheers

I have dabbled in selling stuff online, and decided that it's not for me. the profits aren't all that high, and there's a lot of hassle with returns. I've had Royal Mail lose my parcels - it's an absolute pain to get Royal Mail to refund you!

I'm not saying that it's a bad idea. But it is a lot of work, for not that much reward