There comes a moment — usually while attempting to clean — when you look at the clutter in your house and think: “I wish I could just get rid of everything now and start all over.” It’s as if someone turned a giant spotlight on your previously-cherished items, exposing them as nothing more than dust-magnets. As the late, great George Carlin said, “A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.”
Unless you plan on abandoning your home entirely, it’s difficult to get rid of the junk that’s taken up valuable square footage. There’s only so much you can give to friends and family, and then there are the items that are a little too precious to be donated. In those instances, Craigslist and eBay come to mind.
If you’ve only experienced either platform from a distance, there’s a bit of a learning curve. To get the full scoop on what to know before you start, we asked three “real people” with experience in eBay and Craigslist: Mitzi Swisher of Vintage Goodness (who once turned a $50 set of vintage plates into a $3,000 eBay sale), vintage expert Pam Kueber of Retro Renovation and Victoria Elizabeth Barnes (who turned her knack for finding incredible Craigslist scores into blogging gold). We also rounded up a bunch of resources for further reading. Here’s what you need to know.
Choose the right marketplace for your items.
Craigslist is better for bigger and bulkier items.
Got a lot of furniture, some old appliances or even a car to offload? Craigslist is probably your better bet.
“I would say if something will be difficult or very expensive to ship, you should give it a try on Craigslist first,” Swisher says. “Not only is the shipping itself a pain to do, but eBay charges their final value fees on shipping charges as well as on the price of the item, so when things are expensive to ship it can really eat into your profits. Craigslist has no fees to sell at all, so if you are looking for maximum profit, trying to sell an item there first is a great idea.”
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For more reading, check out these really great guides to selling on Craigslist and eBay.
Personal finance blogger Mr. Money Mustache encourages you to buy, buy, buy and sell, sell, sell on Craigslist as a path to wealth.
Man vs. Debt covered how to list and sell your stuff on Craigslist in only 24 hours.
Lifehacker debated when eBay and Craigslist are worth it — and when these marketplaces are not.
