Selling it All - Tips and Tricks

The girls started school yesterday, hence my delay in posting.  It was emotional for me because I was used to being with them 24/7 for the last 6 months.  I realize that it is good for them and blah blah blah, but the truth is that I missed them.  Anyhoo, I am learning to enjoy this freedom of alone time during the day to prepare for the adventure and blog away.  So, I write all that above to make excuses for why I have not posted in 2 days...sigh.

In the last blog post I discussed selling everything; the process and emotions behind shedding your belongings, why we did it, etc.  I wanted to write some tips and tricks on how I sold most of it so if you were in the market of shedding all of your belongings too, you can use some of these.

Furniture:

• Craigslist.  Although obvious to most, it is also a scary thing to some to put your stuff up, have a random person come to your home, etc.  I totally get it.  I tend to judge the responders to my ads by their email etiquette.  So far, I have had pretty good luck, and I have probably sold 100 things on Craigslist in my life.  I sold all of my furniture on Craigslist, nothing else.  I have found that selling clothes, small household items, etc. does not work very well on this site.  Furniture on the other hand, I was able to sell weeks before we moved.  Take good photos and put a simple description to include measurements.  If you are selling your stuff to take off on an adventure, put that in the ad.  People like to know why you are getting rid of your couch, it makes them trust that your stuff is not crap.  I'm just saying.
• Yard Sale.  I had a yard sale to rid everything before moving to our small DC apartment.  I did not do it living in an apartment as it is pretty difficult.  However, before we moved to DC, I set up everything in my garage like a store and posted an ad on Craigslist and put signs up in my neighborhood.  I sold at least 75% of the stuff, so I think this option is great if you have a house or location you can do this.  
• Friends and Neighbors.  Believe it or not, your friends and neighbors are fantastic resources to buy and donate your stuff to.  I mentioned to a few friends and family that we were moving, and they were practically begging to come buy stuff.  I probably sold half of my furniture to people I actually knew.  The downside is that there is always this internal guilt about offering them a deal, but in the end, it's worth it to know your belongings will be loved :)  I also gave away a ton to new loving homes.

Clothes and Shoes:

I used to sell everything on eBay, I mean EVERYTHING, but that was back in the day when they were charging 1% of your sale price.  Now, they charge a whopping 10% of your final sale price, combined with PayPal's 2.2% fee, I was shelling out 12.2% for nothing but a platform.  Those days are over.  On top of that, if a buyer changed their mind on an item, they could make up some ridiculous reason they wanted a return, and eBay and PayPal would just freeze the funds.  It got out of hand.  So, below are what I did to sell everything and avoid all the ridiculous eBay fees.

• Instagram.  I know, crazy right.  I went on one day and made a profile just to sell some clothes on.  I had zero expectation that anyone would buy off of Instragram, but hey, it was worth a shot.  I see many consignment stores using Instagram, so why not give it a shot.  I posted one photo and in the description I put the size, the price, used hashtags (#sellinglilly for instance if it was Lilly Pulitzer), and told everyone to Message me if they were interested.  I charged $2.50 for shipping and when they Messaged me, I gave them my Paypal email address to send the total to.  Using PayPal, I received their address and shipped the item.  To my surprise, I sold 24 items in 3 days.  It was awesome.  I will recommend making sure you have all your items up that you want to sell within a few hours.  I found that it caught on in a massive wave, then after that it completely died and I knew my time was up.
• Local Consignment Stores.  I google'd "Consignment stores" in my area.  Fortunately, I live in Washington, DC so there are an abundance of them.  I knew I wanted cash that day (to pay for boat stuff), so I searched through them to find 2 that offered cash on the spot.  If you are more patient than I am, you could wait until they sell it and write you a check (you make a higher percentage doing the latter).  
• Online Consignment Stores:  This one is a little harder, but I love TheRealReal.com.  They only accept designer clothing and have specific brands they take listed on their website, but if you have anything that they take, they give you 60% commission once it sells.  I have sold many designer items very quickly because they have a huge, almost cult following.  Another new thing is eBay consignment where you can make between 60-80% and someone else takes care of posting, shipping, etc. for you.  The catch is that they have to be able to sell the items for a minimum of $40, but it could be a good option for some of you.  I will note that I did not use this because I discovered only after I had already sold everything using the other methods.

Hopefully, if ever you are in the position to get rid of anything...or everything, you find some of these methods useful.  As always, please feel free to email with any questions!

Renn