Trying to sell anything is impossible

I tend to donate it to charity. It gets rid of it and I’m doing a good deed.
I agree about giving furniture away for free, it saves you having to remove it yourself.
If I buy furniture I tend to buy brand new and have it delivered.

I donate my stuff to Mind (my preferred charity). Every few months I get a message saying how much the charity has made selling my items as I register for gift aid. This is usually a few hundred pounds. It makes me feel really good as the items have a new home and I am helping an important charity. It works for me.

We live in a small town and have more success if we list things using my partners work address in the adjacent city than we do our address. This is for selling things on eBay and listing things on Freecycle. We've moved around a bit over the last 10 years and find when we have lived in cities there's a more thriving second market and in the suburbs and small towns it is more varied

I sell so much unbranded clothes on Vinted. I sell toys on there too. In fact I sell anything that can be posted on there, old bed rails, hoses all sorts basically. Of you don’t sell much pk there maybe you are charging too much?

We sell a fair bit on marketplace. It takes a bit of time, but this week sold an office arm chair and a childs bike within days and got what we wanted each time. It is annoying and frustrating though....hold on, let me share something...

It took me weeks to get rid of my two sofas. They were pristine but I struggled to even give them away as it’s such a big thing for people to try and move.

I'm getting new sofa and chairs. I'm paying the furniture shop to take away recliner armchair and recliner two seater sofa, both electric systems. Furniture is difficult to dispose of

Alot of people swap stuff now too.
There are several fb groups where I am to exchange.

I wouldn’t go to the effort of going to someone’s house to buy something for £1. It’s probably because it’s so cheap 🤷‍♀️ Sounds like you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place really.

Edited to add- I sold two doors today. I had 12 offers over night for one door and the second door went to the only person who responded. They only went online at 9pm last night.

My mum has just turned 90, still full of spirit!!

Oh the dreadful BHF...wasted weeks of my time....i took in pics and measurements etc, all agreed to collect ...they never showed up for 4 slots, finally turned up and told me items were too dusty and drove off fast. I got tired of neighbours asking us why we were taking items to the dump when charity shops would appreciate the things..if only they knew, i didnt explain all the time wasting but gave them a brief summary.

It is all in tne pictures you post imo - really make sure it.looks good - I paste them into PowerPoint and use the design tool to make it look better and use a screenshot of that to post - and for furniture give measurements etc in the description- if the item is still available in the shops include a link to that.

Exactly. The other house clearance people we had round said similar in terms of the desirability of my mum's things, but in a much nicer way - "That's good quality but sadly no one wants this kind of thing now," rather than pulling a face and saying, "That's no use to us!"

@socialdilemmawhattodo wish I'd thrown them out!

Try pre-loved and/or ebay. We've not had any luck with Marketplace, but sell loads through ebay and pre-loved, even large items like furniture, i.e. a sofa a few years ago and a dining table and chairs more recently, also a display case, a car tyre, a car roof box, car cycle carrier, etc. We usually sell clothes and books and cds/dvds in bundles on ebay. Barely have to take anything to the tip. But marketplace is just full of time wasters so I never bother with it anymore.

It must be upsetting to have furniture sneered at but I have wondered in tbe past how long certain items sit in charity shops for. There is a massive surplus of dark wood items from the 60s and 70s - a few bits will pass as vintage but a lot just isn't desirable anymore unfortunately. Shops literally measure how much money they take by square foot of shop floor so I can understand them having to be somewhat discerning about what they take. It needs to be done politely though.

My mum had this from them. She was very cross and threw them out. We had sent pictures in advance, so they knew roughly what was being offered. Interesting that others have also had issues.

Recently sold lots at car boot sales

Local Facebook sites

Yeah you wouldn't think there was a cost of living crisis really.

@MoreRainbowsPlease I don't mind them not taking things if they know they won't sell, but it was more the fact they were very sneery about my Gran's things and said that no one would want them.

I had the same experience with BHF. I was actually looking for whole-house clearance as I lived too far away to be organising pickup for different items by different people, but they didn't specify in advance what they did and didn't do. The guy they sent round was, yes, "sneery" and it was quite upsetting. There was a lot of "Oh, this is unfashionable," and "I suppose we could take the books, if you box them up, and the wardrobe maybe, but only if you dismantle it..."

Old furniture may be unfashionable, but it was someone's life, someone who is dead or incapacitated, and some empathy wouldn't go amiss.

I find Vinted is fab for anything small.

I've had a mixed bag selling larger items that need collection, some people are lovely, I once gave a fake but very nice Xmas tree to a little boy and his mum 2 weeks before Xmas, the mum said she hadn't been able to afford one and her DS was SO excited they'd found one.

Other people are a massive PITA, literally tell you they're en route then never show up. Some people show up and announce they have no cash, can they have your bank details to do a transfer? (Errr, definitely bloody not) One woman showed up to look at an almost new pram we were selling and got DH to do a full demo of just about everything, then carry it up the road to check it fitted in her car boot (it did) then she spent 20 mins asking questions THEN said she didn't want it, could she instead buy our other pram that was parked in the hallway. I've given up since her and usually now do charity shop, British Heart Foundation or tip.

Any furniture that I have advertised on Facebook marketplace that hasn't sold in a couple of days I then put on Ebay. Sometimes I do auction, sometimes buy it now if I have a specific price I want. It has all sold, and I do not get messed around anything like I do when selling on marketplace.

When we downsized my Grandmother from a large house into a small flat we initially tried to donate things to BHF, they came round to look at the furniture and wouldn't take most of it, despite me emailing photos of things when I was sorting out arrangements for collection and being told that yes they would take everything. They then tried to take some of the furniture we were keeping! One of the things they wouldn't take was a very solid, but ornately carved oak dining table. They said it was not desirable and not in good enough condition (the top had slightly faded from being in sunlight). I put it on an ebay auction and it sold for £180. When the people who won it came to collect it, they saw my Gran was moving and ended up buying a side board off her as well which the BHF didn't want to take.

I don't mind them not taking things if they know they won't sell, but it was more the fact they were very sneery about my Gran's things and said that no one would want them.

Anyway I think it is worth you trying other selling platforms. Facebook Marketplace is good for somethings, but a nightmare for being messed around and people wanting something for nothing. And I really do understand people selling things even just for a £1 as I come from a family that has to recoup as much money on things in order to buy other things.

I have a lovely sofa. That’s only 12 months old that I want rid of but the reality of it is it stinks of Cat . I have removed every last goddamn Hair that I can find but you can guarantee if somebody’s got an allergy there’s one in there.
And that’s the very reason I would never buy a secondhand sofa myself