People using the cost of living crisis as an excuse to make daft offers?

I try to sell items to local people who I see as definitely going to turn up. I will always look at their profile - anyone who has a new profile I will steer clear of.
Careful of expensive items like buggies or stuff like that as folk will want to scam you.
Its a jungle out there!!

I’ve never been able to sell or even give away a sofa apart from to the BHF charity shop. I had a really high end sofa from an independent shop in town, cost me something like 2k (this was over 20 years ago). We moved house less than a year later and it didn’t fit the new living room. Had to go to the charity shop in the end, couldn’t even sell it for £100. It didn’t have a mark on it.

someone said it’s because of 0% credit, people can get the sofa they want brand new for like £35 a month.

If i had a budget of £300 for a sofa Id buy a cheap one new rather than take chance of spending on that 2nd hand and if theres any issues at least new you can return. The market for 2nd hand furniture is limited

Yes, this.

Personally I'd be suspicious of a sofa someone was getting rid of after a few months and there's no shortage of second hand sofas out there.

If you sell on platforms like Vinted and Ebay then expect get cheeky offers all the time. When someone makes a cheeky offer I am tempted to ask them how they would feel if their boss only offered them half of their wage next pay day because that all he thought they were worth. Of course I dont do that. I simply make a counter offer by stating that my best is ££.

Some customers are unbelievable. One got an item with a good discount then sent me a snitty message about how they resented dealers like me buying stuff at auction and reselling it. Only collectors should be allowed to buy at auction. With people like this who are whinging before you have even send the goods they can turn into the buyer from hell. I quickly refunded their money and welcomed them to my blocked buyer list. After 20 years on Ebay you get a gut feeling.

The people who do this aren't struggling. They are just cheeky.

Few years ago I put perfect condition 2 year old 42inch samsung tv, not a scratch on it on and was offered a fiver 😂
Sold it for the 100 I wanted, of course.

It's not Col. Chancers were always there. Alongside the "is it available?" "yes it is" "great" and dissappear one

okay, yeah that's unnecessary, and would be even if they were offering close to the price you were asking - the sob stories are completely irrelevant (and often made up!). That would annoy me more than the cheeky offers tbh.

We’ve sold two leather three seater sofas, one two seater velvet sofa, a dining table and six chairs, a couple of wooden units, an oven and a hob in the last year. They’ve all gone relatively quickly and for decent money.

I often look at adverts and think sellers are in cloud cuckoo land. Our local selling page has things like 5 year old sofa, purchased £1,800, selling as moving, perfect condition £950. Or 5m of super expensive tiles £500 new, £300. Just because it cost a lot, it’s not worth it to most people.

I think you may need to strike lucky OP, it’s frustrating but having someone want that exact model is unlikely and means it might as well be 4 years as 4 months.

For the photo frames etc, try Vinted.

did they actually use the col crisis though, because you haven't actually specified what they said in your post? As in, did the woman say 'Would you take £3 for the photo frames because I'm struggling for money due to cost of living?' Or did she just say 'Would you take £3?'

With larger items like furniture, even charities won't pick them up sometimes, so people taking it for free are doing the sellers a favour, as if nobody wanted to buy it their only other option would be to pay the council to remove it.

Second hand furniture is VERY difficult to get rid of

I think some people get a thrill from the chase. Getting the bargain is the exciting bit.

I also think some people are trying to get stuff cheaper to sell on for a profit…!

I agree with a PP that in a random collection of decorative items, most people would probably only want or use a couple; also that selling large furniture items is very tricky.
I had loads of people asking about some lovely, solid things I had last year, but no one bought. They’re in the garage housing tools and gardening equipment now!

Shy bairns get nowt…

That has been my experience too. People don’t want to buy second hand furniture. I had a really lovely wooden bed I tried selling - it was in perfect condition. I ended up having to donate it to a charity that picks up furniture.

We tried selling a sofa last year. No takers. Offered it for free. No takers. Ended up going to a charity.
You will only get what people are willing to pay.

I would not count your chickens and wait to see whether you get any better offers than the "silly" ones.

You might well find that the only way of shifting the stuff is to accept what you think are "silly offers".

Second hand sofas in particular are hard to get rid of. Unless there is something special about it. Like easy to dismantle and fit in the average car. As transporting them is really difficult.