People selling used stuff online ask for far too much

[TunMahla]

Am I the only one frustrated by how much people seem to want to charge for used items on places like Facebook Marketplace. I just saw a branded bike (used for a couple of years), where the asking price is maybe 10% off the original price when a similar model was last sold new by online retailers :O. Am I the only one who thinks that most used items should be at least 50% off the original price - come on, sales these days often offer better value!

I sell antique and vintage items online (not Ebay) and make a good living at it. My family once accused me of selling "tat" until they saw the weekly report in my Paypal account was twice what my brother made in a month. Then they went very quiet. Later asked for a loan (refused).

The price of a second user item is what a buyer will pay for it. I get buyers making insultingly low offers. They get a brief reply that "my best on this is $$$".

@GappyValley

I’ve seen several well-used items of IKEA furniture advertised for close to the new price ‘because it’s already assembled’ like the seller has done them a favour buying and using the drawers for several years

I kind of get that. We’re hopeless at assembling flat pack so if we bought new we’d end up paying someone to put it together.

With the changes to customs and VAT procedures plus some European suppliers refusing to ship to the UK. Not everything is readily available brand new these days. That's how I got the price I wanted.

In my experience buyers haggle so much you have to start high to get close the price you actually want.

I sold a knackered smashed 4 or 5 year old phone for a tenner and people went mad for it. Screen was properly shattered. Back cracked too. Worked, but you got splinters, so needed a screen in. I'd had it on free page originally but noone wanted it.
50 odd people messaged to pay a tenner on marketplace.
It's a strange place.
Wasn't even an iPhone. Just a Samsung s7.

Yes some people have a very deluded view of what their well used personal possessions are worth! They obviously also have failed to check Amazon etc where they are a similar price for brand new!

We bought a dog kennel and run off ebay 4 years ago for £300 - we got a bargain as new price was £1200 and we were the only bidders.

I've just sold it on Facebook marketplace for £450 and had about 5 people interested. First message simply said '£200' which I ignored but people who bought it didn't even haggle - I was fully expecting to be knocked down. New price now is £1350 and the price of timber is increasing so it was worth it to the buyers even though I felt a bit of a CF

who cares, if it's too much, they just won't sell.

But there was a thread on here with posters horrified at the price of 2nd hand travel system and thought it was morally wrong to sell them for more than (pennies basically).

Translation: they want the brand but want to pay nothing for it!

I sold all my stuff for very good price, and 50% would have been nowhere near enough for them. If you want cheap, get cheap items Some CF want everything for nothing.

If someone is happy to pay a fair price, why on earth would you sell for less?

Well people will be tiresome and offer way below asking price.

If I'm keen to sell I'll put it on at a cheap price and things get snapped up.

If I want the real value as I perceive it I'll put it slightly higher and expect hagglers.

People can be right CFs when they're buying too.

Although last thing I sold was pretty cheap but went to a lovely family and I was thrilled they enjoyed it so much.

Ive got the impression though that prices in the shops have really gone up. I was looking for T-shirts and the prices were ridiculous, as is food, some toiletries etc. So is that not why people on selling sites are increasing their prices? The prices of paperbacks in shops are ridiculous, nearly a tenner a book.

@starryskylark yep, everything is correctly spelled, it's spotless as it's been stored in a garage in a proper cover, photos taken of all the relevant bits i.e. brakes, gears, new seat, has a spare set of off road tyres blah blah. It's a nice bike and I'm amazed it hasn't been snapped up

@Tulipomania

Basic market economics - an item is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

The thing is people aren't prepared to pay that much for it. There are people on my local groups who post stuff for ridiculous high price. People will offer lower and point out that it's in some cases cheaper or at least not much more expensive new in the shops and the person will refuse to budge. It won't sell but they'll repost for the same price in month's time.

That's how the market works DrunkTank.

You adjust your price downwards until you get to a point where someone will pay it.

Or you don't sell it.

Basic economics. Not so hard to understand is it?

YABU - anything being sold is only worth as much as the buyer is prepared to pay. Nothing has a specific value in sales.

It's why some people pay ten times more for a Chanel lipstick than a supermarket brand one. The lipstick doesn't cost ten times more to make, it's not ten times better at being a lipstick.

When people put a high price on an item second hand or not they are expecting to either find someone willing to pay or they added on some extra so that they can 'bargain down' to the price they want.

If the price is too high no one will buy and it will be offered for lower.

What I don't understand is why it makes people so cross when they see people put higher prices on things than they are willing to pay.

*Unless it's an emergency and someone has bought all the water/toiletpaper/handsanitzer and is charging triple prices because they can exploit the desperate.

@Tulipomania But that's now what they're doing. They're postng it again and again at the same inflated price. I know a woman who constantly tries to sell on facebook and moans her items never go and she only gets 'cheeky fuckers' haggling. Errr no noone wants your 5 year old sofa which you're trying to sell at 80% of the cost of a new one. I can understand selling for a little higher than you think you'll get but when the price is ridiculously high it's a pointless exercise.

[quote InTheDrunkTank]@Tulipomania But that's now what they're doing. They're postng it again and again at the same inflated price. I know a woman who constantly tries to sell on facebook and moans her items never go and she only gets 'cheeky fuckers' haggling. Errr no noone wants your 5 year old sofa which you're trying to sell at 80% of the cost of a new one. I can understand selling for a little higher than you think you'll get but when the price is ridiculously high it's a pointless exercise.[/quote]
But that is still what is happening - she's just not adjusting very quickly to the market. If she doesn't mind waiting and storing her stuff then she may very well be lucky and get the price she wants somewhere down the line OR she will have to adjust if she wants the sale.

You don't have to listen to her moaning!

I’ve increased the price of some things I sell as people always offer less anyway.

There was a run of people putting on dresses at teatime and saying ‘needs gone and paid by 8pm as I’m going out’. Always for sale at the same price they paid for them I suspect.

@cabingirl I'm no saying she shouldn't be allowed to do it (althoughit's annoying have to wade through so much junk if you actually want to buy something). And no she isn't doing that, her new sofa was delivered and she had to pay for the old one to be scrapped after having it sit in her dining room taking up space for a month!

[quote InTheDrunkTank]@cabingirl I'm no saying she shouldn't be allowed to do it (althoughit's annoying have to wade through so much junk if you actually want to buy something). And no she isn't doing that, her new sofa was delivered and she had to pay for the old one to be scrapped after having it sit in her dining room taking up space for a month![/quote]
Ah - well it takes some people longer to learn a lesson than others!

And there is a huge amount of social psychology involved in human interactions involving money - which is why the best salespeople don't take stuff personally.

Your sofa lady sounds like a real life example of the social psychology experience The Ultimatum Game.

In the game, two people are matched together tasked with splitting an amount of money between them say $100. One person is the proposer - they get to set what the split will be. One is the responder - they get to decide if the proposed split is accepted, if they don't accept the proposal no one gets any money.

Logic says the responder should accept any split which gives them more than zero because some money is better than no money, right?

But the experiment shows that when the proposal drops lower than say a 70/30 split the proposal is more frequently rejected.

Human beings would rather no one gets anything than see the other person get so much more than them!

Your sofa lady's feelings made her reject anyone getting her sofa as a bargain even if it caused her more money and pain not to let it go cheaply.

More on the Ultimatum game here: www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/ultimatum-game

There's a reason people reduce the prices of things to achieve a quicker sale DrunkTank.

Again, it's very basic economics.

Why do supermarkets reduce the cost of food on the last day of it's sell-by date? Because they'd rather sell it at a loss than have to pay to dispose of it.

Personally I've given away a lot of stuff for free on Facebook during lockdown. Because it's worth it to me to get rid of it, and other people have been appreciative. And the relatively low value I'd get if I were to sell it isn't worth it for my time and hassle.

I've been trying to sell a Doug and Melissa playable, in top notch condition for £0.

No one wants it

Playtable!

@Ratched

I've been trying to sell a Doug and Melissa playable, in top notch condition for £0.

No one wants it

Make it at least £5 - I bet it will go