To think the reality of online selling is far worse than people suggest on here...

[SkyBloo]

On here there are regularly people claiming expensive items like pushchairs, children's bikes etc sell secondhand for at least half what you paid for them and as much as 80/90% of the retail price.

In reality, whenever i try and sell anything online, nothing sells at all even priced at lower prices to sell quickly.

Eg - lightly used uppababy (my kids hated the pushchair so we used a carrier more) in excellent condition with foot muff, carrycot etc, gender neutral popular colour. Put on for £150 in the hope of selling it fast. Zero interest at all.

Childrens 16 inch frog bike, excellent condition, owned from new & ridden by one child. Red. Put it on around november time thinking people might buy as Christmas gift. Asked for £125. No interest whatsoever.

Solid oak coffee table in great condition. Offered for £50. (Retails for about £300). No interest

I post with lots of good images. I live in a south east commuter town and see other people posting things that also aren't selling, they are reposted again and again for months.

My experience is the only things I've ever had anyone actually want to buy second hand are things priced incredibly low (£5 etc) or offered free, yet people on here claim to resell things for high prices. Is it a regional thing?

I think it depends where you are trying to sell. Facebook marketplace is full of time wasters, so you won't sell anything at reasonable money on there, and ebay fees are extortionate.

I have reverted to good old fashioned car boot sales. I am not alone it seems.

Ive tried a few places. A local whatsapp selling group & specific group for selling frog bikes, Facebook pages, ebay. There don't seem to be car boot sales locally.

I don't need the money really just interested in the difference between whats said on here vs what i see in RL. In my area demand for second hand goods seems quite low.

It depends where you live. I have sold items in the past for what I paid for them new. Not since I moved to a different area. If you are in the SE I thnk a lot of people wouldn't have ANY spare cash even though you would think something like a frog bike would sell well.

Have you tried the frog bike resale pages on facebook?

I'd love an oak coffee table but I can't travel!

Sorry cross post!

It really depends but I have had fairly good luck with selling second hand

Have you tried a local mums Facebook group?

I had a load of baby stuff that never sold on marketplace, but as soon as I posted it on "Town Local Mums" I had people fighting over it and paying good prices.

I tried various different fbook groups but the best offer i ever got for the travel system was £50. They are about £800 new and it was honestly in lovely condition.

I saw lots of second hand pushchairs from popular makes (icandy, bugaboo etc) being reposted and not selling for months and months. It felt very at odds with what is often said on here about the resale value for these.

I think it is harder than it used to be. I used to have the occasional browse of Gumtree (as a buyer) and sometimes picked up good quality items that I just happened to spot.

But that site is drowning in rubbish now. It’s impossible to browse. Things like 20 year old PC games priced at £30. Pages and pages of old clothes, homemade items, random bric a brac, electrical parts, everything constantly reposted when it doesn’t sell. Things that I assume have fallen off the back of a lorry.

I don’t bother even looking anymore. I don’t have time to wade through pages and pages of rubbish on the off-chance of finding something worthwhile. I assume Facebook marketplace is the same. Everyone is trying to sell, nobody who wants to buy anything can see the wood for the trees.

I've given up trying to sell things. I worked out that the last time I tried I ended up getting about £5 a hour by the time I'd factored in all the time spent listing, dealing with BS etc and it just wasn't worth it. I donate everything to charity, and consider it a large charitable donation. I stopped my charity direct debits in lieu. So much less stress and the charities make much more than my direct debits came to.

Absolutely depends on where you live and what the 'online selling' culture is like locally. I lived in a city where the local middle-class family area would have things snapped up at reasonable prices (ie not dirt cheap) in 'private' facebook groups.
In a smaller town, things generally sell but people put them on for much lower so that's the 'accepted' level.

That said I've never seen anything for for 80%/90% of the price unless it's rare and literally unused. No-one is going to pay 90% for something that's second-hand when they could get new and returnable for not much more.

"Travel systems" are hard because they are many specific items together and you might only want one or two of those.

Coffee tables are down to individual taste and not something you tend to buy/change regularly so unlikely that someone is looking for your specific table in the time window you're selling it.

Frog and Isla bikes usually sell well in the well-off areas. I've never bothered paying a premium for those, though.

Small items on ebay that you can post sell reasonably well, if it's items that have to be collected you have a very limited number of potential buyers.

In my (limited) experience, it's all down to luck. I recently sold a lot of children's toys we no longer needed, including 3 bikes. These were not new by any stretch but in good condition. I sold all of them - the one that was the cheapest to buy originally sold for around 50% of what we paid. The other two, for about a 5th. I was happy though as they were bought years ago and I was as much interested in knowing they had a new owner as in the actual money.

When I sold baby stuff ages ago at a sale, I got about 30 to 50% of the price despite the fact they were barely used.

I wouldn't expect to get near full price even if I had a new, never used item, as why would a complete stranger buy something second hand when they could get a brand new one from the manufacturer, possibly with guarantees etc, for near to the actual price?

I buy and sell my son's bikes on Gumtree and eBay - he rides Islabikes and they always sell instantly for about what I paid for them. On eBay you can check the sold prices and see that both Islabikes and Frog bikes sell at good prices.

I think the sites you are using don't have enough people on them.

I think that if someone can afford £150 for a second hand pushchair, they'll just buy new.
Understand that yours is fancy and a bargain...but I still imagine the mindset is to buy unused.

Having said that, my friend sold a second hand sofa at £250. I had thought she was tripping as the sofa itself was nice but not immaculate. Lo and behold someone paid it!
I was astonished.

I think when people say it sold for 80/90% of what they paid for it they didn't buy it new. Things likes kids bikes hold their second hand value well.

I think it depends on where you live. I think if you live in an affluent area there is not much uptake for 2nd hand items as people can just buy what they want new without too much pain.

Secondly, I think timing is everything. I had gorgeous new / like new summer dresses my DD had outgrown. Posted with clear pics - total bargain - £2 each etc. Didnt sell for ages so I took the listing down. Reposted just before the summer school hols with a higher price and all gone in a day.

Supply vs demand plus timing plus luck.

I’ve sold appliances, furniture etc on gumtree for about half of their original value. Vinted is good for small things - I work about 500m from a post office so I don’t mind packaging and dropping things off for £2/£3 a time - I made £350 last year on Vinted and I’m at £110 this year so far. Most I’ve ever sold anything for is about a fiver, it just all adds up. My DH is prone to hoarding though so I’m constantly finding things to declutter and sell! Other people I know have done well on Facebook marketplace but I find things take ages to sell on there and often go for lower than what you would like.

I’ve had a good experience selling postable things e.g. clothes, have done about £150 so far this year on Vinted and sold a lot on eBay in the past. Furniture and bulky items people have to collect have never done well so I have generally ended up passing on to charities instead. Things like prams I think a lot of people want to buy new even if they could get a real bargain. I feel like for most families I know it was still a bit of a tradition for one of the sets of grandparents to want to buy it.

Around 25% of the new price seems to be average in my area and most stuff sells well. Otherwise people buy new if it's higher.

I’m a bit surprised you’re having such bad luck - we’re in a south east commuter town too and have always managed to sell on our Frog / Isla bikes pretty easily for a decent price (we just sold one last weekend). We also buy our kids’ bikes second hand, and pay ~60% rrp usually for bikes that are barely used. Higher end stuff does tend to have a smaller market but will sell for a good price, typically. Perhaps it’s about how you list it/the photos, etc.?

I do think, however, that people mainly want new stuff and will only buy it second hand if it’s an absolute bargain.

I have mostly given up trying to sell stuff and I just give it to the charity shops and gift aid it or sell it to CEX

Pushchairs always go for cheap as chips where I am, unless it's a yoyo. I've sold frog, Isla and squish bikes at the same quite high price as I bought them second hand. Oak table would sell quick if it wasn't dated looking. I don't bother with marketplace, the local 'mums buy and sell' Facebook page is where I sell and buy from generally. I now can't be bothered to try and sell some bits eg jojo maman Bebe snowsuit in excellent condition - I tried local sites and Vinted and they just sit there forever at £5 so I now take that kind of stuff to the charity shop. Free stuff always gets snapped up.

I think the selling for almost what you paid is maybe only applyinh when things were bought second hand to start.

Those who are buying 2nd hand frog/isla bikes what are you paying? Maybe im not realistic, i had thought i might get £150 for a barely used one in great nick.

It really depends on lots of factors.

We've found Facebook to be useless and full of time wasters.

Ebay and Preloved are still pretty good.

As are car boot sales.

Just sold a car cycle carrier for more than we paid for it about a decade ago. But it was in immaculate condition, with original spanner/lock/key and instruction booklet etc. Also sold a car roof box for pretty much what we paid for it a few years ago.

Sold plenty of our son's Lego for more or near to original purchase price. Not generic stuff, but things like the Indiana Jones, Minecraft, Atlantis, all complete, original boxes and instructions etc,

We sold all our son's baby stuff, i.e. pram, cot, mobile, clothes, baby toys, etc., all for pretty good money, but again, all in immaculate condition, boxed where applicable, etc.

I think you need the items to be popular respected brands, excellent condition, boxed/instructions, etc., to get the serious money.

People want everything for free. I remember years ago on a local free page a member breating people who sold stuff as they should just give it away for free, that's the mindset you are dealing with.

I recently tried to sell a full junior drum kit, no takers. In the end I did give it away for free with the stipulation it was to go to a school/ group etc. It went on the group to a friend, and I am pleased where it went to. Had it been offered as a free for all I would have been inundated.