Hard to sell today because everyone's giving stuff away free?

[girlfriend44]

People have so.much stuff. Our local pages are full of sellers and people giving away stuff.
Lots of people also asking about charity shops they can donate too.

Does anyone else think it's harder to sell and more and more people are giving away free or donating?

I’d agree but I’ve also contributed to this because we are also in the camp of just giving stuff away for free because we want rid of it so when we redecorated last year we gave away a double bed, mattress and sofa. Yes I could have put them up for sale instead and did think about it but if I’d put them up for sale I’d have had probably a few weeks of offers, people haggling the price down anyway, potentially they wouldn’t go at all or they would have in 3 weeks time but I wanted them gone quickly. Listed for free and all items collected the same day.

I do think it’s led to people expecting things for free. I see it all the time on our local fb pages, people posting asking if anyone has xyz and when people reply saying “yes we have this for £10/15” the poster replies to say they are looking for things for free.

We would love to have the energy to sell but we usually want the items gone quickly so we put it outside the house for free. We put a child's bike out there and the person who was taking it actually knocked the door to offer money and we still said no 🤷🏻‍♀️

Depends where you are. Where I used to live had a thriving second hand market. Where i live now, you just put things on your wall/outside the gate and they wander off eventually…

The thing is - we all have too much stuff. It’s time consuming to sell it, so we don’t. And when a market is flooded with cheap (or free) products, the market collapses entirely.

Yes! I have been saying this only recently. With people struggling financially and with the fact there are clothing banks etc, especially for kids clothes etc. And toys. There is not as much need for people to buy.
Now it's more about food and rent/bills getting paid!

My neighbour will sometimes put out food items/packets etc, and it all goes.

Yes and I am one of those who is giving everything away as cba with hassle of selling. Used to do a car booty now and then. Haven't got time or energy for that now.
Can partly blame massive over consumption society too much cheap poor quality tat available online so people have far too much stuff. I try and support charity shops where I can or good quality independent sellers.

People just have way too much stuff in general, and lots of it is basically rubbish (poor quality, made of unsustainable materials and/or just completely unnecessary). It's still easy to sell quality stuff, but charity shops in my experience won't even take aliexpress junk.

I do a mix of both, I have given loads away either via Facebook or the a local charity shop especially when I just want it out of the house ASAP.
I also sell some bigger things like a toy kitchen or a bundle of wooden train stuff etc, I price things to sell though, I listed something last night on marketplace and within a couple of hours I had multiple messages about it and am waiting on someone collecting today.

Selling is way too much faff. I’d much rather give things away to charity and have them gone immediately.

Some people still want to pay and not accept charity. We donate everything we can to charity shops and only give away items the shops wont take - furniture that is fire safe but doesnt still have the tag, toys without the CE mark still attached, bedding and towels.

Last time we offered something for sale we gave the man the money back. But we knew he wouldnt be a time waster. People not only want stuff free now they want to be late or not turn up. Someone who didnt turn up, or even send a message still wanted to collect days later, nope.

I can't even give stuff away. No one even bother to pick up. The local charities have too much stuff and don't want them either. Unless there's a donation bin which will take stuff with no questions asked, I most often end up taking stuff to the household recycle center.

It’s only worth trying to sell things second hand if they’re of a reasonable value. For low value items, it’s just unnecessary hassle going back and forth (when half the time the buyer doesn’t bother turning up, or suddenly wants you to deliver for the sake of a fiver).

I did a care boot sale last summer and it was honestly one of the most depressing experiences of my life. Getting up at the crack of dawn to deal with people who’ll go back and forth three times, picking up and putting down some bit of old tat you only wanted 20p for anyway. I’ve learned my lesson, and unless it’s a genuinely valuable item or is too big to leave on the path, it goes outside with a “free - please take” sign.

Also, you have to consider the perceived benefit of getting something for free. People are more excited than it being free than they are about the item. My old office had a free food table (usually for when they’d over-catered for an event or external meeting) and I honestly think if you’d left a lump of shit on that table someone would have eaten it.

Second hand items don't really have any resale value unless they were particularly high end to start with.

I'd far rather things got given away for free and people who needed things got to use them than stuff ending up in landfill.

I don't want money for stuff that I no longer want, I just want to know its going to be used and saved from landfill. I don't buy particularly high end stuff though.

I sold a load of stuff last year. I did get quite a few people asking if they could just have items for free, the stuff I couldn't see I charity shopped or put it in the bin, there was no way I was rewarding the CF who asked for free stuff!! A lot of the names I recognised locally as people who grab anything that's free and then resell it anyway, rather than having a genuine need.

I've been finding the opposite, I've been giving away stuff for free outside my business and amazed at what people will take, even professionals in suits. Half used tins of paint and all sorts. Even the Amazon delivery driver took some old McDonald's toys.

At home I put out a broken clothes rail for the council to collect, at a cost of £20, and saw on my CCTV that two random women had taken it in the middle of the night, on foot, before the council had a chance to collect it.

After seeing that I recently started listing things for sale, like a 10 year old Ikea chest of drawers, and had multiple offers and collected same day.

It's made me think twice about paying for stuff to be sent to landfill for sure.

I think there's so much for sale on FB, ebay and Vinted etc that market is saturated so I do try and sell but end up giving the majority away.

The key is to buy less in the first place, hard with growing kids but I also donate and receive from our local clothing bank. I think they are a lifeline. It was one the only ways to get clothes for my kids in lockdown

It's also easy to get stuff for free, so you don't need to sell your stuff.

I'm always surprised at the things people are trying to sell. Old knackered sofas for hundreds...they must be mad.

DS aged 20 and his GF seem to sell a lot on Vinted type sites, which seems to be thriving. They do sell for a fraction of what they cost though, usually quite expensive brands costing 5/6 new compared to what they sell for, figuring it's free money once they don't wear them.
DD recently bought a ski jacket and salopettes that, although new, was a quarter of shop prices.

I also think what you pay for an item is often less relevant than who you're selling to. MIL had to give away a huge mahogony furniture set that cost thousands when she downsized.. She thought it would sell easily for £££s. Even auctions wouldn't take it. Sustainable natural toys, Boden, etc. will sell to buyers who do not want to buy new, they're buying into an ethos. They don't want plastic tat and cheap brands even if it's pennies.
I guess it depends what your'e selling, how much and to who.

I le ave spare second hand items out on the pavement. Old Hoover gardening tools etc. Goes like hot cakes!

Not worth doing a car boot either if the stuff isn't going to sell. You have to pay entrance fee and petrol.

Yes - I put most things outside as free to take.

It's too much hassle to sell, so many time wasters nowadays. I gave away 4 sledges earlier this year on a local FB group. So many people arranging to pick up and then delaying. I wish I'd just left them on the driveway!

I have a small table and 2 nice rattan storage boxes to go out when the weather improves.

The best place I saw was British Heart Foundation they had a donation bin inside shop. Not sure if that's still there.

Just to add I live in a cul-de-sac, so can't do the pavement sale.

I guess we've finally reached the point where we have too much stuff as a society. We are full!

No wonder ebay dropped the selling fees.

Watched Call the Midwife last night and Jumble Sales were mentioned, Whatever happened to them? I remember the school jumble sale and buying dresses for my dolls that people had hand-made. My mom used to knit jumpers for dolls as well. There was lots of other stuff. I bought my grandmother some earrings once and a dog garden ornament for my mom.

Some of it was stuff that people were getting rid of and some had been specifically made.

But other PPs are absolutely correct, we have far too much stuff