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

[thebiggestdog]

I’m about to move in with my partner and will be renting out my house, so I need to sell some of my furniture. I’m getting some work done before I rent it out, which gives me a bit of time before the house needs to be empty, so I’m not in a rush to get rid of everything.

I’ve been posting items mostly on Facebook Marketplace, and honestly, some of the offers I get are pretty funny. Just to clarify, I’m completely fine with people making offers and I’m not easily offended. I’ve accepted loads of offers in the past, but AIBU to think they should at least be somewhat realistic?

For example, I have a sofa that I bought only 4 months ago for £900, and I’m selling it for £300. I don’t have kids or pets, and I’ve hardly used it, so it’s still in great condition with no stains or marks. A guy messaged me offering £110 and acted like he was doing me a huge favour by saying he could pick it up the same day. Then there was a bundle of home accessories, like various photo frames and ornaments from Next, M&S, etc. I listed about 14 items for £10, and some woman offered me £3 😆

I know that people are struggling with money a lot more now because of inflation, but, a photo frame or ornament isn’t exactly a necessity in my opinion, so using the cost of living crisis as a reason to make silly offers isn’t going to wash with me. Am I heartless? 😆

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.

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 suggest you put sofa on eBay. We were amazed at the price we got for our secondhand sofa. It was about 9 years old and we got nearly £750 for it! We thought we’d get about £100! And the small bits you could put on Vinted

YANBU - there seem to be a lot of cheeky gits about these days with no shame whatsoever. Always get people on Vinted offering the lowest amount possible. Wish that you could remove the offer option.

Its between you and the buyer.
Lots and lots of people give stuff away free today and the second hand market is competitive. Everyone always has stuff to sell.

There's a true saying something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for something.

People will always be cheap when you’re selling.

We struggled to even give away our pristine sofa for free because people were so fussy or wanted free delivery. I don’t bother now.

Having said that, I’m not surprised that you are struggling to sell a sofa for a third of the price you paid for it. Unless you are offering delivery, it’s going to be a lot of hassle for someone to arrange a collection. Plus a sofa can’t easily be cleaned so it will be germ ridden. It’s not something that I would buy second hand unless desperate (and I expect desperate people will be looking on freecycle).

Probably plan to sell it on for a profit.

No one wants to pay more than they have too can you negotiate or is it take it or leave it? Never used facebook but make offers on ebay where you can negotiate. It's difficult with big items because collecting can be expensive.

Maybe I'm lazy, but I just can't be arsed with selling. I just put stuff on Freecycle. Always gets snapped up and picked up the same day, job done

I mean, in London you actually have to PAY the council to remove large furniture. We had to do it for some bits when we moved and it gets pretty expensive. So I think you're doing well to be offered any real money for a second hand sofa

@MidnightMeltdown I’m not desperate to sell it, that's why. It's only 4 months old and still in lovely condition (there’s germs everywhere really), so I want a decent amount for it. If I don't get what I'm asking for, I'll just take it to my partners house and find a spot for it. I think it really comes down to peoples situations and how desperate they are to offload things. If someone wants to spend £300 on a brand new sofa, instead of a better quality second hand one, that's completely their choice, but I can't imagine it being that nice. You get what you pay for, after all. I've also sold a few other items and pieces of furniture at full price, so I must be pricing things reasonably.

I thought about posting about the other side of the coin. The prices that people are asking for stuff in my area is ridiculous. Recently someone was selling a fridge freezer ‘fridge doesn’t work but could be fixed’ £250!!!!!! Nice wooden sideboard, £125 ‘missing one leg’

i mean, really?

I usually offer what I'm happy to pay for it to be honest. A lot of the time second hand is a pain. There's no returns, you might be compromising on what you want due to lack of choice. You can just say no. I find people put really high price tags on things second hand now.

I think £100 for a second hand sofa seems reasonable if it was only £900 new. I sold my £4k sofa (only a year old) for £500.

I think with sofas, collection can be an issue if they need to hire someone to move it as well. So whilst it's a good price I wouldn't expect it to sell quickly as not everyone has a family member with a van/money for the mover too.

Just write on the ad no offers and if not sold will be giving to charity.

Its not a new thing OP having CF's trying to get things for free. I'm on the OLIO app. Initially it was to give away free food but you can now give away or sell non food items too.

The app shows how many km's away the item is, listed in distance from you and a map of the location. I was giving away a brand new baby item (after my 3rd MC but obviously didn't mention this) and had multiple dialogue with a woman who was going to collect, then she couldn't, then could etc etc over days! When I provided my full address, she berated me, how dare I not tell her I lived in X, that was too far from her etc 🙄

Olio is collection only. I've had people ask for the address and then ask if I deliver. NO, I'm not a delivery service. Sometimes I've given details of the nearest bus stop, then I get a sob story about no car, disability etc. This exact person posted daily the pics of her walking her dogs miles, pics on the bus and her doing a local half marathon.

If you have no luck selling OP, many charity shops have a furniture branch that will collect. They need to have fire safety labels on them though. Best of luck.

Things are usually overpriced on my local Facebook group. "Ripped sofa covered in piss. Will do someone a turn. £100." IKEA mug, chipped, doesn't affect use. £5". That kind of thing.

If the same sofa was in a lovely pre-loved furniture shop…
Selling it, yourself, from home you won’t have much luck.

Nobody wants a used sofa for £300 tbh. You say it’s a few months old… you could be lying. It’s not worth £300 now because it could be damaged, infested with moths etc.

Sofas usually won’t go for over £150 on marketplace.

It’s not the COLC… it’s because second hand home items hold very little value unless they’re specific brands/ expensive woods / vintage / collectible.

I wish we still had the laughing emoji 😂

OP- I'm not saying your nearly new sofa is anything like these, but I've seem similar on market place before 😬

If you’re not happy with the offer, just decline. No need to start a sneer thread about folk less well off that you

In the end, things are only worth what people are prepared to pay for them. If you want to sell it then you have to take what people offer. If you’re happy to keep it and wait to try and get more then that’s fine.
The longer you hold onto it the older it gets and the less money it is worth.
I use vinted a bit and have had very low offers for things. There is no point getting offended by it. Just say no.

Fair enough if you’re not desperate to sell it, but I imagine that most people listing sofas would be, as they will want to make room for a new item.

You need to bear in mind that if they have to hire a man and van to collect it, then that will probably add an additional £50-£100 to the cost, and £350 - £400 seems a lot for a £900 used sofa. I also don’t think that buying a second hand sofa is quite the same as buying hard furniture, as it can’t easily be wiped clean. It would be a bit like buying a second hand pillow - for all the buyer knows, it could be full of fleas, dead skin cells and bodily fluids. When I was in my 20s, my boyfriend and I used to have sex on his sofa 😳.