Selling extra stuff I have around the house has always been a nuisance so I haven’t done it for quite a while. Liquidating useless things has either meant placing an ad in the newspaper or regional advertising magazine. Both are great, however, this week I wanted my wood chipper sold soon so I could free up some much needed cash.
For the last year I’ve been looking at a wood chipper that’s been sitting on the side of my house covered by a tarp. I’ve had to go out in the freezing cold of the winter to put the tarp back on the tool so it wouldn’t rust. I’ve listened to my fiancée ask me what I’m going to be doing with it. Basically it was time for it to be sold.
I have used Craigslist for buying items; in fact, I buy a ton of stuff from Craigslist and have never had a problem. I figured I’d give Craigslist a shot and see if I could sell the chipper by Monday. Friday afternoon, while at work, I wrote a small advertisement and published it online.
With the push of a button after entering a few challenge words, my item was listed. Within 15 minutes after the listing went online I received five phone calls. A couple of people wanted to visit within minutes after calling me and others made ridiculous offers sight-unseen. In addition, I received countless e-mails from Africa and Mozambique. At this point I became really skeptical.
Saturday afternoon I started scheduling appointments for people to come see my item. Out of six appointments, only one was on time. He made me an offer of $100.00 without seeing it run. Four appointments never showed. Finally, one guy told me he would buy it in two weeks when he has the money.
At my store we sell a lot of parts on eBay so I’m used to not having to deal directly with people. In my business we end up with a huge number of components which are not usable for us but may be for someone else. In fact, most of those parts get sold at a reasonable profit to other companies similar to mine.
eBay is a great place to sell items that are either industry specific or have obscure value to someone. Many of the weird parts I can’t find from standard vendors come from eBay. I have found that buying and selling specific components on eBay is very easy.
Through my business I am aware of many local people and businesses that make a substantial amount of money selling through eBay. Parts that may not have a value to a local customer make it onto eBay and most likely will sell auction style.
Amazon is also a great outlet to sell components if you have many of the same type of item. I used to sell imported items that I purchased directly from China. I purchased hundreds and thousands of one specific item and sold it through Amazon. Though it appears to customers that Amazon is one big company; really, Amazon is a virtual distribution center for many smaller companies. Any business with legitimate products can sell their wares on Amazon for a minimal cost.
I ended up selling my wood chipper for $450.00 Sunday to my neighbor. He had seen me using it last summer and asked if he could buy it when I was done and I felt funny about it. I finally decided I would rather sell it to someone I know who could use it and avoid the headache of dealing with strangers.
Online selling isn’t for everything – as I’ve learned. Had my neighbor not wanted my chipper I would have listed an ad in the newspaper. I will continue to use eBay at my business due to the nature of the products I sell. But, I can’t tell you enough how painful it was dealing with customers from Craigslist.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can text him at (978) 413-2840 or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)