In the last few months I’ve made $3000 selling things that were already around my house on Craigslist and Marketplace. These are random things that I acquired for one reason or another over the years, and don’t use anymore.
I currently have 20 items for sale, including:
- A beautiful 8-person dining or office table
- A never-used Yamaha keyboard
- A $1300 built-in microwave that my neighbor was giving away
Everybody has too much stuff
I’ve now lived in my new home for about 12 months.
Over the preceding 10 years, I’ve lived in about 10 different places and traveled with an infrared sauna, a rogue rack, a king-size bed, and a few thousand books. In short, it’s a lot to move.
I have a lot of stuff, not because I’m a hoarder, but because I’ve accumulated things that I love and use over the years. I’ve also accumulated things that I no longer need.
I’m not alone in this. My parents have been asking me for years to help them clean out their house, my wife has an extra bluetooth headset, and I have two dog crates that Riley has long since outgrown.
In the United States, we live in a world of enormous abundance and it behooves us to not have more than we need.
It’s a chance to practice selling
I think the turning point with selling things online came for me when I sold an in-ground palm tree that was in our front yard, on Craigslist. This tree would have cost me $1000 to have an arborist remove. Instead, somebody paid me $200 to drive to my house, dig up the tree and truck it away.
That was last month. Since then, I’ve sold about $3000 worth of stuff on both Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, including a 36-inch teleprompter and closet shelf brackets I never returned to Amazon before the return window expired.
Now I’m hooked.
Everything is negotiable
One of the funniest things I have discovered is how wildly negotiable everything about selling used stuff can be. A sewing table that someone gave me for free is someone else’s treasure – months later I still get texts thanking me for selling it to them.
Price is extremely subjective. I’m not going to pay my mortgage selling stuff on the Internet, but I would never have guessed that someone would pay me to dig out the palm tree. I posted it on a lark.
t’s a good reminder of how much of reality is negotiable. The idea that “you can’t do that” is usually a matter of creative limitation, more than actual reality.
Copywriting is key
One of the most underrated skills in selling is the ability to write great copy. If you can describe something in stunning detail, people will buy it. By contrast, something that is poorly described – even if the product itself is incredible – won’t inspire someone to take action. Even as a marketer, I am subject to this and have purchased things that I didn’t plan to because the description was so compelling. Selling stuff online is a chance to practice the skill of writing copy that can move people to action.
Learn to take good pictures
I would be remiss not to include this since Zander Media does visual storytelling.
I’m shocked at how bad most Craigslist and Marketplace photos are. Just like good copy, well-taken photos might earn you an extra 20-50%.
Here’s a comprehensive guide about how to take good video and photos with your phone.
Some things to know:
- Craigslist allows 24 photos per post, but few people take more than one or two.
- Facebook Marketplace allows 10 photos and a 60-second video, but 95% of marketplace posts don’t include a video.
Take great photos, and a video where applicable, and your item will sell.
Everything in its place
Mise en place is a phrase from the restaurant world, which means “everything in its place.”
It’s practically impossible to have everything in its place when you own too much stuff. I’ve sold a few things that afterwards I regretted selling, but even that worst-case scenario is better than a situation where your home is full of things you no longer need.
My office is tidier and my home gym is now superb because things are not accumulating in my life unnecessarily.
Less stuff
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and David Allen’s Getting Things Done were best-selling books because there is something almost magical about a well-organized life.
Well-organized doesn’t have to mean OCD levels of ridiculousness, just that there are fewer items taking up unnecessary space in our lives. Sell a few things. See what happens. I promise you’ll learn a lot along the way.
