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I'm trying to sell a bunch of furniture on Craigslist, specifically a couch and a loveseat, and I think the transportation part of it just won't happen without professional help. We might have to have the couch be lowered down from the balcony, which is not something I can do with my tools, or own my own, for that matter. Are there any companies out there that you're aware of that provide that kind of service? I'm aware that movers might do it, but they usually turn out to be pretty expensive. Also, I don't know if they'll bother with transporting a couple of couches for half an hour.. I swear I must have seen someone on Craigslist claiming that he was using a heavy furniture delivery service if you bought furniture from him, so I'd love to use something like that as well. Thanks.
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| # ? Mar 18, 2013 23:46 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 17:30 |
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Just put in the ad that whoever wants the furniture has to move it themselves. Maybe significantly reduce the price if it's going to be that much of a hassle. I've sold some large items on Craigslist before and always included a "you as the buyer have to find a way to move this thing and get it out of my house and into your vehicle, I'll help you but I'm not very strong" clause.
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| # ? Mar 19, 2013 00:05 |
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Just add the standard "This poo poo is heavy, bring a friend (or two, or three)" clause. Unless it's like ridiculously huge and you live up five flights of stairs or something. Similarly if it's big add the "This poo poo is big, bring a truck." clause. Do not even talk to the idiots who will want to show up in a hatchback with their 90 pound girlfriend to move your washer/dryer set. Edit: Before you post make the decision on which you want more: a good price, or the stuff out of your house. Price accordingly. Rent-A-Cop fucked around with this message at Mar 19, 2013 around 00:49 |
| # ? Mar 19, 2013 00:45 |
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Rent-A-Cop posted:Just add the standard "This poo poo is heavy, bring a friend (or two, or three)" clause. Unless it's like ridiculously huge and you live up five flights of stairs or something. Similarly if it's big add the "This poo poo is big, bring a truck." clause. Do not even talk to the idiots who will want to show up in a hatchback with their 90 pound girlfriend to move your washer/dryer set. This was very well worded, thank you. I think I'm closer to the budget-pricing end of it, so I'll expect less involvement in transportation.
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| # ? Mar 19, 2013 02:50 |
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A craigslist anecdote: I had a dining set I paid a few hundred bucks for in college. It wasn't solid oak or anything, but it was only a few years old when I went to sell it, and in pretty good shape. (With the frequency I ate on my couch... you could almost say "nearly unused".) I put it up on craigslist for... half what I paid for it. Not a single call. Reposted a few times, then (anxious to get rid of it), cut it in half again. I think we're in the $50 ballpark now for a $300 table/4chairs. Got a few calls, a few lowballers, a few people who would call and schedule, then cancel (or no-show), a guy show up with forty bucks and a 2-door coupe - various craigslist nuts. Around this time I decide "gently caress it", move it into the yard while I wait for it to sell. Once it's out of my livingroom, I promptly forget about it, and it sits in the rain for the next two years. Two years later, I'm moving and need to get rid of it ASAP. The finish has worn off and all the wood is warped. There is a mold/mildew substance growing on the chairs. I put it on craigslist for free, and within 15 minutes, get three calls. The first guy is kinda far away, but the second guy is already in his truck when he calls me. He arrives ten minutes later and hauls the thing away. Tells me how his next stop is Home Depot to buy sandpaper and stain and poly to refinish this set to put in his dining room. Now, I don't know what he spent on supplies, and even if his time was worth nothing, I suspect he'd have been better off to buy any number of $50 dinettes that were in near-new condition, rather than spend 500 hours refinishing my POS. But, the allure of "FREE" is just too much. Anyhow, if you want to see it move, FREE is your number. If you want to spend time juggling phone calls from folks who want to know if you'll take $35 on a $50 item - price it at $50.
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| # ? Mar 19, 2013 05:57 |
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Not that anyone's going to "bust" you for it or anything, but due to bed bugs many states don't allow the resale of things like mattresses or fabric upholstered furniture. That's the case here in CA even though I had never even HEARD of bedbugs other than in a children's rhyme until I was 24 or so. Man, was I bummed when I wanted to buy a fold out couch for use as a guest bed...
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| # ? Mar 19, 2013 12:58 |
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1) Make sure to post details like measurements/dimensions/materials/damage and use all eight picture slots. The more information people have the more likely they are to buy something. I just sold a 1997 Nissan 200SX on Craigslist. Had it posted for a month without a single contact. Four days after I updated with some pictures and mentioned that I had 70,000 miles worth of maintenance records it was out of my garage. Take 20 minutes to set up and make sure the pictures aren't blurry, dark, or otherwise lovely (like terrible image compression or using an old 2 megapixel camera). 2) Make sure the ad is easy to read. Use paragraph breaks, ease off on the large words, and be concise with the information you're trying to convey. 3) Don't waste your time/effort or you're going to eventually just get frustrated and say, "gently caress it." If someone asks a bunch of questions already answered in your ad just tell them that the information is in the ad. If they offer you 10 cents on the dollar for your asking price don't even bother replying. Serious buyers are far and few between on Craigslist, and by loving around with some lowballer who's just going to no-show anyway you might miss an opportunity to ACTUALLY sell your item. 4) Only drop the price of your item once. Multiple drops are more likely to make potential buyers wait for the next price reduction. Set a hard time limit for how long the item has to stay in your house and drop the price of it halfway through that timeline. Be aggressive with the reduction, and don't think of it as making money so much as reclaiming space. Keep in mind that on consignment you might get 1/4 the item's value, so selling something for 1/3 the value is still a pretty good deal. Priceonomics is a great site for helping to figure out what something is actually worth. 5) Clean/fix that poo poo. Yes, it's a used item - that doesn't mean people are usually going to want to spend hours cleaning or repairing it. Serious sellers don't expect to get rid of broken poo poo or expect people to buy things in a condition they wouldn't buy it in. Free stuff is another story... someone will ALWAYS pick up your old, broken furniture if only to throw onto a fire.
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| # ? Mar 19, 2013 21:24 |
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photomikey posted:A craigslist anecdote: I will second this. I had a huge projection tv I needed to get out of my 2nd floor apartment, tried to get money for it first, no interest. Tried donating it but their movers refused the donation because it'd be too dangerous for their workers to carry it down the stairs. Put it up for free, it was gone within the hour.
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| # ? Mar 19, 2013 21:25 |
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Yeah, with Craigslist, it's generally the buyer that's stuck with figuring out how to move whatever large heavy things they want to buy. Also, when I see poo poo like SHIPPING INCLUDED on supposedly local listings, it makes me think it's probably a scam. Make it cheap enough so that it's worthwhile for someone to go to the trouble of renting a Uhaul truck. When my roommate and I bought our gorgeous (if rickety) antique dining set, it was a a loving steal at a hundred bucks, so it was well worth it to borrow our neighbor's car to drive to the Uhaul place and drive the Uhaul van way out to the suburbs to pick this stuff up. The problem with couches is that there are SO MANY loving couches. Depending on where you live, it is exceedingly easy to find a free couch (which makes selling couches hard). I live on college row, basically, and when all the leases switch over in the summer, you can cruise up and down the street and pick up a truckload of free furniture (mostly couches) in decent condition. It's bad enough that Goodwill and Salvation Army and poo poo will absolutely not take your couch. Also my city banned couch burning. As for getting your couch off your balcony, buy a couple cases of (good) beer, order some pizzas, buy some rope and/or straps, invite your buddies over, and lower the couch with your combined strength (and have spotters on the ground in case you gently caress up and drop it). Then put it up for sale on Craigslist.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 18:26 |
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My progression on craigslist selling goes like this: reasonable price on craigslist -> free to friends (whatup facebook) -> free to craigslist creeps. People will take anything on the craigslist free section within 4 hours of posting it. It's the positive social effect of hoarders. Truth be told, I don't sell big things on craigslist anymore, as some experiences have made me now very uncomfortable with having random craigslist weirdos in my home. As a funny side anecdote, I knew a guy who had a full size refrigerator that was his "garage fridge" for a few years. He had it on the curb for a few days with a big sign on it reading "WORKING FRIDGE: FREE. PLEASE TAKE IT." Getting impatient that it wasn't moving, he put a sign on it that said "WORKING FRIDGE - $50. PLEASE COME KNOCK ON DOOR" and it disappeared that night 
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| # ? Mar 21, 2013 18:13 |
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DreadCthulhu posted:We might have to have the couch be lowered down from the balcony, which is not something I can do with my tools, or own my own, for that matter. Wait, how did the couch get into the place? I mean you moved in, shouldn't you remember if you had to set up hoist to lift it onto the balcony? Or was it already there? This seems important because it doesn't matter if someone turns up with a Uhaul and a rugby team, if the couch doesn't physically fir down the stairs or whatever they won't be able to get it out. 'This is a heavy thing and I am not helping you move it' is significantly different than 'This won't actually fit out of my door, you should bring a crane'.
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| # ? Mar 21, 2013 18:56 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 17:30 |
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Ashcans posted:Wait, how did the couch get into the place? I mean you moved in, shouldn't you remember if you had to set up hoist to lift it onto the balcony? Or was it already there? In reality I had three movers take care of it without my involvement and they somehow managed to make it work without using the balcony. Except it still was a bunch of big dudes struggling with it, so I want to make that clear to the buyer. Reading all the advice I got I'm going to go call a couple of small local movers in the area and see how cheap they'll move my couches for. If I can fit into 100-200 bucks, I can probably make the couch a bit more expensive but still say "I'll get people to move this to you, you don't have to worry about anything, shipping included". That should make it considerably more palatable.
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| # ? Mar 21, 2013 19:09 |
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