Between having too many things, not having enough time, and the recently booming minimalist market, everyone has something they’re looking to get rid of. Many times, this process becomes increasingly difficult when the item has some sort of value to it, whether monitory or otherwise.
I’m sure your first instinct is a garage/yard sale, flea markets, or maybe putting an ad in the newspaper to advertise what you’re selling to the masses. But you may quickly come to the realization that you don’t have enough items or even the time to run a yard sale, and the newspaper doesn’t reach people like it used to—so what exactly is the best way to reduce your clutter, and hopefully make a little money at the same time?
There are tons of ways to reach people today, and even more to try to sell a products. Today we’re going to discuss several platforms, including eBay, OfferUp, VarageSale, and LetGo.
eBay, the Original Gangster of Online Marketplaces
eBay is probably the very first web-based sales platform that came to your mind, and for a good reason. This service has been around for over two decades and has a relatively good reputation from its users. eBay allows you to put your items up for sale, categorize and add information about them, and then to let the wider internet browse, find your product, and purchase directly from you—all you need to do is box the product up and ship it to the address provided.
There are roughly 168 million active buyer accounts on eBay around the world, so you’re sure to have someone find your product who is interested. We recommend using eBay when you have more than a of couple items to sell and are looking for a wider (read: state, country, and/or worldwide) audience, as the setup process can take a little bit of time.
OfferUp, VarageSale, and LetGo: the Mobile Marketplaces of Today
Let’s put this out into the open first: mobile devices are now the defacto way to interact with the web, and all of the things built on it. With metrics topping just over 58% of the market coming from mobile, it’s just plain irresponsible to exclude these devices from your attempt to sell a product. With that being said, we’ll jump into the mobile selling apps of OfferUp, VarageSale, and LetGo.
All three of these apps function basically the same way, and are available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for free. The first thing each of the apps will prompt you to do is create an account, or link it to an existing Google or Facebook account.
After your account is created, and you’ve answered the setup process you’re ready to start selling items at (basically) lightning-speed. Create a new item, answer some questions about who you’re looking to sell it to, what categories the item falls into, a title, price, and description, and take at least one picture of the item and voila! You’ve created your listing!
Now all there is to do is await a message from your potential buyer to set up a meeting to swap the item for cash, or whatever other arrangements you’ve made. Be wary when you set up these meetings—unfortunately, not everyone on the internet has the best intentions and could be looking to scam you or worse. It’s our recommendation to look for “dropoff points” in your city to ensure your transaction is safe. In our experience, police stations and community gathering points are always safe bets, but your town or city should have these outlined for you, or you can call the non-emergency number to see if they can give you any information.
From a business standpoint, Armor uses several of these venues when attempting to sell refurbished devices, device parts, or basically anything else someone might get some use out of. Another big thing to remember is that some people use some of these services, and not others, which means that posting across multiple networks can increase your reach, and overall your sales potential.
Wrapping Up
So, whether you’re selling the clothing in the back of your closet you never wear anymore, an old piece of technology, a collectible, or basically anything else, there’s absolutely an online marketplace waiting for you to post your product.
For a more general marketplace, which will almost always require you to ship out the product, eBay is a great choice. You’ll have the potential to reach tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people almost in an instant, and you’ll make most of what you were looking for on your sale (eBay takes a cut both when posting, and when the sale is finally made). eBay is good for collectibles, old electronics, or items that have value to a particular subset of people (tinkerers, collectors, etc).
If you’re looking to sell more locally, one of the several mobile applications we’ve discussed here (OfferUp, VarageSale, LetGo) are definitely the route for you. With all of the power directly at your fingertips, it’s as easy as snapping a picture and writing 1-3 sentences of information, and boom—your item is listed and ready to be sold. This route requires a little more effort on your part, as you’ll need to communicate with the buyer, set up a meeting location, and handle any transactions by yourself, but allows you to retain all of the money you were asking for. In our experience, this is better for items that are less unique (clothing/fashion, accessories, relatively new tech).
We absolutely recommend checking out both sides of the online selling space to see what works best for you! If you have questions, or need help getting your devices set up to start your online selling, please let us know! We have several technicians that are comfortable with the software, how to set products up, and how to start pushing sales on whatever you’re trying to sell!