What a fun thread. I love the playing card idea. You can get clear labels in many sizes to print on your computer then stick it onto a vintage playing card or what ever and the design will show through. I have some clear labels here at the office, elephantear. I'll take some home tonite and see if they stick to concrete. Something else that occurs to me is you can probably print on masking tape if you buy the wider one and really stick it down good on a piece of transparency film or something with some bulk that you can remove the tape from after. I've done similar with scrapbooking - that is printed on a little piece of paper that I've already cut out by sticking it onto something 8.5 x 11. Here is a scan of transparancy film with masking tape and printing that I just quickly did this in word as an example. I kind of like the rustic look of the masking tape. In order to get the space right you would type up a full page of what you want in Word and print it on plain paper to check if it is spaced right for your masking tape "layout" then adjust. The transparency film with tape pressed carefully down would probably also go through a copier and be more water proof than an ink jet printer. I just put one piece of tape at the top, but clearly the page could be filled with them. And it is perfectly straight, as printed, I just scanned it crooked :). kathy

If I can't sell an item on CL, I lower the price. How about lowering your price down to $45? If not sold, then down to $30 for both? I posted a few pieces for sale on CL this weekend. One of them, a beaten-up Mission style nightstand was sold for $25 in a couple of hours. The remaining two items are still up. If no takers within an week, I'll start lowering the prices in $5 increments. Usually it works. I also put OBO in my ads. Also, how long has your ad been on CL? If I sell something in 3-4 weeks, it's normal. If I sell a piece in less than two weeks, I'm lucky. A high end (and higher priced) Italian designer set of dining chairs in need of restoration took me 6 months to sell. Goodwill and Salvation Army are my last resorts.

Of the places you and others have mentioned, I've only ever used Craigslist for selling large furniture, though most of what I sell isn't super high end (we're not at the point of down-sizing yet). I have bought a few higher end items (antiques) through Craigslist at what I would consider fair prices, though less than what an antique store would charge. My general rule of thumb for buying through Craigslist is I don't pay more for an item than I think I could re-sell it for if I change my mind. I love Craigslist for the simplicity and ease, and have never had a bad experience selling (or buying) items through the site, though as others have mentioned you just have to make sure you ignore the scammers. It's easy to weed them out once you know to expect them anytime you list something of significant value. Just read the page on their site that details typical scams and follow the guidelines to avoid being scammed. Craigslist didn't work well for my in-laws when they were downsizing a couple of years ago, but they were also on a tight schedule and I thought they were asking WAY too much for their furniture. I listed it for them but didn't have the heart to tell them that it just wasn't worth much in today's market, even though they took great care of it and kept all the original receipts. They eventually donated it because no one was interested at the prices they wanted for it and they ran out of time. If you'd rather get something than nothing, you just need to price it low enough and someone will buy it. If you are selling 80s/90s honey oak furniture, it doesn't matter how nicely its been cared for, the market is saturated with it and realistically you are not going to get much for it. Take a look on your local Craigslist and see what the market is like in your area. Is there a lot of furniture like what you are wanting to sell, and how much are other people asking for it? If your items are priced to sell, they will sell. humbleandkind's advice to be willing to break up sets is excellent advice for the secondhand market. People are often looking for individual pieces and sets aren't as popular as they used to be, so you'll likely get more for your items if you are open to selling pieces individually. I bought our breakfast table off of Craigslist and it came with chairs I didn't like, so I just re-sold them on Craigslist to 3 different buyers. Good luck with your move!

I have the same dilemma. My mom had a childhood penpal and saved the letters. Some of that stuff is taking up a small amount of space so I just keep it around, but someday it will be trash. Ironically, I worked for a museum, and one minutes something is sitting in a box in storage, old carp that no one wants to look at, and the next minute it is a valuable time capsule for someone looking for details of that time and era. For example, I found a box of old school stuff that a teacher donated, bulletin boards and educational props, handouts, mimeo sheets, etc. that she used in her class. The kind of stuff I know teachers all over the country end up throwing out when they retire. She donated this box, and 100 years later, I was researching turn of the century educational materials to make some reproductions, and her box of old useless junk was now a goldmine. That's the rub. I'm interested in history, and I am APPALLED at how much stuff local history museums and archives just don't bother even scanning anymore, let alone saving. No one wants to bother with it. My local libraries history room routinely has stuff stolen since they can't invest in proper management and security. One local historian left his estate to the library and they had a historical collections manager for ten years with money from the bequest, but once it was used up, they have just let everything go. No one even on the staff anymore who has any training in history. I'm toying with getting a certificate in archiving. There are several colleges that offer online programs. As a lover of history, family or otherwise, I am just amazed at how little interest there is in such things anymore. I'm not suggesting you should save everything, but heck people throw out perfectly good clothing and furniture just because it is a few years old now. Not like Europe, where they have family stuff that is hundreds of years old in many attics still. I will say that the trend nowdays is to throw out the original stuff and save it digitally as scanned images. That's a bit of a mistake, in my mind, but again, can't fight "progress."