I am currently selling a lovely display cabinet, some aluminum window blinds, an Olympus camera, and a couple BMW glove box flash lights. They have all been listed for a while. Have had a couple bites on the cabinet and flashlights but no sale yet. The spammers have not bothered with me much lately for some reason.

Jodi-

I tried selling on Ebay, it was an all-around bad experience. Sold an expensive art book for about a quarter the original price, buyer felt I had described it inaccurately, I ended up giving him half his money back plus he kept the book. I listed many nice antiques and never got bids (even with free re-listing on Ebay) . Wouldn't bother doing that again! As for Craigslist, I only use it to give away free stuff.

I want to sell my Toni doll on Ebay but I can't find where I hid her for safe keeping.

Oh, Linda, I can relate! I'm at the point in my life where I don't dare move anything into a "safe" place. LOL

I have a lot of books listed on Amazon, and keep them all in the same cupboard, but on two separate occasions I couldn't find one after it sold. Embarrassing! They never did turn up.

I have a few items to put on Craigslist.. some free stuff and a couple lower priced large items. I've made a pile of stuff for eBay but am finding it hard to get motivated.

I've taken over 100 books to a local bookstore which gives me store credit. The first 60 books I took earned me $75 credit.. hubby and I have already spent $10 of that. I haven't went back in to see what my last 40+ books are getting me. It is a non-profit bookstore as well so any proceeds go to a charitable organization. Way easier than listing the books on Amazon or eBay. I've also been taking items to a local consignment store.. I'm giving that a few weeks to see how it goes before I take more.

I haven't done ebay - I use craigslist. My listings include plants, some clothing, a bike, a quilt rack, glassware, floor lamps, a bike, some collectibles, cross stitch patterns, Coca Cola s&p shakers, a picnic table, tea cups, sugar & creamer set and a fire extinguisher!

The plants have sold quite well -

I have found that lower-priced, lower-quality items seem to sell better on Craigslist, whereas I've had great luck with the higher-end, higher-priced or very unusual, different items on Ebay.

Items on my local Craigslist priced in the $10 +/- range sell great, but with Ebay's fees, etc. it isn't worth my time and/or effort to list and sell for such little payback.

So, I use both services depending on the $ value.

I am listing a dehumidifier on Craiglist. I'm going to see how it goes.

I've purchased some items on Craiglist and heard sellers complaining about receiving porno ads and junk mails. So, I created an email for Craiglist use only to avoid this.

If the setting and listing goes well, I have a few more items to list. My home needs to declutter badly. Since garage sale is not feasable, this is another way to get rid of some items. The rest can go to charity.

Good luck to all the sellers!

I've sold a lot of books, CDs, and vinyl records on Amazon, but I don't list anything that will bring in less than $8. That's my cut-off. So many sellers offer books for one cent. Their volume must be huge, but even so, I don't get it.

Interesting what Justlinda said about lower priced, lower quality items selling better on Craigslist. Maybe that's my problem. I tend to use Craigslist for things too fragile or too large to ship, and that often means higher-end items.

Right now on Craigslist I have several brand new items: a hanging pot rack, St. John's Bay shoes, a wood quilting hoop on floor stand, and a Massage Mouse. EBay wouldn't take the last one because it delivers electrical impulses, and they said that was a no-no.

I had six brand new "Murder, She Wrote" VHS tapes listed, but I just deleted it because I decided to donate them instead.

Never tried ebay but we've sold several cars and a refridgerator on Craigslist...I donate other things to charity..have had a few garage sales in the past, still go to them....

I just donated over 100 VHS movies to our local hospital thrift shop which is all run by volunteers. Yes - I do realize I could have got rid of them in the "FREE" category of C/L, but figured the thrift shop sells them for .75 each - and they sure could use the money. Same story with books and CDs.

I gave away an exercise bike on Craigslist and that is my entire experience with it. My son sells bike parts and other sports equipment on ebay and always does pretty well.

We have a community "yard sale" page on Facebook and all the stuff there sells well. There have been some really nice things listed. Part of the charm is that there are no postage costs.No one outside of out township can join, so people drive back and forth between each others homes. Some meet in a neutral spot. I gave away an outdoor rug and a child's table and chairs. I have a bunch of other stuff to list, too, just haven't gotten around to it.

Funny you should mention VHS tapes, as this was my VHS weekend. Starting Friday morning, I've been converting VHS home movies to DVD. At the same time, I hauled out all my old VHS movies and donated most of them to our animal shelter's thrift shop, along with 8 new blank tapes. This was a long-overdue job.

Most of my books get donated to the library, which sells used books all year round. I buy a lot from them, too.

We sold on eBay for a few years but stopped when the Canadian postage went so high. We can't compete with American prices.

We have given away things on Kijiji, but have not tried to sell there.

got rid of our poolsteps, ladder, pool equipment, office chair and two computer stands on craigslist...I basically listed it to get it out of here and save me a trip to the dump...so was glad to see it gone...Ebay...just sold my hubsters old espresso machine, a couple of cell phones...got a shelf full of stuff to get rid of...

I feel better donating stuff rather than trying to sell. One exception was my unused snow blower. A plumber saw it in my garage and offered me $400 plus he fixed my sink for free. The dang thing cost $850 new, I still had all the paperwork. But I felt it was a great deal. Neither DH nor I could use it due to health issues.

I bought this mug at a thrift shop for 99 cents. It didn't have any appeal to me, but saw it was signed and dated, so bought it, brought it home and researched it and found out it is a collectible. My daughter's cat had some expensive vet bills, and they ended up having to put her down. To help out a little, I gave them this mug. It usually sells on ebay for around $200. It sold for $244. The guy who bought it, wrote and said it arrived broken. So they (daughter's boyfriend listed it) asked him to send pictures. He said he didn't have a camera. They said, if he couldn't send pictures, there was nothing they could do about it. He finally sent pics of it broken in about 4 pieces. It was insured and I guess he was satisfied because I read the feedback he left and it said "Thank you for your excellent service" and he left them positive feedback.

Wow--collectors have deep pockets! Good eye, Marilyn. Glad your daughter thought to insure the shipment, but sorry she didn't get the $244.

Maybe my thinking is wrong... but why wouldn't they have got the $244? The post office would have given the buyer his money back.. so the seller gets to keep the original payment.

I hate to bring this up, but sometimes a buyer will have a broken collectible... buy an identical one on eBay, put the broken one in the box the new one arrived in and file a insurance claim. I'm pretty sure this happened twice to me.. once when I sold a western graphics light fixture and once when I sold a expensive Disney figurine. My husband packs and ships items for a living and he helped pack these items.. plus I had the original Styrofoam form for the Disney item. I don't see how either of the items could have broke in transit. It is possible of course and I had no way to prove otherwise.

Lydia, all I can say is there's a reason we have blonde jokes. Your reasoning is correct, of course. Duh.... lol

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that some people will scam on eBay that way, but that's a shame.

She got the $244. He got the insurance for that amount. I am just wondering if he didn't already have that mug in his collection, and maybe it was chipped or something and he bought this one, broke the other one, and got the insurance. Because hard to believe someone would have that much money to pay for an item but not have some sort of camera.

Lydia, I didn't read your reply first. Yes, I think that is what happened. Daughter's bf sells on ebay all the time and he is very good at packing and shipping items. Erin said she didn't see how it could have arrived broken, because they packed it so carefully.

The buyer could have been a scammer. On the other hand, I recently purchased four plates. The seller wrapped them individually in bubble wrap and shipped them surrounded by packing peanuts. The box looked undamaged on the outside, but inside, all four plates were smashed. Luckily, the seller had bought insurance and I was able to recover my money, but I would have rather had the four plates.

For the last year, I have received more items shipped through the post office broken than whole. Something has changed in the way the post office is processing packages which is resulting in a much higher breakage rate.

This post was edited by Fun2BHere on Tue, Jun 4, 13 at 17:47

I have bought items on ebay but have never sold. I should as I have some smaller old farm tools that may sell on there. I'd rather buy though! :)

I have never used eBay or Craig's list for anything, buying or selling. After attending auctions for 40 years, I have to start weeding stuff out but I'm afraid of scammers . I just don't know where to start or how to go about it. I've heard horror stories.

People love to tell horror stories, Lily, but there are plenty of happy stories you probably haven't heard. Ten years ago my son was selling the occasional piece of ham radio equipment on eBay, and I asked him to list some of his father's chemical engineering books for me. He said no, he wanted me to learn to sell on eBay myself because i would love it. I was resistant, but he was right--all it took was one good sale for me to love it.

Like most of us, I just had to get over the hump of that first listing. It seems intimidating, but eBay wants sellers and they make it easy. As for the horror stories, I have none to tell. When you set up a Paypal account they'll ask to access your bank account. It's a simple matter to open a new checking account (usually free) just for Paypal, keeping a low balance on the very slim chance it could get into the wrong hands. Mine never has more than $300 in it.

As for Craigslist, it, too, is easy--plus it's free. Scammers love it but they are usually easy to spot. The Craigslist site issues warnings, spelling out what to look for. A scammer is unlikely describe what you're selling by name; instead, they'll mention your "item." A famous scam offers to pay by Cashier's check. You will quickly get a feel for the authentic email from a real buyer.

You don't put your contact information in the ad, unless you want to. I never do. Buyers contact me via an anonymous email address, and I decide which ones I want to respond to. Except for the time I sold a piece of equipment too heavy to move, I meet all my buyers away from my home, at public places. Again, I have no horror stories to report.

If you've bought at 40 years worth of auctions, I'll bet you have some stuff collectors would love. You could have a blast doing this, Lily. When you're ready to get started, you can always consult the KT with any questions! :-)

I have never tried to sell anything on ebay,don't even know how and am not interested in learning.

I have sold on craigs list with good results,but I do the most of my selling on the cross stitch board I belong to.We're allowed to do it and the web owner doesn't get involved,she leaves it up to us to settle up if anything arises.I've never been burned.We also loan each other books,charts etc and help each other out if someone needs floss,but doesn't live near a store.

Since we do all kinds of needlework there I've also sold some of my sewing,quilting,crafting books and supplies,since I don't sew as much as I used to.
Works for me!!
Kathi