Purging and selling. Purging and selling. As we cross over $500 in MarketPlace sales (money that is going straight into our move budget) I have discovered something about Facebook Marketplace that I really don't like: Ghosting. That is when someone says they want to buy something and arranges a time to come get it, and then they fall silent and you never hear from them again. In the meanwhile, you have reserved the item for their pick up, and then do follow-up communications - when it is all said and done, you've lost 3 or 4 days!
Not every sale results in ghosting. But probably 20% of them are. It is a huge waste of time! And very frustrating.
Somewhere between 25% and 30% of everything I have posted so far has sold. Each week I lower the price a little. Once it hits $5, I figure it isn't worth someone driving to my house to get it and I will either combine it with a bunch of other things, or, put it in our July Rummage Sale pile. In my experience, if it doesn't sell within a day or two of first being posted, it isn't going to sell. I can reduce the price and relist it, but that if fairly ineffective.
We have also started a "Free Pile" out by the road. Anything we don't think is worth any money? Someone will treasure it. Sometimes they take it just for the scrap metal. Sometimes to throw it on a burn pile. And sometimes they have a real use for it - I don't care. It is out of my house!
It becomes very difficult and challenging to keep everything straight. Who is coming when to pick up what? I keep all the details in a spreadsheet, but that becomes difficult because everyone in the family is asking me all the time for information. In response, I created a family calendar in google. Every time there was a pick up, I added it to the calendar so everyone would know. Even that was a challenge because no one wanted to log into the calendar to get a simple question answered. The solution came when I started using a white board that hangs in the kitchen. The white board is divided for every day of the week and tells what is for dinner and any appointments or activities we have. I added the Marketplace Pick ups to the white board and that was the answer.
It does get very confusing. One day I had seven pick ups. My front porch was lined with items and people were pinging my facebook account with questions. One lady needed the legs removed from a table because she was coming with a car. Well... I got that confused with another person that was buying a table and took the legs off the wrong table. Luckily, I figured it all out before anyone arrived and fixed it. But it does get very confusing arranging all these different pick up times.
Seven pick up in one day is not normal. Often it is just one or two. But I have a feeling that as we get better with Market Place, we'll have more days with many pick ups to coordinate. I hope so because we have soooooo much stuff to get rid of.
Purging and selling has become our second jobs. It is a lot of work to purge, clean the item (we like to disinfect the items and then put it in a plastic bag), advertise it, manage the communications, and then get it on the front porch on the right day at the right time. This has become our second jobs, filling our weekends and evenings. It is a little addicting and exciting to see that money roll in. When a few days pass with no sales, it is discouraging but then a sale will happen and we are re-energized.
In addition to selling our items, we are assisting my mother in selling the items that came from her antique co-op. She has made several hundred dollars in a relatively short period of time. The challenge is the lack of a strong antique market in Market Place. There isn't a group for antiques and I don't see a lot of people advertising or buying them. Hopefully that changes because she has hundreds of items to sell.
Hot items? Exercise related items. Pretty much everything sold within 30 minutes of posting it! A dud is board games - no one is even looking at them. Toys are hit and miss - great success with Little People, mediocre results with the rest. The most important thing for toys is cheap prices. Parents are looking for good bargains.
This is a great time for porch pickups because it is warm and dry. When we get into late fall and winter, or early spring when it rains every day? I can't imagine how porch pick ups will work. This is the time to get all of our stuff out there and sold!
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