Finding best medium to sell my belongings

I have been digging around in the attempt to find a more safe and productive place in which to sell some furniture and some expensive collectibles.

Although I can easily use Craigslist I would rather find a different form/medium in which to do this. I reason with myself that with smaller things I can negotiate via email and "meet" the person in a public place to conduct the transaction but with my furniture I cannot do that. They will HAVE to come to my home to pay for it and "take it away".

I do realize that any "online" sell, trade, for free medium is never completely safe but I want to learn and figure out a safe way to conduct business when it has to be at my home.

I simply despise craigslist. I rarely go to the side to look around but like many on this board when I do it is always in the pet section looking at the poor parrots needing homes.

If anyone else has had positive experiences with other on line sites please share with me what the site is and your experience. This would be very much appreciated!!!

Some thing interesting to share. While going to university for my Computer Forensics degree I had to study a few cases involving Craigslist "crimes". I do have to admit that has changed my perception of Craigslist forever.

How about ebayclassifieds or ebay? You do have the option with ebay to do local pickup only.

If you have a decent amount of collectibles and antiques, then using an auction house may make it very easy for you. Granted you pay a commission, but they come in and take everything at one time and usually within a few weeks the auction is over and you get your check! When I owned an eBay based business, I used local auction houses all the time for the larger and more valuable antique type of collectibles and furnishings that I contracted with customers to consign.

There is also the option of flyers at local businesses or papers. And a good old fashioned yard sale is always a way to clean house in a single day, tho not the avenue for the largest financial return (but would be comparable to the payoff for an auction house or consignment store type of sale).

Wendy..Thanks for the pointer to Ebay. I want to keep it local so that is very very good advise there!

Jen..what little antiques I have are going to family members. The large furniture items consists of a LARGE wooden hutch my mother bought in 1983 and large oak entertainment/ computer center and maybe a dresser and one nightstand from my Ethen Allen bedroom set from 1985. None of what I am selling are antiques unfortunately but the collectibles I want to sell are worth money just not enough to hire out a auction house.

For any locals from the twin cities MN I am participating in a city wide garage sale on May 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I have so much stuff to sell I don't think the three days will cut it and will probably have a couple more throughout the season.

The add I submitted to be put in the citywide garage sale list is "Sale includes Star Wars and Star Trek toys and collectibles along with estate belongings. Highly motivated to part with beautiful high quality furniture and house hold belongings"

Lots of BEAUTIFUL home belongings that are high quality but no jewelry or clothing will be available. I already donated most of my clothing that were of high quality.

Because of how Minnesotans LOVE garage sales and because I am doing it during the citywide sale I my sister and best friend are needed to help me manage how popular I estimate this will be. In preparing for this I realize I won't be able to display everything I need to sell because I just don't have the room .

I estimate will have about 9 months to conduct these transactions to clear out my house. So although I am highly motivated to sell my belongings I am not willing to sell things below fair market value.

You are pretty limited as far as outlets to sell stuff. You can always go online to your local News paper, they usually have classifieds on line that you can use, but it will cost you.

But remember one thing, just because something costs you to advertise doesn't necessarily make it safe. I use Craigslist all the time to sell items and in my opinion, the one who should be careful is the person going to meet someone or to that person's home with money in their pocket to purchase an item. Here are a few tips to live by when dealing online:

1. Never agree to meet in a restricted area, always make it as public as possible with many people around, like a Mall or near a police station.

2. Never agree to meet at night or in the late evening, no matter if out in the public or at your home.

3. Never agree to meet someone alone, always have have someone with you in the car.

4. Make sure you feel comfortable and safe BEFORE exiting your car. I will drive around the area a few times even if I see the person sitting there just to make sure I
have checked out the immediate area first.

Good luck and I hope you have great success with your venture.

Rebecca,

Keep in mind the economic situation you are dealing with within our country... everyone is looking for a bargain, not to pay what an item may be worth. When you are selling items to clean house, you need to be prepared that while your item is worth $500, you typically will not receive that unless you have it placed with an auction house or nice consignment store. People go to craigslist and yard sales to find bargains. If you are intent on selling your items for their actual values, you should skip the yard sale, because you will be wasting alot of your time, people will be there to negotiate with you for a bargain.

And Mike gives great advice, take it to heart, he's a retired cop, so he knows what he is talking about

Thanks Mike. After studying Craigslist crime for my crim justice class let me tell you I look at on line selling in a whole new light. In MN there has been a real problem with people getting shot and even killed over these transactions. If I decide to use Craigslist (which I probably will because it is so POPULAR and well looked at) I will only conduct business with the same guidelines you have posted. I thank you for posting them for other people to read as well.

My friend thinks I am being difficult with my not wanting to sell furniture on craigslist. Sure she sold her car off of it and had them come to her home but she did not HAVE to have them COME INTO her home to make the transaction. Plain and simple is I am not comfortable having strangers come into my home for any reason.

With my collectibles this will not be a serious a problems because I can take the transactions off site however it is a different story with my furniture. Even with having someone with me I am just not comfortable with having strangers coming to my address. But how to sell without them having to come here. Can't really get around that. First I will try to sell the heavy stuff at my garage sale. Since I am no longer in such a hurry to dump my stuff I have a bit of wiggle room in which to do this safely and get the price I want.

Jen...I do my research and price high still within fair market value with room to negotiate. I am willing to go down to a price that is very fair, helps the buyer feel like they are getting a bargain but not at a price in which I am obviously being low balled.

I know you think I see the glass as half empty but in retrospect I am looking to sell things are are dear to me because of several reasons I don't choose to share on this form. I do like the consignment store/shop idea and is an angle I have not considered. Now to do the research for local consignment shops that take the sort of things I need to sell.

Estate sale

I love estate sales they were a favorite method of obtaining merchandise for my company, but think Rebecca is looking to optimize sales. Estate sales are extremely effective, but they definitely favor the buyer

If you are on facebook I have found a lot of resale sites in my area. Under names such as: Yardsale, County Garage Sale, etc....tons of them....and they are free to use.