How to sell your used stuff to strangers on the internet

It's easier than you think!

Have some things you no longer need and want a little side cash from it? Not sure where to start? It’s not that hard really. If you can use a phone, you can sell things. Just don’t sell literal trash like Mr. Krabs in the video below.

Here’s a list of everything I’ve sold this year from my own collection. It included older electronics, phones, and games.

You might notice I used different apps in the third column. Let’s talk about those.

Mercari is the easiest to use.

Download the app from your mobile store and tap on the sell your item button. Sometimes it’s so easy Mercari will pre-fill all the details of your item just from the photo you take! The app will give you a recommended price range based on the sale of comparable items.

People can make offers to you to reduce your price point. I usually declined those and had another buyer pay full price eventually.

Mercari has options for you to drop your price and they’ll promote it in their search results. That never worked for me when I tried it so I can’t recommend it. The app pushes you hard to drop prices. Ignore it if you’re already within a competitive price range.

Always have the buyer pay for shipping. Use a digital scale to know how much your shipment weighs so you can keep shipping cost as low as possible. And make sure to select your own carrier from the list instead of the option the app automatically chooses. You can sometimes find a cheaper carrier that way and make it more attractive for the buyer.

OfferUp is a wild card.

The buyers on OfferUp use broken English and aggressively low-ball for steep discounts compared to other platforms. My time was wasted by tire kickers who asked questions and expressed interest to meet up in person and then ghosted.

A meme I made about buyer messages on OfferUp

I was able to unload exercise equipment on it to a local buyer and a Gameboy to a buyer in Texas. The local sale worked well because it bypassed platform fees and the buyer didn’t have to spend a ton of money on shipping.

I’d only recommend OfferUp as a secondary option and not to keep your hopes up.

eBay works wonders for unloading anything. Like Mercari, they make it easy to list and will suggest price points.

The app pushes you hard to use auctions instead of “buy it now”. Sometimes it works in your favor and sometimes it doesn’t.

For example, I had a watch that had THREE failed auctions because the winning bidders ghosted and didn’t complete the purchase.

On the other hand, I was able to unload items that weren’t getting traction on other apps. I even sold off old pairs of earbuds.

Like Mercari, have the buyer pay shipping and double check your weight and shipment options to keep it low as possible. A weird thing about eBay is that they give you the shipment money from the buyer and then have you purchase the label with it. eBay gives a discount so you can make a (very) small profit on the shipment.

I’ve sold only one thing on Craigslist so far.

For whatever reason, it doesn’t get much traction for me.

The one experience I had worked well enough that I’d be willing to do it again. I sold a laptop for cash at a local meetup. No app fees or shipping to worry about.

I attempted to sell a rower on Facebook Marketplace, and it went nowhere. One scammer and a couple tire kickers messaged.

I can’t report any success with it, but it can’t hurt to try.

Other apps

There are other options out there. I tried Varage Sale and they have strict rules about who can join. I didn’t bother with it and moved on.

Poshmark can work if you have clothes and shoes to sell. That wasn’t in my selling inventory, so I didn’t use it.

What strategies should you use?

The good news is that none of the selling apps I used charge for making a sale post. They will charge around 13% of the total sale including shipping cost. You can avoid those fees if you connect with a local buyer.

(One exception to free local buyer is Mercari because they push for a “local delivery” option instead, and they charge for it. If you mention anything about meeting up in the item description, they won’t let you post it.)

I’d start with Mercari for most items because of its simplicity. Start by selling things with the most brand appeal or nostalgia. My Nintendo things cleared quickly because of the nostalgia collectors.

eBay is good for selling random things. I’m surprised what items I sold there including half broken ear buds.

Use OfferUp, Craigslist, or Facebook as secondaries or if you need to use local buyers. Local buyers can be a pain because of coordination of the meetup, the tendency of buyers to aggressively negotiate, and the risk of ghosting but you also avoid app fees. For the buyer, they avoid shipping costs. With bulky items like exercise equipment the shipping costs so much that only a local buyer would be interested so they could pickup it up themselves.

Like I mentioned before, always have the buyer pay for shipping. The proceeds for selling stuff are already thin enough after the apps take their fee cut.

Yes, you can list items on multiple apps at the same time. When I had an item sold from one platform, I’d just remove it from the others. There’s a small chance you could have items sold at the same time in two places but that never happened to me. If it did, I would’ve had to cancel one of the sales.

Buyers will often send in offers at lower prices. I ignored most of them and didn’t regret it because I later got the full asking price. An exception was when I accepted offers from local buyers because I wanted to unload those items which would be expensive to ship (less likely to be bought) and because there’re no selling fees in those cases.

Dealing with the public

Keep in mind a lot of buyers will express interest by messaging you and then ghost. I sometimes sent a polite follow-up to see if they’re still on board and it was never worth it. Once a buyer ghosts, they’re gone.

Be truthful and specific in your listings. If there’s a defect, make sure to describe it in the post description. You don’t want a buyer complaining you sold them a defective item they weren’t aware of. Take multiple pictures from multiple angles.

A couple times I had buyers ask questions where they clearly didn’t read or understand the product listed or what they were looking for out of it. I couldn’t tell if they were trolls or dense. I’m a very patient person but I will start to disregard messages if a buyer becomes stubborn.

I had one buyer make a low-ball offer on a Gameboy I was selling and then repeatedly asked me if it comes with a list of games which I did not have and were not listed whatsoever. I politely explained it’s just the handheld for sale (as clearly stated in the item post) and I didn’t have the games they wanted. I ignored them and the Gameboy sold to another buyer a week afterwards at a higher price.

Another buyer kept asking me if a phone I was selling was “unlocked”. I clearly stated it in the sale posting, and I explained to the buyer that the phone is both device unlocked (no password on it) and carrier unlocked (can be used on other providers). If they meant something else, they made no effort to explain it because they asked the same question with the same wording repeatedly. The phone was sold to another buyer in the meantime, and I gladly fulfilled that order instead.

I recommend getting a burner number too which I will describe in a section below.

How do you ship the items?

Do you get a bunch of Amazon deliveries? Save those packages!

I had an ample collection saved up, so I had those materials already.

Use a small digital scale to verify your package weight. Package things neatly, use little airbags or crumbled paper if there’s space around, and print out the label and tape it on. Put tape around the top creases of the package to make sure everything is sealed and secured.

One little trick is to put a small piece of tape in the middle to hold the package flaps together in the center and then reinforce with longer strips of tape.

I like using “tear by hand” tape a lot because it’s faster and easier than using regular packaging tape. Unfortunately, Scotch stopped making it for whatever reason and it’s unavailable from retailers ☹️.

Scotch stopped making this tape

I sometimes used the USPS pickup request for my packages to save myself a trip. But I recommend using the scheduled pick up only if you have access to a secure mailbox.

Once I had a package mysteriously disappear from my front porch for a pickup and I lost a sale because of it. I reported the lost package to USPS, and they never found it. It was stolen most likely. I learned my lesson to always do a drop off for larger or pricey items. Many post offices have self-serve drop off kiosks that are open 24/7.

If you’re doing a pickup, I recommend scheduling the pickup on the USPS mobile app because it seems to work better than the website. The website would sometimes crash for me when making a pickup request.

Get a burner number

I had one deal fall apart from Craigslist because we were communicating by email. It was slow and tedious. The buyer claimed they got lost on the way and bailed.

I found having a burner number was super helpful for coordinating local buyers. It gave me a way to text and call interested buyers without having to disclose my own actual phone number.

If you use Android like I do, then I recommend the 2nd Line app. It’s both free and simple to use.

After getting a burner number, I used it with interested local buyers on OfferUp and Craigslist. It made those deals go much more smoothly.

When meeting local buyers, ask them to confirm they are on their way to the agreed place before you go. Don’t bother showing up just to get ghosted if they can’t give you a simple courtesy.

Beware of scammers!

You will get messages asking you to accept Zelle payments or to give your home address.

I had one scammer from Craigslist message me with a ridiculously high offer and said I had to ship the item first and they’d arrange payment later. I refused of course.

Another scammer on Facebook asked for my address and said they’re out of town and would pay on Zelle after their friend picked the item up. I said I only accept cash on the spot. They ghosted after that, no surprise.

If meeting in person - only accept cash. Be clear on this when messaging with the buyer.

If they purchase online, then they can use the payment methods provided by the apps directly. There’s no reason you should have to use an electronic payment method yourself.

Do NOT give people your home address. Scammers will try to have you give an address immediately like in the Facebook one I mentioned above. First, have them confirm they will pay in cash for the amount you asked. Once you both agree on the cash amount then you can confirm a meet-up at a local store parking lot.

Buyer: I’m interested in your item. What’s your address?

Me: Can you pay $50 in cash?

Buyer: I can do $40.

Me: Can you meet me in front of ABC store at XYZ street tomorrow afternoon?

Buyer: That works.

Me: My number is [burner number] if you want to call or text.

Beware of US tax rules!

[Intended for U.S. readers. For outside the U.S., consult your local tax code.]

The IRS recently implemented a rule that these apps must report a 1099K if you sell more than $600 worth of items. What’s worse is that it includes all fees and shipping in that amount. It used to have a threshold of $10,000 or more than 250 transactions.

Because of the low threshold it becomes your responsibility to fill out the tax paperwork to prove that you didn’t make an actual profit from these virtual yard sales since you sold these below the retail price you originally paid for them. The trouble is finding all the old receipts for those if you even kept them after all those years!

The app companies started a coalition to lobby Congress about this rule.

You can join them by visiting 1099K Fairness. It’s super easy to send a pre-form letter to your congressional representatives using the site. I even received a boilerplate reply from one my representatives after I submitted my letters. Eh, better than nothing.

Is it worth it?

You can get started today by grabbing a cardboard box and start collecting things into it that you want to clear out and think you can make a sale on. Try the apps listed here and see what happens.

While I don’t regret selling these items and trying it out, it’s a sucky side hustle. It took more time and effort than the net proceeds warranted. In finance-speak, it’s low ROI (return on investment). I am sure there are far better side hustle opportunities out there.

Another downside is that my sales have seemed to have dried up after June 2023. I have perfect review scores on the apps so I’m guessing my inventory of remaining things is not attractive and/or people tightening belts in an inflationary environment. I don’t expect sales for the rest of this year.

With that said, the experience was worth it in some ways. I made my first dollars on the internet. It showed me how to present items and interact with customers. The lessons from these first sales can be a steppingstone to better opportunities later.