Giving Stuff Away on Marketplace

Finally, after over 6 months, I managed to give away a dining table in good used condition on Marketplace this morning. Seamless process. It feels great on two fronts - living sustainably and having a bit more space in the garage. Earlier in the year it was a futon.

There were a couple of false leads before, but it hardly wasted any time other than replying.

Luckily I didn't buy a lot of heavy furniture in the past so there's not much more of this to give away and live a minimalist lifestyle. But I have older friends that are downsizing with a lot of solid wood antiques who have a much harder time dealing with it.

What have you gotten rid of recently?

Comments

  • +117

    Me: free fridge, works fine, cleaned and sanitised already, come get between hours of 9-5 sat or sun only, easily a two man job and will need a Ute or trailer.

    Person 1: can you deliver?
    Person 2: do you have anything bigger <-wtf???
    Person 3: can I come Monday 10am
    Person 4: will it fit in my Camry <- again wtf
    Person 5: it’s a 10 year old fridge, not worth picking up

    FAR OUT.

    • +60

      is this still available?

      • +7

        100% this…

        Seller: "If this ad is still up, item is still available."
        Buyer 1: "Is this still available?"

        • +49

          except when it isn't and they forgot to take it down. i messaged someone asking for clearer pics of the item, they messaged back saying something along the lines of it had been sold a while ago and they just forgot to take it down.

        • +9

          Hi I'm keen on the item I can pick up today?

          Sorry a guys coming later this week to pick up.
          Or
          Nah got rid of that weeks ago.

        • +29

          Seller's ad: "If tis ad is still up, item is still available"
          Me: "Hi, I'm interested in this, can we arrange a time for me to come and have a look at it?"
          Seller: "Sorry, it's not available, already sold."

        • +7

          And also there are sellers who respond to a specific question like "What are the dimensions please?" as "Yes it is available". Duh!

      • +2

        What's your best price?

        • +20

          This annoys me more than egregious low-balling. At least offer something. Recently I've just been responding to these saying my best price is what it's listed as.

          • +5

            @nsta8487: That's the correct answer

          • +1

            @nsta8487: Much more fun to quote a price that's higher than the listed price!

        • +1

          Then they continue to lowball you from your best price :D~~

      • +6

        Yeah I don’t mind the “is this still available”, as long as they show more interest when I say yes… I’ve had so many items that I’ve asked for more info only to be told, no longer available.

        Don’t know why people hate the “is this still available” question.

        • +16

          It's just a poor UI design from Facebook. Anyone can accidentally click the button to send the message, which tends to happen a lot. They should just make it so users have to type their own message.

          • @Dave Bowman: Yeah I agree with that

          • @Dave Bowman: I Often get replies from items I have neither looked at or clicked on telling me that "Its available" When i never asked.

        • +2

          I think it's lazy on the part of the buyer, because it wastes time going back and forth. If you want the item, suggest a time to come get it. If you need more information, ask your question. If it is no longer available the seller can tell you after you've asked your question.

          So often when you reply with 'yes' the buyer takes hours to get to their next question, or they'll never reply.

      • It’s automatic response when you click to send msg. Even if you edit and send the question.!

      • To be fair this is the pre selected response in messenger, the person is just registering interest without bothering to type out message.
        Plus half the time freebies are gone within minutes so if the ad isn't fresh a lot of the time I find the item has already gone.

    • +2

      I now advertise free stuff on there and put the street name and a vacant lot address up in the add and state its out on the street, come get it, add will be removed when gone.
      Put it out on the street with free sign and walk away…

      • +3

        I hate when people do that and don't even bother with ads like those anymore. You drive there within just a few minutes of the post going up, only to see their neighbour carting it inside. Or they show a dozen things, you turn up to see most or all of them gone, but the ad still shows all of them and says "Ad will be removed when items gone" OR "Photo will be updated as items are taken" (and it's not - and the ad usually stays up for two months).

        Don't even bother putting up the ad in the first place. There's probably a dozen people wasting $2/L fuel only to find nothing there. Just do the "FREE" sign.

        • That comes down to person posting the ads.

          Personally i put stuff out the front with a free sign on it first, if theres no takers then i put it online.

          If someone asks me politely and like a human being a question or to check, i do.
          If its “is this still available?” I ignore it.

          I also actually remove my ad once the stuff is gone because I don’t particularly enjoy continuing to receive questions about items that are long gone for free.

          If you don’t like driving to check on free stuff, don’t do it. It’s that simple.
          Why get upset over something you weren’t going to pay for anyway?

          • @El cheepo:

            Personally i put stuff out the front with a free sign on it first, if theres no takers then i put it online.

            Ah ok. Yeah that's what I do.

            If someone asks me politely and like a human being a question or to check, i do.
            If its “is this still available?” I ignore it.

            LOL. Yes /\ this. I've both given, and received, when a message been typed with a bit more respect than others.

            I also actually remove my ad once the stuff is gone because I don’t particularly enjoy continuing to receive questions about items that are long gone for free.

            I used to think it was a good idea. But I'd see ads still up days after I knew an item was gone!?

            If you don’t like driving to check on free stuff, don’t do it. It’s that simple.
            Why get upset over something you weren’t going to pay for anyway?

            I was more saying a "FREE!" sign works without marketplace, that once online it makes people hoping to get it waste time/fuel when it would have gone without marketplace. People around here regularly put stuff out with a sign and the longest I've seen things still on the street (that weren't absolute junk like water soaked MDF furniture) is 3 days. Strangely the only time stuff stays longer is when people put a council pickup sticker on it. I hate those council stickers because it stays there for a week so kids kick stuff out onto the road, drag things dozens houses away, dump them in the park… so it sits there for months.

            • +1

              @[Deactivated]: Theres a few different points in what your saying but they all come back to one thing:

              People suck.

              Haha

              Thats why i try to not deal with any unnecessarily about trivial matters.

              And as for the free signs. It depends on the neighbourhood and neighbours.
              But as i said, if people are human and text/ring to ask politely, i might put the item aside and remove the ad so they can get it. Otherwise I don’t care who gets it, its just a free for all.

    • +35

      I had someone ask if I could deliver a pushbike 80klms away.. the bike was kids bmx for $20….
      I said 2 options, $150 delivery fee or come get it and ride it home. He was pissed off at my suggestions.

      • +3

        Wow, people are so entitled to the choices.

        • I had a guy who was supposed to pick up a PC in person for $300. Turns around and demands free delivery, hes 100km away. I cancelled the sale and parted it out. He complained to eBay and they upheld my decision 😂😂😂. Couldn’t find boxes and he had one positive feedback, (profanity) that

    • +1

      This is why I sell on eBay and don't allow pickup. Although I still get the odd "can I pick this up". Pisses me off.

      • +3

        ..and don't allow pickup. .

        You would sell on eBay and not allow pickup? How would you ship a fridge to the buyer?

        • +2

          I was more referring to time wasters in general, not fridges. I would put a fridge on hard rubbish.

          • @Some Human: I was about to ask how you can be bothered dealing with the logistics of it all! haha

      • so eBay can always steal 15% of the sale price?
        Give them the option of pickup, and cash on pickup!

        • +1

          Give them the option of pickup and they start lowballing you for less than what the fees are worth. (experience)

          Cash on pickup will not cancel out the fees. If eBay decides you did an off ebay transaction, they will still charge the fees and your account will get a defect.

          The amount of time I would waste meeting up with strangers is time I could spend listing and making more money I'm not a by-yearly seller, I'm a 4-6 item per day seller. Some low value, some high. Certainly not offering pick up for a $10 item. I'm also uncomfortable with the idea of meeting up with strangers.

          A lot of humans seem to forget Ebay is running a business, not a charity. They're not stealing, they're just trying to make more money for their service, sort of like how you are trying to make more money by not paying their fees.

          I'm happy to pay the fees for using an unmatched platform to sell on.

        • +6

          15% fee to avoid the kinds of people who shop on Marketplace and Gumtree.

      • +1

        Screw pickup for most things, I’d get haggled or there would be no doubt buyers remorse

    • +4

      What colours are available?

    • +4

      Choosy beggars.

    • +4

      Same. I literally had a guy come fetch a bar fridge in a Camry, suffice to say it didn't fit and he had to organize a van (rented). Unbelievable.

      • +15

        Bloody hell he must really have wanted the fridge lmao

        Surprised he didn’t just tie it down on the roof with grunt brand tie downs. The trick is to slap the straps a few times after locking down and loudly declare ‘yep she ain’t goin anywhere’

      • +5

        Must be a pretty rare size of bar fridge not to fit in a sedan boot (with cushions between it and the open tied-down boot lid). That's probably why… because he knew that same thing. No harm in testing first to save the $ on the van.

        I've had the other experience where I've had several morons have heart failure when I turn up in a car, and go into some unstable rant… "ARGH! You'll NEVER get it in THAT! Now I'm going to have to RELIST IT! [splutter, rant]" But having removed the front passenger seat before coming, I calmly say, "it'll be fine. Done it before." I wind the driver seat back flat, open the passenger door, put item in across the driver seat toward the diagonally opposite rear corner, and rotate it until it's all the way inside, then raise driver seat again. Or like the huge coffee table I got recently in my sedan… put half of it in the boot, cushions on top, and tie the lid down. Some of them are still spluttering indignantly as I drive away, as if I didn't actually just get it in, lol.

    • If you don't have time to answer then don't reply (im rude), easy ass that. You post it online so have to accept it.

    • Or the "where are you located". (When the location is clearly in the listing). At least it's a warning sign to back away from the high maintenance individual.

    • im surprised you didn't get, "ill take 50 to take it off your hands"

  • +3

    When I moved recently, I sold 1/2 my stuff, and gave away about 1/5 of it for free. The things I gave away for free were not junk, but it would have been more difficult/time-consuming to sell them because they weren't extremely popular items or they were slightly damaged, and I didn't have enough time. Basically everything I advertised as free was taken quite quickly.

    The problem with giving stuff away for free on Facebook marketplace is that you get too many people responding, and only about half of them are serious. Then you have to decide who to give it to. You have to spend a lot of time responding to inquiries.

    I'm often disappointed when people are getting rid of stuff they don't need or want on Marketplace but they try to charge nearly the price they paid for it new. Why not sell it at a desirable price and make someone happy!

    • +9

      I hardly ever list anything for free, I generally charge $5 or so for actual freebies, it weeds out 90% of the timewasters

      If someone offers to buy it, I leave it on my porch and tell them to leave money in my letterbox - that way I don't waste time hanging around waiting for them, and I'm not too fussed if they steal it. I've done this maybe 20 times, and only ever had one thing stolen, I happened to have two people coming to take things and the first guy stole both items

  • +4

    Getting rid of furniture is really hard. I offer it to friends/family first then charity. If no interest there I'll throw it on gumtree cheap/free but most of the time that's a waste of time (see post from Jimothy above) so it ends up being taken out to the property and burned.

    • -2

      Try Facebook marketplace instead of Gumtree. Gumtree is dying.

      • +1

        Got booted from Facebook for not meeting their community standards. That's despite never making a single post or adding any content. I assume it's code for "we're not making profit from your account so bugger off".

        • +1

          I got booted because my account was dormant for a few years, then one day I decided I wanted to sell on market place. They then wanted my ID information which I reluctantly gave, then they never got back to me.
          Can't even access save data on mobile games now because they won't unlock my account.

          • +1

            @Some Human: just make a fake account. i have 2 fake accounts that have been sitting for years, occasionally check them. i did get asked to give facebook my ID (yeah no thanks zuccy) for one of my real accounts, so i just made a new one. problem solved.

          • @Some Human: Try contacting the Oculus support team, need account restored so you can log in to a Quest.

    • +14

      agree totally. When dad went into nursing home, we tried giving away good furniture - (some only few yrs old) no go..
      Mate suggested putting $10-20 on things… soon as we put a price on it and tried selling it - it flew out the door.

      What did my head in was even charities werent interested in free items. One charity wanted part of the dining setting

    • im surprised by all these comments, i usually leave it outside on the curb and its gone within a few hours. old couch, mattress, broken fan etc

  • +21

    I always have trouble on marketplace with free items. Better off having $100 on it so they can negotiate then when they pickup give it to them for free.

    Less time wasters and more rewarding.

  • +9

    For things getting rid of, with no aim of any actual decent $, I generally don't list free as that attracts a much more annoying market segment than if you just list it for something trivial like $20.

    I also ignore people that ask stupid questions that are already answered in the post such as location, or those that say interested and ask to hold an item.

  • +3

    Put it on the verge, and tape a paper sign that says "FREE" for a day and see it go.

    • +15

      Put it on the verge, and tape a paper sign that says "DO NOT TAKE" for a day and see it go.

    • +5

      Put a price tag on it and it'll be gone even quicker. People are wary of free stuff.

      • +4

        some people see more value in stealing something you are trying to sell than taking something you are giving away for free, it's as if the idea of theft makes the item more attractive

    • +5

      Tried this with my virginity in college and was not very successful.

      • No delivery, no deal

        • No cashback, no deal!

          • @kaitoivan: No free delivery+ Cashback+ pay with gift cards+ 20% off coupon, no deal!

    • +1

      If you put a free sign on it then nobody will take it.
      Put for sale $20 and somebody will pinch it within the hour.

  • +5

    Tried to give away a panasonic cordless phone. Got so many 'is this available still?' messages then radio silence when I respond yes. The final straw was when someone asked for just the base station. It's free just take the whole package and have 2 phones? Took the listing off marketplace and chucked in hard rubbish pick-up. Was gone next day before the pick-up guys arrived.

    • +6

      bin chickens will eat anything these days

      • ring ring

        "yes, this is bin chicken"

    • +3

      Lol I have 2 cordless phone sets in a bag… not sure what to do with them. Anyone want them? 😄

      • +4

        "Is this still available?"

      • Can I just have the bases?

        • Can I just have the bag?

  • +11

    Advertised free car, good working order, rego.

    What's your best price?

    🤦

    • In their defence, a lot of people mark their item as free or $1 so it'll be on the top of the list if you sort by price.

  • +7

    My wife recently sold and gave away a bunch of furniture for her parents.

    Aside from all of the "is it still available" messages, ghosting after asking questions/starting negotiations, and randoms from cities 3 or more hours away saying they will take the free item and immediately asking for your address and phone number, this is some of the stories from people who actually came to pick stuff up:

    • guy came to pick up 3 seater couch by himself with just a removalist dolly
    • older lady came to pick up a heavy bunkbed (the two single beds on top of each other type) including the mattresses in a Prado by herself. Luckily we had already taken it apart and it actually fit.
    • guy came in a van to pick up a free bookshelf but the van was already full of crap, asked to come back tomorrow to collect
    • bunch of other people either just not turning up to collect free things (given away on first come first serve basis) or just turning up by themselves and/or without suitable vehicle to collect.

    Only good story was an older guy who came to collect a free desk. Turns out he was recently separated and setting up a new house. In-laws basically walked around the house to find stuff they could give him (side tables, etc), and ended up giving him the above bookshelf as well after telling the van guy to F off.

    • She just told me she was also offered a gold necklace ("worth $2k") in exchange for a camper trailer which was listed for $4k or so.

      • To be fair. Gold values generally appreciate while camper values depreciate.🙂

  • +2

    I hate that the automatic response from marketplace is ‘is this avaiable’ Get so many of those with no follow up. But then a few times I’ve accidentally sent it to sellers myself. I usually apologise for doing so when they respond.

    My experience with giving away stuff is that it’s better to put on a low price. Seem to get mucked around more with offering freebies.

    Disadvantage of marketplace over gumtree is that he search area is limited to a certain range outside where you specify so if your offering something that someone may travel to pick up you’ve limited the market. Marketplace also uses algorithms for displaying items. I prefer gumtree’s ‘dumb’ search because it only displays what I’ve searched for and won’t keep showing me items like something I clicked once by accident or have already purchased.

  • +1

    I've been, very slowly, doing the same thing for a few years now. By the end of this year I'll have very little physical belongings left and tbh I prefer not having a lot of "stuff".

    • +1

      Just a collection of eneloops, toilet paper, USB cables, and microsd cards then?

  • +7

    There are normally buy nothing groups Facebook set up in your local community. It is much more friendly and you give it to people who actually need it
    Better than listing on marketplace

    • +1

      This.

    • +2

      Never heard of buy nothing groups pity there is nothing in my area.
      Thanks for sharing about them, sounds like a great alternative to gumtree.

      When moving gave away a lot of free stuff or sold it. When moving out having unknowns at my address no longer a problem so set up a specified time for people to turn up. Found a range of people from those who just wanted free stuff who were ok to those who wanted $400 items for $10 bucks. I just let them know make a decent offer or no deal. They found that extremely difficult to comprehend.
      Last time I was after two free wardrobes on gumtree and I was upfront about the difficulties in getting them moved the lady gave me the name of her removalist friend. He agreed to do the job and be paid cod. Thank goodness he was her friend and she supplied the referral as he didn’t turn up the first two times. Great wardrobes though, solid, dependable and beautifully made. Makes me incredibly sad that so much great stuff languishes on gumtree and footpath for council pickup only to be crushed to smithereens by the council muncher truck.

    • I have listed plenty on our local page. Still have the same issues of people not showing up, rescheduling last minute etc.

    • Buy nothing, pay later

      • Buy nothing, pay never

  • I've given away a few art sets, routers, microwave, couch, kitchenware recently.

    There's a lot of messing around with people who want free stuff so generally it goes to the first person to commit to a collection time. This is now to ensure they will show up as I just leave items outside.

  • +1

    I put stuff on the footpath. It gets taken really quickly. I think fear of missing out sets in.

  • +7

    I gave away my 8 years old Marantz AV receiver, still in perfect working condition. I was cleaning up my garage when I posted, got 10 messages within half an hour. I offered it to the first person. That guy wanted original HDMI cable that came with it and the speakers, because he thought AV receiver will be useless for him without the speakers. He then looked around the garage for the next 15-20 mins to see if there is anything useful he can find and something I would be willing to give away to make his trip worthwhile.
    Eventually he did leave with the AV receiver. That was my only weird interaction while giving stuff away. Generally people are grateful. The best experience was when I gave away my son's first bicycle. A mom and son came to pick it and the boy had biggest smile on his face. The mom even offered $10 to my son as a little spending money, but my son politely refused.

    • Lovely.

  • +1

    market place used to be good, literally within 20 minutes i could easily sell things

    now things stay up for weeks on end, with the usual dumb shit questions posted above

  • +1

    I just wait for kerbside collection and everything I put out was taken away almost immediately lol

  • +3

    A few years ago we brought the daughter a new bed to replace her one that was a bunk style which had an desk and shelving under the bed.

    I was going to just throw it out for as it was council clean up week but put it up on market place for free mentioning it was free and pick up only by Sunday and would require a ute, truck or trailer.
    A woman messaged me and said she will be down within the hour so I took the listing down.

    Got a call off her and hour later telling me she didn't have enough petrol to drive the hour each way so could I deliver it.
    She said it's only an hour and you want it gone so why not.
    I said if its not picked up by 4pm its going out on the council clean up, I don't care either way and I don't have the time or petrol either.

    She picked it up about 90 minutes later and not long after I went out only to see their car on the side of the highway with the bonnet up and hazard lights flashing.

    • I mean it's good to know she wasn't lying just to get you to deliver it but why would you willingly drive so far on fumes!?

      • Probably have roadside assistance and figured they'd get enough fuel to get home.

  • Free stuff sometimes brings in the 'highest quality' humans in our society.
    I once gave away an old 1.5m high doll house that my daughter had outgrown. Wasnt anything special, but still worked, and had plenty of life for some other kid to enjoy.

    Left it out the front for the person to pick it up as I was giving it away free. Saw on my security cameras that they struggled to fit it in the boot and left with it in the backseat and their front seats pushed as far forward as possible.

    Fast forward a few hours driving home and i see the doll house thrown out on the side the road smashed to bits only 500m up the road from my house.
    Ended up picking up the bits myself off the side of the road, and having to dispose of it in our garbage bin.

  • "after over 6 months, I managed to give away a dining table in good used condition on Marketplace this morning. Seamless process"
    A seamless process of people wasting your time for 6 months? You're a better person than I am. I'd not have waited that long.

    I'm all for sustainability and giving something away where it can help someone else out and you're not using it as a chance to offload junk but I've had too many poor experiences where I either had good stuff being sold for cheap, or just given away for free make we want to persist as long as you did.

    • There were long periods in between with no bites. For heavy furniture I try to focus on takers from nearby suburbs so it really didn't waste much time at all to weed out ungenuine takers.

      It might just be karma, but on the same day we picked up a near new coffee table for the kids to use as their work bench. The givers took the opportunity to offer couches and so on (they were moving and selling up) which we didn't need, but we did take a small shelf, again for the kids to use.

      I've had far too many good experiences on both sides that virtually compells me to wait probably for at least a year.

  • Find your local community group on facebook and give stuff away there.

    You won't get any near as many weirdos and it's a nice way to get to know the people in your area and build a few connections etc

    • Always my first port of call. But I live in an affluent older demographic area that has got a lot of furniture to give away!

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