Hi all,
I'm looking for a bit of advice. I've got a bunch of old videogames, electronics, tech stuff etc that I want to sell off. It's been awhile since I've sold anything online, so I'm not sure what's the go these days.
Is Gumtree still the way to go? Facebook Marketplace didn't exist the last time I put a listing up.
Ideally I'd prefer to get local sales happening to avoid the hassle of shipping stuff if I can.
Much appreciated!
This.
But before this:
I've got a bunch of old…
Make sure it has some value, or just give it away. Think how much is an hour of my time worth?
Think how much is an hour of my time worth?
$23.23
eBay is getting too expensive so that rules them out.
Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace are FREE.
And possibly same day sales.
And OP says….
'Ideally I'd prefer to get local sales happening to avoid the hassle of shipping stuff if I can"
Hence the places to advertise are so obvious.
I dont see the need for any advice here.
As long as you retain strict cash on collection, you’ll be fine.
No PayID, no deliveries, no trades for a clapped out motorbike, no brothers mums aunts sons pet dog is away on an oil rig story, no sorting out courier pickup arrangement. CASH when they collect.
Expect tons of automated scam messages and time wasters asking “is it still available” then disappearing.
asking “is it still available” then disappearing.
95% of responses, literally…
and for some reason, their profiles are all Indian ???
Goat curry?¿
Newbie scammer wannabe in training.
I would have expected Nigerians.
Pls dont be racist….
Non-Aussie actually
when they say they want to buy then organise a day and time and give the pickup suburb.
only then give your mobile number and tell them to text you when they are on their way.
because they have to text you on their phone then it is more likely they are really on their way.
so only then respond with the pick up address - police station if it is something expensive.
cash only.
cash only.
cash only.
How does texting on their phone make it more likely they're on their way? It's a common scam to wait until you go through the process and send the message "sorry, had an issue, is it ok if I payid and my cousins sisters boyfriends uncle will pick it up?"
I would simply move on from a seller that wanted my mobile number. Ain’t no way I’m giving that to some random marketplace flop
obviously you give one of your burner numbers .
purely anecdotal - it has been my experience (~25 marketplace sales - with only 1 no show) that buyers have arrived.
at least you know they are in the country if they text you (ok, there are ways to text a mobile without a phone).
telling them to text you when they are on the way some what reduces the "being stuffed around" factor because you know (or at least believe) that they are coming.
for example - if you organised the time a few days before then you are just waiting and waiting- a text message means that hopeful they are <1 hour away.
if they pull the pay-id angle then you just block them (they are scammers). scammer gotta scam.
I find gumtree useless and only good for getting scammer replies.
Facebook marketplace is full of people that will ask is this still available and ghost you. But it does often lead to a sale if your patient + you can try joining some local buy and sell groups to be more localised.
In any case, just be careful giving your address out and if possible try to make who ever is buying stuff call or txt you. I find that anyone willing to give their number to you/call or txt is usually legitimate and not a time waster.
Oh and im sure its not been mentioned, but… cash only 😂
I only do marketplace these days. My Facebook profile is a fake name. I tick the “hide from friends” box when advertising. My description always says “please do not reply ‘is this available’ only, let me know in your message when you can pick up, cash only, price is firm”. Also include your suburb in the ad. Some people meet in a public place but I can’t be bothered with this. I don’t give the exact address until the day they are coming, usually within hours of them coming. ‘Price is firm’ is optional, but my prices are low, usually if I’m going to lower it I’d rather donate it. For free stuff list at $1-10 (depending on value of item) otherwise all the weirdos come out of the woodwork (this is a shame, but if had too many people harassing me for stuff if listing for free). I tend to only get back to people who have good communication otherwise it’s going to be too much effort.
For selling games I would have thought eBay was better but it seems a lot of people get scammed with anything where the item is posted. I haven’t used eBay in years.
Cash only
No pay id
Local pick up
Prepare to get every scammer and low baller online for a week
I don't do much selling online but I provide all the information possible and then insist on no negotiations. Usually good pre-condition to cut off scammers and low ballers quickly and I don't waste any time.
is this still available?
hey mate u still there?
For something like video games I’d suggest cataloguing and joining some specialist FB groups. You’ll find your target market easier and you can also ask for reference checks in the groups I’ve been in.
Facebook marketplace + Gumtree. I list in the ad - no PayID, suburb.
With my most recent batch of items, I've found Facebook marketplace to be much better. I haven't got any sales from Gumtree and had to deal with scammers asking about PayID or PayPal anyway.
I will post or take PayPal or PayID if asked and the person is legit.
Anything that doesn't sell, goes to the OP shop or onto eBay.
I list in the ad - no PayID, suburb.
"Where can I pick up ?"
"Can I pay with PayID ?"
Sadly true. Sometimes I respond with "Sorry, this item is no longer available for you."
I agree with others above in general. But you need to think about what you are selling. If small valuable items then eBay is good as it has a wide market and you can post stuff cheaply. But eBay is not so good for larger items. Marketplace is full of scammers but ok if you are careful in how you deal with people. Gumtree is great for getting rid of larger items by local pickup.
Depends on the item some things i choose gumtree and some things ebay.
For the items your got i would lean towards ebay.
The last time I recall not using PayID was when an otherwise willing seller couldn't figure out how to register in their banking app. The time before that was before it existed (pre-2018). PayID is secure, instant payment for transactions under $500 (depends on your bank). I don't understand why there's so much fear about it. Please include a comment with your downvote.
PayID is perfectly fine if you have two brain cells to rub together but sadly plenty of sellers have NFI. The current scams are no different to the old scam of "paying" by bank transfer where the scammer just sends a fake screenshot of the payment confirmation and the seller accepts it at face value. Even though PayID is supposed to be instant some banks, like CBA, hold the first payment to a new account. If you're a scammer you just send the seller a fake screenshot of the payment confirmation and say it must be being held by the bank but will go thorugh tomorrow. If the seller is thick as a plank they will just give the buyer the item and not realise until later that they have been screwed over. Just waiting until the funds are available in your account would eliminate 99% of stupid sellers issues but instead they just screech nO pAyId! on their ads.
"depends "
In other words, not reliable like cash. As many of us already know.
No downvote. Australia needs an updated payment processing system.
Gumtree, eBay, or Facebook Marketplace?
all
Cash only for all private sales.
Cash Converters will give you peanuts but at least it's a safe transaction and they usually buy anything.
Ebay will take about 15-20% commission front he sale, but they do have much bigger demographic than Gumtree/FB. I will go both of them and you can then tell which one is the better sale. If item is 2cm and less you can always use envelope and 2x $1.20 stamps or with tracking of $5.5-$6 trackable envelope. For parcel, go with MyPostBusiness.
old videogames, electronics, tech stuff
I have been lurking on FB for these kind of stuff for a while. There's decent demand so they will all sell in time depending on pricing. One tip is if you get bombarded with msgs saying "pickup asap" then you've priced the item too low. If you are not in a hurry, delete the listing and re-list it with a higher price in a few days. Similarly, if you get a lot of offers lower then the demand is there but price is too high so delete the listing and re-list it with a slightly lower price in a few days.
I am not sure why people are so averse to PayID.
I use it all the time to pay people. I rarely carry my wallet/bank cards these days and do everything on my phone.
Its a pain in the arse trying to find an ATM especially when I am picking something up from a suburb I am unfamiliar with.
Yes you can be scammed with PayID scammers, but always check your bank account before releasing the goods.
"I am not sure why people are so averse to PayID.
…
Yes you can be scammed with PayID scammers,"
!
As much as I HATE eBay, it generally works, especially if you can stack with a selling promo and 50% off label (both which are getting worse and worse every month).
People on FB Marketplace will drive you absolutely nuts, and then ghost you for legit no reason whatsoever (e.g. Just last week I agreed to a buyers offer, sent pics with a time stamp as per their request, and then they left the chat - like wtf bro). These days 1 in every 10/20 people are actually serious, and theres no better feeling than when you get the occasional LEGEND who just buys what you sell with no issues whatsoever (e.g. a dude bought my second hand switch+games with postage, and paid me in full upfront via PayID, no questions asked!)
Don't use Gumtree much anymore, but tends to be the same as FB these days.
I think some people are just lonely , and use marketplace it for social contact.
My sister just went through all this. Facebook Marketplace isn't the place to sell electronics. She did really well selling specialty/collectors stuff on eBay. It's like people are looking for those exact item. They seem to pay well and sometimes you might get lucky and get a bidding war. Marketplace is okay for old phones, tablets and tv's. People just looking for a bargain or something free on there.
Facebook Marketplace is good for portable electronics - but anything over $100 we're meeting at the front of the police station. When the Police ask me why I seem to be loitering outside, I tell them I'm selling this $300 item and don't want to get robbed/scammed and they understand that meeting at the police station is a brilliant idea.
I've sold an Xbox Series S in front of a Police Station.
That is a good idea.
I am trying to do the same but closer and meeting at public spots with cameras pointed at the street.
The police station is a fair walk for me and from the train station which is my other potential meet up spot if the other party has no car like me.
For some reason I had good faith in the pc building community and kind of wanted to see what other fellow australian pc nerds and gamers looked like so I met them just at my house to give them a bit of confidence.
The tech nerds and pc gamers I met were just as I expected hilariously and I even saw a guy's really cool matrix looking setup and inside his clean house.. sadly the raspberry pi 4 i was trying to sell did not work so ended up just giving it away with another tech item for free instead of garbaging it.
Yeah I don't know if people in my area would stab someone over cheap tech stuff (although I guess I could ask mskeggs if he knows of anything like that happening) it is not like I am selling stuff in the hood (bankstown, granville, mt druitt, blacktown, penrith etc). I did get newbie haggled down over an item though because I was feeling too happy on the sale that I actually had my first in house meet up customer lol but we all learn from our mistakes.
In addition to scammers, time wasters and no shows, beware of plain idiots.
If the potential buyer questions indicate that he does not really understand what he is buying or might have unreasonable expectations, its best to politely suggest that your item is not what they are looking for.
Its not worth the grief of dealing with idiots who want to return or refund a perfectly ok item.
I use market place to sell, cash abd payID only. Pick up too.
I also sell in the online local communities on FB, giess its easier for local pick ups.
Facebook works much of the time but also has the highest rate of timewasters.
You can list things on all of the sites. Make the Ebay price higher if you want to cover fees.
Have had bad experiences with gumtree so i am not inclined to go back there
Facebook marketplace has been overall very good and successful with so far 1 nigerian scammer and a couple of timewasters but have sold off an entire pc so far and some extra tech stuff albeit I sweetened the deal just to get rid of some of it but overall it was funny to see the fake profile names and then the actual seller face to face in person haha lol
yeah idk im still on the fence on gumtree but funny enough I had a guy build an entire pc for me from another state and then ship it to me around 2018 but the guy seemed legit and i took a huge leap of faith but honestly the experience and back and forth was fun.. it is true some of us are just lonely
ebay is good but yeah these days I can't remember how to ship items off and which parcel/envelope/stamp is needed for certain sizes and weights etc so I resorted to fb marketplace instead.. but I think to move some extra tech stuff I will have to look into ebay again as some items are getting no messages not even time wasters or scammers
there have been some awesome finds on both gumtree and facebook marketplace though had a really nice interaction last week restored my faith in humanity honestly and the guy was super patient the whole time so i ended up tipping the guy (it was for a ms office lifetime activation key)
Cash only.
Pickup only.