I wonder what we need to do to make buying and selling used items convenient. My experience has been that the bid/ask spread is too large, and liquidity too low to be practical. And if you're giving something away, no one will take it. No explanation; just observations. I want to not throw things out and buy new, but haven't found a workflow that works. (I'm in an apt building near the one listed in the article; more of a young-professionals/mixed vibe though.)
For transient university housing as in the article, I imagine the dynamic shits due to the volume of temporary items being cycled through.
We don't have to do anything, Craigslist already exists and works great. I've bought stuff from departmerting college students, the transaction is as simple as showing up and saying 'hi, are you X? Great, here's $50, thanks for The Thing'.
Some people just cannot be bothered, and if they're wealthy they simply may not care about concepts like wasting money - doubly so if they grew up with money and have never had to ration it for basic items. This isn't a market in search of a tech solution, any more than people who put out working items on the street with a sign saying 'free' because they don't want to go through the hassle of conducting a transaction for pocket money.
My experience trying to give stuff away online (or sell it for cheap) is similar to this Simpsons meme featuring vanishing Spock: https://i.ibb.co/0Vs9qHqm/116609166-3570105309667743-4078949... ... Although for the same reason, it's super easy to buy used stuff online just by offering the asking price and actually showing up.
Nowadays I leave unwanted but usable stuff by the trash room in my building, usually somebody will grab it, and if not it will get removed by the cleaning people eventually. I got a nice roller suitcase that way myself lol
My wife often sells things we are done with. If half the people who arrange a meeting to buy something show up she is doing well. Many times she has listed something for $10, has someone say "I really want this, will you take $20" - then not show up to meet. (we are always first come first serve, but if the first person offers $20...)
My wife doesn't have a regular job so she has some time to deal with this - but her time is still valuable (there are plenty of other things do to - I don't see how dual income families can raise kids!)
It's even worse if you post things for free. At least if there's a dollar figure attached to it, even $10, you won't get a dozen randos claiming they'll be right by, they can't live without it, don't give it to anyone else -- and then never show.
We have several times asked for a higher price just to weed out the non-serious people who will waste our time. We really just wanted to give it away to someone who would make good use of it, but charging too little lowers the odds of that happening.
Every time I've tried either selling something or giving something away, I came away finding that the hassle was totally not worth the time. Which obviously is easy to happen with giving something away. But even when selling, if for instance I sell something for $50 but put in an hour or two of my time, I'm still in the hole.
Whenever we give things away, we do one of two things:
1. We donate to an appropriate organization that tends to specialize in donations for the specific items we're donating. I.e. work clothing for university students.
2. We list an item for free, but pickup only. Confirm a day/time, and then said item is set outside for the individual to pick the item up. If they don't show, or something happens no big deal.
> when selling, if for instance I sell something for $50 but put in an hour or two of my time, I'm still in the hole.
I used to sell via gameflip and glyde, and that was pretty efficient; five minutes cataloging and listing the game and five minutes putting it in an envelope before my daily mail run. But these companies keep tripping over payment processing -- gameflip lost paypal, probably due to an infestation of scammers in the digital goods market?
So now I just post for sale ads on an internal company forum. But every time I come to the same conclusion. Having to personally deliver these flips the script. I seriously wonder if donating to a public library has a better ROI. They get a loanable asset, and I get a tax writeoff? But there seems to be many variables on how the writeoff is valued.
edit: or I need to set up coordination destination. Like "pickup at board game night only."
In Japan “recycle shops” are ubiquitous. There’s a chain called “Off House” that will buy just about anything, and also operates branches that specialize in used books, electronics, outdoor goods, etc. There’s another chain called “2nd Street” with a few branches nearby. They’ll appraise your items on the spot - usually takes 15 minutes or so during which I’ll browse the store - and pay cash. They typically buy for about 50% of what they intend to sell for, which is quite fair IMO.
I can think of about 10 locations off the top of my head in my city, and there are probably more than that. I never throw away things that are in a usable condition - better to get a little money back and it feels better knowing someone else might use it. I’ve also bought quite a bit of 2nd hand stuff - bikes and skis for the kids, clothing, etc.
When living in the US I used to make use of a local consignment shop. Pawn shops are also pretty ubiquitous, although I never actually tried selling anything there. And there’s always Goodwill and Salvation Army if you just want to conveniently get rid of stuff and avoid waste. Goodwill (and other charities as well, I assume) can write you a donation receipt that you can use to claim a tax deduction (although I never bothered).
I wish this existed in the US. I have plenty of somewhat esoteric stuff that a generalized post to FMB or CL may take weeks or months to even give away to someone who knows what it is/has a use for it. And the cost of shipping + eBay marketplace fees make it just totally not worth the hassle for the wider market.
Right now I have an antique deli slicer with a brand new blade that needs a little TLC but should operate at least another 100 years once fixed up a bit. A dental clinic autoclave I just don't have room for, a bunch of old IBM model M keyboards, and a slew of various mid-range electronic items that still have plenty of use in them but not a lot of monetary value. I'd give them all away to a decent home - but I don't really have the time to spend on packaging them up and/or the items are too bulky to consider shipping. This is just a few things that have been sitting around my house collecting dust for at least a year.
Pawn shops here are pretty useless and Goodwill/SA are simply not interested in the vast majority of the items I have to get rid of. I'd love to de-clutter, but can't really bring myself to toss perfectly good stuff so it's down to pestering every guest I have over to take things if they have a use.
I can set it out for trash collection in the alley here and 9 times out of 10 someone will take it if it's a mainstream and obviously decent item. That or has value as scrap metal. But for the weirder stuff it's not a great method to ensure it won't just be scrapped and/or trashed as soon as a scrapper decides it's not worth their trouble.
> I wonder what we need to do to make buying and selling used items convenient
I'm not sure how feasible it is in practice. In theory I think you'd at least need the following to be possible:
(a) Being able to leave them literally outside your door in a manner that anyone in the neighborhood can see (basically impossible without additional technology for a lot of people)
(b) Being able to put them literally outside your door without causing issues (also impossible for many people due to everything from fire codes to simply lack of room or your own potential of tripping on them)
(c) Being able to make sure that anyone who takes them pays for them appropriately (nobody is going to keep an eye on them for free)
Yeah liquidity is a big one. last I moved out of a house I didn't want to bother finding a buyer for my furniture (probably been worth 500 total max even waiting for someone who wanted to pay) so I ended up putting it in my yard the last day of my lease with a free sign and posted a photo to craiglist, dining table chairs office furniture... And that's the day I learned a 7 foot sleeper sofa can fit comfortably in the back of your standard family minivan
Who wants to spend their last month in their house without a dining table? So the amount of time between making it available and "I need it gone" is very slim indeed
When I moved, I sold some furniture with a local consignment shop [1]. I sent them pictures, and they gave me estimates. They even sent a truck to pick up the furniture, with the transportation cost coming out of the final sale proceeds.
It couldn’t have been simpler, and they mailed me a check when the items finally sold after about a month.
That's a very good option wish I'd thought of that
I recently came across a furniture company that has an interesting offer that anything you buy new from them can be sold back to them (at like 20 cents on the dollar) or you can buy a little cheaper refurbished furniture from them.
In New Zealand, where I live, the Salvation Army (charity second hand shop) offers a service where they will come and clear out a house for you. They will take everything and dispose of the trash and keep and resell anything of value.
This is really used to clear out houses of deceased relatives etc.
This doesn't resolve your problem of generally selling your used goods conveniently. But I always found it to be a really interesting service. Because it identifies that there is real practical difficulty in simply giving away a lot of goods, and the solution is to provide this complete service to make it easier.
In my opinion, never mind that stuff, it's enough of a hassle just getting good quality pictures of the thing, figuring out exactly what it is and what a wild guess of a "fair" price would be, writing up some sort of description, dealing with questions and appointments from potential customers. It makes it not worth the time and bother unless you're pretty sure you can get a few hundred bucks for it. Modulo of course how rich or poor you are right now and how much free time you have etc.
It probably depends on location, but around here, giving stuff away is easy. There are several for profit thrift stores in the area, some of which will let you just drop stuff off for them. There are also several non-profits that will accept donations and write you a receipt you can use for tax purposes. I've also seen collection receptacles in various parking lots (as well as the county dump).
I've been able to get the local branch of Habitat for Humanity to come to me with a truck to pick up some old furniture free of charge. The only downside was that they are not allowed to come into houses, so I was responsible for moving the furniture to the yard.
For buying stuff, the local thrift stores are good, and offer very low prices on everything. The only downside is you actually need to show up, and are limited to the items they have, so it is not an option if you have a specific thing in mind.
I think craigslist is pretty close. That said it takes time and effort, and a little bit of opening up to the general public.
I remember doing a garage sale before moving years ago. We sold some stuff, but in reality nobody wants to give you anything for your stuff. I still remember a guy who came, pushing his way over asking brusquely, "Do you have any jewelry, watches, iphones or ipads?". When I said no, he left just as abruptly as he came.
Now goodwill is our preferred way. We found it is hard to get any sort of tax credit to work, so we don't even bother with receipts anymore.
Look into "buy nothing" groups. We have given away about a dozen things we once cared about with like an 80%+ certainty it's not going to a landfill.
Even if someone is breaking the rules and just refinishing furniture to resell, to be honest that benefits me because they are motivated to come get things fast, and my goal of not making trash is not only satisfied, but there is surplus enjoyment from being part of creating new value in an item.
I do the same. We list it for free pickup on Freecycle or similar sites. If someone is just reselling it I honestly don’t care. All I care is that it’s not in my house, I didn’t spend any time or money, and someone is likely using it.
In my experience it’s sellers who have an unrealistic view of what their stuff is worth. When I sell on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, I price my stuff to sell quickly. I’m not trying to recoup my entire investment
I honestly find DENSITY is the core problem with getting rid of things easily. I've sold nearly everything from a 6-person sectional to a small 10 pack of Chinese tea and everything sells OR you can find a home for it on the local Buy Nothing. Usually I get pickups within 1-2 days on all these things.
It is a great case for more city style density (even in Brooklyn which is closer to 3-4 story walk-ups)
For transient university housing as in the article, I imagine the dynamic shits due to the volume of temporary items being cycled through.