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Hello Everyone,
This is not my first post but for some reason my introduction post from a year or so ago didn’t get published so I just jumped in anyway. So in way of introduction I am an empty-nester working on selling my own stuff in the process of downsizing.I have not been good about getting things listed and was planning to host an estate sale but had to cancel due to the virus.
I’m am at the point where I would like to sell the bulk of my inventory in lots. I would like to sell to another scavenger who could realize some profit from my stuff. My thought is to take group photos and list on my local FB marketplace as I’m not keen to pack and ship breakables.
Or is there a way to find eBay sellers in my area and reach out directly to them? I live is south Florida (Palm Beach County). Thoughts, suggestions?
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In my area the other pickers are on Craigslist. They often advertise that they are looking for certain items – Legos, electronics, etc. They don’t like to pay a lot so it might depend on how much you want to unload vs try to make a profit.
On Facebook there are groups for collectors (by brand, type of item eg. Fiestaware, Studio art pottery, etc.) If you have groups of certain types of items you could try that and see if there is someone willing to pick up a lot. Some of those groups allow selling and some don’t so you need to read their rules.
Good luck!
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Thank you Christine I will check Craigslist for pickers. I’m not looking to make a lot of profit. It’s probably a strange personality quirk but it feels less wasteful to get it directly in the hands of scavengers than donate it to a thrift store.
When I have some lots put together maybe I will post a few of the easier to ship stuff like jewelry. I think I saw a section in the forum to do that:)
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When someone asks me about downsizing, I usually recommend MaxSold, which is an online auction company. What separates them from other companies is that they will sell ordinary stuff in a person’s home as well as the more expensive items and don’t necessarily have to sell collectables or antiques or whatever. I just checked, and they now operate in the Palm Beach area. I know they didn’t in the past because my parents live in Boynton Beach and I was curious.
Right now, of course, MaxSold is not having any auctions because of the lockdown, but you can check out their website at maxsold.com.
You can have them come in, photograph your items, and set up the auction, or, you can do it yourself.
Whether you do an estate sale or an online auction, you will have to wait until the lockdown ends. With an estate sale, you might get better prices for some of the items, but you will most likely have lots left in the end. You will get rid of most stuff with a MaxSold auction.
Facebook and other methods of selling in lots can certainly work; however, you will probably only sell the really good stuff and you may not get market value.
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+1 to Christine and Sharyn re Craigslist and MaxSold. Where the busy spaces are on Facebook I think also depends on your area. For example in DC the Marketplace has very few members but there are some Yard Sale and Buy/Sell pages here that have members in the five figures. Besides MaxSold you could also check out your local auctioneers but do your research as there are some crooks in that business and of course you’ll want one that’s online.
If you don’t want to ship things you could still sell a large lot on eBay and just list it with Local Pickup only.
Regarding area eBay sellers, there used to be a feature on some website like FlipperTools or somewhere like that where you could download a list of all eBay IDs within a certain zipcode but I cannot recall where I saw it and cannot find it now.
To find nearby sellers you could do an eBay search for the type of item you have a lot of by using a very general search term like “pottery”. Then you can sort the results by “Distance: nearest first” and the list of items that comes up will have a note like “< 5 mi. from 12345” zip code above the seller’s name for each item. Or if you want fewer results, in the left column on the search page down a bit from “Categories” under “Item Location” you can select “Within XXXXX miles of 12345”. You can pick out sellers with higher feedback numbers to get the most active dealers.
There is one big catch with this method – the only way to contact them is through eBay messaging by clicking “contact seller” in one of their listings. And you cannot solicit a transaction to be conducted outside of eBay or put in your contact information or ask for theirs. You would have to be very clear in messaging that you intend to list a large lot on eBay for local pickup and are looking for someone interested in being notified when you put it up.
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