To Sell or Give Away for Free

Just by posting an ad online, you can quickly get rid of furniture, clothes and other household goods. Between Craigslist and Freecycle, there’s always someone who wants a particular item. Craigslist isn’t too different from old-fashioned classified ads, although it provides for free advertising. Freecycle, in contrast, focuses on informing people in your community of items that you’re willing to give away to anyone who will come and get them. But how do you know which will be the better option for an old item that you no longer need?

Nancy Brauer recently reorganized her home and found herself with a pile of items that needed a new home. For Nancy, deciding where to post her items came down to a question of whether she really wanted to make some money or if she just wanted a particular item gone quickly. When Nancy got a new bed, she wanted her old mattress and box spring gone quickly. The amount of money she could make from selling that furniture wasn’t enough to keep it around in the meantime. She says, “Freecycle is great for getting rid of big items you don’t want to move.”

For items that you really want to sell, Craigslist is the way to go, but Nancy points out that it can be a slow process. “You may have to wait until someone nibbles. It’s all about need and pricing. If you post something new or valuable for a low price — like a present that you’ll never use — it’ll probably be snapped up. If you set the price for a used item too close to retail value it’ll never sell,” she says. Lower prices do tend to be the norm on Craigslist, especially in Nancy’s experience. “I recently sold a 20 piece set of stainless steel silverware that I’d used for a few years for $10. The buyer had recently moved into town and needed a set. Ten dollars is less than even a cheap set of silverware, so he was happy to buy a used set.”

Pricing items can be difficult if you aren’t prepared to give them away for free. Free moves faster — and is the only way to post a piece of furniture on Freecycle. In some communities, there may not be a particularly active group of users on Freecycle, but you can still post free items on Craigslist in order to get rid of them.