Sometimes you will have an item (or items) that doesn't want to sell on eBay. It leaves the question, what do I do now? What to do with items that haven't sold on eBay? My answer, there are several ways in which you can still make money from these items.
An item isn't selling, change tactics
An item that isn't selling can be very annoying, especially when you know it is something that usually does well.
As such you should keep an eye on your items and when you notice that an item isn't selling, getting views or watchers then you will need to alter something for that item.
- Take better photographs, do a better description or a better title.
- Altering the price or turning best offer on. This can work great if the item does have watchers because they are alerted about the price change.
- Do a sale on the items that aren't selling.
- Try the items via the eBay auction.
How long you leave you items on will depend from person to person, and after all you never know when an item will also suddenly sell. My wife and I base ours off of how long has the item been listed for and how many views the item has.
Sell on alternative sites
Although eBay is the most common and popular platform to sell items online it isn't the only one.
The more places that you try to sell on then the more chances you have to sell the item and some places are better for certain items than others.
I would usually recommend not to create too much work for yourself and have the same item listed at the same time across multiple sites. After all it can get very confusing, you will have to remember to remove the item from other sites when one sells. As such I mainly use these other places as backups or too sell certain items.
Facebook Marketplace
Nearly all of us use Facebook, and it is a great tool in which to sell items. There is the Marketplace and also various local and specific item groups where you can buy and sell items from. Putting an item on is very simple and you can sell items very quickly. There are also groups were if you just want rid of an item then you can get rid of it for free.
My wife put up a candle on a local Facebook selling group, we had a person interested within the hour and round that night to pay and collect. We also had a quite unloved and weather beaten outside table set which we put on a local FreeBay Facebook group and that was quickly asked for and collected the next day.
Shpock
A pretty recent app but on that I am sure some of you will have heard of in some form or another.
The app is free to download and to use, as they like to class themselves Shpock is a free classifieds app. This means that you will not be hit by the dreaded eBay fees (shudders).
The majority of people will want to collect in person, as the app prioritizes the area around you, but some will request the item to be posted. As such then you can negotiate postage with them and insure that the item you sell will reach them
Mercari
Another new app and one that focuses on reusing and selling used items.
The app is free to download and to use. One thing to remember though is that postage isn't a feature, as such you have to include the postage cost in your listing.
Back to eBay as a ‘Car Boot Bundle'
Sometimes an individual item just will not sell.
If you have a number of these then one of the best things to do is to do a Bundle, Car Boot Bundle or Joblot. The best thing to do with these is to have them as eBay Auctions, rather than Buy it Now. You do not have to start too low either.
This can be a great way to deal with a lot of items in one go, so maybe combine in some of the things you want to declutter but aren't worth trying to sell individually.
As a side note my wife and I have found some real treasures to sell on eBay via Car Boot Bundles/Joblots. One of these was a Singing Billy Bass Fish that we sold for £24.99, and we bought the bundle from another reseller. Just shows that sometimes one person can sell something another can't sell.
Use an Auction
Some items do incredibly well at auction, especially when people are getting into the bidding wars against each other.
My wife and I are very fortunate in that we have an auction that is held twice a week just a few miles up the road from us. We mainly use it as a sourcing place for our items but we will also use it to sell our personal items and some items that do not sell online.
I would recommend though to always check out the auction first to see what sort of items tend to sell well. Our local auction is not very good for selling clothes, even when in brand new with tags condition.
Car Boot & Yard Sales
Car boot and yard sales are a great way of selling on unwanted items, whether it is for personal or those that won't sell online.
It can be a little disheartening though especially if you bought any of the items from a car boot (or the one you are trying to sell them at). However see it as instead a way to regain your expenses of buying the item and any listing fees it gave. There is even the possibility of gaining a small amount of profit back per item, depending on the prices that you sell them at.
The villages and towns in my area frequently hold yard sales, that do really well for the people holding them. As such it is a great idea to keep an eye out for if your area does the same. You will not have to leave your front garden or driveway yet can be recouping your money.
Please check out my posts on 10 ways to increase your profit at a car boot sale, Can location effect car boot prices and Car boot sale tips for sellers to make the most of selling at a car boot sale.
Cash 4 Clothes
Got a lot of clothing and shoes that didn't sell, then it might be worth having a look for places that buy used clothes.
Most of these places will buy via weight not via brand and will accept nearly anything as long as it is still usable and clean.
We use one near us, Cash 4 Clothes, to get rid of many of the unsellable items of clothing and shoes that we have gained as part of a bundle. They give out 45p per KG. It isn't much I know but when you have a lot of clothes and shoes it quickly adds up and they will also accept other items as well. Due to our closest branches location we will always combined the trip with either a sourcing trip or such.
There are several different groups that do this so it is worth researching to see what is closest to you.
Charity
Sometimes you might feel like it is too much effort in trying to resell some items, are in a rush to clear some space or just want to do a good thing.
Donating your items back to a charity store might feel like a defeat, especially if you might have gotten it from a charity store, but sometimes it isn't worth troubling yourself over trying to sell something and to let a charity have more items to sell for their cause.
There have been several times we have tried to sell items at our auction and they haven't sold, so we have loaded it back into the car driven a mile down the road and dropped the items at our local charity store, Branching Out.
Leave a Reply