Wondering where to sell your unwanted furniture? Here’s some ideas for you…
When I first bought a house, all of my furniture was either a donation from a relative of something bought second hand because it did the job for the right price rather than because it was something I particularly liked.
Then I discovered Ikea and other places where I could buy cheap furniture so I started switching out my old hand-me-down pieces for that kind of style on a budget but I discovered shabby chic partway through that phase and started buying old pieces to upcycle. And now, well now I’m all about classic pieces that will last so I’d rather keep what I have and make do until I can buy a really nice piece. Can you imagine what a mish-mash of styles my house is?
Anyway, that right there is the reason why I am pretty much the expert in where to sell your unwanted furniture – I’ve literally bought and sold used furniture so many times that I could probably write a book on it.
Before I move on to the best places to sell, I have a few tips on how to sell your unwanted furniture because it’s super easy to list your items using the places below but if you don’t do a few key things then your potential buyers are going to scroll right on by or even worse, turn up to pay and collect and change their mind:
- Include as many photos as you can to show your item from all relevant angles but make sure your first and main photo is a good clear image of the photo from the front on showing it uncluttered of any of your belongings so your buyer can really get a feel for what it could look like in their home,
- Be as detailed as you can in your description including dimensions and any other important details.
- Clearly mention any faults, no matter how small and try and include a photo of it.
- Be honest about the condition of the item – don’t say it’s excellent if it’s not. Lots of people describe their item as ‘Used condition but lots of use left in it’ or something along those lines.
- Clearly state your price, location and whether you can deliver. If you can’t then add ‘Collection only’ but do still expect messages asking if you deliver.
- Make sure to check for responses as people are impatient and if you don’t reply, they’ll often move on and buy from elsewhere.
Where to sell your unwanted furniture
1. Facebook Marketplace
This is my favourite way to sell (and buy) because it’s just so easy to do. You literally just need to join a couple of your local selling pages (search your town + selling or buy and sell) and list your item. It takes minutes to do and then it’s uploaded and depending on the size of your local selling groups, can be seen by thousands of people. There are no fees involved and the people who are buying are local to you so collection or delivery should be hassle-free. Be warned though, this is the worst platform for buyers haggling as they love a good deal and I’ve even had people turn up after agreeing to a sale and trying and barter me down at my doorstep. 😂
2. eBay
You have the potential to reach a huge audience when you list your item on eBay and the listing itself is actually super easy although it can be a bit faffy trying to get your item into the right categories. There are fees involved with this but I have sold more specialist pieces on there in the past where I knew there’d be more of a market further afield. I sold a cast iron fireplace that we took out of our old house to someone at the other end of the country before and got a great price as it was being bid on by a couple of different people who clearly really wanted it. I then had to factor in the hassle of getting in touch with a courier company and packaging it all up for them to collect so the time that took meant that in hindsight, I’d honestly rather have gotten less for it and just had a hassle-free local buyer. Now I just list everything as collection only when I sell on there.
3. Pre-Loved
I’ve used pre-loved a few times over the years for selling but it’s not my preferred option to be honest as I rarely get much interest on there. I know that could just be me but it’s just not the first place I go. It is easy to list on there and it’s almost like the old classified section of your local newspaper but with photos. I’ve just searched the word ‘furniture’ and set the filter to within 10 miles of my postcode and got everything from sofas to dining sets and from artwork to 1950s games. There are no fees and potential buyers reach out to you directly using a contact form on the ad.
4. Gumtree
Gumtree is pretty similar to pre-loved in the way it works and it’s also free to sell on there if you’re just a private seller. I am a member of our local gumtree site but again now that the Facebook marketplace is so popular, I rarely go on there.
5. Supermarket For Sale boards
Ah, this is the old fashioned way that my Mam used to use when she had something to sell and our local Tesco has a board where people still do this. You basically write on a piece of card that they give you what you have to sell, the price and your phone number and you take it from there. The real professionals at this often but out a photo of the item from the Argos catalogue and stick it on which always makes me laugh.
6. Your local free paper
Another classic way to sell is the classified section of your local paper which if it’s anything like ours let you put in a free ad if you’re selling something for less than £100. I’m not convinced you’d reach a wide audience on this though so definitely wouldn’t recommend it as your first choice.
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