Five Ways to Sell My Books, Clothes, and Clutter – One Was a Breeze

2024-07-15 13:07:51

Over the past three months, I have got rid of an inordinate amount of stuff. The reason? My family and I are about to move overseas for a couple of years – a great excuse to declutter. Even better, we’ve made some cash in the process.

Along the way I’ve learned all sorts of tips and tricks about selling, from the best websites to offload books and old DVDs, to the art of the car boot. Here’s what I picked up:

1. Selling method: Car boot sale

Best for selling: Collectibles

Top tip:

Take your own flask of coffee to avoid spending all your profit

We rolled up at York Racecourse’s famous car boot sale on a windy Saturday with a Volvo-load of stuff we were hoping to get rid of. First things first: if you’re selling at a car boot, you need to get there early.

We arrived at 7am and were far from the first through the gates. Take a trestle table to display your wares (or a sheet to spread stuff out on if you don’t have a table). Have a cash float ready for change, and if you can, have an idea of pricing. Better still: box up and label items in advance as the moment you get there the keen-eyed collectors will come crowding round, firing questions at you, which can be a bit daunting if you’re not prepared.

We had quite a lot of studio pottery, which sold first, as well as some rather dated sets of unused wedding china from the 1970s, which went flying off the table.

Less successful were our attempts to sell unwanted glass vases, clothes and random bric-a-brac. My son’s prized Match Attax collections were left untouched, as were two brand new still-wrapped wall shelves.

If you’re happy to sell things for a pound or two the cash soon mounts up – we made about £200 all told, and at the end of the day took what was left to a local charity shop – which meant nothing came back home.

Flog-it rating: 7/10

2. Selling method: Facebook Marketplace

Best for selling:

upcycling projects and white goods

Top tip:

Never agree to courier something as it’s likely to be a scam

We had several pieces of furniture dotted around our house and in the garage that had seen better days: dining chairs with torn seat fabric and cane backs in need of some love; a redundant chest of drawers that would look great with a fresh coat of paint that I didn’t have time to attend to, and an antique sleigh bed that needed new slats, a sand and a varnish.

All were things I’d love to do if I had more time – but I don’t. So onto Facebook Marketplace they went, as did various white goods including our fridge freezer and washing machine, which we couldn’t take with us.

Key here is to price reasonably – if the alternative to selling is the tip or a charity shop, view any profit as a bonus. I sold the chairs for £10 each, the chest of drawers for £50 and the bed went for £100, after I’d dropped the price down from £120. When you list, make sure you include measurements and sufficient photos, including any damage. Be specific if there’s a time frame you need stuff gone by, and stipulate that the buyer needs to collect.

A common scam is for someone to offer to arrange a courier and ask you to pay for insurance for safe delivery, and then disappear after you’ve made a card payment. If you can, ask for cash, or request that a buyer make a bank transfer when they come to collect – and make sure the money has hit your account before they drive away.

Flog-it rating:

8/10

3.

Selling method: Vinted

Best for selling:

high street fashion

Top tip:

If something gets a lot of likes, up the price

I had a wardrobe bulging with clothes, many of which I hadn’t worn for months, so I got a good – and ruthless – friend to come round and go through it with me, trying on everything and getting her verdict. By the end of our session I had an enormous pile of stuff to list on Vinted, the peer-to-peer selling website: a beautiful, barely worn faux leather and fur jacket to Zara jumpers that had seen better days.

I spent the next few days working through the pile, photographing and listing everything on Vinted, and quickly found there were optimal ways to make a quick sale: show the whole item hanging against a plain background in the first photo for people see; include measurements e.g. length, and be honest about any defects; and price realistically.

Surprisingly, I found the things that flew were those Zara jumpers rather than the Alice Temperley lace dress I’d worn to my sister’s wedding, or the Jasper Conran, new-with-tags dress that had never felt quite right.

I also learnt from my neighbour’s Vinted expert teenage daughter that if something’s getting a lot of likes and favourites, you can actually up the price. The best time to list is Sunday afternoon, or after 7pm as that’s when people are scrolling – and it’s also better to list little and often rather than in one fell swoop, which means you’re consistently at the top of the new items list. But broadly, my foray into serious Vinted selling was a success: I made £150 in a couple of weeks.

Flog-it rating: 8/10

4. Selling method: Sell Your Books App

Best for selling:

books!

Top tip:

Pack carefully, as if books get damaged in transit they’ll give you less cash.

We are a family with far too many books. But not only can we not take all our books with us, it also makes no sense to keep them in storage. Enter the Sell Your Books app (formerly called Ziffit), the selling arm of the secondhand book website World of Books.

It’s super-easy to use – you simply scan the barcode of any book and the website will tell you how much money it will give you. You need a minimum of 10 items or £5 worth of books to make a trade, and once you’ve filled up a box or two, you complete the trade and can then either drop the box off at an InPost locker or arrange for a next-day DPD collection.

The company then sorts through the books, and once they’re satisfied, will make a bank or PayPal transfer. Don’t expect to make hundreds: it’s mostly 40-50p per book, although sometimes you might get a few pounds for one, but the money does add up. They don’t take all books – novels, unless they’re recent, don’t tend to be required – but old textbooks and (unused) school workbooks sell well. Be warned: zapping barcodes is very addictive.

Flog-it rating: 9/10

5. Selling method: CeX

Best for selling:

Tech

Top tip:

Make sure you include leads and charging cables

Like seemingly everyone, we had all sorts of random boxes of old phones and obsolete tech kicking around that we’d been ignoring – until it became impossible to. My husband’s suggested method of dealing with all the bits was to take a hammer to old phones as a way of satisfying any rageful urges. I preferred to try and flog them if I could – so I trotted off to second hand tech retailer CeX.

Sign up for a free membership and they will take old phones, tablets, laptops, consoles and games, computers – basically anything as long as it still works, has the relevant charging cables and is in good order, i.e. no cracked screens or broken ports. They can also wipe data if you’re not sure how to do it yourself.

You’ll then be offered a price, which you can accept for cash or a CeX voucher. Sadly for me, my selection of items were either too prehistoric or not in good enough order for them to sell on – so my husband had fun with the hammer.

Flog-it-rating: 6/10