Selling on Gumtree - any success

andy40

hi,

Over the last year I have tried to sell some items (motorcycle gear) on Gumtree (London) with zero success. A couple of people have contacted me but never turned up.
I have tried dropping the price quite a bit. I realise that Im not guaranteed a sale but I expected a little more interest.

What is the general opinion on selling on Gumtree, does it work?

I have used some of the other sections, and Im not very impressed with it, you really do seem to get what you pay for.

Opinions welcome.

ukjoel

My personal view is its pretty much a waste of time and is heavily loaded with scammers.
Every day I do a countywide search and see the same adverts for either pets (puppies, kittens, birds etc) in every city in the area. The same happens with far too cheap Iphones and playstations.

Gumtree done want to know and everytime they delete an ad another two appear.

From a selling perspective I have put loads of stuff on and again very little sold. I think its because the search options are much poorer than ebay (who own gumtree) and most peoples items drop off after a few days.

In theory its a great idea but in practice pretty poor. From a buyers perspective I like it as I get things on there much cheaper than ebay.

kev.s

waste of time IMO, full of dodgy items

mobile48

As a buyer I've been disappointed in Gum Tree high prices and one seller I contacted wanted to charge extra for the box an electrical item came in.

Are there any better free local sites - viva street of loot - or do the same comments apply to these also? In relationship to motorcycle gear what is the best site to sell on - is it ebay, auto trader or another?

soolin

I usually have a number of things listed on there, I have around 5 items on at the moment that I listed in the week. In the past couple of years I have had two sales and both sales were to absolutely lovely people who could not have bene friendlier or more helpful. However i do get a lot of scam mails which I just ignore, they are easy to spot though as they are a generic 'I want your item how much to ship please' and they obviously have no idea what they are actually responding to.

So for turnover it is really useless but the scam issue is easy to overome if you remember that it should all be cash on collection.

jonnypb

was ok a few years back but now full of scammers and time wasters

gravitytolls

I hardly ever sell anything on gumtree these days, nor find anything I want to buy either!

However, Facebook now has pages dedicated to wanted and for sale ads within local regions, so that may be a better bet, and Cheapcycle might be worth a shot too.

TBH, if it's freeads, it's worth a go, you might be lucky.

padington

Ebay bought gumtree.com and ran it into the ground. Just like how oil companies buy innovative energy patents to ensure they never see the light of day. Such practice should be illegal but its not. Thankfully facebook is now pioneering the concept of the free market.

[Deleted User]

Its been a great site for finding tenants but not tried selling anything on it.

TUS

I'm going against the grain here, but I have sold quite a lot of things on there quite well. Generally bulky things which I can't post.

Specificially baby related items sell very well. A cot, crib, stair gates, larger toys, bath/baby box - all sold well. Most expensive thing is a HTC HD Mini phone for £280, cash which avoided ebays fees.

A tip: if possible offer to deliver the item to the buyers address for free. This always works for me.

I guess it's probably regional though, in terms of success. Newcastle gumtree is OK IMO.

roddydogs

Sold my Old Banger Free.........Tip Re-submit your ad every day to keep it near the top, and cancel your old ad.