Sale site cheaper than ebay?

baconbuttie

Hi all,

My first post here, I've lurked through the forums for quite a while though.

I've been regularly selling things on ebay for years, but with their combined fees of about 15% (with Paypal fees included) I'm trying to find a site to raise some Christmas cash that doesn't charge so much to connect buyers and sellers.

Is Gumtree cheaper? If it is, are there less people on it? Are Paypal scams a regular occurence? (knock on wood, luckily I've never been scammed...yet - only be some foreign sellers)

Are other sites any good to check out? I wish Craigslist were more popular, unfortunately in my area it's quite sparse.

soolin

baconbuttie wrote: »

Hi all,

My first post here, I've lurked through the forums for quite a while though.

I've been regularly selling things on ebay for years, but with their combined fees of about 15% (with Paypal fees included) I'm trying to find a site to raise some Christmas cash that doesn't charge so much to connect buyers and sellers.

Is Gumtree cheaper? If it is, are there less people on it? Are Paypal scams a regular occurence? (knock on wood, luckily I've never been scammed...yet - only be some foreign sellers)

Are other sites any good to check out? I wish Craigslist were more popular, unfortunately in my area it's quite sparse.

Gumtree is also an ebay brand and is aimed at a different market. It is really only for face to face cash sales and things ar esold within regions. It is ideal for larg eitems that you want to inists are paid for in cash, not so uistable for odds and ends easily posted.

I used to get about one sale a month on there, but haven't managed to sell anything now for almost a year, so rarely bother uploading anything at all. The other issue is that you need to continually upload as unless you pay to stay on the first page you just go into a melting pot of posts and can easily be missed in popular areas.

Scammers are rife, just have a read of some of the threads here on MSE about the fake 'you have funds' emails.

lindseykim13

try the selling forums depending on what items you have to sell, you will have to be prepared to be flexible though with no feedback-giving potential buyer your ebay id ect to prove who you are.
Hotukdeals have a good for sale thread-couple of the baby websites if you have kids stuff-cloth nappy tree.
Can't think off the top of my head-but try google for help-some of them are bussier than others.

baconbuttie

Thanks, I wasn't aware that Gumtree is owned by ebay (and I just remember Craigslist is owned by them as well!). I'll have to have a look at my local Gumtree area and see how active it is, since I do have a couple of large things I want to sell (snowboard, etc.).

melliott1963

Try preloved as well. I've sold a few items on here and not had any problems.

Big_W

Gumtree is free for private sellers, so it does no harm to try it. Being primarily for local sales, it doesn't have anything like the audience eBay has though. My experience of it (Midlands) has been that it seems OK for routine popular stuff like TVs, cheap computers/laptops, old cars, etc, but there's little interest in anything "specialist" - a snowboard may fall in the latter category.

OP - if advertising on Gumtree, be careful about your location - Gumtree have in the past been quite strict about posting to another city's site, even if it's nearby - frustrating for you in Burton if you want to post on the Nottingham site, which rather more active than, say, Derby's.

The scam replies are ever-present when advertising valuable stuff, but easy to avoid - just (as I do) ignore any replies that refer only to your "item" with no specific mention of the thing you're actually selling.

r748spx

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JackieRHE

I have heard of people selling on facebook before but how does it work - can anyone assist?

narabanekeater

Jackie you join your local selling site on FB theres a good 3-4 where I am. You then write up your description and add photos etc and your asking price. People collect from you. Ive sold a few of my childrens old toys in this way

soolin

narabanekeater wrote: »

Jackie you join your local selling site on FB theres a good 3-4 where I am. You then write up your description and add photos etc and your asking price. People collect from you. Ive sold a few of my childrens old toys in this way

I do OK on Facebook, but not the same stuff I sell on ebay really. OP, just search for your local town,or area and use words like 'selling' or 'sales' in the title to find the selling pages. I have found about 8 locally to me, al with different rules and some have really stroppy admin, but others are really nice.

I do however have about a 50% failure rate of people saying they are going to collect and then not bothering