The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

PasturesNew

Spent the morning, slowly, listing items for sale on FB buying groups.

My god that's slow going and tedious.

Made 7 listings so far, "sold" one item (£4) to be collected later allegedly.

Got about another 7 listings to go.

I'll do the fridge/freezer tomorrow/Thursday.

EDIT: Just had an enquiry about a dimension on something... that'd be good if that sold, £15.

I'll enjoy this/do more if it goes well... if I've still got a stack of stuff at the end of the day I'll think "what a waste of time that was" Left a bit of wriggle room on most prices, most stuff is £2-3. Ex car boot buys for house display.

EDIT: And a sale I think, something I picked up at a car boot but never really used/needed. £5, paid £3.

EDIT: Well, it's not going too badly... if people do come. Just sold something for £4, paid £1 at a car boot for that and it's never really been useful.

PasturesNew

I've not done this before.... it's difficult to manage.
I need a system.

I posted something and it invites you to tick another bunch of groups where you're a member. I'm a member of several local groups so ticked about 6 boxes for each item.

What I didn't appreciate is that the marketplace then added a post to each of those groups, some of which went live immediately, some had to be approved.

One item, somebody said she's coming at 5pm. I didn't note her name. I marked the item as sold and now I can't for the life of me find our messaging to make a note of her name! So I also wonder if she's got my address now.



I did the address in the messaging section, not on the listing. But there are no messages, no conversation, in there!

How annoying, awkward and peculiar.

As it stands, I have many adverts out there, on multiple boards.... I have 3 expressions of interest/sold .... but I'll have to see if they end up turning up and actually buying later today.

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've not done this before.... it's difficult to manage.
I need a system.

I posted something and it invites you to tick another bunch of groups where you're a member. I'm a member of several local groups so ticked about 6 boxes for each item.

That's fine. Just means that if people are only a member of one group they still see the advert.

If people are members of all 6, they still only see it once.

What I didn't appreciate is that the marketplace then added a post to each of those groups, some of which went live immediately, some had to be approved.

Again correct. Some groups are slower than others.

One item, somebody said she's coming at 5pm. I didn't note her name. I marked the item as sold and now I can't for the life of me find our messaging to make a note of her name! So I also wonder if she's got my address now.

Do you have the facebook messenger app? It would make life easier. Once someone has expressed an interest in your item, the messenger app creates a group of you and your potential buyer, where you can privately exchange messages.

As it stands, I have many adverts out there, on multiple boards.... I have 3 expressions of interest/sold .... but I'll have to see if they end up turning up and actually buying later today.

That's all fine. Just remember that there are idiots out there who say they will buy anything and disappear (or expect you to visit then in India with a freezer in your hand). Also people try and nab things quick by saying they will buy without first discussing with their partner. It may be worth saying you won't hold for longer than 24 hours.

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

Do you have the facebook messenger app?

In all honesty, I can't get on with phones as I can't really see the screen and struggle with it all... it's a bit like trying to view an entire house by only peering through the letterbox.

I had one "buyer", interested, but asked me to hold until tomorrow as they're babysitting... so I said "I can deliver" - and it turned out to be just a 10 minute walk. So I went/dropped it off.

First actual sale/cash sitting here. £7. Paid £20 for that new, but it wasn't something I wanted in my life any more.... so that's one less item to pack.

PasturesNew

Trying to get Council Tax sorted turned into a bit of a long-winded nightmare.

You'd think you'd go to their website and just do it. No. I started, they had questions I couldn't answer, or CBA to answer (e.g. who are you selling your house to, who is your solicitor, name/address).... and it said I was 15% completed .... so then I phoned, long-winded wait. Tried again later and got stuck/CBA again, so phoned again. Eventually spoke to a chap, who doesn't have access to my account, but he's emailed a colleague

I've paid 6 months up to 30 September, so there's a bit of a refund there as I've paid six 1/10ths.

Current status re flogging stuff: 1 sale, £7. Expecting a £4 in 20 minutes who messaged me 10 minutes ago to confirm. So £11.

I might just ..... get a box and put all those vases to charity.

Managed to get one pair listed, not a sniff. Low viewing numbers showing though (e.g. under 10 people viewed the advert), so b4lls to it I think.

Curtains, vases, artificial flowers and a clock to charity. Job done.

Then packing. Then I know what I've got and can get a quote. I have a guesstimate quote from AnyVan of £210 for two blokes and a van.... so I have a rough idea of cost before I fine tune the actual list of number of boxes etc.

Leccy, gas, phone/broadband to sort out at some point too... and car, home insurance etc.

chris_m

Congrats, PN.

Here's hoping an acceptable replacement comes up before too much longer.

PasturesNew

New to market today: Not a sausage. Really disappointing, almost nothing coming onto the market. Most are flats. 2-3 reductions. One reappeared that'd been marked as sold before ... and the old chestnut I viewed many many months ago has just gone on with their original agent, still wanting their £300k they've wanted since January 2019.

Sunshinemummy

PasturesNew wrote: »

I agree.

I'm fast approaching retirement age and still have never had some of the things FTBs want to buy on credit between exchange and completion

I did have a new sofa once, Ikea.
Never bothered with a table.

Nothing is essential. So long as you've walls and a roof and it's watertight and safe.... it's possible to make do with a blow up mattress, 2nd hand fridge and an old telly

Although, to be fair, you can't get everything you want cheap/2nd hand/free because you'd spend hours every day for weeks/months/years trying to find it all and be first to nab it.

But, you can have some lucky finds if you keep your eyes peeled over time.

When I put my house on the market .... one of the "kind" people here blurted out "it looks like a rental" that was crushing

My naughty older sister said that you need something to cook on and something to .........

We furnished a full house with 2 weeks spare time.. and it was all lovely stuff. We bought a large leather sofa a £1 off eBay - the women refused the money. We paid £40 for a new bed, and ended up with another 2 leather sofa's from that house. We got a lovely table and chairs for free.....units, chest of draws, outside furniture... rugs... dryer, washer, dishwasher, fridge freezer.... all free. DS1 had a party there... it had the wow factor...all for free!

PasturesNew

Sunshinemummy wrote: »

.... a large leather sofa a £1 off eBay .... another 2 leather sofa's from that house. .... chest of draws.... dryer, washer, dishwasher, fridge freezer.... all free.

The issue I have with big/free stuff is it costs so much to get it home. I bought a 2nd hand sofa about 5 years ago, was really chuffed until I discovered it cost me £40 to get it from 1 mile away and brought here!

Man/van is only cheap if you've already found somebody cheap, or know somebody cheap, or have enough big hands to hire a van and do it yourself.

I bought a set of 3 drawers, Malm/Ikea. Got the man to put it into my car.... I took the drawers out individually and brought them into the house, then, eventually, managed to get the carcass into the house, but couldn't get it up the stairs, so it sat there for 2-3 weeks until I had the nerve/chance to ask a neighbour.

Ditto when I bought a filing cabinet, managed to drag it as far as the bottom of the stairs, then needed a neighbour to get it up the stairs.

I'm 5'1", weigh about 8½stone and have tiny hands and short arms.

PasturesNew

I've started taking the bed apart, it has to be done in stages as I get overwhelmed and a bit breathless.

Mattress is off.... and I needed to undo 2x4 allen key fixings that fix the ottoman frame/lifting gear to the inside/sides of the base.

Now they're all loose, I have just realised how I built it - and had left the wooden struts in place on the bed base, but now I realise I fitted the base/lifting gear without the wooden mattress support bits in place - and (alone) I can't risk crawling inside and hoping to hold it all up while I remove the side bolts, then be able to get it off my head... I have to remove at least some of those wooden things so I can "stand inside" the base frame and work from the outside

Removals charge £20 to take something apart, and £30 to rebuild things. I'm doing it myself ... apart from anything else I need the space to continue sorting/packing/stacking.

EDIT 8.35: Just reporting back that I removed the base/lifting gear without mishap. So you know I'm not trapped inside it/under it, with a broken leg. It was.... "interesting" at stages, but I did it without a cut/bruise or accident. The rest of the bed's simply going round all the corners with an allen key and removing brackets etc so it stacks.

The bed was the "biggie" on dismantling and also for size evaluation of "so how much have you actually got here?" because until I could stack that as a flatpack and stack all other boxes around it I could never visualise how much space it'd all take up, or think about heavy/light stacking and what could go on top of what.

Although, on the day, I can rent a 2nd container, as he's got plenty, I really don't want to do that if I can work out the best stacking plan... or at least try.

EDIT 9.20: Right, bed's apart and stacked against the wall.

Where did all this stuff come from? When it's hidden away you forget it's everywhere! Can barely see the carpet upstairs at all.