Despite my constant whinging about all of the deadbeat buyers that I’ve had to put with from Gumtree, I have to say that I’m pretty pleased with the progress so far. Less than a week after putting 29 items up for sale, I’ve sold 16 items, and I’ve got interested buyers for another 3 of those items which could take up me up to 19 sold altogether!
This leaves me with 10 items that I’ll probably have to reduce in price just so I can sell them, but that’s better than just being stuck with them taking up space and having no functional purpose!
This is by far the most number of items I’ve sold at any one time on Gumtree. I’ll definitely use the service again when I want to sell stuff, but I’ll be smarter about it and follow these rules:
(1) Unless you’re happy to bargain with buyers (and I’m really not the type), make it clear in your ad that the price is fixed and non-negotiable. You’ll still get idiots offering you ridiculous prices – one of the shortfalls of email being a free medium – but hopefully this will reduce such messages to a manageable number. If you are happy to negotiate, then post a higher price to start with so you have a little wiggle room.
(2) Don’t fall over yourself to come to them unless you have a product that probably won’t get much interest in the first place. I had people asking me to travel all over the place because a particular location was convenient to them, but given I live and work in the same place, it was rarely convenient for me. Provided you have a fair asking price, have a product that enough people would be interested in and you don’t live too far out in the sticks, you will find a buyer that is willing to come to you – this little maxim has proved itself time and time again this past week. The other option is to pick one day when you’ll be in a popular location (in my case, the Sydney CBD), and arrange for everyone to meet you on that day – I was able to sell off four things in this manner.
(3) Take some good photos of the products! I was surprised that I was able to move a couple of phones that were over two years old simply by posting nice pictures of them. Upon quizzing the buyers, they confessed that they’d never heard of the phone before, but that it looked good in the photos and was being offered for a reasonable price ($100) – I had actually been prepared to discount these phones to $50 each if no one wanted them!
(4) There are some people that are simply a pain in the arse to deal with. They hem and haw, send you a volley of emails and then disappear, and then abruptly reappear and are surprised (and often quite aggressive) when they discover the product has already been sold to someone else. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a female and have a pleasant speaking voice, but I was harangued quite often in this manner and it can get quite irritating! My strategy was to reply to everyone that expressed interest in the item, and then set it aside once someone made firm plans (ie agreed on a date and time) to come and see the item. Anyone enquiring about said item after that would be told that I had promised it to someone else already. If the aforementioned person didn’t follow through with their plans to come and see the item within a day, I would offer it to someone else. People can get surprisingly precious when they’re told an item is no longer available, but in my mind, if it was such a good deal for them, they shouldn’t have fart-arsed about and swooped it up immediately – I’m trying to sell an item, not make friends.
(5) Think twice about using your main phone number as a contact point. I sent people my ‘secondary’ line, but in future I’ll probably go even further and pick up a pre-paid SIM for this purpose. My phone was seriously ringing off the hook and beeping like crazy all week, and some people had the audacity to call past 9pm as well! I took to turning the phone on silent most times and just checking voicemails and text messages and replying as needed. I think this is especially necessary if you have a large volume of items that you’re trying to sell.
(6) Be firm about the price that you’ve posted. It’s one thing to negotiate a lower price over the phone or over email, but if there’s been no mention of a price reduction and the guy turns up, is happy with the product, but then claims that he’s $30 short of the agreed price (which was $250), you really should put your foot down. This happened to me with one of the first products I sold, and I was so taken aback that I let him get away with it. Well, almost – he ended up paying me an extra $20 over PayPal, but in hindsight I really should have kicked up more of a stink than I did.
(7) Don’t be their tech support after you’ve sold the product. I had another guy that kept on sending me text messages asking about how to use the product, but I cut him off pretty quickly. If they want tech support, they should buy that product in the store – if they’re getting something second hand, then they’re buying as is and should accept all the risks that come with it.
(8) On a similar note, I insist that all buyers turn the product on and examine it before they hand their money over. This just prevents any complications in the future, and precludes them from coming back to me if they change their mind and claim that I sold them a dud product.
(9) Use the My Gumtree feature on the website to see how many people are clicking on the ad – this will give you an idea of the amount of interest there is in the product and whether you should consider reducing the price. This feature also shows you what page your item is within that particular category on Gumtree, which is important in assessing how much coverage your item is getting. In my experience, people rarely click past the third page of results, so once it’s gone past that page, you may want to consider using one of the paid for promotion options to boost your listing, such as putting it in the Homepage Gallery, making it a Top Ad or bumping it up in the page listings.
(10) And finally, don’t lose sight of your final goal, which is to make money off items that you’re not using anymore. It’s a delicate balancing act between recouping as much as you can off your initial purchase price (which, in the case of consumer electronics, isn’t all that much) and offering the item for a price that people are prepared to pay. Do a bit of research on your item by seeing whether anyone else on Gumtree is selling the same thing and how much they’re selling it for – if you want to sell yours quickly, you can offer what you have for a lower price, or you can distinguish your item from other listings by claiming that it’s in better condition (if it is) or emphasising any extra accessories that it comes with. But at the end of the day, anything is better than nothing, so you’ll need to judge whether to reduce the price if you’re not getting much interest, and be prepared to accept a lower amount than you were initially hoping for. Much as it’s appealing to be rude to buyers that offer you a pittance, you’re better off saving that email just in case it turns out to be your best offer!
