Everyone in the modern world is probably already familiar with the uber-popular auction site eBay. I know that I have done my fair share of buying and selling there in the past. But there are other auction sites on the web that you might not know about it. I was made aware of this fact in the last few days, when two different companies contacted me to ask if I might like to mention about their specific services. Although this isn’t a topic that I would normally cover here on The Gadgeteer, I figure that enough of you out there are ‘recycling’ your gadgets, that this type of info might actually be useful.
craigslist – This is a classified ads site that is organized by country and city. I’ve never actually purchased or sold anything through craigslist, but I know many people that do. I did try selling something one time and ended up getting a bunch of bogus responses to my ad. For that fact, I would probably not try them again…
– CQout is an auction site that I’d never heard of. It’s actually the 2nd largest site in the UK. They close to one million items listed. They don’t charge you to list an item like on eBay, and final fees are less. I briefly browsed around the site and noticed that even if you click the USA link to find local items, most of the items for sale still appear to be located in the UK, but will ship worldwide. Of course, you’ll most likely have to pay a premium for shipping. I noticed that the site can be a bit sluggish to load pages, but CQout might be a viable alternative to eBay. Especially for our UK friends.
– Thirsty Pocket is a free auction client application for the iPhone. The idea is that you use your iPhone to snap a picture of something that you want to sell, and you create the classified ad right on your phone. You can also search for items in your area and contact the sellers directly from your phone. I searched on my zip codeand only had one item pop up within 50 miles of me.
I don’t use auction sites too much these days. I used to have gadgeteer garage sales semi often, but these days I tend to wait until I have a big collection of items and then take them all into my day job to give away. Lugging everything into work can be a hassle, but it’s not near as much effort and boxing things up and shipping them to individual people. I also enjoy watching the excitement when people come over to my area and see a large table filled with freebies. 🙂
Do you use auction sites? If so, which one(s) do you prefer?
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Wow. Must be nice. I’d bet you that you’d get lots of replies if you let your readers know you’re selling something. At least if it’s something I want like a smartphone or whatever, I’d gladly pay you via PayPal for it. Got a Nokia E71 or a Blackberry you want to sell?
@May C I didn’t have any troubles selling items when I had gadgeteer garage sales on the site… I just found the whole process of boxing up item after item a little tedious after awhile. That’s why I haven’t had one in a long time. I need to hire an intern to do that kind of thing 😉
FYI the ratio of bogus replies to legitimate ones on Craiglsist is about 20:1, but if you’re not in a rush to sell something you can almost always eventually find a buyer. I live in the SF Bay Area, so it might be easier here than other places.
Also, I’ve usually managed to make a profit on most things I sell (generally camera related). I never use ebay to sell since their fees are crazy high and (as you said above) packaging and mailing is something I don’t mind avoiding.
I’ve used eBay in the past, and Amazon’s auction site as well. I generally prefer Amazon, since I tend to sell things that are already there. It’s irritating to have to fill out all the info for eBay, and there’s no way to show that you have the best price of 50 different identical items. Also, Amazon doesn’t charge you if it doesn’t sell.
I’ve listed stuff on Craigslist, but nothing has ever sold. Our local Mac User group has swap meets every 12-18 months, and that’s where I end up selling most of my electronic detritus. I buy things off eBay from time to time, and use it as a good source of “market price” when selling anything locally.
I use Ebay all the time. Made a little money at one point buying gadgets that I knew were priced too low and sold them back at a profit.
I love ebay. Anytime I’m needing to buy something, I check ebay first. It’s a great source for memory, etc. for older PCs. I always buy my gadget cases thru ebay. I go to Best Buy and try out the cases and then go to ebay and pay $10-15 less.
I didn’t have a lot of cash to work with right after I bought my house, so I bought my towels, tableware and even my power tools from ebay and saved a lot. I wanted an Indy Colts t-shirt but couldn’t find them in my hometown, so I got one off ebay.:O)
I have sold camera body and lens at Amazon with no problems. Of course somebody from Nigeria approached me to ship there! No site is immune to Nigeria scammers.
If I think a given item has “craigslistability” I usually turn there since it’s free and local. It’ll often sell within a day or two, and I just meet the buyer at a nearby public landmark make the exchange. I sold a Wii and a printer there this week.
If something will benefit greatly from the broader eBay market, I turn there instead. I sold an HD DVD player with several movies on eBay this week, which has little local value since the format is discontinued, but has access to a group of format enthusiasts through eBay.
I have also used Chase the Chuckwagon which is solely for video games and offers more specialized categories and lower fees than eBay. I never use any of the smaller services because of the inherently small audience and lack of accountability.
Has anyone checked out Bonanzle.com? Way cool! Free to list, easy, and QUICK! The traffic is pretty good there, fun to buy or sell.
Well, I don’t sell my used gear, I give it AWAY! you know to keep it flowing!