I am always (well it feels like I am!) selling my stuff on sites such as Gumtree, Facebook or eBay. There are other selling sites but these are the ones that I use.
My family and friends are always asking me how to do it, or if I can sell something for them, so I thought it may be helpful if I do a little guide showing how to use them.
Gumtree is very simple and easy to use, but I appreciate it can seem a little bit daunting when you haven’t done it before! It’s definitely my favourite selling site as it’s free to list, so it is always my go-to selling site. I find stuff sells really quickly on there too.
I apologise for any blurry pictures! I just screen-shotted off the website so not sure why it’s coming up blurry.
First step, find your local Gumtree site and click on ‘Post an ad’ at the very top right hand corner (see above).
This will take you to another screen. Click the tab that says ‘For Sale’.
This will open up a new set of tabs which are categories for the item that you are selling. As an example I clicked on ‘Baby and Kids Stuff’. Whichever category you select, this will open up a sub-category. Click through until you find the category that your item fits in. If you aren’t sure, do a separate search for your item on Gumtree and see what other people have listed it under.
There is a category called ‘Other Goods’ if you are not sure. Don’t worry too much because people will generally just do a typed search for whatever they are looking for.
Once you have chosen your category and clicked ‘continue’ at the bottom, it will take you to the screen where you fill in the details for your advert. The title is very important because it is how the buyer will find your item. Put as much information in as it will allow (up to 100 words).
My tip: If I am selling something, whether it be brand new or second hand, I put the original price in the title. The reason I do this is because people like to think they are getting a bargain. If you are trying to sell something for £10, people could think that’s a lot – but if you say RRP £50, then they will feel that they are getting a good price. But don’t lie! Just do a google search for your item if you can’t remember how much you paid for it.
Photos – you can add up to 9 photos. Just one photo will decrease your chances of a sale so make sure you do as many good quality photos as you can. Try and take the photo in good lighting, against a neutral background e.g. against a white wall.
Also if there are any defects with the item, make sure you take a clear photo of this. Don’t forget your buyer will be examining the item in front of you. If it’s possible to get a good relationship with a buyer that’s ideal – I have met some lovely people through buying and selling and last month a lady got 2 items on separate occasions from me as she recognised it was me from my style of writing.
The description is very important. You can enter up to 10,000 words so use this to be as descriptive as you can. Point out any flaws with your item. Explain what the item is, if it’s barely been used make sure to mention this.
If it is something that is still being sold, you can copy and paste the information from the website into here.
Make sure you say ‘sold as seen’ or ‘no returns/refunds’.
My tip: I always, always put at the end of the description: ‘Cash only, collection only please’. You will get lots of people contacting you asking if you can deliver it to them, or if you can post it to them. My advice is cash and collection only so you don’t get scammed. Of course you can deliver it if you want to, and include petrol costs if you are happy to do this locally.
Price: Make sure you sell for a reasonable price or it is unlikely to get sold – you can look at how much it is being sold for by other sellers, or maybe half the price you bought it for. It’s completely up to you what you want to get for it, but be prepared for the buyers to contact you and haggle the price. So if I want my item to sell for a certain amount, I will bump it up slightly to allow for haggle-room.
Nearly done! At the bottom it will ask you for your phone number or email address for the buyers to contact you on (I didn’t do a screenshot of this as it would show my contact info, sorry!). I’ve heard that phone numbers generate better sales as buyers like a quick transaction, but I’ve always done it via email and found no problems selling my belongings on there. Make sure you respond to emails quickly though and let people know when they can collect.
My tip: I only give my address out once we have confirmed a time and date for collection. I always make a point to say I am always here but I say something like my husband is ill so this time would be better so it doesn’t wake him. This is just to protect against burglary (which I am very paranoid about!). Of course this is up to you, but it makes me nervous people telling a stranger when they will be out of their house.
Please note, Gumtree deletes adverts after a certain amount of time. I think it’s a month – the annoying thing is that you can’t just refresh the advert so keep your photos on your computer and you may want to copy and paste the description somewhere so that it’s easy to do another one. I always have a lot of luck selling before this happens though. Gumtree will send you an email to remind you that it is about to run out.
Today, someone came round to collect my daughter’s old baby bath which I had put on Gumtree a few days ago! It’s been sat in the garage for almost 4 years so I was happy to de-clutter and get some extra cash from it!
Anyone else had any luck selling on Gumtree?
What a very good lot of advice there is here about selling on Gumtree. I’ve never sold anything on any site, Gumtree or eBay, the reason being I don’t have anything to sell. I seldom buy things unless I or my husband really need them (with the exception of flower for the house, which die off anyway, and books, which I can’t live without, and those I don’t wish to keep I pass to charity shops otherwise the house would collapse under their mass weight – we have thousands of books, and I mean thousands.) As for clothes, I try and buy good-to-last, and look for smart things which won’t date too rapidly, jazzing things up with silk scarves. I don’t buy ornaments/knick-knacks (which doesn’t mean our house is devoid of things, but I inherited my mother’s collection of paintings and ceramics, and I chose the best of those to keep); I don’t buy craft materials as I don’t do craft work; indeed, I can’t think of anything I could sell right now that would make a fist-full of £s (sadly!) I must be unusual, most people seem to have things to sell, but I don’t. But if you do have things to sell, very good advice here.
What we have, however, given away to a favourite hospice charity (a local hospice) has made around *£100 for them – this was through books and two items of furniture which were inherited pieces we just didn’t need nor have space for. *Every so often the charity sends us a letter informing us how much our gifts have produced in revenue for the charity.
Thank-you Margaret 🙂 95% of the things I sell are my daughter’s toys/clothes and they sell really well! There are a bunch of places you can sell your books – if you want to of course!
That’s great that the charity let you know how much they got for your things!
I wish there had been eBay and Gumtree when our sons were small and I had good quality toys/clothes to part with. There was a shop in town that you dealt in almost-new children’s things, but you couldn’t get much for the items you parted with, regardless of how good they were. It was a profit-making shop, not a charity, and whatever they sold they took a percentage, so you ended up with peanuts so to speak, hardly worth the petrol taking the stuff down and then going to check each week if it had sold.
That is a shame. We are definitely lucky to have the selling sites that we do now!
Some really good tips! I have a few products in mind that I would like to sell on Gumtree, so appreciate the intro!
Thank you – hope it helps! 🙂
Good idea – have plenty of stuff that won’t post easily. However, I have only ever used Gumtree to give things away! I must try it as a way to make some money. thanks
Thanks Erith, yes definitely try to earn some money from it! 🙂
Hi! I am new to selling online and then meeting in person. How can I slyly check the money (in notes) is genuine without looking like, for want of a better word, “a$$” about it? The whole meeting face-to-face and developing a rapport is a little unnerving for me, admittedly. Any advice would be much appreciated.
I’d personally ask for no £50 notes, but I’d just be nice about it and say sorry but you have to check!