Cash in the attic

Posted on 17 Sep 2009 at 10:45

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

 1 of 12

Gallery

You may be more comfortable selling online. All the online options require you to go through a relatively painless registration process. Registration is meant to protect both the buyer and the seller, and although it cannot guarantee that you will be protected it's not a bad start. When it comes to the practical business of choosing your online sales outlet, you'll probably be tempted to follow the herd towards eBay. The upside of using this global emporium is that it has a couple of hundred million users worldwide, with about 15 million of them in the UK. Just make sure that you are aware of the downsides, including the fact that you will be up against an enormous number of competitors. Be realistic about what you expect to sell for, and whether you opt for an auction or fixed price sale. Ask for the minimum price that you'd be satisfied with and don't be tempted to extort any more, because eBay buyers and the automated auction-sniffer robots are too smart for a novice seller.

You also need to be prepared to suffer the complex registration process, and the fact that eBay will skim between five and 10 per cent of any sale you make. On the practical side, you're restricted to 55 characters to create a clear, truthful headline, which is the only text eBay takes any notice of for its automated search process. You'll also be forced into accepting PayPal as your payment mechanism, but that's not such a bad thing, as it can handle almost every type of transaction, except wampum and cowry shells.

The alternative global player is Amazon Marketplace. If you have the time and inclination, you should use Amazon as well as and not instead of eBay. Amazon is too dignified for any sordid auction malarkey, and allows you to solicit fixed prices only. But Amazon is not too dignified to slice up to 20 per cent for itself if you make a successful sale.

Freedom rules

For a free option, take a look at http://craigslist.co.uk. This electronic flea market is unashamedly ugly to look at and clunky to operate. However, you get what you pay for - and you're paying nothing at Craigslist. Setting up an account is a simple matter of choosing a password, which immediately allows you to post a title, a description, a specific location and a set asking price for whatever you want to sell. The protocol is to advertise one item at a time, so selling off a large number of items can be quite time consuming. Like the other sites mentioned in this article, your real email address is never visible on Craigslist, and all enquiries are forwarded to you through an automated anonymous service. Furthermore, you can add photographs of your sales items. If you're a genuine masochist then try the global site at www.craigslist.org, but prepare to run screaming for cover after a few clicks.

If you don't fancy paying commission to eBay and Amazon, and you can't stand the horrible Craigslist interface, how about using a collectors network that pays you to sell your items? CollectValue (http://collectvalue.com)credits you with ?107 (around £85) to play with as soon as you register. You can only spend your money to advertise your items for sale, but it's a neat marketing ploy.

First of all, set up a virtual showcase of anything and everything you want to offer. If you have wildly different sorts of items, no problem - just split them into the most appropriate collections and bung each collection in the relevant category. This is a global social network, so make sure you profile yourself and your collected items with suitable keywords, and also pinpoint your location and the language you want to deal in - presumably English. Now comes the neat bit: you can ask specialists from all over the world what they think your collections of items are worth, free of charge. You can then advertise your items to specific groups of prospective collectors and buyers, who have already registered their interest in whatever it is you're flogging. This costs 10 euros a pop, so spend your 'free' money wisely.