Today felt both productive and not productive at the same time.
On the productive side, we got a bunch of things out the door and dropped off at the local Goodwill donation center. These were small items that didn’t sell in the estate sale but aren’t worth a lot either. It wouldn’t be worth it to try to sell them on eBay or through some local online marketplace.
I’m not a fan of local online marketplace sales. It seems any time I put something on Facebook Marketplace, or Craigslist, or somewhere else, I get a lot of people who ask inane questions in email. They ask if the item is still available. Well, let’s see. There’s the listing saying it is still for sale, so I’m gonna say yes. If it had sold, the listing would no longer be there, would it? They ask how much it is (usually listed with the ad) or if I will deliver it or mail it (the ad says local pickup only).
I get people who express interest in an item, only to never contact me again. I get people who go through the whole transaction process only to pull out at the last second.
I also get a lot of people who want to send me a check, especially for a big ticket item like a piece of furniture. They also helpfully suggest they will call the moving company and have the item picked up the next day. That’s all fine and good, but you need to wait until the check clears my bank before you get anything. Not surprisingly, none of the people wanting to buy something of mine through this plan are willing to continue when I tell them they have to wait for the check to clear. It’s like I’m accusing them of trying to scam me or something.
On the whole, I’m just not finding it to be worth all the hassle that comes from trying to sell things in an online local marketplace situation.
The other task was to get some old computers out to the local Best Buy for electronics recycling, along with a small box of miscellaneous electronics components. The wife has been holding on to the computers for years because she had some shtuff she wanted to copy from them. The problem is she no longer has any of the old style plugs to connect her mouse, keyboard, and a monitor to the box. Nor does she have any old style mouse, keyboard and monitor to connect to the box if she did have cables with the proper connectors. Whatever she wanted is gone to the tides of history.
We got more things packed and bubble-wrapped and put in boxes. A lot of it will probably be put up for sale on eBay once we move. It’s a pain to have to pack it all and take it with us, just to try to sell it when we get there. It’d be easier to just donate it all to a local charity. If we don’t sell it in our new home town, we’ll just have to resort to selling it on eBay or give it to a local charity anyway.
Only three things done, so from that perspective it doesn’t seem like a very productive day. But given the amount of things we got out of the house, or prepared to be shipped when we move, it was a very productive day.
I hope your day is going well, my Hordeling.
If you’d like to support my efforts, why not buy me a chocolate chip cookie through my Ko-Fi page? https://ko-fi.com/jhusum