Get rid of stuff with free online classified ad sites
By Christian Howd | July 9, 2007
We’ve blogged before about the hidden locations in which clutter can reside in a classroom. But what happens when you locate clutter? How do you get rid of it? In the vein of “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure,” give it to someone else. And by give, I mean, sell.
You could go to eBay. But you have to pay listing fees and deal with the hassle of shipping your items to their purchasers. For a quick, easy and free way to sell your stuff online, try a location-based classified ad site instead.
These sites allow users to post classified ads to a specific geographic location. While the pool of potential purchasers is smaller than with eBay, the advantage is that the listings are free and the inconvience of shipping is usually eliminated as your purchaser can just swing by to pick up their item.
If you want to give this a shot, try these two free online classified ad sites:
Craigslist was the original free online classified ad site, starting in 1995 in San Francisco, California. Today the site boasts over 20 million users each month in 450 cities worldwide. The site is a minimalist’s dream, with no fancy logos, ads or graphics.
Kijiji is the new kid on the block, launching overseas in 2005 (Kijiji is Swahili for village, if you were wondering). Kijiji claims users in 300 cities worldwide. The site looks much more polished than Craigslist, but having just expanded to the US in 2007, don’t expect to find too many American Kijiji users yet.
The process for selling stuff with either of these two sites is relatively similar:
- Select a city. After visiting either site, your first mission is to select the closest city to you. Craigslist will default to San Francisco, while Kijiji will come right out and ask you to find a nearby city.
- Post an ad. Both sites have links to post a classified ad at the top left of their site. Click this to, well, post an ad.
- Select a category. Both sites will ask you to categorize the stuff you are selling.
- Type your ad. Enter a title, price and description of your item. Be as descriptive as possible.
- Add images. Both sites allow you to upload up to four images of your item. Adding at least one image is a good idea. (Note that, at the time of this post, I had trouble uploading images to Kijiji.)
- Provide an email address. This is required. Both sites allow the posting of classified ads without registering for the site, but you will need to activite the post via email. This is also how potential purchasers will contact you. Don’t worry, both sites mask your email address, with Craigslist providing a sale@craigslist.org email address, and Kijiji providing a contact form. But if you reply to an inquiry, you will be using your email address, unless you use a temporary email address.
- Submit and activate your post. When you are finished with your post, submit it, jump through all the preview, terms and condtions hoops, and check your email. You will need to click a link in the email to activate the post. Watch out to make sure your spam folder doesn’t eat the classified ad activation email.
Classifieds on Craigslist stay posted for 45 days in most cities, except for some big cities, in which ads expire after only 7 days. Kijiji ads remain posted for 60 days, with no distiction for city size.
Reasons to consider Craigslist or Kijiji as a way to declutter your classroom:
- Listings are free. No fees typical of eBay or newspaper ads.
- Post an ad in five minutes or less. By copying and pasting, you can use the same text for both sites. You can also upload the same images to both sites.
- No shipping hassle. Puchasers come to you to pick up the item.
- Deal in cash. Forget about waiting for checks to clear. Just have the purchaser bring cash.
- Get cash for your trash. Before you pitch something or donate it, try selling it first. If you don’t get any takers, go with the original trash or donation plan.
With minimal time invested, you may be able to get a little cash out of your decluttering efforts. Just don’t use the windfall to purchase more clutter for your classroom!
What tips do you have for selling unwanted items? Share in the comments.
Further reading:
- How to Craigslist Better: 37 Tips and Tutorials [Frugalist]
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