Sell stuffs for a chocolate?

Yesterday I uploaded my belongings to a Facebook group that I no longer need. Clothes that aren't the right size for me, bags I don't usually use, and so on.

Second hand groups where you can sell and buy your stuff are no longer really popular these days, people have been buying second-hand things less often since more and more places have opened shops where you can buy clothes and decorations, etc. very cheaply.

Although these very cheap goods are usually of very poor quality, many still choose them at the same price instead of a good quality but second-hand goods. It used to be very good to trade in used clothes, I made a lot of money myself this way while my wardrobe was full too.

There is a bit of a Hungarian website where people can sell their belongings at a fixed price or bid on them. There were a lot of bids starting from 1 forint and I hunted for them, as well as for multi-piece packages, which I later sold one by one, or the better pieces one by one, and the rest in a package as well. 1 forint is about 0.003 $.

It took a lot of time to hunt for cheap things, you could say it would have been easier for me to buy clothes in bales from a wholesaler, but overall the way I did it was much more lucrative because I knew what I was buying. I also bought larger packages whose contents were listed and photographed. On the other hand, if you buy a big bale dress you may not know what's in it. You can know what quality class it is classified into and what types of clothes it contains, based on seasons, gender, or just clothing types. But maybe the bale is full of old-fashioned or overly average clothes that you’re going to have a very hard time selling. And anyway, I often got the packages cheaper by bidding than if I had bought a bale.

I only bought from sellers from whom I could buy several things at once, so I also saved on shipping costs.

When the packages arrived, I picked out the clothes I wanted to keep for myself, and I photographed the rest and uploaded it to the same page for sale. Most of the time, I was able to sell everything at a higher price than I bought it for. Why didn’t people buy things at a higher price from the previous seller and why did they buy them from me at a higher price?

The "secret" is the photo of the clothes. I was glad there were lower quality pictures of things because I knew I had a good chance to buy them cheaply. But anyone who isn’t on the site to make a business out of it but simply wants to buy for themselves will see the stuff their photo catches their eye on first.

What makes a product photo better?

Bright and clear photo

Bright colors: the colors should be bright but real. If we achieve a different shade of color by editing, it can cause dissatisfaction in the customer.

Simple, tidy background: a solid color background is best, because this way the clothes stand out in the photo. Also, most people are reluctant to buy from someone they see a mess in the background. Many people even watch the wall, the floor, the furniture in the photos to see where they are buying from. From a dirty, messy house or a clean tidy house.

If we have the opportunity to do so, we should take photos with a mannequin or wear the clothing on our own. A dress spread on the floor or a dress hanging on a rack does not show the true look of the dress as it is worn.

In addition to the photo, of course, the description is also important. Most people want to know exactly all the information, so it is recommended to give everything in the description so we can save ourselves from long correspondence. On the other hand, some people want to buy right away and don’t want to wait for their questions to be answered, so they may choose another product due to a lack of information.

What should be included in the description?

Exact sizes: The size of the dress according to the label and the dimensions in centimeters.

Condition: new / used but in good condition / severely used / defective, etc.

Brand

Delivery methods and their prices

Delivery time

Payment methods and deadline

How to contact

By paying attention to every detail, I often gave a thing up to 100 times the benefit. I bought it for 0.003 $, sold it for 3 $ which was still a good deal for the buyer as well.

Unfortunately, delivery fees have risen sharply over the years. In addition to the appearance of stores offering cheap goods, this was the other reason I stopped trading.

Traffic in such favebook groups has also declined significantly in recent years.

However, a group called "For a Chocolate at Várpalota" was formed. Varpalota is the name of the city where I live.

So in the group, originally small things could be exchanged for a chocolate or something very cheap. Money is banned from this group. For example, a mug or a notebook, stuff like that. However, the group in the city has been quite successful and anything can be exchanged, the rule is that you can request a product worth up to 7 dollars in exchange.

Almost every advertised item in this group will find a new owner. I find this very strange anyway. It would be easier to give away money for something than to go buy the product or products requested by the seller and exchange it. However, overall we probably need to spend less money. I loaded some of my clothes and bag yesterday. Within a few hours, I was able to exchange almost everything with someone. We will negotiate the date and place of the exchange more precisely, but that is a good thing.

This is thought-provoking for me. Maybe I should try to do this like a business again. No problem if I don’t get paid for the stuff with money, because I can even ask for meat, coffee, detergent, anything below the set maximum of 7 $.

Images source: Pixabay