"Is this still available?" I've now read that sentence on my phone forty-three times in three weeks. I counted. Most of the people who sent it never wrote again.
Here's the background. In April we turned Emily's old room into a sewing and guest room, and last month Josh started his job in Indianapolis and took exactly what fit in his car. That left us with a pile of kid furniture in the family room downstairs that had been sitting there since spring: two dressers, a twin bunk bed, a student desk and a matching chair. We'd already had our garage sale last year, so this time I tried selling online on Marketplace, which I had never done.
How I priced it
I'm not an expert at this, so I did what I do with anything new. I looked at about thirty listings of similar furniture within 25 miles of Franklin and wrote the prices down in the green notebook. Then I priced ours a little under the middle, figuring I'd rather sell quickly than wait.
- Emily's white dresser, six drawers, solid wood, some scratches on top: listed at $120.
- Josh's oak dresser, four drawers, very solid, missing one knob: listed at $85.
- The bunk bed, wood, with both mattresses: listed at $150.
- The desk and chair together: listed at $60.
A word about the bunk bed. We bought it in 2008 when Josh was little and wanted a top bunk "for friends." Nobody slept on the bottom bunk, ever. I mean that literally. The bottom mattress still had the plastic on it until 2012. So I was able to say "bottom mattress barely used" with a clear conscience.
I took photos in daylight with the furniture pulled away from the wall, wiped down, drawers open in one shot. I listed the measurements, and I said in each listing: cash or app payment, pickup only, you carry, and bring help for the heavy pieces.
What happened
Emily's dresser sold first, the day after I listed it. A young woman from Springboro offered $100, I countered at $110, she agreed and showed up on time with her dad and a pickup truck. Fifteen minutes, done. I'll take that every time.
The desk and chair took a week. Four different people said they'd come and didn't show. One wrote at 10:15 p.m. asking if they could pick it up right now. I said no. The fifth person was a grandmother buying it for her grandson, and she paid the full $60 and told me about him for twenty minutes. I enjoyed it.
The bunk bed was the hard one. I got lots of messages, mostly about whether we'd deliver, which we won't, or whether we'd take $50, which we wouldn't. After ten days I dropped it to $120. It sold three days later to a family with two little boys for $110. Greg and Josh had taken it apart in April, so it was in pieces in the garage, and Greg helped load it. When it pulled away he said, "There goes the top bunk nobody needed." I think he was a little sad. I was too.
Josh's oak dresser hasn't sold. I've had two no-shows and one offer of $30. I'm holding at $65 for another week, then it's either going to the donation center or into our bedroom, where honestly it might be useful.
The no-shows
I lost track of time on the no-shows, so I went back and counted. Of the people who agreed on a time to pick something up, nine didn't come. Three of those never answered when I followed up. One said her car broke down, which might even be true.
What helped by the second week:
I stopped holding things for anyone. First person to show up with cash got it, and I said so in the listing. I asked for a specific time, not "this afternoon." I only confirmed pickups after I got a message the morning of. And I always had Greg home when someone was coming, because I'm not opening our garage to a stranger by myself.
By the numbers
So far: $110 for the white dresser, $60 for the desk and chair, $110 for the bunk bed. That's $280 total for three of the four listings. I spent nothing except time, which I'd estimate at about six hours of messaging and two hours of meeting people in the driveway.
The money went into the household account, where it'll help cover our Put-in-Bay weekend later this month. Mom turns 80 this month too, so it's a busy July in our house.
The family room is clear now except for that oak dresser. When I walked through yesterday it looked bigger than it has in years. Kind of empty. Kind of nice.
