Out with the Old, in Batches

Photo Source: www.flickr.com

J and I have been receiving gifts from our registry and it’s been fun and exciting. I don’t know about girls, but I think it helps a guy to realize that a new stage of their life is beginning when you have new tools or furniture that will be used/shared with your significant other.

But with limited space comes the necessity of getting rid of the old. There’s nothing wrong with the old stuff, but it seems nice to have a fresh start with a new bed and new housewares. With that said, it seems like the best way of getting rid of the old items is to sell them, even for a low price, since the average couple will probably have many bills to pay.

Craigslist immediately comes to mind, but one weakness of Craigslist is that you have to communicate with each potential buyer and need to schedule a time and location to meet. It wouldn’t be an issue for a handful of items, but when you’re trying to sell 30 different things at once, you can imagine the logistical and administrative nightmare of keeping track, communicating, and scheduling a meeting with each potential buyer.

A yard sale would be great but you’d need a place where you could sell items without violating local vending laws. Seeing as how marriage is a constant event, I was wondering if perhaps a website which allowed engaged or newlyweds to list all the items they want to sell, with one asking price for the whole “batch” would be a popular idea. This way, they can save a whole lot of time posting photos and individual entries, or even hosting yard sales and having some items sell and some items not sell, while working it the whole time.

If J and I had the option of selling all the things we wanted to sell in one transaction for a slightly less profit, I think we’d definitely take it because we’d spend less time trying to get rid of old stuff and focus on the future. For example, we could create a batch list of all the old kitchen items, a futon, a queen size mattress, a full size mattress, the multiple Ikea furniture, DVDs, CDs, dining tables, chairs, etc. and list the batch for sale at $250 as long as the seller can haul everything.

We’d definitely not get as much as we could selling things individually (otherwise there would be little incentive for the buyer to pay for some things they don’t want), but we’d save so much time and energy that it might be worth it. It could even become popular with non-engaged/newlywed people because it saves time and people can get a bargain. Of course buyers will get a lot of things they don’t want, but if they look at the list and decide that a few of the items of interest were worth the asking price, everything else is a bonus. The sellers could even offer an exclusion fee for the buyers to take only certain items for the same asking price (plus the exclusion fee). This way, the seller gets his asking price, gets a little more for allowing the buyer to exclude some items he would not want or could not haul away.

It seems like a nice idea, but perhaps there are hurdles that I am not seeing at this initial brainstorming stage. Do you see any drawbacks or hurdles to this over a traditional Craigslist post or yard sale?