Buying and Selling Used Home Items/Furniture

In a few months my partner and I will be renovating and combining households, and we'll have a bunch of furniture that we'll have doubles of - and we'll need to buy furniture and renovation items as well.  I have ALWAYS been an avid Craigslist girl - I renovated my current house almost exclusively with Craigslist and estate sales - but in this day and age, Craigslist doesn't feel like it works any more.  (For example: I posted a Rejuvenation chandelier on CL 10 days ago and the only response I got was someone who tried to scam me using Google voice pin fraud. I still have the lamp, BTW :)  I also tried FB marketplace, but got no takers. 

Are there new platforms, stores, or resources that I'm not aware of?  What's your favorite way to sell and buy good quality but not crazy-expensive used furniture and household items (vanities, mirrors, shelving, windows, etc.)  Urban Ore is too hit and miss.  I like Restore off 880 but it's also pretty hit and miss, and they'll only take three large furniture items on donation.  We're gonna have more than that. 

Thanks!

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I don’t know if this will be helpful but we’ve seen nice furniture sold on 

These sites

Kashew

aptdeco

You can try using mercari. It’s an app and seems to have a greater market for slightly higher end items (like Rejuvenation). 
 

I don't think there's any hidden way to sell items, but maybe I'm wrong. Nextdoor is also an option, but I don't think it's any better than the others you've tried.

Anytime I've sold stuff on any platform, it has to be priced pretty low. I think of it as "something is better than nothing." I especially used this reasoning when selling furniture or chandelier type items for my mother. She had an idea of what they were worth, but items are really only worth what someone is actually willing to pay. It also took some time--I posted some items for a while and lowered prices as time went on. I'm also selective with who I replied to --the more stable/serious they sounded, the better--never replied to cell phone only or half sentences. 

Not a lot of people are in the market for chandeliers --they have to fit a space, etc. I'd price something like that pretty low. 

I like OfferUp. 

I sold several furniture items this spring, and like you, I was shocked (and a little sad!) at the ghost town Craigslist has become. I tried posting my items simultaneously on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and Apt Deco, and Facebook was far and away the fastest and most effective. I sold all the pieces for asking in under a week. The key for me was joining several groups (you can find different groups, ie Bay Area Garage Sale, by searching, and once you join one, Facebook will suggest others) and posting each piece to each group. I was also able to give away a few items that were particularly well-used the same way. Apt Deco seems designed for higher-end and/or more contemporary pieces in great condition; I did get one offer through there, but it was much slower than Facebook and a bit more of a hassle. 
 

MAJOR CAVEAT: While I did easily find buyers, Facebook is RIFE with scammers. The scam pattern that was running at the time involved Zelle. Basically someone would message saying they wanted the item but couldn’t come get it themselves for some reason (out of town, working late, etc) but someone else (brother, husband, etc) would be by tomorrow but they really really wanted it so they wanted to pay for it now and did I accept Zelle? The first time this happened, I just said I didn’t have Zelle but would accept Venmo or CashApp. They suggested I ask my bank about Zelle, and when I declined they quit responding. This proved to be the pattern: as soon as the buyer suggested Zelle and I suggested something else, they ghosted me. A quick google showed me how the scam worked (it involves falsifying transfers), and Elizabeth Warren is taking banks to task right now for allowing Zelle to commit so much fraud without reimbursing customers. So that was REALLY annoying, but once I knew what was up, it was easy to ignore the scammers and focus on the legitimate buyers.

Whatever you end up choosing, good luck and don’t get scammed!

Hi there!

Generally, I strongly dislike NextDoor…but I have found it to be a great resource for buying, selling, and giving away used furniture. Many people use it for this purpose with a wide variety of items (furniture, baby items, clothing, etc.). When we moved two years ago, we were able to quickly sell or give away furniture and home items that we no longer wanted and bought some quality pieces that I really treasure. Generally, folks are very responsive, and the messaging and posting platforms are easy to use. 
Good luck!

You could try Bay Home Consignment for the furniture, or Narrative Oak in Oakland. Also for an online option, Chairish is great!

I’ve recently tried Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, and Ebay (for local pickup). Sometimes it takes waiting a week or two. If all else fails, I’ve ended up putting it on eBay for free or just placed curbside to see if there are takers 🤷🏻‍♀️

I sometimes use OfferUp

I think selling used furniture is hard these days because IKEA has just flooded the market with cheap, throwaway furniture. I tried to sell a high quality Heywood Wakefield couch pre-pandemic and I ended up having to give it away. That said, have you tried Nextdoor? There is a market place there, but haven't used it so I'm not sure how easy/hard it is to sell things. Then there's your local Buy Nothing group (on Facebook) -- you wouldn't get money for your items, but you might find replacement items for free. You could also try holding an "Estate Sale." (Which to me sounds better than a yard sale... :)

Good luck! I would love to see a picture of your chandelier -- we need a new one for our dining room!

I have used The Local Flea, a consignment store in South SF.  They have items ranging from affordable to high end.  Some items have good bones but need refinishing.  They charge a flat fee for transport depending on your location (that means the same fee for as many items as you want to buy during the same trip).  They also charge a transport fee for buying your items.  If they cannot sell your items after a certain period, they will donate it to charity.

I second the suggestions for Bay Home Consignment (does everyone know about this place? It's awesome) and online - NextDoor usually works. I'm loathe to log into FB for anything... 
We just moved and I outfitted our new home with lots of pieces from CL, ND and BPN! And a sofa from Bay Home Consignment. I looked at Apt Deco but never pulled the trigger on anything.