Selling the Things You Already Own

New sellers often stall at the same place, which is the belief that they need to buy something before they can start. They do not, and a shop stocked on a credit card before a single sale is a bad way to find out whether any of this suits you.

Start with what is already in the house. Look for things that are in genuinely good condition, that you would not miss, and that you can describe accurately. That last one rules out more than people expect. If you cannot remember where something came from or what it is made of, it is harder to sell than it looks, because the questions you get will be exactly those.

Be honest about condition and be specific rather than kind. Worn twice is a fact. Barely used is an opinion. If there is a mark, a pull, a stretched waistband or a missing tag, say so plainly and photograph it. Buyers here are not expecting shop condition and very few of them mind wear. What they mind is finding something in the parcel that was not in the description, and one of those turns a repeat customer into a review.

Price it for what it is. Something second hand from your own drawer is not competing with a new item, and trying to make it is how listings sit untouched for months. If you are unsure, look at what comparable things have actually sold for rather than what they are listed at, because those are different numbers.

Photograph everything on the same day, in the same light, against the same plain background. It takes an hour for a dozen items and it makes a scattered collection of odds and ends look like a shop rather than a clear out.

Then list them and see what moves. The pattern that emerges over the first few weeks will tell you what to buy or make more of, and it will almost certainly not be what you would have guessed. That is the whole reason for starting this way round.