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Old 10-20-2020, 12:07 PM
buddyhu buddyhu is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 8,127
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There has not been much demand for used furniture for a long time, and I imagine COVID19 has aggravated the situation. Unless you want to devote a lot of time to selling stuff, you need to price stuff very low if you plan to use Craig’s list or similar online options.

When we moved cross country (almost 6 years ago), we were able to sell some stuff that was utilitarian (dining room table and chairs, gas grill, chest of drawers), but we got a lot less than the original purchase price (1/3 at most). We gave away lots of stuff to friends, and donated a lot of stuff that didn’t sell. And a surprising amount of stuff just gets tossed: nobody wants it, even as a gift or donation.

A garage sale is also a time intensive option, with same general result: some good proceeds from a few items, lots of stuff sells very cheap, and lot of stuff gets donated or tossed.

When my Mom died in 2008, my sister and I both lived several hundred miles away, and we needed to move my Dad into an assisted living facility near me, so after sorting through their stuff for several weekends, we turned everything that didn’t have sentimental value over to an estate sale operation. I think they took 30% of the proceeds. We netted a bit more than $3000 for a 3 bedroom house and garage full of pretty nice furniture, a few antiques, and all the dishes And kitchen stuff and vacuums and electronics (two newer TV’s, stereo, etc) and old record albums and....well, just a LOT of stuff. Not much hassle though.

I’d recommend that you adjust to the fact that your used stuff doesn’t have much value. Sell the high value, quick sale stuff yourself. Give most of the rest of it to friends, acquaintances, younger families that you know. Donate what you can to charities.
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