Facebook Marketplace vs Craigslist vs OfferUp: Where to sell? (2023)

If you're like me, making extra money can be a huge bonus when decluttering. But no one wants to waste their time selling items and leaving them sitting around forever after you've decided to get rid of them. So where can you get the biggest sales impact – Facebook Marketplace, apps like OfferUp, or plain old Craigslist?

I'm here to share my experience, hoping it will save you time and make money! In my recent attempts at decluttering around the house, I had to get rid of a ton of stuff thanks to some Marie Kondo inspiration.

Many went to our flea market, which went well. But I had other things that weren't ready at the time of our sale or weren't being sold that day. Here's how I got rid of them and made some extra money.

Decide what is worth selling

If you've been working on decluttering, good for you! It will feel so good to have more space.

One of the most important parts of decluttering is having a clear plan of what to do with the things you're cleaning up.The last thing you want to do is have them linger or just sneak off to another area.

The traditional method is to sort by keep, discard or donate. This works really well, especially for getting the job done quickly (as long as you drop off the donations right away).

As a big family we try to save everywhere. So I have a fourth category where I put things aside to try and sell them.

You don't have to be that picky for a flea market. However, if you put in the extra effort to put items for sale online, answer questions, and even meet people, make sure it's worth your time.

Good rules of thumb are:

Set a dollar threshold

I decided to post anything I thought I could sell for $20 or more. Depending on how much time and energy you have, you can set this to $50, $100, etc.

And if you don't need the money, don't worry! Save yourself a headache and help others by donating.

The bottom line is that you don't want to say, "Why am I wasting so much effort for so little money?"

Choose quality items

Don't bother with items that are broken, dirty, or badly worn. Be realistic about what will have an opportunity to sell so you don't waste your time and get frustrated.

It can be difficult to throw in the trash things you spent money on and once loved or enjoyed, but when an item's time is up, it can be where it belongs. Try to be objective.

(Video) Craigslist vs Facebook Marketplace for Selling Your Stuff Online

Tips on Selling Your Unwanted Items

Before we dive into Facebook Marketplace vs Craigslist vs OfferUp, let's go through some general tips that can help you sell successfully no matter what platform you use.

Take good pictures

A little common sense goes a long way. Do not have any other clutter in the photo. Your photos should only show the item you are selling.

Make sure your images are sharp and have good lighting. Take your item outside if you must.

Capture a few good angles, including close-ups of any imperfections you want to reveal. Don't overdo it - two to four photos are usually enough.

And that should go without saying, but post photos of the actual item, not an image you got online.

Be honest in the descriptions

Be concise and truthful. People don't want the life story of your item, just a fair description of its quality and basics like brand, dimensions, etc.

Do not try to exaggerate the quality and please disclose any defects. Otherwise you just end up wasting everyone's time.

Set a fair price with some wiggle room

If you're selling an item that's in demand, chances are there are already a few listed. See what price they are listed for and price your item competitively considering its condition.

Set your price a little higher than what you're willing to accept, knowing that a lot of people like to haggle a bit.

If you get lowball offers, just ignore them and move on. They probably aren't serious anyway, so it's not worth negotiating.

Don't mix in feelings

People can send you impassioned pleas as to why they need your item. Take the emotions out and go with the responsive individual who offers a fair price and can pick up quickly.

Be sure

consequencesSafety Tips for Sellingto strangers such as B. Meeting in a public place, not giving out personal contact information, and bringing a friend.

Only accept cash. Don't get burned out by transferring money through services like Venmo.

If you get a weird vibe from someone, skip it. No matter what, the money isn't worth your security.

Set a time limit

Please save yourself a huge headache by setting a time limit on how long you will try to sell your item before it ends up in the trash or at a fundraiser.

You made the decision to let it go. Don't let a delay become a decluttering throwback and negate every effort you've made.

I think 1 to 2 weeks is generally good.

where to sell

OK, let's get into that. When I posted my articles, I had no idea where I would have the best luck. I was used to selling things on Craigslist when it was pretty much the only option. It was great service, but it also had downsides (heaps of no-shows).

I had heard about newer options like Facebook Marketplace and apps like OfferUp and was wondering what my best bet would be this time. want to get rid of things quicklyI've decided to crosspost my articlesto all three.

Here are the results of my little non-scientific experiment, along with some pros and cons of each platform. A little background: I sold items that are typical for a family household. Nothing cost more than $100. I live in a suburb in the southern United States.

Craigsliste

Let's start with the traditional option: Craigslist. It's the sales platform I was most familiar with and always wanted to love. It's great for its simplicity, its anonymity (as long as you don't provide any personal information), and everyone has heard of it.

It's a free, no-frills site that doesn't seem to have changed much in over a decade. The Craigslist ads were easy to set up and update through the web browser on my iPhone.

I've bought and sold a lot on Craigslist over the years. Even a car!

this last roundI found my success on Craigslist very different than in years past. I haven't had much luck at all.There were a lot of crickets and not too many bites. I couldn't help but feel like a lot of the traffic had just gone somewhere else.

I have no way of knowing if this is specific to my area or the things I was selling, but I was glad I posted my items on other platforms. I think they would have moved off Craigslist pretty slowly.

Craigslist was great for promoting our flea market. I know we got traffic from there specifically.

But it just wasn't there for the individual household items, even high-end children's and baby gear, which I thought would generate loads of interest.

OfferUp

After a bit of searching, I decided to try the sales app OfferUp. There are a number of these types of apps, including LetGo. OfferUp claims to be the biggest and what got me hooked was how buyers and sellers get reviews (similar to eBay).

My biggest complaint with Craigslist over the years has been the no-shows. It was so common and frustrating that I often just donated things instead of even trying to sell them because I didn't want to deal with the hassle.

I was wondering if the ratings feature on OfferUp would help with that. Since it was free and just a click away, I decided to give it a try.

The app was fast and super easy to use. I uploaded my items easily and it was quick to update or reply to potential buyers.

Buyers can make offers and they accept, counter, or decline with the click of a button in the app. They meet using the built-in messaging feature (no need to exchange personal contact information). If you sell locally, collect cash for your item at the meet, just like you do with Craigslist. You pay nothing to OfferUp.

Something I hadn't realized when downloading the app is that if you list an item for sale locally, you also have the option to do solists it nationwide. You simply provide a rough estimate of the weight and agree to a nearly 10% service charge being collected as part of the selling price. The buyer pays the shipping.

This feature greatly expands the potential buyers for your item if you are willing to accept the fee. When a buyer makes a purchase, you print the shipping label, pack your item, and drop it off at a postal center.

I ended up selling items both locally and nationally on OfferUp.I definitely got more hits than Craigslist and had better overall success.

The rating system calmed me down a bit, but unfortunately it didn't completely solve the problem with no-shows. As a buyer or seller, you only receive a rating if an item is actually purchased. So if someone doesn't show up after agreeing to meet, you can't give them a bad review!

As a result, I've still encountered my fair share of no-shows on the app.

You also get a lot of offers that end up leading to nothing real. Because the app makes it so easy for people to place an offer, I think a lot of people do it quickly with no real intention to buy.

Another annoying thing is that there was only one option to turn notifications on or off entirely. You cannot choose which notifications you receive. So to get notifications about news about your items, you also get random notifications from the app about things you might want to buy.

"Check out the best deals on Air Jordans near you!" uh... no thanks.

I guess that's the price of using a (mostly) free app. The notifications didn't come very often (maybe once every few days), but they were quite annoying.

Overall, I would recommend and use OfferUp again. It's a solid option.

Facebook Marketplace

I'll admit I wasn't thrilled to try Facebook Marketplace. I've greatly reduced my Facebook usage over the past few years and even debated getting rid of it altogether. Still, I decided to give it a try.

Despite my reluctanceThe items I sold undoubtedly sold best on Facebook Marketplace.The baby and children's items attracted a lot of interest along with general household items.

I don't think I would have sold some things if I hadn't posted them here.Overall, Facebook Marketplace performed better than OfferUp, beating Craigslist by a landslide.

Part of my reluctance to use Facebook Marketplace was because it was linked to my personal account. I had seen other friends' articles pop up in my feed before.

It was weird to see people selling their kids' cleats, old jeans, or treadmills. I didn't want my friends to be bombarded with the stuff I wanted to get rid of.

The settings allow you not to publish your articles to your friends, but I wasn't entirely convinced. I decided not to post anything that I would be embarrassed about or that was gifted by a Facebook friend.

Facebook Marketplace is inside the Facebook app, but I found this particular feature incredibly slow. My iPhone got stuck for a long time when trying to access the marketplace.

If you actually want to receive and send messages about your items for sale, you'll also need to download the separate Facebook Messenger app (ugh).

Those annoyances aside, it was pretty easy to use and got the job done. They agree to meet and exchange cash as on the other platforms.

I also haven't experienced any no-shows with Facebook Marketplace like on other platforms. I'm sure it happens, but maybe something about having your true colors connected to the transaction will help people be more accountable.

They also sacrifice some anonymity.

Fazit: Facebook Marketplace vs. Craigslist vs. OfferUp

Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp offer two good methods for selling household items. I was able to sell things quickly for a decent price, with Facebook Marketplace taking the lead.

You'll still invest some time creating your ads and replying to messages, so make sure it's worth it. I think it's always a little weird getting together to sell things to strangers, but Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp are trying to make the process a little more reputable.

OfferUp's nationwide selling option worked well for things that can be easily shipped, and the app is a streamlined and solid option, especially if you're not a fan of Facebook.

Sadly, Craigslist seems to be on its way out to selling household items, at least from my humble little experiment. Maybe it still has a place for certain areas or items. To me, there didn't seem to be much traffic at all.

The cross-posting method I used was more time consuming and a bit hectic at times, but you could use it to try and get more selling success. Make sure you remove your listings from all platforms immediately once an item has sold.

Just remember to have a plan for items that don't sell within a certain time frame. Try not to get discouraged when this happens. Even if you don't have those extra dollars in hand, go ahead with your head held high and take pride in your tidy surroundings.

Donating is still a good option!

Have you used another method of selling your unwanted household items? I would like to hear about your experiences.

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