# No wonder I can't sell my items



## debodun (Oct 21, 2021)

Look at what someone is GIVING AWAY on Marketplace. Looks like some nice things - a drop-leaf table in the back and an antique vanity table.


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## Kaila (Oct 21, 2021)

Wow, that does look like very nice stuff!

I think it has become much more difficult, to sell, *or* even to give away, most anything nowadays.  Used items were once so valued. Doesn't seem like most people want them, any more, sadly.


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## hollydolly (Oct 21, 2021)

debodun said:


> Look at what someone is GIVING AWAY on Marketplace. Looks like some nice things - a drop-leaf table in the back and an antique vanity table.
> 
> View attachment 190359


yikes..that is usually me.. sorry to say..  . altho' not me obviously in this case.. but I do this often...,


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## RadishRose (Oct 21, 2021)

hollydolly said:


> yikes..that is usually me.. sorry to say..  . altho' not me obviously in this case.. but I do this often...,


Don't be sorry Holly. A generous spirit is a wonderful thing


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## bowmore (Oct 21, 2021)

Don't you go over there and pick them up!


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## Pepper (Oct 21, 2021)

My mother grew up dirt poor.  When she became grown-up, she only wanted new things.  She had enough of junk.

The items in the pic look like crap to me, and................I bought an antique gate leg drop leaf table.  I also bought a brand new brass bound steamer trunk to use for storage & as a coffee table.  Didn't buy them at the same time, but the same thing happened:  The first night, when it was dark, millions of cockroaches had laid their eggs and it was everybody's birthday.

I'll never get over it and I never bought anyone's stuff ever again and never bought new from Orchard Street, Lower East Side again either.  Ugh.  Scarred for life.


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## GeorgiaXplant (Oct 21, 2021)

@debodun If the Lord's willing and the creeks don't rise (as we used to say in Texas), that picture will be a giant wakeup call for you. Please just give it all up. Please. For your sake, for the sake of your health, for the sake of your peace of mind, for the sake of a peaceful and relaxing retirement in your new home, for heaven's sake...for the sake of your back and the exhausting labor needed to tote all your stuff out and back every time you have another yard sale. And for the sake of your new neighbors who are probably not going to look kindly on weekly/monthly yard sales.

I've downsized more than once, and I can tell you that I've never missed any of that *stuff* because that's what it was...stuff. And now I live quite happily in less than 300sf with no clutter (and I can clean my place in 30 minutes!).

Many years ago, my mother was moving long distance and everything she owned except the clothes on her back and in her luggage was lost when the moving van crashed and burned. She was in her 50s at the time. She lost family mementos, photos, *things* right down to her dishes and pots and pans. She had to start over from scratch. A year or so later, she said it gave her a whole new perspective on what was and wasn't important in the overall scheme of things.


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## MrPants (Oct 21, 2021)

Pepper said:


> My mother grew up dirt poor.  When she became grown-up, she only wanted new things.  She had enough of junk.
> 
> The items in the pic look like crap to me, and................I bought an antique gate leg drop leaf table.  I also bought a brand new brass bound steamer trunk to use for storage & as a coffee table.  Didn't buy them at the same time, but the same thing happened:  The first night, when it was dark, millions of cockroaches had laid their eggs and it was everybody's birthday.
> 
> I'll never get over it and I never bought anyone's stuff ever again and never bought new from Orchard Street, Lower East Side again either.  Ugh.  Scarred for life.


My mother was the same but had the opposite reaction. Born in 1920 and her father died of TB in 1928. The whole family was thrown into a tailspin and then in 1929, the great depression hit. They were dirt poor the whole time she was growing up. To this day, if there's 2 beans or a small piece of potato left over from a meal, she'll wrap them up and save them for later, just in case - bless her heart!


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## Giantsfan1954 (Oct 21, 2021)

NYC roaches were bad enough... now it’s bedbugs and from what I understand expensive to get rid of!
Nothing 2nd hand enters my house


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## debodun (Oct 21, 2021)

GeorgiaXplant said:


> @debodun If the Lord's willing and the creeks don't rise (as we used to say in Texas), that picture will be a giant wakeup call for you. Please just give it all up. Please. For your sake, for the sake of your health, for the sake of your peace of mind, for the sake of a peaceful and relaxing retirement in your new home, for heaven's sake...for the sake of your back and the exhausting labor needed to tote all your stuff out and back every time you have another yard sale. And for the sake of your new neighbors who are probably not going to look kindly on weekly/monthly yard sales.
> 
> I've downsized more than once, and I can tell you that I've never missed any of that *stuff* because that's what it was...stuff. And now I live quite happily in less than 300sf with no clutter (and I can clean my place in 30 minutes!).
> 
> Many years ago, my mother was moving long distance and everything she owned except the clothes on her back and in her luggage was lost when the moving van crashed and burned. She was in her 50s at the time. She lost family mementos, photos, *things* right down to her dishes and pots and pans. She had to start over from scratch. A year or so later, she said it gave her a whole new perspective on what was and wasn't important in the overall scheme of things.


Then what do I do with it????


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## RadishRose (Oct 21, 2021)

call 1800-GOT-JUNK


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## debodun (Oct 21, 2021)

I did. Appointment next Wednesday.


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## Kaila (Oct 21, 2021)

hollydolly said:


> yikes..that is usually me.. sorry to say..  . altho' not me obviously in this case.. but I do this often...,


Are you 100% certain, that stuff is _not yours,  _Holly?


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## hollydolly (Oct 21, 2021)

Kaila said:


> Are you 100% certain, that stuff is _not yours,  _Holly?


let's put it this way Kaila.. if it had been mine, it would be much more modern and in a whole lot better condition...


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## Kaila (Oct 21, 2021)

Pepper said:


> I'll never get over it and I never bought anyone's stuff ever again


That was understandably a very awful experience, and would change a person's decisions in the future!  

I mostly had very good experiences with buying used things from other people, and from shops, and I was very thankful that I could manage to have the items, when I had very little of anything.
Now, I would be very, very fussy , about any of such items I'd consider buying or accepting.


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## Kaila (Oct 21, 2021)

hollydolly said:


> let's put it this way Kaila.. if it had been mine, it would be........



Okay, I believe you.  _Not your style! _


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## horseless carriage (Oct 21, 2021)

Pepper said:


> The items in the pic look like crap to me.


To a skilled eye, a tatty old sled, sanded down, varnished and covered with a cut to size, glass top, becomes a unique coffee table.


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## Pepper (Oct 21, 2021)

Lovely, @horseless carriage


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## Shero (Oct 21, 2021)

When I first moved into my new house a few weeks ago, a young man walking by asked if I had any odd jobs. Chatting with him, I found out he was trying to earn money to buy a microwave for his youth group. I told him to come back in a few days. He did, and by then I had bought a new microwave. We gave him the one we had. Why try to sell items when someone can make use of them. What does a few pennies matter?


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## bowmore (Oct 21, 2021)

When I moved and downsized, I took stuff into work. The production workers drew numbers to see what order they would pick what I brought in.
I put a free ad in Craig's list and got rid of both bedroom sets. One of them went to a lady who had just spent considerable time in the hospital, so now she had a real bed.


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## Don M. (Oct 21, 2021)

There are 3 "antique" and consignment sales stores in our area, and they are ALL overflowing with used items that people are getting rid of as they downsize.  The market for used household items is almost non-existent.


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## Jules (Oct 21, 2021)

Shero said:


> What does a few pennies matter?


This.  If it helps someone else, let them have it for a pittance or for free.  I don’t want the aggravation. Whatever I sell is snapped up.


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## Butterfly (Oct 21, 2021)

debodun said:


> Then what do I do with it????


THROW IT AWAY!  It is a burden to you and is sucking up too much of your attention and vitality.  Just let go of it and let it go.


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## StarSong (Oct 28, 2021)

horseless carriage said:


> To a skilled eye, a tatty old sled, sanded down, varnished and covered with a cut to size, glass top, becomes a unique coffee table.
> 
> View attachment 190383


Is this in your home, HC?


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## horseless carriage (Oct 28, 2021)

StarSong said:


> Is this in your home, HC?


Kind of you to think it might be. My wife and I used to scour junk shops, antique fairs and many other such places to fill our home with furniture from a bygone age. Back then it was considered junk to be thrown out, nobody wanted it, but we loved it. 

We also had the good fortune of my wife's father. He was a French polisher and a wonderful furniture restorer. It never occurred to me back then to photograph a before and after appearance of my late father-in-law's exceptional talent. That sled is just the sort of project that he was so good at. How I would love to have a before photo of the coffee table that he produced:


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## bingo (Oct 28, 2021)

I hope people  get that before it rains


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## OneEyedDiva (Dec 22, 2021)

Giantsfan1954 said:


> NYC roaches were bad enough... now it’s bedbugs and from what I understand expensive to get rid of!
> Nothing 2nd hand enters my house


Actually two young men I know, one with young children and the other in a family of four (all adults) told my husband about their bedbug problem that they swore 90% alcohol took care of. They each told him during separate conversations. We never had bedbugs but wanted to know how to kill them in case. We were doing a lot of traveling at the time and I had read that even nice hotels sometimes have bedbugs.


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## Tom 86 (Dec 22, 2021)

debodun said:


> Look at what someone is GIVING AWAY on Marketplace. Looks like some nice things - a drop-leaf table in the back and an antique vanity table.
> 
> View attachment 190359


They needed to take these items to the Salvation Army.  They store furniture & when there is a fire or whatever people can go there & get it for free to start over if they don't have much $$

  My DIL is head of Red Cross here in Indiana, She says R.C. will give them $$ for a few days of motel & food, they tell people to go to S.A. to pick up things needed clothes, food, furniture, etc.  All for FREE.  If they go to "Goodwill"  They charge for everything that person gets. 

  When Patty passed I took all her clothes to S.A. They sure appreciated it as they don't get many clothes that look new. I've also given them 3 recliners & couches in the past. They came & got them out of the house & said these will work great for people that's been burned out of their house & have nothing.


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## horseless carriage (Dec 22, 2021)

This is the sort of restoration that someone with the skill and insight can achieve. It's the sort of thing that my father-in-law was so good at. We built our home on other people's tatty throwaways. I must emphasise this particular example is not his work, but I do remember the dresser that he restored. So good was it that the couple who bought our place offered full asking price if we left it. My wife squeezed their finances, she got full asking price and five hundred pounds.


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