First, the honest framing. Every "sell it for me" service is trading your money for your time. The only questions are how big the cut is, and whether the convenience is real or just advertised. Some options here are great deals. One of them pays you literally nothing. We'll go from most human to least human.
Option 1: Local consignment shops
The original version of this idea. You drop off your stuff, the shop displays it, and when it sells you split the money. The shop typically keeps 40 to 60 percent, and many shops donate or return whatever hasn't sold after 60–90 days.
Consignment works well for furniture and mid-range clothing in good condition, because the shop provides something you can't get online: local buyers who can see the item in person. It works badly for electronics, niche items, and anything the shop's regulars don't buy. And the shop decides what it will take; most reject the majority of what walks in the door.
Option 2: eBay Consignment (luxury only)
eBay quietly rebuilt done-for-you selling, but only at the top of the market. Its consignment program routes your items to professional sellers who photograph, list, and ship them for a commission between roughly 20 and 40 percent depending on sale price, plus an administrative fee on lower-value items. The catch: it's for handbags, jewelry, watches, and premium sneakers and apparel. Your air fryer is not invited.
If you have a closet of designer items and zero interest in photographing them, this is a legitimate option. The pros genuinely do get better prices for luxury goods than a first-time seller.
Option 3: Mail-in cleanout services
thredUP's Clean Out Kit is the famous one: order a bag, fill it with clothes, mail it back. It's the least effort on this list, and the payouts reflect that. For most mid-market brands you'll receive a small percentage of the resale price, often amounting to a few dollars per accepted item, and items they don't accept are recycled or donated unless you pay to get them back.
Use this when your actual goal is an empty closet with a small bonus attached, not income. There's nothing wrong with that goal. Just know which one you're pursuing before you mail away a bag with anything valuable in it.
Option 4: "Free pickup" decluttering services
A newer breed of startup will come to your house and haul away your unwanted stuff for free, then resell it. Sounds great, until you notice the flow of money: they keep all of it. You're not selling your stuff; you're paying for junk removal with inventory.
Again: legitimate if "make it disappear today" is the mission. But people regularly hand these services items worth hundreds of dollars. If a box feels heavy with resale value, sell it through literally any other option on this list first.
Option 5: Hire an actual person
Task platforms like Airtasker and TaskRabbit have people who will photograph and list your items for an hourly rate or a cut. Assisted-selling apps have historically matched you with human "pro sellers" who take roughly half the sale price. One reviewer of such a service summed up the economics: a bag of clothes that originally cost $400 netted her about $25.
A good human seller earns their cut on high-value items, where negotiation skill and presentation actually move the price. On a $30 lamp, half of not-much is very little, and you still did the coordinating.
Option 6: An AI selling agent
This is the new option, and, full disclosure, it's the one we're building, so weigh our bias accordingly. The idea: everything the human pro seller did is now something software does well. Identifying an item from a photo, writing the listing, pricing it against real sold listings, answering "is this available?", countering lowball offers. An AI agent handles all of it, and it doesn't bill you hourly.
Offload works like this: you take one photo. The AI identifies the item, writes the listing, prices it, posts it, and negotiates with buyers on your behalf, and it never goes below the floor price you set. When it sells, you ship it and get paid. It's free unless it sells; we take a small cut only when you get money. The economics only work in your favor because no human is doing the labor.
The comparison, honestly
| Option | Their cut | Your effort | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consignment shop | 40–60% | One drop-off | Furniture, good clothing, local buyers |
| eBay Consignment | 20–40% + fees | One shipment | Luxury only: bags, watches, sneakers |
| Cleanout kits | Most of it | Fill a bag | Emptying a closet, not income |
| Free haul-away | 100% | Open the door | When "gone today" beats getting paid |
| Hired human seller | ~50%, or hourly | Coordination | High-value items worth real negotiation |
| AI selling agent | Small success fee | One photo | Everything in the middle, which is most stuff |
How to choose in 30 seconds
- It's designer or luxury: eBay Consignment or a good local consigner. The pros earn their commission at this price point.
- You want it gone today and don't care about money: haul-away service or donation. Skip the guilt; your time has value too.
- It's normal stuff with real value (the sneakers, the stand mixer, the monitor you upgraded away from): this is exactly the gap AI selling agents exist to fill. Human services can't profitably handle a $45 item. Software can.
Want the one-photo version?
Offload is an AI agent that lists, prices, and negotiates for you. You ship when it sells. Free unless it sells. We're launching soon on iOS.
Pre-order on the App Store