Question 1: What is it?
Items sort themselves by one physical fact (does it ship affordably?) and one market fact (do buyers search for it by name?).
| What you're selling | Where it sells best | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Furniture, appliances, anything heavy | Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp | Shipping a couch costs more than the couch. Local only; see our furniture pricing guide |
| Electronics, anything with a model number | eBay, Swappa, Mercari | Buyers search the exact model nationally and pay accordingly; full comparison here |
| Everyday clothes | Vinted, Poshmark, Depop | Clothing-native buyers, prepaid shipping labels. Manage expectations: mid-market clothes sell for single digits |
| Luxury and designer | eBay Consignment, TheRealReal, local consigners | Authentication is worth paying for at this price point |
| Kitchen gear, tools, small appliances | eBay, Mercari, local | Quietly one of the best categories; a used KitchenAid holds half its value |
| Books, generic decor, old cables | Donate | The hours will cost you more than the money. Let them go |
Question 2: How fast does it need to go?
Price and patience are the same dial. If you have weeks, price at what sold listings show and wait for the right buyer. If you're on a deadline (a move, a lease ending), price 15–20 percent under the comps on day one and cut on a schedule. (We wrote a whole triage plan for selling everything before a move.) And if the answer is "today": instant-buyout services for electronics, "free if you haul it" for furniture, donation for the rest. Speed always costs money; deciding how much up front beats discovering it in week three.
Question 3: How much work will you actually do?
This is the question the listicles skip, and it's the one that decides whether anything sells at all. Selling one item properly means photos, a written listing, pricing research, a week of answering messages, dodging lowballers and no-shows, then packing and shipping. Multiply by a closet.
Be honest about which seller you are:
- The hobbyist: you enjoy the game, you'll do the photos, you check comps for fun. DIY marketplaces reward you with the highest payouts.
- The pragmatist: you'll do it once, resentfully, for enough money. Pick one platform per item type from the table above, batch everything into a single weekend session, and don't look back.
- The realist: you know the box will otherwise sit in the hallway until spring. Your options used to be consignment (they keep half) or donation (you keep nothing). Now there's a third: have it sold for you. That used to require paying a human most of the profit; it's exactly what we built Offload to do with software instead: one photo, and an AI agent writes the listing, prices it against real comps, posts it, and negotiates with the buyers. Free unless it sells. (Our product, our bias; the rest of this guide works fine without it.)
The cheat sheet
| Your situation | Do this |
|---|---|
| One valuable item, no rush | eBay (or Swappa for phones), priced at sold comps |
| Bulky furniture | Facebook Marketplace, priced to move, with backup buyers lined up |
| A closet of clothes | Vinted or Poshmark for the good stuff, cleanout bag or donation for the rest |
| Something luxury | Consignment with authentication |
| A whole apartment, two weeks | The moving triage plan |
| You just want it handled | Someone (or something) that sells it for you |
One number to check before you list anything
What did it actually sell for, not what people ask. On eBay, filter search results by "sold items"; everywhere else, watch what disappears fast versus what gets relisted for weeks. Asking prices are wishes. Sold prices are the market. Every disappointment in online selling starts with pricing to the wrong one.
Or skip the decision entirely
Snap a photo and Offload's AI identifies it, prices it against sold comps, lists it in the right places, and negotiates for you. Free unless it sells.
Pre-order on the App Store