When you’re making an effort to rid your home of all the things that no longer bring you joy, you may not want to bother trying to make money in the process. “Oh, this isn’t worth anything” you might think about an old table or chair. “I’ll just give it away.”
But that generosity can lead to a lot of headaches when you just want the damn thing gone already, from no-shows to people asking to hold the item for a week, and perhaps the worst scenario: getting no bites at all.
Reddit user @Magnussens_Casserole offers this tip for unloading your worldly items more easily:
If you want to just give away stuff on Craigslist, sell it for $5. You’re still basically giving it away but you filter out all the entitled freebie jerks.
Other Redditors actually challenged the poster by saying they’ve had more luck with advertising an even higher price than a paltry $5.
That’s because we assume that a free or low-cost item has something wrong with it, and isn’t worth the effort of going to get it. Something with a higher price tag must have value, right?
User Fireflyky explains it well in the same thread:
People see a 40 dollar desk, haggle you down to 20, think they’re getting a great deal, and saving off a 100 dollar new desk. and now it’s worth it to come drive for the discount, and it has enough room they feel like they’re an expect haggler to get it down to 20 dollars more than you wanted to start with even.
Next time you’re listing an item to give away, you may want to resist the urge to “curb alert” it and put a price tag on it. You can always lower the price later if you still don’t get any bites.
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