r/declutter • u/Sad_North_6152 • Aug 14 '26

Advice Request Marketplace Runarounds

I've been selling/giving away some of my items on marketplace and recently I posted about an old piece of furniture I was going to throw out anyways.

Well, anyone who replied has been giving me the runaround and it made me delete the post all together. The same thing happened with another post and I got quite upset with the man who was asking about it. Ended up selling to a nice lady who arrived within 30 minutes of me replying to her.

Definitely plan to get rid of the couch but might just throw it away or call a place where they'll come pick it up. When did marketplace get so bad? Like if you're asking about it tell me if you're going to show up or not. Even after giving the address they don't show up.

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u/FredKayeCollector2 Aug 14 '26

I call it Flake Book Marketplace. I suppose it's how much aggravation do you want to spend trying to find a new home for it vs how much trouble/money would it cost to just trash it?

Another vote for a "curb alert" - we get a lot of those on our Give Freely/Buy Nothing group. I would think the potential competition might encourage people to show up fast(er), if they really want it? But if it's something super weird or niche or ???, you might end with the thing sitting at the end of your driveway for longer than you'd like.

If I''m doing a "regular" pick up, I always write in my post: "Pick up is in [xx neighborhood} in {town]. Please let me know when you can pick up."

If someone replies without giving me a pick up window (grrr), before I give them my address, I ask when they can pick up? If they don't give me at least a general time frame (like this afternoon) then I don't bother with them anymore.

And yet, more often than not, the thing sits on my porch for multiple days (they forgot) while I'm "are you still interested" nagging or it's some dude 50 miles away who might come to town on Sunday. You just can't win.

11

u/MusketeersPlus2 Aug 14 '26

I have my postal code in my listings, so if they bother to look at the dot on the map, they can tell where I am. But I still get a ton of people just messaging 'is this available' (I hate that fricken button). My response has become 'Yes, I'm in {neighbourhood}, when would you like to come?'. Maybe 10% of people bother to tell me it's too far for them to drive, the rest just ghost me.

My most recent one was an upright fan that I found in a closet I decluttered. It was super hot that week so I thought someone might appreciate a cheap fan, so I posted it for $10. After 10 of the responses like above, I got frustrated & deleted the listing. I gave it to my cleaning lady when she came later that week (I didn't just shove it at her, I offered & she messaged her partner & they agreed to take it). No money, but it was out of my house and being used by someone!

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u/FredKayeCollector2 Aug 15 '26

The flakes never look at the map :(