Have you looked into selling apps to try and get rid of some of the stuff you’ve hoarded over the years?
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There are a lot of options that can leave you completely overwhelmed.
The goal here is to find the best app to sell stuff quickly, cheaply, and to get the most money for your unwanted items.
These apps are mainly designed to sell stuff you have laying around the house locally.
If you are more looking to run a selling business, or you have a lot of inventory you need to move, you may want to look into becoming an Amazon seller and letting Amazon deal with the selling, shipping, and customer service.
Problems Using Apps to Sell Stuff
There are a few drawbacks to using apps to sell your stuff.
Don’t expect to list an item and get full asking price immediately.
These are just some realistic experiences you will face so it’s best to be prepared for the types of interactions that come along with app selling.
Most of these problems will just waste your time, but if you aren’t careful, you can lose your items (or even worse, your cash) to scam artists.
1. Prepare to Haggle
With zero face-to-face communication, everyone becomes an expert at haggling.
Prepare yourself to receive some ridiculous low-ball offers, even if you list your items with a “firm” price.
Interactions like this are not uncommon.
2. Prepare to be Stood Up
Even if you find a buyer, there is still the chance that they simply won’t show up to pick up the item.
You can try and reach out to them, but I stick with the one chance approach.
Your time is valuable and if they don’t respect that, it’s not worth the trouble.
You could always offer to deliver the item, but make sure you tack on an extra cost.
Gas ain’t free yo.
3. Prepare for Selling Apps Scam Artists
This is the big one.
Scammers are taking to these apps to either steal the items from you via shipping scams, or even worse, using fake checks to steal money from you on top of it.
Never ever ever EVER agree to receive a check and then either ship the item somewhere or return a portion of the check back to the sender.
Scammers will often send out fake checks that will bounce after a few weeks, leaving you high and dry.
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They are incredibly easy to catch though. The scammer will often approach you with a price that’s ABOVE what you’ve listed the item. Yes, they offer to send you more money than you’re asking.
Basically, use your common sense:
- Never agree to receive anything other than cash.
- Stick with local buyers.
- And agree to meetup in a safe location or with a friend of family member present.
Follow those three simple rules and you will run into no issues selling your stuff.
What’s the best app to sell stuff?
Well, that depends entirely on what your selling.
Each app below will have its pros and cons depending on the item you’re trying to list.
Personally, I like to deal locally and in-cash. I’m an instant gratification kind of guy. There’s nothing quite like going through stuff I was planning to simply throw out and receiving cash in hand for it.
The biggest drawback to using an app to sell your stuff is that you can also buy things. You could possibly end up with MORE stuff than when you started.
Keep a cool head, remind yourself that you don’t need that Bud Ice Penguin Neon Sign from their super effective 90’s ad campaign and you’ll be fine.
On second hand, maybe you should buy it.
5 Best Selling Apps to Help You Get Money for Your Stuff
I’ve found that there are 5 main reasons you would use an app to sell things.
You can sell locally, nationally, instantly, clothes, and books.
One of these 5 apps will cover basically anything you can sell online and help you get the best possible price.
1. Letgo: Best App For Selling Locally
Letgo is going to be your best chance to sell your stuff using an app.
They have quickly become a household name with an estimated 45 million app downloads and 20 million active monthly users.
Aside from craigslist, Letgo will get your items in front of more faces than any other app.
However, Letgo is more of just a show-room, meaning they do not let you actually sell your items directly through the app.
Instead, they will connect you with local buyers and you will need to agree on a price and a time to meet in order to facilitate the sale.
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It’s incredibly easy to get started. You find what you want to sell, take a picture of it (Letgo can even determine WHAT you are selling just by the picture and categorize it accordingly), set a price, and wait for the offers to roll in.
As always, be smart, use common sense, and agree to meet in a safe location. Letgo doesn’t handle your money so you will not lose a percentage of the sale.
2. Offerup: Best App For Selling Nationally
Offerup could once be considered Letgo’s little brother.
However, as of May 2018, they have made huge advancements in the selling apps game and now offer buyers to ship their products to sellers across the US.
This opens up your products to basically the entire country and will let people from coast to coast see what you’re selling.
You can still deal with local sellers only and stick to cash, but if you are comfortable shipping your stuff, OfferUp is the way to go.
The process is roughly the same as Letgo. Download the app, take a picture, set a price, converse with buyers, and make the sale.
3. Decluttr: Best App For Selling Stuff Instantly
Not interested in dealing with local creeps and lowballers?
Decluttr is the solution you need.
Decluttr allows you to sell your old CDs, DVDs, books, text books, cell phones, tech products, Legos, and a lot more instantly.
You download the app and scan the items you want to sell. Decluttr will tell you price they are willing to pay for them and will send you a free shipping label to send your stuff directly to them.
Once your box arrives, Decluttr will send you your payment instantly.
Decluttr allows you to dump your old stuff in a box, drop it in the mail, and get a nice payment for it.
It’s as easy as it gets.
4. Poshmark: Best App For Selling Clothes
If you’ve got a pile of clothes that don’t fit anymore (because you’ve crushed your New Year’s Resolution to drop 25 pounds obviously) and are taking up too much room in your closet, Poshmark is for you.
Poshmark mainly deals in women’s clothes and accessories, but you will find all kinds of categories including: men’s, children’s, handbags, shoes, makeup, and jewelry.
The app works the same as all the others.
Take a picture, list it in the marketplace, and wait for a buyer.
Poshmark does have a national audience. This means you will be shipping your products to a customer once you have a buyer.
You will not have to worry about shipping costs though. Poshmark will send you a pre-paid label for expedited shipping.
You will also have purchase protections and the added bonus of not having to find a time a place to meet someone in person.
There are fees unfortunately. Poshmark will take $2.95 on sales under $15 and 20% of the sale price for anything over $15.
You can also opt to keep your money on Poshmark and make more purchases there, essentially trading your clothes for other clothes or accessories. You have all this extra room now, why not splurge?
5. Bookscouter: Best App For Selling Books
With Bookscoutr, you give them the ISBN of the book you want to sell, and they instantly search 42 different vendors to find you the best possible price for your old books.
You don’t have to worry about finding the best price yourself, Bookscoutr handles all of that.
Most college bookstores will offer to buy back your textbooks for pennies on the dollar.
It’s insane how much they charge you to buy them and for how little they’ll give you in return.
Check with Bookscoutr first to get the best possible prices for all of your old books and textbooks.
You can also search for new ones to buy. The search works both ways and will search the same vendors and give you the lowest possible prices.
The Bottom Line
Finding the right app to sell your old junk shouldn’t be difficult.
No matter which app you choose, you’ll be receiving money for things that would have otherwise sat there and collected dust.
You’ll have more room and more money.
Just don’t use this as an opportunity to buy more stuff.
Steve,
Great post. I didn’t know these kinds of options were available. Thanks for the information. You may have just helped me to sell a motorcycle. I’m giving Letgo a try, on that; I need to sell the bike locally and it looks like just the app for the job.
I’ll have to keep you posted! Thanks again.
Kevin
Hi Steve,
Fabulous article on 5 best selling apps to get money for your stuff. I’ve looked at Letgo before as well as Offerup. I didn’t realize that you could now go national with Offerup, that’s a nice bonus.
I know this isn’t an app but I’ve had good success with Craigslist selling things locally. So far I haven’t been stood up and always meet folks at a public place. I’ve even sold contacts!
The app I’m going to have to try out is declutter. That looks like an absolutely fabulous concept, almost too good to be true. I’m guessing you don’t get a lot for your old stuff but as long as you get something and they pay to ship it, it’s a win-win in my book.
Thanks again,
Mat A.
Steve another stunning review. You never realize how much of your old junk is actually worth something than when you put something up on one of these apps. It can go quickly from one item to twenty listed and soon the spring cleaning is a lot easier and you have enough funds to take a vacation or buy that season ticket or a new dress. Depending on male or female of course. Of the apps the one I am most familiar with is LetGo but they all sound interesting especially BookScouter which could put some new shine on our old books or be a source for the budding bibliophile. Again a great review.
You’re right. While I’ve made some money selling stuff from my closet, I really can’t see how these apps can be used for generating long term income.
I’ve friends who go around buying (cheaper) stuff and list the items at slightly higher prices, but they don’t necessary sell fast all the time. Even on Poshmark, you’ll encounter a lot of haggling and I feel it’s not worth the effort sometimes.
These apps are great if you have some old stuff you need to get rid of and want some money for things you’d otherwise give or throw away. It’s not really much of a job.
I cant stand! selling apps there have been so many times I was stood up or people tried arguing with me over my selling price even though I wasnt selling it full price to begin with, I think it’s just better to go to a store like Clothing revival where they give you cash for your clothes or even if they dont want it they donate it somewhere nice,too many issues with selling apps, your so right.