For years, people looking to turn unwanted furniture into a few extra bucks have posted on sites such as Facebook Marketplace, eBay and Craigslist. But recently, the market has gotten more crowded, in particular with professional resellers, who make a living sprucing up old pieces then selling them online. For the average Craigslister, it can be hard to craft a listing that stacks up against these seasoned experts.
So, we went directly to them to ask how they make their items stand apart from the competition. Here are their tips for writing an effective description of your piece, taking great photos of it and generally landing the sale.
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Know what you’re selling
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Knowing about the item you’re selling — such as its maker, the year it was produced and what it’s made out of — can yield a quicker sale or a higher price.
Lilly Skjoldahl, who fixes up and resells old furniture on the Instagram page @thefurnituredr, recommends doing a reverse image search of the item on Google. “That’s how I find about 80 percent of my pieces to see if they’re valuable or not,” she says.
While most pieces are easily identifiable online, those that don’t show up might require some guesswork. Skjoldahl looks for telltale signs in an item’s craftsmanship to estimate age. Where newer pieces might be held together by nails and glue, furniture made before the 1990s might have wooden slides and dovetail joints.
If your piece doesn’t have a maker’s mark, but it is labeled with a jumble of letters or numbers, try looking them up online, Skjoldahl advises. She recently had an item labeled with the letters “S, T, R, D, S, T,” which she figured out meant “Stardust” — the name of the furniture collection it was a part of. This information, in turn, led her to its manufacturer.
You can also signal to buyers that your piece is more valuable based on its material. Solid wood is typically worth more than an item made of wood veneer over particleboard, for instance. Same goes for genuine leather upholstery.
Give it a quick cleanup
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Small fixes can go a long way to help market your item. For wood, Jessica Faulkenberry, a furniture flipper who runs @evergreenrestorations on Instagram, recommends products such as Howard Restor-a-Finish, a formula that blends minor scratches and abrasions. Available at Lowe’s and Home Depot for under $10, it’s easily applied with an old T-shirt or rag. “It won’t fill in the scratches, but it will completely conceal them,” she says. “Sometimes I buy pieces from Goodwill, throw that on it and resell it for $200 more because it looks brand new.”
Even a quick cleaning can make your item look better to potential buyers. Skjoldahl dusts, then wipes pieces with a damp cloth or old T-shirt and dish soap. Be sure to wipe away grime from hidden spots, too, such as the insides of drawers and underneath handles.
Take great photos
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You don’t need a professional camera or photo studio to make furniture look magazine-worthy. Your iPhone and good natural lighting should do the trick. Whenever possible, shoot the piece outdoors, but if that’s not doable, at least photograph it in a room with ample sunlight. Whatever you do, avoid dimly lit photos and strange shadows.
Position the piece against a solid backdrop to avoid cluttering the shot. You could use your garage door, a blank wall or a white bedsheet. The first picture in your listing, according to Skjoldahl, should be a straight-on shot of the entire piece. Following shots should include every angle — inside the drawers, close-ups of the legs, shots from each side, the back and the top. Also take zoomed-in photos of any damage so viewers get an accurate impression of what they’d be buying.
Staging the piece may help potential buyers envision the item in their own home, but going overboard can draw focus away from the furniture itself. “Less is more,” Skjoldahl says. “But either a photo above it, a plant next to it or a few items on top gives them an idea of what it looks like [in a room].” For inspiration, check Pinterest and home decor magazines.
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Write an informative description
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To make sure people can find your item online, you’ll want to craft a title for your listing that includes keywords that people seeking the particular style would likely search. Including such details can also show you’ve done your research and help you justify the item’s price. Skjoldahl gives this example from one of her recent listings: “Vintage Kent Coffey Perspecta, rare mid-century modern walnut dresser.”
“It sounds like a whole bunch of gibberish, but you’re just creating a reason for your price, for why you can charge what you can,” she says. “You know this information about it, you’re proving that it’s important.”
In the listing description, provide as much detail as possible, but keep it objective — this is not the place for flowery adjectives like “beautiful” or “stunning.” Make sure to include the item’s dimensions, history, number of drawers (if applicable), any damage, price, payment method and, if you expect a buyer to pick it up from your home, what part of town you’re located in.
Price it right
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Don’t be fooled by the prices you see on resale sites such as Chairish, Etsy and 1stDibs. Since sellers there are willing to ship all over the world and have often restored items professionally, they are targeting a higher-end market. Pieces sold locally, says Skjoldahl, are more likely to go for a third or half the price you’d see on platforms like those. Your location matters when it comes to pricing, too. “Here in remote Texas, I’ll sell a dresser for $300 that my friends in California will sell for upwards of $1,500,” she says.
Faulkenberry recommends tracking the sale of comparable items in your local marketplace to determine a fair price for your piece. If, after two or three weeks, your item has lots of views and saves on Facebook Marketplace but no messages, potential buyers are likely watching to see if the price drops. This is a sign that you may be asking too much.
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Keep safety in mind
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In the age of dating apps and ride-shares, it’s more normalized than ever to meet a stranger from the internet in real life. But you should still take safety precautions when meeting your buyer — including conducting the sale in a public place.
Facebook Marketplace’s guidelines advise sharing your plan (including the location, time and date when you’ll meet the buyer) with a trusted friend or family member. Skjoldahl also recommends being wary of new accounts or accounts without profile pictures on Facebook Marketplace, which may be more likely to be scammers.
Know when it’s worth it — and when it’s not
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Sometimes an item just isn’t worth the trouble of trying to sell it. If your piece smells like cigarette smoke or has water damage, for example, it’ll likely be tough to find a buyer. There are also a few types of furniture that Faulkenberry says don’t sell well: huge media cabinets from the 1990s and 2000s, dining room sets, single nightstands, coffee tables and china cabinets.
You can also consider listing an outdated, poorly painted, damaged or otherwise imperfect item as a “project piece” with a discount, says Faulkenberry, explaining that furniture flippers like her may be quick to snatch those up.
Consider alternatives
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If handling the sale yourself seems like too much work, there are other ways to make money off your unwanted furniture. Antique buyers and auction houses may be interested in taking rarer or more valuable items and selling them on consignment.
Sites such as AptDeco and Kaiyo are another option. With both companies, you can submit photos of your piece for consideration. If they agree to take it, they’ll pick it up for free, sell it on their website and give you a percentage of the earnings, depending on the price that it ultimately sells for. Grace Baena, director of branded content at Kaiyo, says her company is more likely to accept items from well-known brands such as West Elm, CB2 and Restoration Hardware “given their reputation for quality and style.”
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