PUTTING OFFERUP ON THE TABLE

When the piles grow too big, OfferUp.

There’s an adage that goes like this: When you don’t have anything, everything looks good.

Offer Up, or offerup, is a portal between the haves and have nots, where both sides work to make the best deal.

More than haves and have nots, offerup shows communities in transition.

No one is more transitional than those downsizing to an Over 55 condo, or retirement community.

Or newly weds moving in together with duplicate furniture, students leaving school, and GenXers moving cross country who need more room in the van.

You don’t need the same stuff where you’re headed?

OfferUp, brothers and sisters. Here’s what to expect:You download the app to your smart phone, then do a quick inventory on what you might post to “My Offers.”

From the table in the top pic you could list chairs, table cloths, dishes, nappies, even the table.

After you make the call, and your spouse agrees or disagrees, take a nice picture. Take four to show the best sides.

Pick a category and write a short description.

Come up with a price. This works if you compare your stuff with similar things already offered. Skip the comparison and you’ll either go too high and wait to make the sale, or go low and sell right away.

The last one might give you seller’s remorse. If not, you’ll still be shocked at the amount of stuff floating around your area.

For the pictures, make sure one includes the makers mark, or decal. People like positive ID. In the description, include dimensions, and a size reference like a ruler.

Put your offer up and wait for the cha-ching to ring. It’s a nice sound.

OfferUp Insecurities

I put a eight hundred dollar chair up for half the price.

No cha-ching. Is $400 too much for a ten year old chair?

The market answer was a resounding YES.

The correct price turned out to be $85, which was great, but the sale happened after about four nibbles.

Not everyone is comfortable dealing with nibbles. When someone is in buying mode, and they want to buy that chair, wouldn’t you expect it to work out?

One potential new owner got right to the point before meeting and low balled the chair by twenty bucks.

No sale.

The next buyer “really, really, really, wanted it,” but they were out of town. So I said I’d save it for them.

The first meeting didn’t work out when the baby sitter didn’t show up. The second meeting got canceled because they had home decorators show up early. The third meeting didn’t happen because they were going out of town.

Their last message was, “Alas, our meeting was not to be,” like we’re in King Arthur legends and the Round Table, not furniture shopping.

I offered to deliver the chair for another twenty bucks? Crickets.

The next buyer agreed to the price and time and place. Then they messaged to say they were running late, could I meet them at their bank?

Try and remain firm on the deal. If you’ve got the time and place, stick to it.

My place of business is the parking lot of a gas station. I tell others to meet in the local police department parking lot to be safe.

The buyer came for the chair, sat in it, loved it, handed over the cash, and left with the chair in their car.

Patience is a big deal here. You’re meeting strangers who may or may not be as authentic as they were on the app.

You need to stand your ground and make a deal, or leave if they game the agreed deal and you don’t feel like playing.

Making deals on OfferUp leaves plenty of leeway on both ends. You can be hard line, or soft. You’re the boss.

I sold a push mower to a lady with a teen son. They both showed up at the gas station. She was willing to pay more because she was late. I had the choice of keeping the money, or giving the sale price money to the kid as a down payment on the next five lawn jobs for his mom.

What other platform gives you that sort of latitude?

The tall boy dresser I bought said ‘buyer pick up’ in the ad. So I did.

The thought of ending up in a Silence of the Lambs house briefly crossed my mind while I drove around lost.

The owner of the dresser guided me with directions like, “My house is not on the same street as the address.”

Was I lost, or was her house lost?????

Of course I drove by the address five times before I realized it was the right one.

The owner helped me load up.

Too often new users reflect on the wrong thing in making a deal. This isn’t the Dollar Store where nothing has a price tag. I think you know why.

It’s not a department store where you see what you want, buy it, and wait for delivery.

Instead, you are part boss, part customer. The blurred edges leave you wondering how to bend the experience your way.

Whether buying or selling, agree to a price and bring enough money. Be ready to make change if someone says they only have twenties.

Put your ‘Git ‘Er Done’ schtick away when you meet the other person. You’ve got a deal to execute, not a deal to adjust. You’ve make your best deal, so have they.

If you have buyers remorse, learn to live with it.

My new dresser looked like solid oak, not oak veneer over press board. No dovetail joints should have been the giveaway. The real giveaway was the price.

You are responsible for your own good sense, not some online company you want to blame for not checking things closer.

Go ahead and throw things online and wait for results. Maybe complain if things go sideways.

Like everything else, you’ll get better the more you do it.

Make no mistake, the harder you work at it, the happier you’ll be. But you already know that, don’t you?