Selling or giving away stuff

[Blaze]

For selling we generally use Le Bon Coin - never had a problem to date.
But sometimes things don't sell so why not given them away rather than taking them to the dump ?
Emmaüs here was overloaded and was turning people away for a long time. However, people are now selling what they can and Emmaüs has recently announced a shortage of sellable items, including clothes.

I've used a couple of fairly local groups on Facebook very successfully for giving away stuff (a lot of what people give away certainly isn't rubbish) but this weekend, for the first time, we've been messed around. People simply don't read the ad - one person thought that "Un radiateur en fonte à 15 elements" meant we were giving away 15 radiators Another came round with a small car for the shower panels, and then said she wanted just one from the "lot". She'd brought no protection for the glass "Oh it can hang out of the back". Some don't stick to the appointment time and even ask if you will deliver when the ad says to be collected

Giving things away can be more trouble than it's worth, but I hate chucking out stuff that could be useful to someone. I can see now why people write "To be collected this evening, otherwise dechetterie".

Rant over !

[ajm]

We have a recycling facility that accepts all sorts ( like Emmaus) and sells them on cheaply.

[niemeyjt]

Dont forget Freecycle

https://www.freecycle.org/find-towns

[Blaze]

Our dechetterie has a recycling bin that will take things like clothes and shoes if their bagged up (stops the manouches helping themselves)

[Nomoss]

It is possible to give stuff away on LBC. You just choose "Je fais un don" when writing the advert when the price comes up.

We advertised an old but clean mattress in this way. Someone came and collected it the same afternoon.

[Lori]

For giving things away, we post on our small town's Facebook page. Most of the items are gone within the hour ! And everyone has shown up on time and been incredibly grateful. Some even brought us gifts (big box of chocolate, 2 bottles of local wine, etc.). I guess we've been lucky.

We did not have the same luck at our previous location.

[Hotrodder]

Facebook makes me laugh. So many items listed as 0€ or 1€ and when you open the ad there is a price. I use vide greniers to shift my excess kit, mostly tools and hardware but with so many people ready to dump instead of fix things they don't have need of tools these days. The biggest headache (apart from crap weather) is someone wanting a 50ct screwdriver and handing me a €20 note.

I used to have decent luck advertising on a regional expat site but my "political views" were displeasing to a few key people so I was banned.

[hughnique]

I have a local FB group but it is a closed group so the market for buyers is limited. I advertised some larger items on there, generator, log splitter, rotovator, not so much as an enquiry so put it all on LeBonCoin, all gone in a week. Only thing with LBC is that even though you state collection only they still enquire from all over, recently one from Lyon, another from Corsica.
My dilemma now is that I have a shedload of fine porcelain, Royal Doulton, Royal Dux, and others, where to sell that, some of it is very fine and breakages through a courier is inevitable.

[MAD87]

@Blaze I sympathise - years ago, I advertised a free double-glazd window which brought a torrent of (English) abuse down on me because I wouldn't deliver, didn't have a photo, etc. Never again! Why are people so nasty?
PS. I still have the feckin winder in the garage!

[Hotrodder]

You do make a point about how nasty some people are today. I assume it is because they don't have to face another person to vent their anger/disappointment/inadequacy and hide behind a keyboard to lash out. This trend is much more widespread than buying and selling.

You may be able to use it as a cold frame in the garden.