I Sold My Couch and Learned About Facebook Marketplace

My living room feels extra empty this morning.  Where once there were shelves and an entertainment center there is empty wall.  Best yet, where my couch used to be is now just carpet.  It sold!

I had listed it on Facebook Marketplace, my first "big item" I had ever sold through the service, and thanks to your feedback and advice, I learned a few lessons along the way.

First, it was made very clear to me from your feedback and my own dealings with people who were interested in the couch, that furniture just doesn't net what you might hope or even think might be fair when it's resale.  As one of my commenters put it, "furniture depreciates faster than a car" and that definitely seemed to be the case.

My couch was purchased for about $1700 four years ago.  I had hoped (wrongly) that I might get somewhere around $1000 for it.  I started my listing at $1200 knowing I would need to negotiate down, and while I did get an initial five or six inquiries, the price point quickly became a problem.

On top of that, this sectional was a very unique and specific size.  It's long and best fits a rectangular room.  Many people don't have that configuration, so that made it even more specifically targeted to a smaller buying pool.

Over the course of the week, I moved the price down from $1200 to $1000, and then cut it once more to $800.  I had four people take enough interest to come by and see it in person, and though it was in great shape, it was the size, the color, and the depth of the seats that led those who came by to pass on it.

Ultimately, I had two potential buyers come to the table yesterday.  The first to reach out was the first I contacted back and they came by last night to see it.  They had the right size room and felt good about the couch.

At this point, I'm two days from moving and need to get my new couch purchased.  In addition, I didn't want to move this one only to sit it in my garage and continue trying to sell so I lowered the price to $700.

I felt good about the price, they felt good about it, and we packed it up into their trailer and they drove away with it last night.  I'm glad they were excited to get it - I still love that couch - and I'm excited to be moving less furniture and moving forward with what's next.

My top takeaways from this experience are:

• It's all about price - start at at least half of what you paid and be willing to deal
• Take a variety of well-lit photos from multiple angles
• Respond quickly to questions - there are many other options around
• Let people come see it quickly - same reality as the questions
• Be flexible on final price if you really want to sell it
• Be careful what is IN your pictures - I had CNN on in one of the pics I posted, I and  it did come up in conversations with a few of my potential buyers