Sell Stuff Online: The Best Sites and Apps

Written by |
Advertisement

Looking for the best ways to sell your stuff online? If you want to put extra money in your pocket, there’s no shortage of apps and websites that will help you sell your unwanted items.

In this article, we’ll cut through the clutter and give you the best ways to sell stuff online for top dollar  — anything from furniture to clothes to accessories to used electronics.

Best Ways to Sell Your Stuff Online

General Online Marketplaces

eBay

You can’t talk about selling items online without mentioning eBay. The popular online marketplace has been at the forefront of selling used merchandise on the internet since the 1990s.

To get started, you simply create an account, list your items, upload pictures, and then you’re up and running! You have instant access to millions of potential buyers.

The great thing about eBay is that you can sell pretty much anything there: collectible toys to designer handbags to a spare engine — even cars.

eBay's interface makes it easy to get started selling almost anything.
eBay’s interface makes it easy to get started selling almost anything.
For media like books, eBay will automatically recognize your UPC, ISBN, part number or product name.
eBay will automatically recognize your UPC, ISBN, part number or product name.
eBay auto-fills out your listing for you, including inserting the photo and title!
eBay auto-fills out your listing for you, including inserting the photo and title!

These days, eBay is far from the only game in town. Other players in the market of selling used merchandise online include:

App Marketplaces

If you just want to sell something quickly, there are location-based smartphone apps that help you sell items to people in your neighborhood!

You’ll want to remember to abide by each app’s safety guidelines, especially if someone is coming to your home to take a look at what you’re selling.

Check out these apps:

Selling Electronics Online

Have you recently upgraded your cell phone and found yourself wondering what to do with your old device?

Advertisement

Some people put their old cell phones in their dresser drawers, never to be used again. But if you’re money-minded, you may want to see what you can get for the phone on the open market.

Decluttr

Decluttr is one of several sites you can use to unload old gadgets for a profit. The way Decluttr works is simple. Just log on to get a quote for your phone, tablet, wearable or other tech items.

Decluttr makes it easy to sell your electronics like phone, tablets, smartwatches and more.
Decluttr price quote for phone

If you like the quote you see, just create an account, click “Complete Order” and get ready to box up your gadget and send it in.

Decluttr emails you a postage-paid form that’s pre-addressed for shipping to their headquarters. Just print that up, slap it on the box and take it to a UPS drop-off point.

decluttr-shipping1

Once Decluttr receives the package, you’ll get paid the next day via direct deposit!

Here are other places to get money for your electronics.

  • Swappa.com for video games, home tech, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
  • Gizmogul.com for smartphones, iPods, MacBooks, Android and Apple tablets and smartwatches. A dollar from each transaction is donated by Gizmogul to help build schools around the world.
  • BuyBackWorld.com for game consoles, Apple desktop computers, smartphones, iPods, MacBooks, Android and Apple tablets and smartwatches.
  • NextWorth.com for all smartphones, tablets and wearables.
  • Glyde.com for all phones, tablets and video games.

TIP: If it’s specifically a phone you’re looking to sell, SellCell is a free site that aggregates offers from across the web in real-time — and does the comparison shopping for you. That means you don’t have to go to each site individually to get a quote. But the service is limited to the resale of phones.

Remember, before you sell any phone or other gadget, secure and wipe your devices clean first!


Selling Designer Clothing and Wedding Dresses Online

You can sell clothing on some of the sites we’ve already mentioned. But if you have any designer clothes or a wedding dress to sell, you’ll want to check out these sites to get the most cash for them!

Advertisement

Selling Designer Clothing

These sites are great for selling clothing in general, and designer clothing in particular:

Selling Wedding Dresses

StillWhite.com offers the world's largest preowned wedding dress marketplace online.
StillWhite.com homepage

Selling Collectibles, Antiques, Precious Metals and Musical Equipment

Selling Collectible Items or Antiques

If you have collectible items you want to sell, Collectors.com is a great resource when it comes to getting top dollar. Statricks is another good resource to check the value of an item you have.

If you think you may have something that is worth $1,000 or more, you should really get an appraisal. The American Society of Appraisers, the Appraisers Association of America or the International Society of Appraisers can help you find qualified, local professionals.

Precious Metals

If you have an engagement or wedding ring you need to sell, IDoNowIDont.com is an online marketplace where you can sell diamond rings and other jewelry to buyers safely and risk-free.

IDoNowIDont.com is the leading online diamond & jewelry marketplace where sellers can receive the strongest possible pricing for their diamonds and jewelry.
IDoNowIDont.com homepage

If you’re selling precious metals, there are a lot of ways you could go. You could sell your gold at a gold party, to local jewelers, pawn shops or to mail-in buyers.

Gold refiners offer another option for selling gold jewelry. However, since refiners buy in bulk, you may not be able to sell to them if you don’t have enough gold. That’s why the next best place to sell your precious metals is usually a local jeweler or pawn shop.

Before you sell, make sure your gold does not have any antique value that would trump its meltdown value. When you’re ready to sell, do these things first so you know the value of what you’ve got:

  1. Weigh your gold using a simple kitchen scale. Use an online calculator like Dendritics.com to convert the weight into pennyweights or troy ounces — the most common measurements for gold — to determine its value.
  2. Check today’s prices. Kitco.com tells you the day’s current price of gold as a guideline.

Musical Instruments and Equipment

It can be difficult to get what you want for musical instruments at a music store or pawn shop. After all, these places have to turn a profit on the items they sell.

But Reverb is an app specific to musical instruments and equipment where you can list your items. eBay is also an option for instruments and musical equipment.

Reverb homepage

Advertisement

Final Thought

Getting rid of things you’ve had for a long time can really tug at your heartstrings, but it can also be a really liberating experience.

If you have a lot of stuff you want to sell, it can be overwhelming to think about how to sort it and figure out the best place to sell it. Here’s a tried and true way to decide what you should probably get rid of:

  1. Go through each item in your house and put it through the two-year test. If you haven’t used or worn something in at least two years, that might be a clue you really don’t need it.
  2. Put all those items in a central location and sort them by category.
  3. Search the items online to get a good idea of how much they’re worth.
  4. Start listing them for sale using the websites and apps we’ve mentioned here!

Have a tip you want to add to our list of ways to sell your stuff? Write in below in our comments section and let us know!

More Ways to Make Money:

Advertisement