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"Okay, Boomer" Problem Selling Our Table?
Jul. 16th, 2023 09:20 amAhead of our new dining table arriving a few days ago we listed the old one for sale. "We'll put it on Craigslist and if we get no bites there after several days, we'll try Freecycle or donate it to Goodwill," we agreed. But then I paused for a moment to ask, do kids these days still use Craigslist?
Craigslist is kind of a Gen X thing. It's familiar to us because we're both Gen Xers. But what about younger generations? I figure a target demographic for selling decent quality used furniture online is people in their early to mid 20s, those looking to furnish an apartment for the first time. That's Gen Z.
Where does Gen Z go to buy & sell stuff like used furniture? Facebook Marketplace was the only other thing I could come up with. Both Hawk and I are FB objectors, though, and we weren't going to let Mark Zuckerberg scrape our entrails just so we could get a couple hundred bucks for a table and 6 chairs. So we listed the dining room set on Craigslist.
We listed the table and chairs on Craigslist. And after 3 days we'd gotten... nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even a single ping.
I suggested we ask someone literally in the target demographic we're trying to reach: our niece, Tessa. She's in her early 20s and coincidentally just moved into her first apartment. (If she weren't 2,500 miles away we probably would've just given her the table and chairs.) We texted her and had this conversation:
Tessa went on to explain that one of her friends had just found an apartment on Craigslist. She confirmed that Facebook Marketplace is popular among friends her age, too, though that for buying furniture she and her boyfriend bought most of theirs from local thrift shops.
We'll try one more time with Craigslist then probably donate if it we can't sell it. But dang, it would've been nice to get a few hundred back to defray the cost of the new furniture we bought.
Update: We sold the table a few days later— to a good home!
Craigslist is kind of a Gen X thing. It's familiar to us because we're both Gen Xers. But what about younger generations? I figure a target demographic for selling decent quality used furniture online is people in their early to mid 20s, those looking to furnish an apartment for the first time. That's Gen Z.
Where does Gen Z go to buy & sell stuff like used furniture? Facebook Marketplace was the only other thing I could come up with. Both Hawk and I are FB objectors, though, and we weren't going to let Mark Zuckerberg scrape our entrails just so we could get a couple hundred bucks for a table and 6 chairs. So we listed the dining room set on Craigslist.
We listed the table and chairs on Craigslist. And after 3 days we'd gotten... nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even a single ping.
I suggested we ask someone literally in the target demographic we're trying to reach: our niece, Tessa. She's in her early 20s and coincidentally just moved into her first apartment. (If she weren't 2,500 miles away we probably would've just given her the table and chairs.) We texted her and had this conversation:
Hey Tessa. Aunt Hawk and I have an "Okay, Boomer" type question. We're trying to sell our dining table and chairs, and we've gotten zero hits on Craigslist. Where do younger adults today, people at the age to be furnishing an apartment for the first time, look for used furniture?
HAHAHAHAHA
I mean I still use Craigslist!
Tessa went on to explain that one of her friends had just found an apartment on Craigslist. She confirmed that Facebook Marketplace is popular among friends her age, too, though that for buying furniture she and her boyfriend bought most of theirs from local thrift shops.
We'll try one more time with Craigslist then probably donate if it we can't sell it. But dang, it would've been nice to get a few hundred back to defray the cost of the new furniture we bought.
Update: We sold the table a few days later— to a good home!
