Across 2.5 years of selling on Mercari, I realised I sell out 50% of the things I post. So for every 10 items I post, I usually sell between 4-6 of them with the rest sitting for a long time before they get sold (if at all).
What’s your sell rate like, and what do you sell? I only sell things to declutter, like clothes/books/random items lying at home.
19 comments
Honestly about 90% of the stuff I post gets sold
If you make a good post with enough pictures and description, and a reasonable price you can sell almost anything.
Same as you, about 50%. I go between Mercari and Yahoo Auction as some items sell better on one format over the other. 90% are items I buy from thrift stores and flea markets.
About 95% of the stuff I put on Mercari, 100% on Yahoo!Auc . It is specialised hobby stuff rather than general bric-a-brac though.
100% for me, but I sell collector goods and price according to what these things currently go for on Mercari/Yahoo
When I have things of value to sell, I drop them on Yahoo Auctions as follows:
* include multiple **good quality** photos (I used to run a studio, but anyone with a modern smartphone can take decent photos after watching a few YouTube videos.)
* a clear description, making sure to highlight both all positives and any negatives. Don’t hide defects, the buyer should always be happy with what the receive. [Edit: People feeling the description is completely accurate will encourage them to bid, too.]
* use a no-reserve auction starting at 1yen [Edit: This is really important. It attracts SO MANY more people. The number of watchers will jump immediately and you will have a lot more overall interest in your listing.]
* auction should always end on a Sunday evening between 8 and 10pm
* make sure 自動延長 is turned **on** so that when someone bids at the last second, 5 minutes gets added to the auction time.
* avoid ending auctions on long weekends when a lot of people are away or otherwise distracted. Likewise avoid holiday periods like Golden Week, Obon, or the New Year.
Doing all the above will attract the most attention and get the best price, assuming you have something that has value and has a bit of demand behind it. Sometimes two or more people get into a bidding war and you end up getting much more than you expected. I once sold something I would have priced at about 100,000yen for over 300,000yen. (I’ve sold things with values ranging from 1,000yen to 500,000yen this way, always starting from 1yen.)
Best of all, no matter what, your item **will** sell. Best way ever to get stuff out the door. It’s also a load of fun if a bidding war breaks out.
Has Yahoo Auction in Japan changed now or do you still need to be registered as a company to use it to sell an item?
So far I’ve sold 11 out of 12, but the twelfth was a sale I cancelled myself after I decided I wanted to keep the item.
100%.
I slowly reduce prices till it’s gone. I am selling stuff I no longer want.
I’m selling ultra rare still new Nine Inch Nail cassettes from different countries.
I’ve sold 3 out of 10, but have 25 more to post. No need to flood the market.
I sold two of the rarest so far. But still have a few very items up for sale.
I have a bad ass motorcycle back pack up too. It’s honestly insane it has gotten no attention. It’s a 400$ hardshell big name brand riders bag on sale for 10,000 yen. Not a single heart. Been a month.
My Fitbit sold in less than 15 minutes, not joking.
My ex wife posted something like 15 pairs of used shoes. Some took a while but she actually sold something like 13 of them after only a couple months. I was surprised.
I would be happy to buy used Xbox games but people are silly, their prices are stupidly too high. Elden ring for 8000 yen when the digital price is 4000. Resident evil.villave for 8500. It was on sale this week for 2000.
Oddly enough. The best shit I ever bought was furniture. Omg. Even with shipping. We (now just me) got a nitori bed for like 25% of the original cost. I have a sick ass velvet reading chair and ottoman for 10,000 I think with shipping 15,000. And it was 40,000 yen from Ikiea.
95%
I sell in nearly all categories but my main is hobbies and videogames. I have some stuff that I’m surprised even sells but my hobby stuff is all high end and high demand. Videogames may sit for a couple days.
My offhand rule is if it doesn’t sell in 3 days, lower the price, if it doesn’t sell in 7 days, remove and repost.
Depends what I sell. Basic clothes and such sell terribly and are more work than profit but small appliances, apple products etc usually get sold in a couple days/weeks. High-brand items like gucci etc tend to sell poorly as well
You could always post on Jimoty too? It’s a bit different to Mercari since you usually have to meet up in person and take cash but that’s quite a popular place for people to sell/give things away in Japan!
99%. I’ve got like a dining table on there I haven’t sold due to its size but I usually sell video games once I’m done with them or other high value items I don’t need and people seem to want
100% I think. I’ve sold over 100 items and I’ve been amazed at what I’ve been able to sell on there.
We sell a lot of photography and videography tech that we’ve upgraded/replaced and want to flog second hand to recuperate costs for the business. We’ve managed to get rid of 90% with the cheapest being ¥7,000 and the most expensive being around ¥300,000. I’ve also managed to sell a few customs guitars with the most expensive being ¥450,000. All painless transitions. We’ve also had a good experience with Rakuma.
We prioritize good, well lit images with a detailed product description, what it was used for and a link to where we bought it from with the RRP. Transparency voids uncertainty, for the most part.
We’ve also used it to buy for the business. Cheap tech and the odd surprises like some nice vintage lenses, etc. There’s always a risk, but we’ve been particularly lucky so far.
I mostly sell stuff I don’t want or use anymore.
All the tech, game and anime stuff I have posed have been sold pretty fast. A small smartphone printer I had sold in like 10 minutes, I was quite surprised.
Clothes and shoes sold well too, but they take a longer time.
Books depends on what it is. I sold almost complete manga collections and those sold relatively well too. Artbooks and doujinshi are a bit more complicated unless they are rare.
90%. I also only sell things to declutter. I usually lower the price after a few days, because I just want this stuff gone. One time I sold a laptop and when I couldn’t get a bite and didn’t want to lower the price, I put it on Jimoty, someone saw it there, found my Mercari listing, and bought from there at the price I wanted it sold at. That was nice.
Ahh 100% for me. I sell my surf gear when I upgrade, 2nd hand boards/foils/wings go super quick, then I upgrade to order made, brand new gear for next to nothing.