Don't auction it. You will be disapointed. I sold a heap of household stuff recently on Ebay, auctions get a lot of watchers but it's mostly the gumtree crowd doing it.
Put it on Ebay with a fair buy it now. Put your phone number on the listing too so people can contact you to view it. When they come to see it do a cash deal with them to avoid the Ebay fee's. On $3000 you would be looking at about $300 in fee's between ebay/paypal.
You can try gumtree but be prepared to deal with a lot of time wasters, scammers and people who want things for nothing.
Exactly what ok180 said. Put it on ebay with a fair 'buy it now' price you want. You can put a 'buy it now' price of $3300. Covers ebay fees
People are used to fixed 'buy it now' prices especially for quality furniture.
I don't know if ebay will allow you to put a mobile or home number, I think the ebay system cancels the ad if they detect phone numbers, because it is against their rules. So they will 'end' your listing if they think your ad breaches ebay rules....
I got my half-leather lounge set for $1200 when seller really wanted $2000 for it but put it in 'auction' format and had a start price $1000. So don't auction your quality leather lounge set and have a low start price if you really want $3000.
An alternative is have an auction format but put a start price of $3300 like this seller has.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Leather-lounge-/201070438796?pt=AU_SofasCouches&hash=item2ed0bb698c
Seller throwing in a king size matching bed head as well
It is obvious the above ebay seller wants $3000 for the lounge set and $300 for the ebay fees but it's not even Italian leather
Explain that you bought your lounge set for $6000, it's xx number of years old but really quality ITALIAN leather, hardly sat upon, so what a steal!!! only $3300.
Your photos will tell the story. Buff it with nice leather shine.
If you have interested people email you through ebay, and they ask about the item, can they see it first before they place a bid...you've got your pool of better qualified buyers and probably better able to pay buyers. If these bidders have positive feedback through the ebay system, you can check their feedback and feel more assured that these bidders will follow through on the sale.
If you want to avoid ebay fees 'cos you do a cash deal with someone who comes over and they pay straight into your bank account BSB, account number, then do what ok180 said and cancel the ad in ebay before it ends once you got the buyer but as wylie said check that no one has done a 'Buy it Now' in ebay if you put a 'Buy it Now' ad. If you put an 'auction ad' and someone has placed a bid at your start price of $3300, you can cancel the auction ad before it ends without owing the ebay auction bidder anything.
Better qualified buyers with ability to pay come to ebay because they trust the site
I have bought a $15,500 car through ebay some years ago, a used black Mitsubishi Verada, it was advertised for 16,500 start price.
I think I contacted the seller, somehow I managed to get his address, I wanted to see the car before I even bid I think...
I negotiated with seller down to $15,500
Or you can put your lounge set on gumtree for $2999, state very clearly and firmly, 'not negotiable, please do not contact if you want to bargain on the price. This price is already a bargain'.
My friend says he uses this tactic on gumtree and it works at keeping the number of time wasters down
.
