How MaxSold Works: Sell the Things You Don't Want to Move!
Updated: Jul 22
Never move what you don't want or need.
Are you moving, clearing an estate, downsizing, aging-in-place, or just plain sick and tired of living with too much stuff?
Whatever your endgame MaxSold may be the answer to the dilemma of how to responsibly and quickly disperse items you no longer need or want and still get some of their value back.
What is the best way to dispose of all the items you no longer need or want and how can you get some of the value back from them?
MAXSOLD
What is MaxSold? MaxSold is a leading online estate sale marketplace.
MaxSold helps sellers to sell and buyers to find local estate sales near them with online auctions.
MaxSold's online platform allows users to sell a large volume of content quickly, whether it is downsizing, decluttering, estate sales, or excess inventory.
As an online auction house, MaxSold connects you the seller to an existing huge pool of interested bidders and buyers. The bidders/buyers are preregistered with MaxSold. To be able to bid, they must give MaxSold their credit card information. If they are the highest bidder on an item, then they have bought the item - end of discussion.
And the beauty of this system is that you do not have to collect any money. MaxSold handles that for you. They give you a full accounting of who bid and what the end bid was.
And you don't have to remove one single thing from your space yourself.
The online bidder is responsible for packing and moving the item during a set period of time that you establish.
MaxSold keeps statistical evidence that they sell 98% of all items listed in an auction. That's impressive!
How does this all work?
How long does it take, What can I sell,
How much does it cost, and What do I have to do?
This online auction company helps you sell your items in two-three weeks.
They recommend that you have at least 50 lots (a lot is a single listing in the auction catalogue either one valuable item or a collection of items) because it works best when you have plenty of stuff but not too much. They suggest no more than 100 lots per auction.
And MaxSold will sell pretty well anything from a powerboat to a box of plastic hangers from the cleaning supplies under the sink to the car in the driveway.
Almost everything can go on the auction block so don't be too quick to donate items before the auction, maybe they can go in the auction too.
In addition to earning cash through the auction, you won't have to remove your unwanted belongings.
But fair warning – preparing for the auction does require some elbow grease!
Caveat:
Temper your expectations – Your dark brown dining room set likely won't sell for anything near what you paid. (As you probably have heard, the market has changed, and younger people often don’t have the space or taste for furniture that you prize.)
You can manage your expectations by keeping your end goal in mind. Which is to:
Quickly get rid of excess stuff that you don't want
Not spend extra money to have unwanted items removed
Make some extra cash on things you were getting rid of anyway
Caveat: Everything starts at $1 - so be sure you agree to that prior to putting anything on the auction list. (The dollar minimum bid may be why MaxSold is so popular.)
This is the logic behind the $1 minimum bid strategy:
Every time you increase the minimum bid, you reduce the potential of selling all of the things that you have to sell. And if you find yourself with a whole lot of items after the sale, then we didn't do our job. So, by offering everything with a $1 start, it means that virtually everything is going to attract a bid. On the lowest modest end, things may sell for lower prices, but buyers will buy them and take them away so that it reduces your cost of disposal. On the high side, we've sold paintings for 10,000, jewelry for 15,000, cars and boats for 25,000. Our experience is people bid what the item is worth to them and we attract as many bidders as possible. And all of that is tied to starting everything at a dollar. - Barry Gordon MaxSold's Founder
O.K. THE BIG QUESTION - "HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?"
Well, that depends on how much of the work you want to do yourself.
What are your choices?
You have Two Options – MaxSold-managed and Seller-managed.
MaxSold-managed: MaxSold covers photography, cataloging, hosting the auction on maxsold.com, marketing, handling invoicing and payments, and managing pickup
30% of profits + $800 (nothing upfront!)
Seller-managed: the seller is responsible for photography, cataloging, and supervising pickup; MaxSold still hosts the auction on maxsold.com and handles invoicing and payments
$300 or 30% of profits, whichever is greater
Caveat:
In either case, you must set up your space for cataloguing and photography.
So if your space is a white-hot mess you're going to have to fix that or get someone else to do it like us.
Even if it's not messy, you may want or need some help. Don't worry, we're here for you.
Here's how we can help. We know what the market wants. We do the research. We take beautiful photos. We put your things in logical attractive lots to entice buyers and make it more appealing.
How In and Out Organizing can Help You.
We can assist at different stages of the auction process.
A. We can help with sorting and decluttering before you set up for the auction:
Personal items set aside
Recyclable items removed
Donation items removed
Trash disposed of
B. Then we do the setup working with you :
Select the items for the auction
Remove items that aren't for sale
Make sure items on the Maxsold "do-not-sell" list are not for sale
Clearly, mark items to be sold and include relevant information on post-it notes
Unpack boxes and unwrap items
Place similar items together
Pair less desirable things with more desirable ones.
Using the seller-managed auction choice will give you the most cohesive experience working with us. Once you decide what is for sale, we photograph the auction items. Then we use the MaxSold app to catalogue the items and upload them to the server. MaxSold provides product marketing, deals with potential buyers,and handles the collection of payments.
98% sells within 2 weeks.
With our process, 98% of the auction items sell within 2 weeks.
You do not deal with individual buyers, handle money at the door and nobody walks through your home unsupervised to look at things they may not buy.
The MaxSold process is transparent. They give a detailed report of every item and what it sold for. You will be paid within 14 business days of the auction closing.
The MaxSold website posts the auction catalogue online for a period of 10 days.
The auction is advertised on social media, Craigslist, Kijiji, eBay, Auctionzip, and Estatesales.net to attract bidders. MaxSold's vast bi-weekly email newsletter also gives bidders access to your auction.
If you follow along to see how your auction is progressing, you need to keep in mind
that 40%-60% of all bids are placed on the last day, just before the close of the auction and many of those happen in the last few minutes. So keep calm.
How to Prepare for Pickup Day
Do you live in a condo or apartment? Check in with management to make sure you get permission. Get it in writing. Arrange for elevator access if you’re in a high-rise building.
Day of Pick-Up
Signs will direct people to your home or parking lot. We check the list of auction winners with the buyer's receipt and ID as soon as they enter the home. Every lot has a number, and we guide the winner to where to go to get their prize. In the catalogue description, we note if an item is very large or heavy and if the winner needs to bring help to move it out. The buyer is solely responsible for this.
Why You Should be Congratulated for Using MaxSold
It's better than recycling because you are extending the life and love of your possessions.
All of the goods are bought and sold locally, so, you've again helped to reduce the carbon impact of packaging and transportation.
Your goods have been saved from ending up in landfill.
You've also avoided the cost of having unneeded/unwanted things removed from your home. Particularly in the large quantities common to downsizing or estate liquidation. An online auction saves you this cost, and has the added benefit of turning your treasures into cash!
This is the best way to sell decades of possessions whether you're downsizing or clearing an estate. Practically everything can be sold quickly and transparently.
When you work with us, we can fully manage the auction so that there is no work for you. Find out how we can help you.