A couple of years back, my tenant left this Shisha/Hookah pipe at the condominium. The tenant was an Indian IT professional who was also a recreational Shisha smoker. I was thinking of throwing it away but decided to leave it as a prop for interior designs. So this Shisha pipe was in my possession for many years.
Fast forward to a few years later when I found out about this amazing app called Carousell where I used it as a platform to sell off all stuff tenants leave behind. I've had quite good success selling on Carousell, I've sold table fans, books, chairs, folding tables, gym exercise balls, power chargers while at the same time maintaining a perfect 5 star rating (touchwood).
My selling strategy is more towards bottom selling as these items are considered to be junk to me.
Recently I decided that this Shisha pipe would be a candidate to be sold. While I wasn't too sure if it could be sold, I felt there was some value in there if the price was right.
I listed the item under Vintage Collectibles and set a price of RM30. I did some research and found a brand new Shisha pipe is around RM100. In Carousell there are a lot of bottom fishers because the search in Carousell allows searches to be saved and use daily, the function is called Saved Searches.
At RM30, I notice there were already some likes coming in. The likes normally is an indication of interest but perhaps the price is not right yet for the interested buyer to give an offer. After 2 weeks of listing it at RM30, I lowered the price to RM20. At this price point, 2-3 interested buyers started directly messaging me about the item.
In the end I sold to a Malay trader for RM20 because he was willing to come collect it from me at my area of residence.
Yeah, RM20 is not a big deal but it is enough for 3 meals for some people.
Some TIPS I learnt over the years for bottom selling :
- Never put the price at the bottom, start with a low price and monitor the likes to gauge interest
- Be willing to throw in a discount (the secret card)
- Respond fast
- Take product pictures with a good background without breaking the bank (I put it behind a wooden table)
- Put in Bahasa Malaysia description, majority of bottom fishing buyers are Malays.
#Carousell
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| Still maintaining a 5 star rating |