Safety · 28 July 2026 · 11 min

Selling safely and decluttering

Most second-hand transactions are ordinary and uneventful. The few that are not tend to follow a small number of recognisable patterns — and knowing them is most of the protection you need.

Start with what is worth selling

Not everything deserves a listing. A useful filter: would you spend twenty minutes photographing, describing and handing this over for the money you would get? If not, donating or recycling it is the better trade.

Work in passes rather than all at once. Sort into sell, give away, recycle and keep, and be strict about the last one. Items you have not touched in a year and cannot name a future use for are rarely „keep". Handle the highest-value things first — the momentum from one good sale carries the rest.

Do not sell these

Recalled goods, counterfeit branded items, car seats and safety equipment of unknown history, opened cosmetics and medicines, and anything you cannot prove you own. Most platforms prohibit them, and some carry real liability.

The scams that actually happen

• Overpayment. The „buyer" sends more than the price and asks for the difference back. The original payment is later reversed; your refund is not.
• Payment-link phishing. You get a link that looks like the marketplace's payment or shipping page and asks for card details or a bank login. Real platforms never ask a seller for card details to receive money.
• Fake shipping confirmation. A message or email claims payment is held and will release once you post the item. Check the platform itself, not the message.
• Pressure to move off-platform. „Let's continue over email/messenger" removes the record and the protection. Sometimes innocent, always worth resisting until payment is settled.
• Bait-and-switch on collection. The buyer arrives, finds a fault that was already in the photos, and pushes for a large discount on the spot. Photograph faults up front and it loses its force.

Handing over in person

Meet in a public, busy place with cameras — a shopping centre, a station, a café. Bring someone if the item is valuable. Let a friend know where you are going and when. If the buyer must come to your home for something bulky, do not be alone, and keep the rest of the flat out of view.

Count cash before the item leaves your hands, and for a bank transfer wait until the money is genuinely in your account, not until a screenshot arrives. Screenshots are trivial to fake.

Handing over by post

Use the platform's own shipping flow where one exists — that is what buyer and seller protection attaches to. Photograph the packed parcel and the postage receipt. Keep the tracking number until the transaction is closed. Pack so that an honest complaint is impossible: bubble wrap, a rigid box, and no rattling.

After the sale

Take the listing down everywhere the same day. Wipe and factory-reset any device, and remove your accounts from it first — a signed-in phone or laptop is a far bigger risk than the price you sold it for. Keep the conversation and the receipt until the return window has passed.

Back to the start: photos and listing copy.