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| Image credit: Ikea |
The Story: You are getting new furniture, rearranging the library, and you've got a couple of things to get rid of. You ask if you can post them on your local list-serv and what your director will accept for a price. Then, you take some time crafting your post before you send it, and within an hour, you've got multiple offers on the table (figuratively and literally). Yay, job's done! Or so you think. Your director now enlists you to help sell half a dozen other pieces of furniture you never knew existed because they were sitting in the boiler room or in town hall's storage facility. And now you're spending way more time than you ever wanted to spend measuring, photographing, and describing items of furniture which were purchased years, or sometimes decades, ago and therefore nobody can find a catalog listing of them to copy and paste. There's no real way out of it, though, so you chug along until you've cleaned out the library's closet to the director's contentment, and then get back to your regular job duties.
The Lesson: No good deed goes unpunished. Just kidding. But really, though, if you prove yourself to be good at something, especially something that's not in the typical librarian job description, you will find yourself doing a lot more of it than you ever intended. Thankfully, in this instance, there were finite numbers of furnishings to be re-allocated, but every time anyone revamps part of the library and needs to get rid of something, you'll be the one they turn to. On the plus side, you've discovered a new skill set you can use should you ever tire of the librarian profession.
The Resources: I trust your local MLS program to teach you what a list-serv is, and other librarians or google to tell you which ones are relevant to your professional interests, so I'll just share some tips for furniture selling.
1. Think like a customer ~ If you were looking to purchase or claim a bit of furniture, think about what you'd like to be included in that listing to help you decide if it's right for you. This may all seem like common sense, but I can't tell you how many listings I've seen go unanswered that basically say, "Do you want to buy my crap?" with no picture, no details, nothing. Don't be that guy.
2. Measure twice, cut once ~ Wait, wrong proverb. You really should measure it though. List accurate measurements for length, width, height, depth, volume, and any other dimension that makes sense. Most people won't have a weight scale that can handle furniture, but you should at least tell potential buyers, who will be coming to pick up their furniture and will be really upset if they find out they'll need to come back later with more hands/a bigger truck/etc., what to expect. Tell them, "This takes three people to move," or "It drags easily but is hard to pick up by yourself," or "For the love of God and all that is holy, lift with your knees on this sucker!"
3. A picture is worth a thousand words ~ Take pictures from multiple angles, in good lighting, and if your furniture is adjustable or has moving parts, take pictures of those things in action as well as at rest. Include a standard fiction book for scale, because even with all those measurements, someone will still show up and say, "That's bigger than I thought." (Make sure to mention in your ad that the book is just for scale and is not included with their purchase.) If you've made any modifications to it or it has significant damage, include that in the picture set. This may seem counter-intuitive, but it brings me to my next point.
4. Be honest ~ We're all in the same boat here, and the last thing we'd want is to get ripped off by another librarian, so don't be a dick and try to swindle one of your colleagues. You'll run into them at conferences and workshops at some point anyway, and then it'll be awkward. Plus, librarians are gossips, and as soon as one of us feels like buying your cast-offs is not a good investment, you'll have a harder time getting rid of anything in the future. (Don't even try to tell me that librarians are not gossips; our profession is all about the sharing of information--we are professional gossips.) So tell potential buyers about any wear and tear, damage, holes you've drilled, parts you've replaced, paint you've layered on, and why. They'll understand. If they could afford brand-new furniture in perfect condition, they won't be interested in your post anyway. And this brings me to my final point.
5. Set a reasonable price ~ You're never going to get anywhere near what you paid for it. If it went for $1,000 ten years ago, you'd be lucky to $100 for it now, especially if some re-assembly is required. You're not trying to turn a profit here, just maybe make a few extra dollars to buy some wish-list books or hire that actually talented magician whose tricks you can't see straight through, while getting rid of something you can't use anymore but which might be useful to others. You're doing them a favor by selling deeply discounted but still usable furniture, and they're doing you a favor by not making you drag something heavy to the dump (which can cost staff time, vehicle time, or actual money depending on the method of disposal). If there are no bites in a couple weeks, lower the price, list it again, or add "or best offer" to the post. I guarantee you there is a librarian somewhere who is interested in that coat rack, but only if they can get it for $25 less than what you listed. If the price really is non-negotiable (sometimes you don't have control over this), make that crystal clear in your posting. Most libraries are not well-funded, and librarians are used to haggling and scouring for discounts. We need to know up front if your wares are too rich for our blood; that way nobody's wasting each other's time haggling over furniture and we can all go back to reading books all day. (HA!)
