Selling Your Items with Sella – An Honest Review
I have been a reseller for many years, going all the way back to the early days of eBay. I’ve always enjoyed the thrift store hunt for hidden gems and finding new homes for these items by selling them online. All that being said, I will admit that the process of selling can be labor intensive and time consuming. I am always willing to give reselling companies like Sella and Flyp a try, to see if I can move my inventory faster with less work on my own part. Of course I will be paying these sellers a portion of the profits, but it may possibly be worth it if they can get the job done in a timely manner.
I believe I came across Sella in a social media ad, and I was immediately intrigued at their concept. I had been using Flyp to connect with sellers who can resell my clothing for me, and Sella seems like the same concept except for home items. I was excited at the idea of giving them a try, but I took some precautions to make sure I didn’t come out in the negative from this test run.
Keep reading to see all the details of how it went, and what I ultimately recommend to anyone planning on giving Sella a try.
How Does Sella Work?
Sella is much different than other traditional platforms like eBay, Mercari, Poshmark, Facebook Marketplace, etc. In the cases of all the above mention online selling marketplaces, the original seller and product owner is the one who takes the product photos, creates the listings and ships the item to the buyer.
In the case of Sella, you write a description of your items in the Sella portal and submit them for review. If they are approved, a prepaid label will be email to you. You then pack up the items and ship them out to Sella.
Once the items arrive, the Sella team will inspect the items and send you what pricing they believe your items are worth. They will take photos of your items, create the listings and post them up for sale. If they sell, the Sella team will then ship the item to the buyer directly.
Once the sale is done, they will send the original owner a portion of the profits.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Using Sella to Sell Your Items?
The Pros to Selling on Sella
The pros of selling on Sella is that it takes little effort on the part of the item owner to make some money from your items. It’s really just a matter of creating an account to get the shipping label and sending them off in the mail. If you’re looking to declutter and you don’t want to hold on to any items waiting for them to sell, this can be a good solution.
The Cons to Selling on Sella
If you’re actually looking to make a profit or decent amount of money on your items, this may not be the most cost efficient way to go. Sella will be taking a non refundable deposit, along with a portion of the profits. For those looking to maximize their earnings, I suggest selling them to the buyer directly yourself.
Another con I have discovered in this process is that if your items don’t sell with Sella, you have to pay a hefty fee to get the items returned back to you. So you basically lose the items forever either way when you send your items into Sella. Keep reading to see the details of what happened with my items.
What Kind of Items Can I Sell on Sella?
The requirements that Sella has listed on their website for items available to sell are very broad. They basically say that the items must be able to fit into a car trunk (for size reference), weigh less than 40 pounds and have an original retail value of $40 or more. The top selling categories they have listed are electronics, tools and home improvement, small appliances, antiques and collectibles, designer apparel and accessories, and sports and hobby equipment.
About the Items I Sent Into Sella
When deciding what to send to Sella, I wanted to select items that had value but I wouldn’t be devastated if I didn’t earn anything from them. My mother-in-law was cleaning out items from her house, and she gave me some antiques and home decor items. Because I didn’t have to pay anything for these items, they worked well for testing out the Sella platform.
The items I sent to Sella to sell were:
- Antique Shannon Crystal Candlesticks
- Antique Large Silver Decorative Tray
- Extra Large Artisan Hand Carved Wooden Serving Platter
- Antique Tall Crystal Vase
- Antique Large Crystal Vase
The Photos Sella Took of My Items
When my items arrived at Sella, their team took photos of the items for the listings. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t very impressed with the quality and styling of the photos. In my experience selling items online, it’s takes a special talent to present items in their best light and make photos look appealing. For people who claim to be experts in selling, I didn’t feel like the photos had the touch of an expert. Scroll through the photos and you can judge the quality of the photos for yourself. I can tell you this, when you see these items in person, they look much more refined and appealing.
Where Did Sella Post My Items for Sale?
Once the items were posted for sale by Sella, I received a report of all the places the items were listed for sale. I could also click the link and see the live item listing. My items were posted for sale on Craigslist, eBay, Mercari, Poshmark, OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace.
The listings were refreshed every 30 days, which I believe means reposted as a new listing. This is common practice in reselling to keep the listings from getting too old. With every re-listing of the items, the asking price went down. They do have a “walk away price” which is the minimum amount they will accept for an item.
How Long Did Sella Take to Sell My Items?
Sella had my items for over 220 days (7 months), and they did not sell one single item. Speaking for myself as an experienced seller, I definitely could have sold at the very least a few of these items in that extensive period of time. I was very disappointed to say the least. They charged me a $5 deposit for each item, which they kept despite the fact that they didn’t accomplish anything as far as making sales.
How Much Money Did I Get for My Items on Sella?
As mentioned above, Sella did not sell one single item after holding onto them over 7 months. Not only did I not make any money, I was charged deposit fees of $5 for each item. So ultimately was in the negative $25.
Does Sella Return Unsold Items Back to You?
This is the part of the story that really irritates me. Sella took deposits from me for each item I sent in, failed to sell any of these items in 7 months, and then wanted to charge me huge sums of money to have the items returned back to me. The estimated cost of returning these 5 items back to me was between $102.60 – $137.60. Granted these are heavy and breakable items, but I still feel this is excessive given the circumstances. I now have to choice but to accept the loss and forfeit the items, and Sella gets to keep them.
Final Conclusion on Selling Items on Sella
If you’ve read through this blog post, you can clearly see that my experience with Sella was not a positive one and left me in the negative and unable to get my items back. I am not the type of person to intentionally stir the pot and seek out reasons to write a negative review. I was honestly excited at the prospect of coming across a great service that could help me sell items faster. In my opinion, this company needs to work out the kinks in their service to make it more user friendly.
I would suggest that anyone using the Sella service to sell their items be prepared for a similar experience. You’re taking a gamble, but maybe it will pay off.
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