A listing sits online for three weeks, nobody writes, and the reflex is to drop the price. Nine times out of ten, it wasn't the price.
Someone buying second-hand asks the same questions, in the same order, every time. Every unanswered question is a reason to close the tab — because the listing next to yours answers it.
What buyers look for, in order
1. The exact name. Not "road bike", but "Trek Madone SLR". Not "Bosch drill", but "Bosch GSB 18V-55". People search using a model name: a listing that doesn't contain it never appears in their search, whatever the price.
2. The reference number, when there is one. The number printed on the label, the base, the box. It's what lets a buyer check compatibility in thirty seconds instead of messaging you — and a question asked is a sale postponed.
3. Dimensions and weight. A piece of furniture with no dimensions isn't buyable: nobody takes the risk that it won't fit. Two numbers often unblock an item that had been sitting for months.
4. The age, or the purchase date. "Bought in 2022" beats "barely used". The second phrase means nothing and everybody writes it.
5. Condition, with the flaws named. Counter-intuitive: saying there's a two-centimetre scratch on the left side reassures. A listing with no flaw declared suggests something is being hidden, or that nobody looked. Naming a flaw proves you examined the item.
6. What's included — and what isn't. Charger, box, manual, cables, second set of wheels, receipt. What's missing belongs there too: "no remote" saves a round trip and a disappointed buyer.
7. Why you're selling. One line. "Moving up to a bigger model", "haven't used it since the move". It seems like nothing, but it answers the question everyone asks without writing it: why are they getting rid of it?
8. The practicalities. Local pickup or shipping, where, and by when. Someone forty kilometres away decides on that line, not on the price.
Those eight things — Listelo pulls them out of your photos. Try Listelo
Photos count as much as the text
Three principles, all verifiable on your own listing:
- Daylight, neutral background. No flash, no patterned rug. The item should be the only thing you see.
- The first photo shows the whole item, not a detail. It's the thumbnail: it decides the click.
- Photograph the flaws. Yes, really. A photo of the scratch says more than a sentence, and it protects you in a dispute.
Plus one readable photo of the label or the rating plate: that's usually where the exact model and the reference from points 1 and 2 live.
The mistake that costs the most
Writing the listing at 11 p.m. in three lines, telling yourself you'll fill it in later. You never do. It lives three weeks in that state, collects two views a day, and ends with a 30 % price cut that wasn't necessary.
The real cost isn't the writing time: it's the gap between the price you get and the price you would have got.
The ten-second test
Reread your listing and ask: could a stranger decide to buy without asking me a single question?
If not, the question they'd have asked is exactly what's missing.