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| Wardrobes For Sale! (Sold) |
Once my flat viewings were over and Geraldine had left, it was time to start getting rid of my furniture. This was easier said than done. I’d had the furniture in my flat from Stephanie and Nicolas in Basel, so I needed to liaise with them about how to remove it again. My work stuff had to be sent by UPS to Germany. And then there was the furniture I’d bought myself that I now needed to dispose of.
I hate shipping things by UPS. Last time I did this, there was something wrong with how it was billed and I ended up paying a fine for non-payment of the shipment. I should probably have charged this back to the company (since they were supposed to be paying), but it all got rather complicated and more and more overdue. It wasn’t helped by me ignoring the first few demands because I thought they were emails from UPC (my internet provider, where my bills are paid automatically) rather than UPS. Since my bank is UBS, it all gets rather confusing!
Anyway, I packed up the laptop/printer/screen etc into the boxes (but not terribly well, I must admit, since I’m not much good at this kind of thing), but had a problem because there was supposed to be a billing label, but there wasn’t. I queried to my work place, but unfortunately the person seeing to it was on holiday and the person deputizing basically told me I needed to sort the problem out myself. I had already set up a collection date, so I decided just to make up my own billing labels. Surprisingly, when the UPS guys picked the items up, they didn’t seem to think I was completely mad; instead they just forced me to put a value and weight to each item packed in the boxes. I really had no idea, but I made my best guess and they took them away. I haven’t heard anything since, so I assume it was all OK (let’s hope I’m not forced to write another blog about that!).
Nicolas tried to give away / sell their furniture in Basel and I tried the same in Zurich. It was easier once there was a blank sheet regarding the pricing, where it was even OK to let items go for free. With some trepidation, I tried selling the wardrobes on facebook. I’d heard the site is a bit of a nightmare and indeed I was inundated with dozens of requests, everyone wanting to bargain down on the price, even though the initial price was already cheap. Then Nicolas thought he had someone, so I had to close the item for sale, and then the person fell through, but by then I’d lost all the contacts and when I advertised again, no-one replied. I eventually discovered that there was a way to re-open the offer and then you get to see the old conversations, but it was a bit late by the time I’d worked this out.
For a long time, I'd hoped that my letting agency would let the pregnant woman rent my flat who wanted to buy all the furniture, but the first two people fell through (they were taking up references and then they'd moved onto the next person who, it turned out, had already found somewhere else) and then I gave up hope that my replacement would take anything.
I tried the local Brockenhaus (second hand store), but they already had too much stuff and refused to come round. This is what happens when you force everyone to move house on the same day of the year. As it is, the second hand stores over here have a reputation of being quite fussy as to what they will take.
I tried the local Brockenhaus (second hand store), but they already had too much stuff and refused to come round. This is what happens when you force everyone to move house on the same day of the year. As it is, the second hand stores over here have a reputation of being quite fussy as to what they will take.
Anyway, I did find someone in the end for the wardrobes, I offered him a really cheap deal just to take them off me, since he’d been haggling and I’d kept him hanging for at least two weeks. I didn’t want to lose him as now he was he only person left who was still interested!
When he came (from quite some distance, actually), I was a bit astonished at just how long it took him to dismantle them (several hours), so then I didn’t feel so bad about the lack of money for them; just to have them gone was a huge relief.
After that experience, I decided to offer reasonable, but higher prices than I was really expecting, because people obviously wanted to bargain. Indeed, I was shocked when I saw how much other people were charging for some items; it seems that somewhere the rationale for selling second-hand has been lost in Switzerland (the rationale being that you sell at a lower price because the article has been used, but at least you get some money for it and someone else gets to pick it up for quite a bit cheaper than new). There seems to be a fixation on high prices; on the other hand, if it’s second hand, the mentality seems to be that you should get it almost for free.
Nevertheless, to my surprise, a few items went for the asking price with no argument (what a relief!). I also sold a few things on Ricardo (the Swiss ebay equivalent), which is a bit more civilized since it’s either an automized auction or people buy it straight away for a given price. Consequently, there’s no need for me to do back-and-forth emails and arrangements and deal with multiple people asking about the same item at the same time.
Although all this meant that much of my final time in Switzerland was spent putting out advertisements, measuring furniture, answering questions, and waiting for people to collect things, it was also interesting to see such a cross-section of society (although, obviously, it’s only a cross-section of the types of people who are willing to buy second-hand, which is a small population in Switzerland, it seems).
Fortunately, people collecting items generally seemed happy and everything was cordial. I was a bit disconcerted by one man giving me Euros instead of Swiss Francs (he’d come from Germany to collect) and by another man who had come without any help and was expecting me to help him carry (when he was paying a mere 10 CHF for a sofa!); however, the Euros were fine and the sofa guy also ended up taking, and paying for, my second sofa, which at the time was the last thing not yet sold. So, no complaints, really! People coming round ranged from the super-enthusiastic, to a woman who was clearly used to being the boss, to those exhibiting pure delight on seeing the item, to those who looked initially skeptical but then accepting. I probably spoke more German than I have all year. When Nicolas next came round, I automatically held out my hand to do a hand shake because I’d got so used to doing it!
The really good news was that I did manage to get rid of all my furniture without having to throw any of it away. Last time I left Switzerland, I had to pay for it to be disposed of, which seemed like a crime. At least this time, everything found a new home – even my sofas, which themselves were now third-hand. So, all in all, a good result.
When he came (from quite some distance, actually), I was a bit astonished at just how long it took him to dismantle them (several hours), so then I didn’t feel so bad about the lack of money for them; just to have them gone was a huge relief.
After that experience, I decided to offer reasonable, but higher prices than I was really expecting, because people obviously wanted to bargain. Indeed, I was shocked when I saw how much other people were charging for some items; it seems that somewhere the rationale for selling second-hand has been lost in Switzerland (the rationale being that you sell at a lower price because the article has been used, but at least you get some money for it and someone else gets to pick it up for quite a bit cheaper than new). There seems to be a fixation on high prices; on the other hand, if it’s second hand, the mentality seems to be that you should get it almost for free.
Nevertheless, to my surprise, a few items went for the asking price with no argument (what a relief!). I also sold a few things on Ricardo (the Swiss ebay equivalent), which is a bit more civilized since it’s either an automized auction or people buy it straight away for a given price. Consequently, there’s no need for me to do back-and-forth emails and arrangements and deal with multiple people asking about the same item at the same time.
Although all this meant that much of my final time in Switzerland was spent putting out advertisements, measuring furniture, answering questions, and waiting for people to collect things, it was also interesting to see such a cross-section of society (although, obviously, it’s only a cross-section of the types of people who are willing to buy second-hand, which is a small population in Switzerland, it seems).
Fortunately, people collecting items generally seemed happy and everything was cordial. I was a bit disconcerted by one man giving me Euros instead of Swiss Francs (he’d come from Germany to collect) and by another man who had come without any help and was expecting me to help him carry (when he was paying a mere 10 CHF for a sofa!); however, the Euros were fine and the sofa guy also ended up taking, and paying for, my second sofa, which at the time was the last thing not yet sold. So, no complaints, really! People coming round ranged from the super-enthusiastic, to a woman who was clearly used to being the boss, to those exhibiting pure delight on seeing the item, to those who looked initially skeptical but then accepting. I probably spoke more German than I have all year. When Nicolas next came round, I automatically held out my hand to do a hand shake because I’d got so used to doing it!
The really good news was that I did manage to get rid of all my furniture without having to throw any of it away. Last time I left Switzerland, I had to pay for it to be disposed of, which seemed like a crime. At least this time, everything found a new home – even my sofas, which themselves were now third-hand. So, all in all, a good result.
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