What Is Porch Pickup?
Selling items online is a great way to declutter your home and make some extra cash. The most uncomfortable part of the process is figuring out how to exchange the product for payment. This is, even the more the case after the COVID-19 pandemic changed people’s preferences. For this reason, porch pickup has become more popular.
What is Porch Pickup?
Porch pickup is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of meeting in a public place or having someone come into your home to exchange the item for payment, the seller simply leaves the item on their front porch. The buyer comes to the home, takes the item, and leaves payment or sends it electronically via PayPal, Venmo, or some other means. Some people take photos of the images or send a thank you note when the deal is closed.
Where is it Used?
Any method by which someone sells an item from their home could use the porch pickup method for the sale including:
- Craigslist
- Offer Up
- Facebook Marketplace
- Newspaper Classifieds
What are the advantages?
Below is a list of advantages of using porch pickup:
- Contact Free: You can watch the buyer pick up the item if you want, but no contact or conversation is necessary.
- Presence Optional: You don’t even have to be home when the buyer comes to get the item. This removes messy scheduling from the transaction. This is a handy option if you’re busy.
- Going to New Places: Sometimes its fun to go to new places. For example, I bought some Legos for my son on Facebook marketplace and the seller wanted to do a porch pickup. We ended up driving to a part of town I’d never been too to get the Legos, which was pleasant.
- No Last Second Negotiating: I once met a buyer at a gas station for a sale of an item I listed at Craig’s List. Although we had agreed on a price, once we met he suggested a lower price and insisted that’s all the money he had. I declined and drove home.
What are the disadvantages?
Porch pickup also has its disadvantages:
- Safety: The seller is obviously required to give the buyer their address. The seller can stay inside and remain completely disconnected from the transaction, but the buyer now knows their address. This can be scary to some people. Although, nothing prevents you from doing the porch pick up at a location that is not the sellers home.
- Nonpayment Potential: The downside of removing a contact from the transaction is it introduces the potential the buyer takes the item from the porch without leaving payment. However, some marketplaces, such as Facebook, allow you to rate buyers and sellers, so you can always report your experiences if something does go wrong.
As with many things, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how online sales are done. Online sellers can weigh the advantages and disadvantages of porch pickup and decide whether it’s the right choice for them.
How about you, Clever Friends, do you sell online? Have you ever used porch pickup?
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