The cupboard is not the problem. The problem is that the same television will fetch three different amounts depending on which of three routes you send it down, and nobody tells you that before you accept the first offer. A buy-and-sell chain will quote you today and pay you today. A classifieds listing will get you more and cost you a fortnight of messages. An online marketplace sits between the two and takes a cut you need to know in advance.
This is a simulator rather than a price list, and deliberately so: no official body in South Africa publishes second-hand prices, and any grid you find online belongs to somebody who wants to buy from you or sell to you. What follows are the lines you fill in yourself, the deductions that apply on each route, and the days of the month when a buyer actually has the cash. If you are clearing out to raise money, it is worth knowing that I am Beezy pays for viewing content — videos, articles and adverts — at roughly R95 to R285 a day, using the platform's 5 to 15 euro band converted at the Reserve Bank rate of 18,9201 rand per euro on 5 August 2026, which is income that does not run out when the cupboard is empty.
What decides the price of a used item in this country?
Three routes, three prices, one item
Route one is the buy-and-sell or pawn chain — Cash Crusaders and Cash Converters both operate nationally and both quote against immediate resale. They are buying to resell at a margin, so their offer is structurally the lowest of the three and structurally the fastest. Route two is classifieds: Gumtree South Africa puts you in front of a private buyer with no cut taken, and hands you the entire job of screening, meeting and being paid. Route three is a marketplace — Bob Shop, which is the platform that traded as bidorbuy and now runs its own payment and shipping arms — where you reach a national audience and pay for it in fees and logistics.
Condition, completeness and the missing charger
Completeness moves resale price more than cosmetic wear. A cordless drill with its charger and second battery is a working tool; without the charger it is a spare-parts item, and the drop is not proportional to what a replacement charger costs. The same goes for remotes, original boxes, manuals, and — for anything with a serial number — proof that you own it. A buy-and-sell chain will ask for an identity document and record the item; a private buyer who does not ask is a private buyer you should be wary of.
Why the shop copies your identity document
Sellers are often irritated when a buy-and-sell counter asks for an original identity document and takes a copy. It is not a shop policy. The Second-Hand Goods Act 6 of 2009 requires a dealer to register with the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service and to keep a register recording, for every acquisition, who the goods came from, how that person's identity was verified, the identity number, a description of the goods with their serial number or distinguishing mark, and the purchase price paid. Section 21(4) puts the matching duty on you: a person disposing of goods to a dealer must furnish full name, physical address and an original identity document or passport. The dealer must keep a copy and retain the register for not less than five years.
Two consequences follow for an ordinary seller. First, the chain route leaves a permanent, dated, priced record of the sale — useful if the item is ever traced, awkward if you cannot show how you came by it. Second, a private buyer who insists on no names and no paperwork for a serial-numbered item is proposing the one version of the transaction the law was written to prevent.
The simulator: five lines to your real net
Line 1 — the gross, in three versions
Write down three numbers, not one: what a chain offered you over the counter, what identical items are currently listed for on classifieds in your city, and what the same item is listed at on a marketplace. Listed is not sold — treat classifieds asking prices as the ceiling and the chain's counter offer as the floor. Your realistic gross sits between them, closer to the floor for anything electronic and closer to the ceiling for furniture and tools.
Line 2 — what comes off the top
On the chain route, nothing comes off: the offer is the net, which is exactly why the offer is low. On classifieds, the deduction is your time and your travel. On a marketplace, the deduction is the platform's fee, and you must read the current fee schedule on the platform itself rather than trusting a figure from a blog — including this one.
Line 3 — getting it to the buyer
Delivery is where household resale quietly loses money. Fuel is a price set by ministerial notice and it moves on the first Wednesday of every month; over 2026 the inland price of 93 octane petrol ran from 2 064 cents a litre in January to 2 795 in June before easing to 2 594 in July. Two forty-kilometre round trips to meet a buyer can eat a fifth of what a small item fetches. Courier is the alternative — Bob Shop runs its own shipping arm — and for anything under a few kilograms it is often cheaper than driving.
Lines 4 and 5 — the discount you will give, and the floor you will not go below
Every buyer asks for a discount, so build one in rather than being surprised by it. Then write your walk-away number on the same page and refuse to move below it. A seller without a floor accepts the second offer of the day out of fatigue.
| Route | Who you deal with | What comes off | How fast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy-and-sell or pawn chain | A store buyer working to a resale margin | Nothing — the offer is the net, and it is the lowest | Same day, cash or transfer |
| Classifieds listing | A private buyer, usually local | Your travel, your time, your risk of no-shows | Days to weeks |
| Online marketplace | A national audience of buyers | Platform fees plus shipping | Depends on demand for the category |
When does the buyer actually have the money?
The month has a measured rhythm
This is not folklore. The Reserve Bank's Payments Study Report 2023 found that both the volume and the value of South African payments concentrate between the 25th of one month and the 4th of the next, with a trough from the 15th to the 24th. Listing a R900 item on the 18th and listing it on the 27th are not the same act. If your item is a want rather than a need, put it in front of people in the window when they have been paid.
Cash is not a fallback, it is the main instrument
The same study measured cash at 56% of the volume of all payments but only 21% of the value, with an average cash payment of R208,44 against R529,21 across all instruments. Read that as a warning about tickets: a buyer who says "I will bring cash" is comfortable at a couple of hundred rand and will often want to negotiate at four figures. Volume peaks on Friday and Saturday, and Saturday carries the highest average cash value of the week at R261.
Where you are changes the ticket
Average payment size is provincial. The Reserve Bank recorded R724,96 in Gauteng against R365,67 in Limpopo, with Gauteng alone carrying 30% of national payment volume. For a seller that means two things: a high-value item finds its buyer faster in the metros, and a courier-friendly listing on a national marketplace is how a seller outside them reaches that buyer at all.
| Timing | What the payments data shows | What to do with it |
|---|---|---|
| 25th to the 4th | Peak concentration of payment volume and value | List and relist here; hold firm on price |
| 15th to the 24th | Measured trough in payments | Photograph, describe and prepare — do not launch |
| Friday and Saturday | Highest cash volume; Saturday the highest average cash value at R261 | Schedule viewings and handovers for these days |
Keeping the income going with I am Beezy after the cupboard is empty
Why a clear-out is a one-off and a habit is not
A household clear-out raises money once. The second one raises less, because you already sold the good items. With I am Beezy the mechanism is different: you view content on your phone and each view generates a small amount, so the income repeats weekly instead of depending on what is left in the garage. Reckon on the region of R95 to R285 a day at the August 2026 rand-euro rate quoted earlier, paid to the payment method you already use.
Using it to fund the resale itself
There is a practical use for a small, steady stream while you are selling: it pays the courier fee, the replacement charger, the cleaning materials and the fuel for the handover — the costs that push sellers into accepting a low counter offer because they cannot afford to wait. A seller who can wait a fortnight gets a better price than a seller who needs the money on Friday.
The questions that decide whether a sale goes well
How should you be paid?
An instant electronic transfer that you have seen reflected in your own banking app is the safest handover. A screenshot of a payment is not a payment. Cash is fine at the amounts cash usually moves — remember the R208,44 average — and awkward above that. South Africa has no telecommunications-operator wallet of the sort used elsewhere on the continent, so nobody can legitimately ask to pay you "on your SIM".
Where should a stranger meet you?
In a public, busy place in daylight, with somebody else present, and never inside your home for a first meeting. For anything valuable, the counter of a buy-and-sell chain is a meeting place with cameras and a receipt, even if you lose a little on price.
Is it worth repairing before selling?
Only if the repair is cheap, documented and returns the item to fully working. A half-repair without a receipt reads as a hidden fault and costs you more in buyer confidence than the fault itself.
Run the numbers before the first photograph
Take the three items you were going to sell this month and fill in five lines for each: the chain's offer, the classifieds asking price, the marketplace price, what comes off, and your walk-away floor. You will usually find that one item belongs at a chain because it is not worth the fortnight, one belongs on classifieds because it is bulky and local, and one belongs on a marketplace because its buyer lives in another province. Then list in the window from the 25th to the 4th, hand over on a Saturday, and keep something coming in between clear-outs — signing up on I am Beezy takes a few minutes and does not depend on what is left in the cupboard.
