I have some stuff to sell in Zurich, but I've been quite disappointed with Ricardo lately. Prices are what the market dictates, OK, but I did not manage to sell anything for more than almost nothing. A few good items that I am unwilling to sell for less than what I have already compromised to lie dormantly unsold since long. On top of that, Ricardo takes a 10% fee.
As much as I don't like Ebay, is the situation with Ebay.ch got any better in the last 3-4 years since I last used it? It didn't manage to catch up as much as Ricardo, but maybe now the situation is better?
Alternatively, for the stuff that I do not want to ship but to be picked up on site (bulky, low-value stuff like chairs etc) is there any other friendly platform for second hand sales that you recommend? Not including stuff on social (no Facebook/Google/Twitter, anything that implies having an account on social media).
Shall I create my own Ricardo clone that takes "only" 9% fees?
If there are other people willing to sell similar things for close to nothing then there is very little rationale for anybody to buy these things from you for a higher price. If this is the case I don't think ebay.ch becoming popular would change a thing. These other people would just be offering the goods for close to nothing on ebay.ch .
As far as I know Ricardo does not have "sold items" page to get a glimpse for how much other people sold similar items. But you can cheat by using google search and limiting resultset to ricardo.ch domain. This way you can find ended auctions.
My experience tells that some items just take longer to sell i.e. 6-9 weeks but I would assume you waited that long.
Additionally there is a higher chance to get item sold if you take good and detailed pictures describe item very well - how old it is, condition, pickup/delivery conditions Swiss locals can be suspicious of listings done only in English so use google translate or deepl to translate into German
Ricardo can sometimes be very disapointing for sellers, but great for buyers.
Occasionally I will list an item on Ebay UK/Germany and then if it sells, post it from there when I visit e.g. I once sold a Macbook with GB keyboard which would be hard to shift in CH but easy on Ebay UK. You just have to switch your primary address on the website for that particular sale.
I routinely sell personal items and company overstock on Ricardo, Tutti, Anibis, and ocasionally FB market place.
Each of these platforms have their pros/cons. For high value items I only use Ricardo, it's safer and a sale is almost guaranteed to conclude after auction close.
Anibis, when I need to have something picked up quickly (since everyone's mostly in the same region).
Tutti for items I know will do better in the German region vs French (there are also way more buyer there).
FB marketplace we only use for selling used children's toys, books, random small stuff (basically anything less than chf 50) which I often leave in front of our door and people just leave the money in our mailbox when we are not in.
Either way, the second hand market is mostly a buyer's market in Switzerland, I feel that still most people prefer to buy new vs. buying used. So when I sell, I always set very low expectation.