Filofax Sellers Guide

From time to time I'm sure you all look at your little collection and think... I should really sell that organiser...it is only gathering dust on the shelf and I really fancy that new colour/model that Steve has been 'enabling' about...

Well Philofaxy is here to help sell your Filofax organisers and accessories... is this negative enabling?

We have our Ad-spot page for readers adverts, firstly here are the rules for placing ads on the page:

• Preferably Filofax and other ring bound planner items only please... obvious really!
• No parallel Ebay adverts, if you have put it on Ebay, then please don't ask us to advertise your items as well. 
• We are serious when we request that you donate to our chosen charity, so please consider giving some form of donation if you are placing an item on the Ad-spot page.
  Consider what it would have cost to sell on Ebay, Philofaxy is visited by more than 1000 people every day... and they are an informed and targeted audience.
• Adverts will be on the page for no more than a calendar month, if it hasn't sold in that time it will be removed. 
• Please tell us when your item has sold so it can be removed from the page. 
• If we get reports that you haven't responded to enquiries we will remove your advert immediately.

So those are the rules, nothing complicated and all very fair.

So what to include in your advert. Please make your advert as clear as possible, it should include:

• Details of the Model, size, colour, age if you know when it was originally bought
• Your location so an estimate on the cost of shipping can be estimated. You only need to go to country level.
• Condition, is it new, never been used, been in daily use, well used, broken in etc. 
• What is included in terms of inserts, diary inserts etc. 
• Where you are willing to ship the item to.
• Your contact details, an email address. 
• Some photographs, but please limit it to two photos per item. Please email these with your advert, or alternatively send us the links to your pictures. For better pictures please read this post on how to improve your pictures of Filofax Organisers.
• And price.... 

The price... I'm often asked 'how much should I ask for an xyz in Personal size'... I'm not the Quentin Wilson of the Filofax world, but here is some suggestions/tips on pricing...

• You can set the price to what ever you want it to be, I'm not going to stop you.....but......
• If the item is new but you have never used it, then I would suggest 20% -25% under what you paid for it. Remember the buyer might be able to buy one for same or less than the price you paid. If you have to add the price of shipping on top of the cost and remember some retailers offer free shipping. Look around at the prices that that item is available for, not just what the price is on the Filofax UK or USA site. We have all seen grossly inflated prices on Ebay for items... that didn't sell!
• If the item is used or may be not on current sale, then take a look at Ebay and look at completed sales to see what the average price has been on that particular model/size in the past.
• If you want the item to sell quickly be prepared to allow for some bargaining on your price. 

When you have agreed a price for your item and you start to receive enquiries via Email, please try to answer them promptly. We suggest that you do any money transactions via a secure method, PayPal generally seems to work very well these days, it's very quick and secure.

When you come to despatch the item to your lucky buyer, do be careful and pack your Filofax organiser well. Plenty of padding inside and outside of the organiser, I've repaired one or two and advised on others where they have become damaged in transit. Straightening out the ring mechanism after it's been trodden on is not easy!

If you are posting just inserts, then the 'Printed Paper Rate' is often considerably cheaper than conventional post. For instance I recently posted an A5 insert from France to the USA and it only cost €1.50 to post and only took 4-5 days to arrive so it doesn't appear to be any slower. 

And once your sale is complete.... don't forget to tell Philofaxy of the completed sale so the advert can be withdrawn, we will acknowledge your instructions.

All that is then left to do is to sit back and decide..... now what Filofax can I buy to replace the one I've just sold..... Enable Enable.... well there is a space on that shelf isn't there....

Contact Steve philofaxy at gmail dot com if you have any questions or you have an advert to post