What to reply to “Is this still available?” (and how to stop answering it)

You list a couch. Within an hour, twelve people have asked whether it is still available, which it obviously is, because the listing is up. Three offer half the price. Two ask whether you deliver. One says they will come at six and does not. By Sunday you have sold it to the fourth person who showed up, for less than the second person offered, and you have thirty open conversations.

These are the replies that work, from least effort to most.

The one-liner

“Yes. Pickup is in [neighborhood], evenings or weekends. Cash or Venmo.”

Answer the question and the next two questions in the same breath. Most of the twelve will not reply, and that is the point: “is this still available” is the button the app puts under their thumb, and tapping it is not interest. The ones who write back a real sentence are the buyers. Marketplace now offers an AI draft of this reply; write your own once and save it, because the app's version does not know your neighborhood.

The lowball filter

“Yes. The price is firm for the first few days; I'll drop it if it doesn't sell. Happy to hold it for you at asking if you can pick up this week.”

You do not argue with a lowball. You tell them what will happen instead. Half of the lowballers come back at asking because they wanted the couch, not the discount.

The deadline

“Yes, and a few people have asked. I'm taking offers until Saturday noon and will go with the best one. Send yours here with when you could pick up.”

This changes the game. Instead of first-come, you have a small auction with a deadline. Buyers who want it bid up, flakes do not bother, and you pick the best offer from someone who committed to a pickup time. The weakness is bookkeeping: twelve threads, offers in each, and you have to remember which was best and tell the rest.

The link

“Yes. I'm collecting offers here until Saturday noon, and everyone sees the top offer: [link]”

One page with the item, the deadline and every offer on one board. Buyers put in a name, an email and a number. They see what they are up against. At the deadline you pick, and everyone who offered gets an email with the result, so you never write “sorry, it sold” twelve times.

You cannot put a link in the listing itself; Marketplace, Craigslist and OfferUp remove or ban them. You can put one in a reply, on every one of them. That is why the link lives in your saved reply and not in the ad. (Marketplace also allows a QR code as a listing photo, which is the same link for people who find it in person.)

RealBid does this: describe the item, set the deadline, get the link and a saved reply to paste. Free, no account for you or the buyers.

Three habits that save the rest of the weekend

• Mark it pending the moment someone commits. It stops the stream. Un-mark it if they flake.
• Never hold without a time.“I can come tomorrow” is not a pickup. “Tomorrow at 6:30” is.
• Price for the offer you want.Everyone offers less than asking. Ask for what you would accept plus about 15 percent, and the “lowball” is your number.