OLX, quicker are underrated

For those who don't know OLX is a secondary market to buy and sell used products. You can get iPhones to running shoes to coffee machines. I recently used it for selling and for buying. I sold my PS5 and Guitar and I bought a MAC Mini and here's why I think it's underrated.

You get a better price - If you need to sell something electronic like a PS5 or Phone, there are established businesses that can buy your product but they will offer a lower price for it because they need to in turn sell it to an individual who'll buy used goods. OLX cuts the middlemen getting you to interact with the buyer directly fetching you a higher price. I got a higher price from an individual than from a company for the PS5.

You find a market - How do you find a buyer for your guitar without a platform? Its hard. You may perhaps go to a musical instrument store? But you'll get a lower price as you don't have bargaining power. For some products there really is no market. How are you going to sell a used pair of running shoes or maybe a coffee machine? I recently listed my Aeropress coffee machine since I don't use it. Without it I would have thrown it in the trash? Whether to buy something like that is a separate matter altogether but it creates a place where you can sell.

You get a good deal (due to buyers remorse or cash needs or other reasons) - Good products available at a cheaper price because the buyer regrets buying it and wants to get rid of it. You also find sellers who simply need cash because they want to buy something else. I got a 4 month old base model Mac mini M4 for 41.5k along with Apple Care and a hard case. The original price for this combined bundled product is around 65-68k. There were many Mac mini's available due to buyer's remorse. Many wanted to sell after a few months or even days because of the lack of portability of the device. With Apple a 4 month old device is as good as new and will last a very long time so it's as good as getting a new product. There are some sellers also selling because they got it as a gift which gets you a good deal too. If you're buying a product that is good and long lasting from a trusted brand, you can save more by buying it from the secondary market.

You can't buy everything used and you have to be mindful about the seller's intentions. Sometimes they want to dispose of something because it's giving them problems or does not work. Then there's also scams. But scammers are probably a small percentage. If you do your basic due diligence, you're good.

There's also a limited amount of time the ad is available. You can only post it for free for a month after which it gets taken down. That's a big limitation and reduces the good deals you can get. There are also risks on what product you get, did the buyer use it well before? If there's internal damage one can never know so it's a bit tricky on what you end up getting. So there are risks but I believe they are emphasised more than the benefits.