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FOX43 Finds Out: Apps that can make you some fast cash

MOUNT JOY, Pa — Who doesn’t love free money? Alan Stough of Mount Joy, Lancaster County has made some extra cash from selling his old stuff on Faceb...

MOUNT JOY, Pa -- Who doesn't love free money?

Alan Stough of Mount Joy, Lancaster County has made some extra cash from selling his old stuff on Facebook Marketplace.

"We found something that we really like here and it goes real quick."

Stough has sold several items, quickly.

"The washer and dryer was on for 45 minutes and it had 180 people look at it. It`s a nice place to sell stuff."

Also sold a lawn mower, sofa and Wood stove all for sale for less than a day.

Stough says Marketplace is also pretty simple.

"You set your price on market place and it says a price $40-50 lower than you do and that`s the bottom line that you would go so people know you`re not going to go lower than that.'

Marketplace is already connected to your Facebook account and makes contacting the seller or buyer pretty simple.

Which Stough likes, because you can see a little bit more information about the person who you're selling it to than you can on some other sites.

"We went to Craigslist, we went to newspapers and the stuff never moved and here it moved in 6 hours, it was gone."

FOX43 Finds out did reach out to Facebook, to see if it kept any statistics on how many items have been sold on the site.

Facebook told us, it doesn't really keep those stats.

Howeve, a spokesperson did say some popular categories include clothing, furniture, electronics and autos.

There are similar free websites and apps that have kept some stats though.

The head of communications for LetGo says the app has been downloaded 75 million times around the world  and users have sent almost 3 billion messages.

Some of the biggest sellers on LetGo include electronics, furniture, cars, toys and clothing.

There's also OfferUp, another online commerce app.

It's very similar to LetGo and was voted App of the year by Geekwire in 2016.

According to OfferUp's website, there have has been $14 billion in transactions over the past year.

It does have an extra security feature called "TruYou."

It's where you take two photos a US government issued photo, like a driver's license.

Which is supposed to make it safer when you meet someone to get the money and items for sale.

As for Alan Stough, he's heard of all of the other apps and still plans on sticking with Facebook Marketplace.

He plans on selling more stuff on the site.

"We`ll see in the spring when we start cleaning the sheds out if there`s stuff we don`t need it will probably go up for sale."

LetGo did offer some tips on how to make things sell faster on these apps:

Better photos = better offers: 10 seconds of dusting will make your coffee table much more attractive to buyers. Find an angle or spot with great light and an uncluttered background. Put smaller items like headphones or a watch on a solid rug or bed and take a photo from 45 to 90 degrees. Make sure the item's in focus and take a few other shots from different sides.

Be honest: Tell buyers upfront about any wear-and-tear on your item. Most people won't care about a scratch on the bottom of a PlayStation 4, especially if the price is right. But no one wants to feel misled later on.

Do a quick search: Check out what other sellers are asking for comparable items and price yours competitively.

Be responsive: Turn on notifications so you can reply right away to buyers who message you.

If you have a story idea you want me to look into, FOX43 wants to find out! Send me a message on Facebook or email me.

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