The second-hand goods market in Germany is this booming sub-economy that runs everywhere you go. People will sell everything from used cars to used socks, seriously. However, with so many options available, finding the right second-hand stores to buy or sell on, can be daunting.
In my opinion, the best online, second-hand stores in Germany are Vinted and Kleinanzeigen. I have used both options consistently.
Vinted
This app is by far my favorite. It can be set up in English and will automatically translate conversations for you. So regardless of what you are selling or buying you can easily and clearly communicate with the other person, which makes the overall process a lot smoother.
It works based on a rating system so if you buy or sell you will always be rated and can rate the person you transact with. The rating is based on a simple 5-star system, 1 star being the worst score and 5 stars being the best score. You can leave a comment and respond to any comments written about you.
To sell things you take photos on your phone, add descriptions, and wait for people to purchase. It's very user-friendly and prompts you on which categories to put your items in.
You can "bump" items for a small fee which means that your items will be prioritized in peoples' feeds for the selected time period. I have tried this before and it really works when you want to sell something quickly.
To buy things, you find what you like, check the profile of the seller to see if they have good reviews, and then offer to purchase. The seller will then confirm the price and the shipping cost then you can pay. If you pay via the built-in system you will pay for the items, the shipping and a small transaction fee to Vinted will also be charged. The main benefit of using the built-in payment system is that if you have paid via the system, and if the person doesn't send your items or lied about the condition you can report this and they won't get paid. This allows you to have some sort of security, compared to sending a payment via PayPal or bank transfer. Some people prefer being paid via PayPal or direct transfer and will state this in their profile. When agreeing to pay this way, just make sure you only buy from people with good ratings. I have paid with both methods and had no problems, so far.
The main offering here is used clothing but they do have other categories like make-up and other small household items.
I have always enjoyed Vinted, for both buying and selling.
Kleinanziegen
This app is more similar to Craigslist.
I found there to be more scammers here and it's all in German so it's not as easy to navigate while you are learning the language.
The main offering here is your bigger household items like furniture and appliances, and things like cars. You will find some clothing and smaller items.
We purchased our sofa here and some of our chairs. You will end up needing to collect the items yourself so you will need to rent a van with a friend to help carry or if you are at the age where your back gets achy for absolutely no reason at all, I recommend finding a moving service. These smaller moving services are available to find on Kleinanziegen using search terms like "umzug" or "moving company".
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