How to write a furniture listing that states the size

Put the inches in the 80 characters

eBay still caps the title at 80 characters, spaces included. For furniture, the characters are worth more as inches than as adjectives. Lead with the maker if you can read it, then the object, the material, the color, and the width, depth, and height.

Include knobs, posts, and the top of a mirror in the height. A number that ignores the part that sticks up is how a piece fails a doorway. If you measured the most awkward dimension, that is the one the title should keep.

Say whether it ships or has to be picked up

Mercari parcel shipping is the wrong promise for a sofa, a dresser, or a table that does not break into a box you can lift. Say that plainly, then use Facebook Marketplace for local pickup or eBay’s local-pickup or freight options if you actually offer them. Do not list a 40-pound sideboard as if it were a mug.

On Facebook Marketplace the preview is short, so the first lines have to carry the size, the material, and the pickup problem: one piece or it comes apart, which floor you are on, and whether the buyer needs a truck. Price stays in the price field. “Must go today” can wait until after the width.

• Outer width, depth, and height, including overhangs.
• Clearance under a table, or shelf opening if that is why someone wants it.
• Weight if you know it from a label, not a guess you cannot lift.
• Assembly status: built, flat in the box, or partly apart.

Specifics for material, room, and assembly

eBay furniture filters usually ask for brand, type, material, color, style, room, and the three item dimensions. Fill the dimension fields with the same numbers as the title. A mismatch looks like two different tables.

• Material you can see or that is printed: solid oak, oak veneer, metal, glass, particle board.
• Number of pieces in a set, and which pieces are absent.
• Assembly required, and whether the cam locks and screws are in a bag.
• Style only when you can support it. “Mid-century” needs a maker, a label, or a decade you can point to.

Condition is joints, stains, and smell

Wobble, sun fade, water rings, pet hair ground into fabric, and smoke smell decide the price more than the word “vintage.” Say which you checked.

• Drawers: do they open, and are the runners intact?
• Chairs and tables: does it rock, and which leg is short?
• Upholstery: stains, tears, shine, and odor. Say if you did not clean it.
• Finish: chips, veneer bubbles, and rings. Do not call a chip “character” without showing it.
• Missing hardware named, including a lost Allen key for a flat-pack.

A tape, the label, and the damage

• Front, side, and back, with the whole piece in frame.
• A tape on the width and the height in at least one photo.
• The maker’s label, usually under a seat, inside a drawer, or on the back.
• Joints, drawer boxes, and the underside if there is a stain or a repair.
• Close-ups of chips, burns, and tears you named.
• The hardware bag, or a photo that shows it is missing.

A styled catalog photo of a similar table is not this table. Photograph the one you are selling, in the light the buyer will see, including the scuff on the foot.

Mistakes that waste a pickup

• No width, so the buyer arrives and it cannot enter the room.
• Forgetting the mirror, post, or handle that adds inches.
• Calling veneer solid wood, or calling every tapered leg mid-century.
• Promising Mercari shipping for a piece that does not fit a parcel.
• “Pets and smoke” left blank when the fabric smells of both.
• A set listed as complete when one chair or the shelf pins are gone.