I’ve had the opposite experience. Offer stuff for free and you will have to deal with the flakiest, most unreliable people in the world. They’ll say they’re going to come pick it up, leave you waiting all afternoon, and then just ghost you.
Ask at least a token amount and you will get someone who seriously wants it.
Adding an anecdatum to the pile, my one and only experience with offering a (nice but unloved by the other occupant) chair for free got a response in the first 5 minutes who then arranged a courier to pick it up the following week. Painless.
Well I was giving away our coffee table. A very interested lady who was going to pick it up have held us home for better part of the day with half-hour postponements and then said it's too much trouble.
Relisted it for $20 and the next week it went painlessly.
I live at the end of a long driveway off a fairly busy road. I've had very good luck leaving a chair or old lawn equipment at the end of the driveway with a free sign. Gone within a few hours.
This is what I do, for Craigslist instead of posting in free I'll post in the category with a $1 price and say free in the description. Free is scanned by desperate people looking to make easy money. Due to competition, that requires being first to claim stuff, well before you are sure you can find a buyer for it.
