Buy, sell, trade, give in Prague: Best options for English-speakers

Community Manager Czechia, Prague ,

Looking for the best online to buy, sell, trade, or give away stuff in Prague, but don’t speak Czech?

  • Don’t use Craig’s List.
If you hail from the U.S., you might have noticed that Craigslist has a Prague page. You might also have noticed it is basically dead. Not worth your time.
  • Don’t expect the best prices.

Since the English-speaking market is much smaller than the Czech market, prices are less rational. Some used items successfully sell for more than they would cost new. Others don’t sell at all at a fraction of the price that they’re going for on Czech-language markets.

  • If you’re buying (not selling), and you’re looking for new (not 2nd hand), scroll to the bottom header for some recommended options.

The best English-language 2nd-hand online shopping tools for Prague:

 

Facebook has a handful of English-language groups just for buying, selling, trading, and giving away used goods in Prague. Here are four of the largest groups:

If you have a Czech-speaking friend (or are a wizard with Google translate) …

The biggest markets for buying and selling in Prague are, unsurprisingly, Czech. If you’re looking to buy (not sell), Google Translate is probably all you need. Many, perhaps most, Prague-based Czechs speak English, and at the very least they’ll be able to use Google translate themselves or have a friend to help.
Here are three of the biggest Czech-language online markets for buying and selling used goods (followed by one for good karma):
     
SBAZAR.cz is run by one of the great Czech website creators. They built seznam.cz, the last search engine in Europe to outperform Google (until recently). They still have the best local map site (mapy.cz; at least for certain overlays), and by far the best site for finding a place to live (sreality.cz). SBAZAR is their used-goods marketplace and it’s likely the best there is.
    
Bazoš.cz is a popular alternative to sbazar, and may have a larger market share with the younger crowd.
     
aukro is the Czech Republic’s answer to ebay.com. As with ebay, you can find and sell both new and used items, and you can do it either as an auction or with the “buy now” option.
   
Looking for freecycling (people giving away free stuff as an alternative to throwing it away)? VšezaOdvoz is the Czech Republic’s first freecycling website. While it has a much smaller inventory and less traffic than these other sites, it’s a great option for giving away things that you don’t want to money for, or for finding great junk to fill your closets with. Coincidentally, it was started by a former member of Locus!

Not selling and just want a great place to shop online?

If you’re not committed to buying used, heureka.cz  is a great shopping aggregator, and definitely the go-to site for finding the best prices on widely sold products.
For digital electronics, I prefer  czc.cz to their larger competitor, alza.cz. Though alza.cz has a much wider inventory (they sell household items like refrigerators or vacuums, not just computers and accessories), czc has competitive prices on the goods they both sell. It is also more convenient and has better customer service. Twice in a row alza kept my payment for large-cost items after I had returned them (until I caught it in my bank account and complained). Most importantly, czc has a drop-off store location just around the corner from Locus Workspace. And the shop makes returns or warranty repairs easy.
Finally, many of the usual international shopping sites work fine in Prague:
  • Amazon will ship without import taxes as long as you use a European version (e.g., the British or German sites) and make sure they’re not shipping from outside the Schengen zone (or at least that the seller knows how to get around customs, as many of the Asian companies that sell on those platforms do).
  • Alibaba’s non-bulk alternative, AliExpress, is a great way to shop for bargain items.
  • Google Shopping works for the Czech Republic as long as you have your location settings right, and works much the same as Heureka (though Heureka works better in my experience).

Locus Workspace member? Use our buy, sell, trade Slack channel

If you’re a Locus member, the best way to sell your things might be to another member. We have a Slack channel devoted to just that purpose, and there’s no easier way for both sides to come together than if you work in the same coworking space.

Have your own favorite or see something that needs correcting in the above list?

Please leave a comment!