Second-hand in Istanbul

Istanbul's second-hand scene runs on patience and a good eye: students buy and sell furniture, books, electronics and bikes mainly between house moves and at the end of each semester. Check a few similar listings before you agree on a price, and keep deals simple — cash paid on pickup, no middleman.

Before binning anything, think reuse first. Turkey's national Zero Waste programme ranks reuse above recycling, saying products should be reused for their intended purpose as much as possible, and that broken electronics should be repaired where possible or taken to municipal collection points rather than left with household rubbish (Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, 2019). A chipped table or working laptop is usually worth selling or giving away; for bulky furniture that genuinely can't be reused, check your district municipality's own collection rules first.

Fake online listings are a recognised problem here: Turkey's Ministry of Trade has added identity and seller-authorisation checks to curb fraudulent property and vehicle ads (Ministry of Trade, 2024) — treat any unseen listing, for any item, with the same caution.

• See it, test it, then pay. Check furniture, electronics or a bike in person and make sure it works before any money changes hands.
• Never send a deposit by bank transfer, gift card or crypto to "hold" an item — that's a common scam pattern, and EduFabTech never takes payments.
• Meet in a public, daylight spot if you don't know the seller, and bring a friend along for bigger items.