This might be a strange article for a marketplace to publish. Most of them want you to post everything, everywhere, as often as possible. We'd rather save you a wasted afternoon.

So here's a short list of things that, honestly, don't belong on CoSell.

"I'm selling my couch for $200."
"I need a plumber."
"I want to hire a graphic designer for $500."
"I need someone to build this exact website."
"I'm looking for a job."

None of these are bad posts. They're just finished. You already know what you want, what it costs and who the other person should be. All you need is to find them, and there are brilliant places built exactly for that. Facebook Marketplace for the couch. A local trades site for the plumber. Upwork or Fiverr for the designer. A job board for the job. They'll get you there faster than we will.

CoSell starts a step earlier. It's for the moment before you know what the transaction is.

The test we use is simple. I have something. There might be an opportunity here. What could someone else bring?

If you can already answer that last question with a price and a job title, you probably don't need us. If your honest answer is "no idea, but I'd love to find out", you're in exactly the right place.

The interesting bit is how close some of these are to belonging. Watch what happens with a small shift.

"I'm selling my couch for $200" is a classified. "I run a furniture workshop that can make pieces in small quantities, and it's quiet two days a week" is a CoSell listing. Someone might propose a collaboration, a pop-up, a line of designs you'd never have drawn yourself.

"I'm looking for a job" belongs on a job board. "I have fifteen years of experience restoring old boats and my weekends are free" is something else. That's knowledge and capacity, and somebody out there might have a project nobody else could do.

"I need someone to build this exact website" is a brief. "I have a website with thousands of visitors researching home elevators and nothing to offer them" is an opportunity waiting for a proposal.

The difference isn't the size of the thing or how valuable it is. It's whether the answer is already decided. Classifieds describe a deal. CoSell listings describe a possibility and leave room for someone to fill it in.

I find this oddly freeing. You don't need to know what your thing is worth or who wants it. You just need to be open to hearing what it could become.

So before you post, it's worth asking yourself one question. Do you want a buyer, or do you want opportunities?