My previous post talked about how to make the decisions about the value of your household. In this post I offer some some practical guidance.
- eBay - If you have unique or obscure items you can sell them here. Unless you opt for "BuyItNow!" it takes at least a week. Be prepared to ship the item afterwards, and shipping is more expensive than many may realize. You CAN specify "local only - pickup required," but the more obscure your item, the more you need to have access to a big market.
- Craigslist - For Sale - Best for selling commodity-ish items, though you can get some money for large high-value items too. Check out what others like yours are going for. A "chair" is a chair, and "high quality" means it's clean, durable, and neutral palette and style.
- Craigslist - Free (under the For Sale area) - If you have a pile of stuff, or want to move things to the curb, post it on Craigslist free, first come, and be SURE to remove the post as soon as it's picked up. Be a good citizen and monitor that, otherwise people are going to waste gas driving to your location. This is where you can post needs-a-good-cleaning, serviceable-but-broken, and your first attempt at a mosaic tabletop.
- Freecycle - You have specific items, and you know they're decent quality but you don't have time or inclination to bother selling them for the amount they'd fetch (or you just feel like anonymous gift-giving!). I've seen everything from nice sofas and entertainment centers, to food, partly-used cleaners, non-working appliances "for parts only," and other normally un-sellable stuff here too. This is also the best way to get rid of a good mattress - people need used mattresses that are clean, and you can't donate them! Never landfill a good mattress! Also, you can get and give away moving boxes on Freecycle.
- Local thrift shops or Goodwill (note, they typically CANNOT accept mattresses)
- HalfPrice Books and other book and media resellers
- Amazon works, if you have the time and develop a shipping process.
And:
- Garage sales: I personally think they're useful in the sense that hoards of people come to your house and remove very heavy and large things and even pay you a little bit to do so. Note: many will ask for "old electronics" but do not let them remove your computers without your first removing the hard drive!
There is plenty
written
about how to "do garage sales" that will lead you to the best ways to
publicize them in your local area, but maybe the simplest thing to do
is go to a
few local sales and ask the people who are having successful sales how
they got the word out. For me: PennySaver, Craigslist Garage Sales, and signs on the street.
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