That’s It – I’m Selling My Stuff!

Was talking to my neighbors yesterday and we were talking about stuff.. more specifically, selling stuff. I’m sure that I’m not the only one around that can honestly say that they have more stuff than they need. Not that it’s junk by any stretch of the imagination, but things that you buy – and never use anymore. Clothes would obviously be the #1 item that people gather a LOT of and don’t’ get rid of – hence the huge closets and Rubbermaid containers full of… stuff.

So when I was talking to them, we shared ideas about the most common ways that people sell their stuff. Generally speaking, the ways people do it are:

• flea market – we have a great one in North River which is very busy and people unload a lot of items.
• garage/yard sale – very common this time of year – generally get the least amount of value for your items.. but it’s gone.
• online – UsedPEI/Kijiji/eBay – these types of online classifieds are extremely popular and free (eBay has some seller fees)
• print classifieds – generally for cars and bigger ticket items, I find that this is getting less and less popular as more folks look for deals online.

I haven’t done a garage sale in quite some time, and I can’t remember the last time I actually participated in a flea market. However, I think it’s getting to that point – but I also think that there should be a natural progression in order to get the most ‘bang for your buck’. For the items which are say.. more than $30, I would go online and try to sell it. Stuff like Wii, ps3, computer parts,  In fact even if it wasn’t but it was uncommon or something people would use, I’d still post it on both UsedPEI and Kijiji to see if you could get them sold. If you can’t get them sold that route – gather up your stuff, and head to the flea market. There are people just aching to look over a ‘noob’ stuff at the flea market. If all else fails – garage sale.. and if you can’t ‘give’ it away at that point..junk it.

The reason that I’m writing this today is that I came home yesterday and decided I wanted to sell some Wii items – so I posted our Wii Fit online for $75 (I purchased it used for $100 2 years ago).. I sold it within minutes (using UsedPEI and Kijiji) for full price. Sweet!

Anyhow that quick transaction pretty much convinced me it’s time to purge things – and try to recover some money from them if possible. There really isn’t much point to having something that you use maybe once a year sitting around gathering dust. Especially when you could use that money for other more important things – like paying off the debt you likely used to get it to begin with!