Get Rid of Your Crap

The upside to having spent a lot of money on (mostly) crap when I was younger is that there are tons of folks who want to buy my crap. Vintage dresses, handbags I don't carry anymore, Dungeons & Dragons miniatures (ok, so they're still not crap by my definition, but I haven't got the time to play anymore, and many of them are worth 30 times more than I paid for them), CDs, books, the list goes on.

During the last month I began the process of selling off my crap. I've made about $250 after shipping supplies and eBay fees. And I've still got plenty more closet to clean out. I have two huge bins of CDs, DVDs, and computer games - items that I definitely won't make my money back on for the most part- but considering that they've been parked in the garage since September, and in a box under the stairs in the apartment before I moved here, I'd rather have the cash.

I've also got a veritable crap-ton of clothes that I don't wear. Some of them are best off going to Goodwill for the tax write-off, but many of them are cute and sell-able. I've noticed that many of the clothing buy/sell/trade stores around here are complete snots when it comes to what they'll buy, and more than once I've seen my items on their racks for sale, items that they refused to purchase from me but offered to "donate." So eBay it is. Selling clothing on eBay is harder than selling media or collectibles. Vintage dresses and the like are easiest, but if you've got a cute model and a semi decent photographer, your listings will stand out. If you sign up for an eBay storefront and leave the listings up indefinitely, you'll also have better luck selling clothes you don't wear anymore- not to mention you'll make double or more what you might get at a buyback store.

Perhaps the easiest items to begin selling off are books. Half.com allows you to leave listings up indefinitely, though anything that sells for $.99 or less is better for trading on bookmooch. We tend to hoard books, even ones we have no intention of ever reading again, and so they sit unused on shelves when they could easily be sold or traded instead. Books are some of the simplest items to package and ship, not to mention cheapest with the USPS' Media Mail option.

Granted, you're not going to make millions of dollars selling all your junk, but you might be able to give yourself a cushion in your checking account that you didn't have before, or sock away $100 towards a trip to Europe (or whathaveyou), or pay back some debt with money you didn't have to kick your butt at work for.