Reselling versus donating

[livingalmostlarge]

Hoping we get to move this summer into a new house. And I realized I will be paying movers. As such I also realized I should dump as much stuff as possible.

But a lot of my hesitation has been I should resell and make money off of my stuff. But the time crunch is real. I don't think I should pay to move stuff we don't use or need. But the super frugal nature I had for years is battling with new acceptance of donating everything.

How do you balance it?

 

[RetiredHappy]

I donate everything. The extra thousands don't move the needle if we were to sell them. The charities can use the money that they can get from it.

 

[disneysteve]

You know where I stand on the issue. Reselling is great but it’s neither fast nor easy. The quickest way to monetize stuff is to have a yard sale. One day and you’re done. Expect to get about 10% of the item’s value. Whatever doesn’t sell, pack up and donate. If there are a few individual items of significant value you can put those on Marketplace or eBay but don’t waste your time on anything much under $100.

 

[Mark1]

I donate everything. The extra thousands don't move the needle if we were to sell them. The charities can use the money that they can get from it.

Same with me, but worse. I had a very nice Honda push mower that had been sitting in my shop for maybe 7 years with only 1 year of use. Easily worth a few hundred dollars. Once I noted a small engine shop that recently opened I took it (and an old power washer) and ask if they would take it off my hands for free. I'm into reuse, but not interested in the hassle factor to make a few bucks.

When I moved from TX, I had a guy going through my stuff on the curb, and I asked him if he would come into my house and help me moved a dresser from upstairs to his truck. I hate waste.

 

[disneysteve]

Posting stuff for free is a great option. Gets it out of your house and helps someone else. Use the Freebie Alert app. Post on FBMP and your local Buy Nothing group too.

 

[silvor]

Posting stuff for free is a great option. Gets it out of your house and helps someone else. Use the Freebie Alert app. Post on FBMP and your local Buy Nothing group too.

Seems I get more weirdos posting stuff for free.

Even if I put five dollars on something then people think it’s not a piece of junk. Maybe it’s the area I am in.

 

[disneysteve]

Seems I get more weirdos posting stuff for free.

Even if I put five dollars on something then people think it’s not a piece of junk. Maybe it’s the area I am in.

I think it depends on the site. Buy Nothing is all free items so no issues there. Same for the Freebie Alert app. Everything is free so that’s the expectation.

 

[scfr]

Definitely purge before the move. That is the top priority!

Decide what your cutoff is for individual items to sell on community page or FB Marketplace. It might be $10 or $25 or $50 or $100. Whatever number feels right to you and fits your timeline. Anything less than that, don't bother with individual listings.

If your community has a neighborhood garage sale, participate. Price low to get rid of as much stuff as possible. Have a free pile. If it's a 2-day sale, cut prices in half the 2nd day. The last hour, hand out plastic shopping bags if you still have a stash and tell shoppers they can 'fill a bag for a buck.'

Anything leftover, donate.

That's been my strategy.

Good luck!

 

[audreyh1]

When we downsized years ago, we sold a few items that we expected to get decent money for and donated the rest. These days we simply donate as it is generally too time consuming (not to mention the hassle factor) otherwise.

 

[srblanco7]

We'd first check if anyone in our family/friends group could make use of the item. If not, then we'd donate - both to provide the value to the charity and to avoid the hassle factor.

 

[elvis76]

You’re basically paying a "hoarding tax" to have someone else carry your clutter into your new home. Is that old stuff really worth the back pain and the moving fees?

 

[old medic]

We had a 3 day (fri-sun) yard sale, packed up what we thought might still sell and moved to the new place (2 miles away) and a few weeks later had a 2nd one. Everything left went to our local hospice re-sale shop.

 

[pjigar]

We gave away everything usable to the individuals on marketplace. Trick: Sell on marketplace for a very low price ($1-$10) that way people actually keep their appointments! We owned both properties when we moved so we had some time to list things on marketplace. I would have gave everything to charities if we didn't had time.

PS: My guidelines for "recycling": Reduce -> Reuse -> Repurpose -> Recycle (in that order).

 

[Aerides]

You know where I stand on the issue. Reselling is great but it’s neither fast nor easy. The quickest way to monetize stuff is to have a yard sale. One day and you’re done. Expect to get about 10% of the item’s value. Whatever doesn’t sell, pack up and donate. If there are a few individual items of significant value you can put those on Marketplace or eBay but don’t waste your time on anything much under $100.

When I see yard sales I think of a million better ways to spend a day:

Hours spent getting everything ready and tagged, putting out signs, etc.
Hours spent sitting in your garage/driveway, haggling with people, dealing with cash or venmos
Hours more putting back everything that didn't sell (or loading it up to drive to donate/trash)

For....a few hundred bucks, maybe a grand? Pass.....Call a charity that does pickups for the big stuff (there are plenty that still take furniture), and drive the small stuff over to a goodwill or similar.

 

[COcheesehead]

Cherry pick. Sell the stuff you believe has value AND will sell quickly. Donate the rest.

 

[disneysteve]

When I see yard sales I think of a million better ways to spend a day:

To each their own. I’ve been a reseller since I was about 13. My cousin and I used to sell at a local flea market every weekend. As an adult my wife and I sold at toy and collectible shows for many years from NY to VA. Both of those activities were far more work than setting up a few tables in our driveway.

 

[COcheesehead]

My neighbor just had a yard sale. Half the stuff wasn’t marked. Stuff was still in bins. They did it for only 4 hours in the morning.
They had some good stuff. I thought of buying a bunch and reselling it on eBay, but didn’t. My point in posting is if you are going to have a yard sale, do it right. Not half arsed.

 

[disneysteve]

My neighbor just had a yard sale. Half the stuff wasn’t marked. Stuff was still in bins.

That’s the way to do it. Keep it simple. Let people make a pile of stuff they want and then give them a bundle price. That’s how most estate sales are. They price some of the higher end items but everything else is unmarked. When I go to a sale and every single item is priced I usually walk away empty handed. Those are the folks who generally over value their stuff.

 

[COcheesehead]

That’s the way to do it. Keep it simple. Let people make a pile of stuff they want and then give them a bundle price. That’s how most estate sales are. They price some of the higher end items but everything else is unmarked. When I go to a sale and every single item is priced I usually walk away empty handed. Those are the folks who generally over value their stuff.

I had the opposite feeling. I am not going to dig through someone’s tub. To me it comes across as lazy, but that’s just me.

 

[disneysteve]

I had the opposite feeling. I am not going to dig through someone’s tub. To me it comes across as lazy, but that’s just me.

As a reseller, I want the people who recognize that their stuff isn't overly valuable. If they clean and price and nicely display everything, it's usually because they expect to get close to original value. Yard sales should be around 5-10% of cost. If you bought the thing for $30, getting about $2 at a yard sale is fair. The problem today is so many people look up their items on ebay (incorrectly) and see someone selling it for $40 so that's the price they slap on it at their yard sale.

As for digging through bins, that's the picker in me. When I walk up to a yard sale and they have several tables with stuff nicely arranged and a few boxes under the table that they didn't empty, I always go straight to the boxes first. That's usually the stuff that they didn't think was worth enough to put out, which is often the very items that are the most valuable.

 

[sengsational]

Posting stuff for free is a great option. Gets it out of your house and helps someone else. Use the Freebie Alert app. Post on FBMP and your local Buy Nothing group too.

If it might be worth something, I put up a curb alert in our neighborhood Facebook group. Takes no longer to do that than put it in the trash.

For larger things, we fill out a form with the city and put it on the curb on a scheduled day. They either leak the info or people make the rounds on the scheduled day because by the time the city gets to it, the pile is gone or severely compromised

 

[disneysteve]

If it might be worth something, I put up a curb alert in our neighborhood Facebook group. Takes no longer to do that than put it in the trash.

We've put out a "free" table a couple of times and loaded it up. I advertised it in Buy Nothing and on Freebie Alert and by the end of the day nearly everything was gone.

 

[Aerides]

If I have to ask what the price is for a thing, I'm walking away.

 

[disneysteve]

If I have to ask what the price is for a thing, I'm walking away.

Don't bother going to estate sales, or most yard sales, or flea markets.

 

[Steelpony]

There’re companies that handle estate sales. You get some of the proceeds and they get a commission The rest they haul away. Done. You have to make the initial decision what to get rid of.

We gave away and donated mostly.