Reselling versus donating

[Teacher Terry]

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.

I have had so many garage sales throughout my life and always make sure that the items are clean and individually marked. I always mark them really cheap because no one is going to pay much for used items. So when having a large sale, it is a lot of work for days in advance to get ready. If I go to a garage sale and items are dirty and not priced, I just leave.

When emptying a house I always use a variety of methods. If the home is on a busy enough street and I’ve already had a garage sale and individually sold the items that were worth the effort then I put items in the front yard with a free sign. In the last house I lived in that worked so great that very little had to be taken to a thrift store. It’s a lot easier to have people carry the items away for you when you were getting rid of tons of stuff. Of course items that are totally junk get taken to the dump.

 

[Sunset]

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.

That was my experience long ago, had a garage sale and after an entire weekend, made a few hundred dollars at most and had a lot of stuff nobody wanted.
Haven't done one since as didn't consider it worth my time and hassle.

 

[Teacher Terry]

That was my experience long ago, had a garage sale and after an entire weekend, made a few hundred dollars at most and had a lot of stuff nobody wanted.
Haven't done one since as didn't consider it worth my time and hassle.

I think you have to enjoy doing it for it to be worth the effort. I’ve helped many family members and friends hold garage sales and estate sales because I actually enjoy doing it. The last time I helped one of my friends about three years ago I decided that I’m done. I don’t want to work that hard anymore at age 72.

 

[disneysteve]

I think you have to enjoy doing it for it to be worth the effort.

True. As I said, I’m a lifelong reseller. I enjoy doing it. I like setting it all up, interacting with customers, and closing up at the end of the day with a pocketful of cash I didn’t have that morning.

 

[mystang52]

I didn't read all of the replies. Thanks to disneysteve's related decluttering thread, I recently finished our own decluttering. Our approach of sell/donate/freecycle was local marketplace sites for sellable items. We offered sell price that was on lower end to sell quickly. Anything that didn't get offers within 48 hours was tossed/donated.

 

[OldShooter]

IMO the answer to the question should depend on this one: "Will the proceeds of these sales make a financial difference in my life?" We have won the game, so we are reselling very little.

One item to sell, eventually, will be a target pistol. This model has held the Standard Pistol world record for about 40 years and I feel a responsibility to pass it along to someone who cares. And BTW it is probably worth about $2-3K

 

[disneysteve]

There’re companies that handle estate sales. You get some of the proceeds and they get a commission The rest they haul away.

I love estate sales and go to many of them, pretty much a few every week. That's where I buy most of the items I resell.

If you are considering the estate sale option, you need to take some time to familiarize yourself with the process. Also, it's an unregulated industry so you'll want to check out multiple companies as they all do things differently. Ideally, attend at least one sale by each company in your area so you can see how they run them. Use the estatesales.net app to find sales in your area.

The biggest thing to know is that unlike garage/yard sales, estate sales are held INSIDE your house. You will have hundreds of strangers walking through your home. You can close off rooms you don't want used but otherwise know that people will be going through every part of your house, every room, closet, cabinet, and drawer. You'll need to remove or relocate anything you don't want sold. You should also not be present during the sale so if it's a 2 or 3 day sale, you'll need a place to stay.

Lots of stuff to consider so be sure to ask plenty of questions. Who is responsible for damages that occur, for example? How is the estate sale company paid? How are you paid? What happens to the stuff that doesn't sell?

 

[disneysteve]

IMO the answer to the question should depend on this one: "Will the proceeds of these sales make a financial difference in my life?" We have won the game, so we are reselling very little.

I think it depends on convenience, too. I've sold plenty of things on Marketplace where I posted the ad, set up a pickup time, and the buyer got it off our front step and left the cash in the mailbox. I never saw them or interacted with them in person. Do I need that money? No, but it was so simple to earn it.

 

[splitwdw]

First ask family and friends if they want whatever you want to dispose of. After that donate to any organization that can use it, your church, schools, thrift stores. My bil decided to have a yard sale when the last surviving parent passed. He didn't ask anyone if they wanted to do it and was mad when no one wanted to help. His yard sale went on for weeks. He tried to wring out every penny. I think he made about $1400 and his siblings told him to keep it. I'm sorry that doesn't cover the time he spent getting the things ready and all the days he spent "selling". We were all tired of hearing about his yard sales and he still had to donate most of the things he was trying to sell.
None of us are retired and work full time jobs. On the weekends (and some week nights) we were cleaning, repairing and painting the in-laws house for sale. The bil was packing boxes for his yard sale. His brothers told him to clean out the garage and store his yard sale boxes out there.

 

[FlaGator]

I now take the approach "what will my kids do with everything?" I have 2 "collections" worth maybe $10k+ each that my kids would have no idea what to do with. I sold one last year and gave them 75% of the proceeds, and one more to go.

Everything else gets donated.

 

[athena53]

I think it depends on convenience, too. I've sold plenty of things on Marketplace where I posted the ad, set up a pickup time, and the buyer got it off our front step and left the cash in the mailbox. I never saw them or interacted with them in person. Do I need that money? No, but it was so simple to earn it.

Wow. That might be an alternative to Free Stuff on Craigslist. I live alone so don't want to be opening my doors to people I don't know, and don't want the bother of driving someplace public to meet someone. In this area I'd be surprised if anyone actually left the money but it could happen, I guess.

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

I now take the approach "what will my kids do with everything?" I have 2 "collections" worth maybe $10k+ each that my kids would have no idea what to do with. I sold one last year and gave them 75% of the proceeds, and one more to go.

Everything else gets donated.

This is the conclusion that I came to as well. Most of my memories type stuff mean absolutely nothing to my kids.
I have a wicker chair that my dad got me for my 18th birthday that I loved for many years but it’s been in the garage for about 20 years because it’s falling apart.
My dad died the next year so my kids weren’t even born yet. They have no connection to it. It’s going to the dump next time I go. It’s either now or after I die!

 

[sengsational]

I'll never have another garage sale, but when I did, the primary benefit was everything set out ended up gone. So emptied out the kids' closets and attic. Anything that didn't get sold went to Goodwill. Much of the volume, I realized, was from birthday party gifts. What a wasteful practice that was! You want to have a party, but the custom of buying all that junk is nuts.

 

[ransil]

listing something for free was the worse thing i ever did, better to list it cheap and give it to them if they show up.
see if there is a consignment shop around you, I dumped a lot of stuff there and got paid a month or 2 later, they will donate or return what is left over.
I did market place mostly and flea market, took a lot of time but made some cash.

 

[Jerry1]

Listing things for free helped me a lot when I moved. I’m a member of a buy nothing group on FB. I put up an ad that said come and get it. I said that it’s first come first serve and all I would do is indicate in the post when something was picked up. I got rid of a lot of stuff that day.

 

[disneysteve]

Listing things for free helped me a lot when I moved. I’m a member of a buy nothing group on FB. I put up an ad that said come and get it. I said that it’s first come first serve and all I would do is indicate in the post when something was picked up. I got rid of a lot of stuff that day.

Buy Nothing is great. We have given and gotten a lot of stuff from that. That has helped us clear out many things and saved us money acquiring things we wanted.

The group rules annoy me though which keeps me from using it to give away more stuff. They discourage “flash” gives. They want you to wait 24-48 hours before picking the recipient to give everyone a chance. No thanks. I want to give to the first person who asks and get it gone ASAP.

They also say no reselling. As far as I’m concerned, once the item is yours you are free to do whatever you want with it. When I’m done with the item if I want to resell it that’s up to me.

 

[athena53]

I've decided that later this week (weather permitting) I'm going to have a giant "Downsizing Giveaway" under Free Stuff on Craigslist. It will include anything I can carry out to the driveway, no holds, and the usual note that I can't help anyone load anything into their vehicle because I'm a lightweight. I'll have a single listing with lots of pictures. I just realized that I could start by sending an e-mail to my neighbors- will run this through the HOA Board. They're good people and I think they'll be fine with it.

The 1-800-Got Junk people are coming Friday so anything I can give away before then will save me money.

 

[FIREd]

For valuable items, I use professional resellers. Otherwise I donate. Reselling directly to individuals is way too frustrating. Those buyers are too often late, fickle, unreliable, etc… but I do buy directly from individuals when I’m looking for a good deal.

 

[ksr]

I used to belong to a group called FreeCycle (before the Buy Nothing Groups were created). I love the concept of giving useful things another life, but what a pain that turned out to be.

So many rude responses, like "I Want" or "I'll Take" and nothing else. Nope, forget those replies.

My ads always stated clearly that the item needed to be picked up at my location, and that I could put it on my front porch once they indicated a day and time range when they'd come by. I got more than a few responses from folks who expected me to deliver the free thing, one even gave me instructions as to where to place it!

Finally, and probably the most frustrating, was the number of no-shows.

I finally just gave up. My smallish neighborhood has a closed FB group and I do occasionally list something for free there; these are really my neighbors so there's a lot less flakiness. But mostly I just donate to a thrift shop if the item is still good. Or if it's small enough to ship and has some resale value, I'll sell it on eBay.

 

[athena53]

I used to belong to a group called FreeCycle (before the Buy Nothing Groups were created). I love the concept of giving useful things another life, but what a pain that turned out to be.
<snip>
I finally just gave up. My smallish neighborhood has a closed FB group and I do occasionally list something for free there; these are really my neighbors so there's a lot less flakiness. But mostly I just donate to a thrift shop if the item is still good. Or if it's small enough to ship and has some resale value, I'll sell it on eBay.

I had a great brainstorm yesterday and decided to send a note to the HOA mailing list after getting agreement from the HOA Board that this was an OK use of the e-mail list. It's all free- just reduces the stuff I have to pay to get hauled away or list on Craigslist. Bonus- things were going to people I knew, likely not resellers, and I was also comfortable letting them into the house to look at and remove things. What a response! I know I'm letting go of thigs I could sell (TV, lawn mower, good porch furniture) but I didn't want to deal with strangers at my door.

It's a good start.

I agree on the Free listings. Too many no-shows- I swear they don't show up at least 50% of the time.

 

[disneysteve]

Finally, and probably the most frustrating, was the number of no-shows.

No-shows and no responses are rampant both when selling on Marketplace and when giving away on Buy Nothing. It's insane how irresponsible people are even when you're giving them stuff for free. That's why I love ebay. It's just not the right venue for some items.

 

[disneysteve]

I had a great brainstorm yesterday and decided to send a note to the HOA mailing list after getting agreement from the HOA Board that this was an OK use of the e-mail list. It's all free- just reduces the stuff I have to pay to get hauled away or list on Craigslist. Bonus- things were going to people I knew, likely not resellers, and I was also comfortable letting them into the house to look at and remove things. What a response!

I love that. That might be the first good thing I've ever heard about an HOA.

 

[athena53]

I love that. That might be the first good thing I've ever heard about an HOA.

Mine is very good. They're mostly interested in being good stewards of the bank account and enforcing the Restrictions, which are very reasonable and given to prospective buyers in advance.

 

[livingalmostlarge]

OMG just talking with the mover and he said dump and pack as much as you can to save money. it's like $250-300 an hour. I asked because i said it might help me dump stuff faster. He said well then here's the reality check this is what you are going to pay to move

 

[ychuck46]

Depending on the value I will either attempt to sell or donate. As others have stated anything under a certain level isn't worth the time/effort. I also try to price aggressively so the item moves. A couple of years ago I put up my ride on lawn tractor that I was replacing. I do all my maintenance and tuned the thing up nicely before putting it on FB Marketplace for $150 with pictures. I (bad word) you not, I had over 200 replies in less than an hour. Some people were asking me if the post was real the price was so low. Wound up giving it to a young lady who bought her first home and was just starting out in life. She brought a friend with a trailer to haul it who told me he couldn't believe how low I was asking. Price it to sell and items will go.