Advice for Selling Your Possessions

The Dusted Attic, KCMO

Stuff, stuff, stuff. We have so much of it and not much use for it. But I will say that stuff isn't all evil. One advantage I find in having stuff is that you can make money off of it. It has actually become my favorite part of having stuff. I move a lot so I tend to pack light, but there's some comfort in the fact that my stuff can help me travel more. I mean who couldn't use an extra chunk of change while traveling?

Right now I'm in the process of selling my stuff. I've done it before but this time I decided to ask a professional for advice. I already know a lot of the usual methods for selling but I wanted to properly assess the pros and cons of each method.

With a business degree and five years of experience under his belt, Chris P. runs a successful online business and consigns for a popular auction business. Don't ask me what he sells. Even I can't figure it out. It's all quite random. I walk through his large warehouse space and consistently think to myself, "people pay money for that?!" The funny thing is the answer is yes. My theory is if this guy can make a business out of selling random stuff he's probably the person I need to go to.

Ebay and Amazon

Some towns have markets that feature a collection of local vendors.

These sites are very well known and are good sites for selling individual items. Ideally, I would sell relatively light-weight "big ticket" items like electronics and accessories. While it is ideal for selling a bunch of smaller items, always keep in mind how much money you may be spending on shipping. It may sound nice to use free shipping as a method to add value to your product but it is very easy to rack up shipping costs. In addition to shipping costs, according to Chris P., Ebay and Amazon take about 15% of everything. You have to have a bank account and be verified which usually takes a week or two. If it's a new selling account they limit you to 10 items or $1000 in your first month and then it's performance-based, every month. During the verification process, if you happen to make a sale they hold your funds for up to three weeks but after you are approved, its immediate. Amazon has unlimited selling for starters and they pay you about every two weeks. Either way, you'll have to wait for verification so if you are leaving in a week, it may be a better to sell your possessions through alternative means.

Craigslist

Do you have a few big things you want to sell but don't want to pay for shipping? This is your ideal spot for items like furniture, TV's, bikes and the like. Unfortunately, with Craigslist you don't know who you are dealing with. If someone is coming over to pick up your stuff, it may be ideal to have a friend or two with you. If someone  requests that you ship something be extremely wary. Especially, if they ask to ship it to another country. I wouldn't even bother.

The first time I ever sold something on Craigslist I was scammed (go figure). I followed all the rules (I used Paypal and everything!) but they got me because instead of checking my actual Paypal account (it was my first time using Paypal, as well) I got an e-mail saying that the money was deposited into my Paypal account.Turns out it was a phishing e-mail (fake e-mail sent by the scammer). So as far as I know, my laptop is in Africa somewhere. If you are going to ship, I'd go through Ebay. They have actual customer service and guarantees that can protect you from such situations.

 Are you a horrible haggler and pushover, like me? Chris offers advice: "People buying on craigslist will always ask you to lower your price so be firm with what you need out of them."

Garage Sale

Old school method. Works like a charm. I made $400 on my first independent garage sale and I was pretty confident my stuff wasn't worth much. The advantage is you can sell what you want, without limitations. The only disadvantage is everyone wants to haggle you down. I would sell my clothes and CDs at a garage sale but not my big electronics. Also most cities require a garage sale permit. They are about $5 and you can get them at your local town hall.  Chris' advice would be to "make sure you advertise a lot. If you can, it's a good idea to piggy back off of a neighborhood or church garage sale. This is great if you have an an apartment and no yard to sell your stuff." You can even piggy back on Craigslist and post your garage sale in the "garage sale" section.

While an added advantage of garage sales is that you make your own hours, try to be open early. Many people who go to garage sales go on a constant basis. If you have real gold and silver jewelry, mention it in your ad. Warning: People looking for gold and silver WILL show up at your place up to an hour before the garage sale. They can be vicious so either be ready to give them what they want or be firm enough to tell them that the sale starts 9am sharp. Pushover advice: It's not your problem that they came early. You wrote the time on the ad (you did, right?). A few years back my friend and I had a garage sale. People showed up way too early and wouldn't back off. My friend's mom had to put cones up and shoot them evil mom looks. Her evil mom looks can scare a grizzly.

Flea Markets

Mary of Mary's Markdown Mercantile and Ray of Ray of Sunshine Markets
in the Dusted Attic, West Bottoms, Kansas City

Same as a garage sale but sometimes the vendor fee is more. The advantage here is that you don't have to do any advertising and you get more traffic. The disadvantage is competition. The other disadvantage is that that there may be a restriction as to what you can and can't sell. So make sure you ask if they have a "do not sell" list before you pay that vending fee. If you can sell clothes, great! If not, I recommend small household appliances, decorations, jewelry and small electronics. In terms of vendor fees, assess whether the fee will be worth it. It may be a flat fee for a certain amount of space or a percentage of everything you sell. The last thing you want to do is spend all that time packing, selling, driving just to break even. If you don't have a lot of stuff but you want the traffic, team up with a friend or a current vendor who sells items that are similar to yours. Next to garage sales, this actually is becoming my favorite way.

Consignment Shops

 If you have an eye for name brand fashion than this is your best hope. Sometimes they purchase your items right off the bat. Sometimes they don't send you a check until it sells. The disadvantage is that they don't take non-name brand clothing unless it's super vintage. "Make sure the shop has proper security." says Chris P. "The last thing you want to is to lose your money due to theft."

Personally, I never buy name brand unless it just happens to be cute and at a thrift store. And usually I don't notice the brand until after I take it home. My other source of name brand clothing comes from my aunts' hand-me-downs (which are amazing and I usually want to keep them forEVER). Other than that, I pretty much shop at Forever 21 or places similar. If you shop like me, it will be very difficult to get rid of your clothing. Especially, with the increase of donation-based, thrift shops.

Because of my clothing situation, I tried this app:

Wallapop

It's a garage sale/ trade app. I think it's great for posting several individual items. You have individual pictures and the app itself is pretty easy. Instead of just selling you can trade for things as well. I've used it but it's not yet popular in Kansas City so it didn't do much for me. There are commercials and they have it in the UK and France so I'm sure everyone will be talking about it in the next year or so. My only qualm with it is that it's only an app. Not a website. I have large fingers and typing a description on my phone isn't very fun. Personally, it's easier to do things on my computer. The other dilemma is that there is a limit to how many items you can put up. I would likely consider it good for trading whilst on the road but I think I'll have to wait until it becomes more popular before it becomes useful. Until then, I'll stick with the flea market.

Here's some more advice on how to sell your stuff by Chris P.

About clothing

"People usually buy clothing online if it is something they need immediately or for a specific event. For example a party or holiday."

About electronics

"Wipe all of your info off if it's got a hard drive. Make sure you can sell a working product otherwise it'll come back to bite you. [In terms of traveling] Expensive electronics are better to sell rather than potentially have them stolen from you. Always remember that electronics have depreciating value, so sell them as soon as you can."

About appliances

"Offer delivery if you have the means. Not everyone has a car but needs the product. You can even offer $20 more to install the product. Clean everything. Offer a small week long warranty. That'll make people feel comfortable about buying it."

Home products

"Craigslist is the best place to sell them when selling online. When you post on craigslist make sure you add an accurate description and make sure you use good keywords so that the item is more likely to pop up in a search."

About selling in general

"When it comes to selling your possessions, it can be an issue having an emotional tie to them. You're not going to get what you paid most of the time because you've used it. You have to come to terms with yourself and why you're getting rid of it."

"Use pawnshops as a last resort because they don't give you what it would sell for."

"Meet people in a public place like a library where they can test the product."

"Take what you can today because people may not want your stuff tomorrow. People lose interest. Realize that there might not be that next offer."

-O.T.

The Mentality of Selling Your Possessions

Maui, Hawaii: I actually packed too much.

How can you just get rid of all of your stuff like that?

I'm asked that question constantly. The answer is: because that's just what it is. Stuff. I find one of the bigger travel inhibitors (outside of children and relationships) is stuff. It's quite amazing actually. We as a species started out with nothing but the clothes (plants?) on our back and a few tools for obtaining food and a cave as a home. Then we started building huts and beds to keep ourselves minimally comfortable. We were mostly a nomadic species, hitching up our tents and yurts and heading wherever good weather or food was. With those motivations (and getting away from our crazy family) we spread across the planet.

Fast forward 2015...16. Most of the terrestrial Earth has been explored. We've settled. We can easily access our own food. Heck we can change our own weather in the form of heating and AC. We don't like someone? Forget crossing the mountain, we just put up fences. Problem solved. We became too comfortable. Stagnant. We pride ourselves in our permanence. We pride ourselves in our stuff. In fact, what have houses become but shelters not only for ourselves but our stuff. The more stuff you have, the bigger the house you need to accommodate it. Or sometimes vice versa. Do we really need two to three living spaces? Do we need to change our perfectly good furniture every year? According to LA Times, the average American has 300,000 items in their home. NPR wrote that the size of the American home tripled in the past 50 years.

No matter where I live, my room is still messy.

We all fall victim to what society tells us. We need more stuff. You have to update your electronics every year. Your car isn't cool anymore, you need this one instead. It's a never ending cycle.

Before you go longterm traveling, I find it best to adapt an ¡Olvidalo! spirit and free yourself of what can and will hold you back. You could definitely put your stuff in storage but then you are stuck with paying $50-$500 per month holding on to things you aren't even using. That $50-$500 could go towards an extra month or two of rent in a foreign country. It could drive you across the US. It could go toward four months of food. It can get you a month of partying; or even a entire cup of coffee at Starbucks ^_~. Before you leave for your travels take each individual item and think "what would I lose by keeping this? Or what would be gained from losing it?" I've sold most of my possessions three times. The only thing I've regretted selling were my CDs; and even then, I could just get them again.

When you've whittled down your stuff to what you need, don't think about it for a while. A week later look at the stuff again and follow the same process. "What would I lose by keeping this? Or what would be gained from losing it?" If you can, get your possessions down to one large box and leave it with your family or friends. While the ¡Olvidalo! spirit calls for adapting a new mentality and forgetting the unimportant things, you must seek remember the important things. I've lived a lot of different places, had a lot of roommates and met a lot of people. After a while it becomes a bit difficult to keep track of it all. I always recommend keeping pictures and tokens of the past or a memorable moment or trip and keeping them in the box. Even now when I look at them I am reminded about how fast life is and how easy it is to forget what's important or how some person made you feel.

Traveling -especially if you've never traveled outside of the vacation context- changes you. Without fail, you will come out of it a different person than you went in. Most times those things you've held on to don't seem so important any more. Sometimes they aren't important to anyone else, either. You could hold on to your electronics but by the time you get back they will be obsolete and unsellable. Those heels are way cute but when you've walked halfway through Germany in a pair of Toms carrying a backpack the size of your whole body, the urge to walk on stilts doesn't seem appealing anymore. That super amazing high pressure 15 setting, light up showerhead felt great but after having to bathe in a cold-ass river in October for a few days  you will be grateful for any warm water at any pressure.  Either way, that money would be better spent in your pocket than towards stuff in a storage unit, collecting dust.

For more facts about "stuff" check out 21 Surprising Statistics That Reveal How Much Stuff We Actually Own.

-O.T.