Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story?
In my recent post about cultivating your own knowledge for fun and profit, I mentioned that you should hit yard sales, consignment shops, estate sales, and so forth as a way to put your knowledge to work for you and take advantage of underpriced items. A few commenters thought that this was unethical, so I thought I’d look at that particular point a bit more deeply.
I’ll start off by giving you a specific example of a situation where I did this in the past. As a teenager, I collected Magic: the Gathering cards (I still play with my wife using a handful of remaining cards). I had a very good idea of what some of the valuable ones were, including a few that sold for hundreds of dollars and a good number that could net $20 or more apiece.
In 2002 or 2003 (I’m not entirely sure which – I was out of college, but it was definitely before children and possibly before marriage), I visited a yard sale that was just a block away from the apartment I was renting. The couple that was running the yard sale was selling off a lot of stuff that obviously was previously owned by a teenage boy with a bit of a nerdy streak. One item was a large box full of trading cards, mostly Magic. The sticker on the box said $5. Within thirty seconds of looking through the box, I found one card I knew I could resell on eBay for $20 and a couple more that I thought could net me at least $5 each – and I had suspicions of finding some of the real valuable ones in the box.
I asked the couple if the box was really available for $5. They said it was and that much of the stuff was items their son had said he didn’t want when he went away to college. I immediately paid $5 and walked away.
I netted a nice profit from selling some of the cards, but I also kept many of the cards and some of them make up the handful of cards I still have.
Here’s the question: was I ethically obligated to tell the people running the sale that their items were potentially worth much more than $5?
My opinion is that the buyer never needs to say such a thing. The seller has the responsibility of setting the price for the item. If they want to set an accurate price, they should investigate the item they’re selling.
This is particularly true today, in the age of the internet, where you can find the value of almost any item you have. An eBay search for those cards would have quickly revealed, even after searching for just a handful of them, that the individual cards had significant value. Even just searching for “Magic: the Gathering” on eBay would have shown that such cards often have value.
To me, the question really comes down to this: should knowledge of the value of an item be the responsibility of the seller? I absolutely think so.
When I’m trying to figure out if I’m doing the right thing in such a situation, the first thing I do is put myself in the seller’s shoes. If I were the seller in this situation, would I consider it ethical and fair for the buyer to tell me that I had grossly mis-priced an item?
In a word, no. If I were the seller, accurate pricing is my responsibility, not the buyer’s. If I put something on a table at a yard sale with a sticker on it, that means I’m agreeing to sell the item for that price. If a buyer thinks that’s a good deal – and in this case, the buyer certainly did – then the buyer has every right to pay that price and attempt to turn a profit on it.
I did a similar thing with Nintendo Wiis back in 2006. During that Christmas year, you could easily resell new Nintendo Wiis in the box for $350-400 online after buying them in the store for $250. When Target or Wal-Mart put a Wii out on a shelf for $250, should I have grabbed one and ran for the checkout or should I have informed the manager that they were worth $350 before buying them?
Now, here’s a separate but connected issue: should a buyer tell a seller if they think an item is radically mispriced? I think it’s a kind thing to do, but I don’t think it’s a required thing to do.
If I had it to do over again, I would probably walk up to the seller and say something like, “This box seems like a really good deal. I think there are some cards in there that I could sell to the right buyer for more than what you’re asking.” Then, I would probably offer them more for the box than the sticker price, but I wouldn’t offer them the hypothetical resale value of the cards, either – probably $10 or $15.
Now, if I were a seller and someone did this to me, I’d refuse to take more than the $5 stated on the sticker. After all, I view the sticker price as the seller’s responsibility, not the buyer’s.
That’s my full take on the issue.
Continue reading Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story? …
From The Simple Dollar.
Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story?
In my recent post about cultivating your own knowledge for fun and profit, I mentioned that you should hit yard sales, consignment shops, estate sales, and so forth as a way to put your knowledge to work for you and take advantage of underpriced items. A few commenters thought that this was unethical, so I thought I’d look at that particular point a bit more deeply.
I’ll start off by giving you a specific example of a situation where I did this in the past. As a teenager, I collected Magic: the Gathering cards (I still play with my wife using a handful of remaining cards). I had a very good idea of what some of the valuable ones were, including a few that sold for hundreds of dollars and a good number that could net $20 or more apiece.
In 2002 or 2003 (I’m not entirely sure which – I was out of college, but it was definitely before children and possibly before marriage), I visited a yard sale that was just a block away from the apartment I was renting. The couple that was running the yard sale was selling off a lot of stuff that obviously was previously owned by a teenage boy with a bit of a nerdy streak. One item was a large box full of trading cards, mostly Magic. The sticker on the box said $5. Within thirty seconds of looking through the box, I found one card I knew I could resell on eBay for $20 and a couple more that I thought could net me at least $5 each – and I had suspicions of finding some of the real valuable ones in the box.
I asked the couple if the box was really available for $5. They said it was and that much of the stuff was items their son had said he didn’t want when he went away to college. I immediately paid $5 and walked away.
I netted a nice profit from selling some of the cards, but I also kept many of the cards and some of them make up the handful of cards I still have.
Here’s the question: was I ethically obligated to tell the people running the sale that their items were potentially worth much more than $5?
My opinion is that the buyer never needs to say such a thing. The seller has the responsibility of setting the price for the item. If they want to set an accurate price, they should investigate the item they’re selling.
This is particularly true today, in the age of the internet, where you can find the value of almost any item you have. An eBay search for those cards would have quickly revealed, even after searching for just a handful of them, that the individual cards had significant value. Even just searching for “Magic: the Gathering” on eBay would have shown that such cards often have value.
To me, the question really comes down to this: should knowledge of the value of an item be the responsibility of the seller? I absolutely think so.
When I’m trying to figure out if I’m doing the right thing in such a situation, the first thing I do is put myself in the seller’s shoes. If I were the seller in this situation, would I consider it ethical and fair for the buyer to tell me that I had grossly mis-priced an item?
In a word, no. If I were the seller, accurate pricing is my responsibility, not the buyer’s. If I put something on a table at a yard sale with a sticker on it, that means I’m agreeing to sell the item for that price. If a buyer thinks that’s a good deal – and in this case, the buyer certainly did – then the buyer has every right to pay that price and attempt to turn a profit on it.
I did a similar thing with Nintendo Wiis back in 2006. During that Christmas year, you could easily resell new Nintendo Wiis in the box for $350-400 online after buying them in the store for $250. When Target or Wal-Mart put a Wii out on a shelf for $250, should I have grabbed one and ran for the checkout or should I have informed the manager that they were worth $350 before buying them?
Now, here’s a separate but connected issue: should a buyer tell a seller if they think an item is radically mispriced? I think it’s a kind thing to do, but I don’t think it’s a required thing to do.
If I had it to do over again, I would probably walk up to the seller and say something like, “This box seems like a really good deal. I think there are some cards in there that I could sell to the right buyer for more than what you’re asking.” Then, I would probably offer them more for the box than the sticker price, but I wouldn’t offer them the hypothetical resale value of the cards, either – probably $10 or $15.
Now, if I were a seller and someone did this to me, I’d refuse to take more than the $5 stated on the sticker. After all, I view the sticker price as the seller’s responsibility, not the buyer’s.
That’s my full take on the issue.
Continue reading Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story? …
From The Simple Dollar.
Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story?
In my recent post about cultivating your own knowledge for fun and profit, I mentioned that you should hit yard sales, consignment shops, estate sales, and so forth as a way to put your knowledge to work for you and take advantage of underpriced items. A few commenters thought that this was unethical, so I thought I’d look at that particular point a bit more deeply.
I’ll start off by giving you a specific example of a situation where I did this in the past. As a teenager, I collected Magic: the Gathering cards (I still play with my wife using a handful of remaining cards). I had a very good idea of what some of the valuable ones were, including a few that sold for hundreds of dollars and a good number that could net $20 or more apiece.
In 2002 or 2003 (I’m not entirely sure which – I was out of college, but it was definitely before children and possibly before marriage), I visited a yard sale that was just a block away from the apartment I was renting. The couple that was running the yard sale was selling off a lot of stuff that obviously was previously owned by a teenage boy with a bit of a nerdy streak. One item was a large box full of trading cards, mostly Magic. The sticker on the box said $5. Within thirty seconds of looking through the box, I found one card I knew I could resell on eBay for $20 and a couple more that I thought could net me at least $5 each – and I had suspicions of finding some of the real valuable ones in the box.
I asked the couple if the box was really available for $5. They said it was and that much of the stuff was items their son had said he didn’t want when he went away to college. I immediately paid $5 and walked away.
I netted a nice profit from selling some of the cards, but I also kept many of the cards and some of them make up the handful of cards I still have.
Here’s the question: was I ethically obligated to tell the people running the sale that their items were potentially worth much more than $5?
My opinion is that the buyer never needs to say such a thing. The seller has the responsibility of setting the price for the item. If they want to set an accurate price, they should investigate the item they’re selling.
This is particularly true today, in the age of the internet, where you can find the value of almost any item you have. An eBay search for those cards would have quickly revealed, even after searching for just a handful of them, that the individual cards had significant value. Even just searching for “Magic: the Gathering” on eBay would have shown that such cards often have value.
To me, the question really comes down to this: should knowledge of the value of an item be the responsibility of the seller? I absolutely think so.
When I’m trying to figure out if I’m doing the right thing in such a situation, the first thing I do is put myself in the seller’s shoes. If I were the seller in this situation, would I consider it ethical and fair for the buyer to tell me that I had grossly mis-priced an item?
In a word, no. If I were the seller, accurate pricing is my responsibility, not the buyer’s. If I put something on a table at a yard sale with a sticker on it, that means I’m agreeing to sell the item for that price. If a buyer thinks that’s a good deal – and in this case, the buyer certainly did – then the buyer has every right to pay that price and attempt to turn a profit on it.
I did a similar thing with Nintendo Wiis back in 2006. During that Christmas year, you could easily resell new Nintendo Wiis in the box for $350-400 online after buying them in the store for $250. When Target or Wal-Mart put a Wii out on a shelf for $250, should I have grabbed one and ran for the checkout or should I have informed the manager that they were worth $350 before buying them?
Now, here’s a separate but connected issue: should a buyer tell a seller if they think an item is radically mispriced? I think it’s a kind thing to do, but I don’t think it’s a required thing to do.
If I had it to do over again, I would probably walk up to the seller and say something like, “This box seems like a really good deal. I think there are some cards in there that I could sell to the right buyer for more than what you’re asking.” Then, I would probably offer them more for the box than the sticker price, but I wouldn’t offer them the hypothetical resale value of the cards, either – probably $10 or $15.
Now, if I were a seller and someone did this to me, I’d refuse to take more than the $5 stated on the sticker. After all, I view the sticker price as the seller’s responsibility, not the buyer’s.
That’s my full take on the issue.
Continue reading Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story? …
From The Simple Dollar.
Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story?
In my recent post about cultivating your own knowledge for fun and profit, I mentioned that you should hit yard sales, consignment shops, estate sales, and so forth as a way to put your knowledge to work for you and take advantage of underpriced items. A few commenters thought that this was unethical, so I thought I’d look at that particular point a bit more deeply.
I’ll start off by giving you a specific example of a situation where I did this in the past. As a teenager, I collected Magic: the Gathering cards (I still play with my wife using a handful of remaining cards). I had a very good idea of what some of the valuable ones were, including a few that sold for hundreds of dollars and a good number that could net $20 or more apiece.
In 2002 or 2003 (I’m not entirely sure which – I was out of college, but it was definitely before children and possibly before marriage), I visited a yard sale that was just a block away from the apartment I was renting. The couple that was running the yard sale was selling off a lot of stuff that obviously was previously owned by a teenage boy with a bit of a nerdy streak. One item was a large box full of trading cards, mostly Magic. The sticker on the box said $5. Within thirty seconds of looking through the box, I found one card I knew I could resell on eBay for $20 and a couple more that I thought could net me at least $5 each – and I had suspicions of finding some of the real valuable ones in the box.
I asked the couple if the box was really available for $5. They said it was and that much of the stuff was items their son had said he didn’t want when he went away to college. I immediately paid $5 and walked away.
I netted a nice profit from selling some of the cards, but I also kept many of the cards and some of them make up the handful of cards I still have.
Here’s the question: was I ethically obligated to tell the people running the sale that their items were potentially worth much more than $5?
My opinion is that the buyer never needs to say such a thing. The seller has the responsibility of setting the price for the item. If they want to set an accurate price, they should investigate the item they’re selling.
This is particularly true today, in the age of the internet, where you can find the value of almost any item you have. An eBay search for those cards would have quickly revealed, even after searching for just a handful of them, that the individual cards had significant value. Even just searching for “Magic: the Gathering” on eBay would have shown that such cards often have value.
To me, the question really comes down to this: should knowledge of the value of an item be the responsibility of the seller? I absolutely think so.
When I’m trying to figure out if I’m doing the right thing in such a situation, the first thing I do is put myself in the seller’s shoes. If I were the seller in this situation, would I consider it ethical and fair for the buyer to tell me that I had grossly mis-priced an item?
In a word, no. If I were the seller, accurate pricing is my responsibility, not the buyer’s. If I put something on a table at a yard sale with a sticker on it, that means I’m agreeing to sell the item for that price. If a buyer thinks that’s a good deal – and in this case, the buyer certainly did – then the buyer has every right to pay that price and attempt to turn a profit on it.
I did a similar thing with Nintendo Wiis back in 2006. During that Christmas year, you could easily resell new Nintendo Wiis in the box for $350-400 online after buying them in the store for $250. When Target or Wal-Mart put a Wii out on a shelf for $250, should I have grabbed one and ran for the checkout or should I have informed the manager that they were worth $350 before buying them?
Now, here’s a separate but connected issue: should a buyer tell a seller if they think an item is radically mispriced? I think it’s a kind thing to do, but I don’t think it’s a required thing to do.
If I had it to do over again, I would probably walk up to the seller and say something like, “This box seems like a really good deal. I think there are some cards in there that I could sell to the right buyer for more than what you’re asking.” Then, I would probably offer them more for the box than the sticker price, but I wouldn’t offer them the hypothetical resale value of the cards, either – probably $10 or $15.
Now, if I were a seller and someone did this to me, I’d refuse to take more than the $5 stated on the sticker. After all, I view the sticker price as the seller’s responsibility, not the buyer’s.
That’s my full take on the issue.
Continue reading Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story? …
From The Simple Dollar.
Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story?
In my recent post about cultivating your own knowledge for fun and profit, I mentioned that you should hit yard sales, consignment shops, estate sales, and so forth as a way to put your knowledge to work for you and take advantage of underpriced items. A few commenters thought that this was unethical, so I thought I’d look at that particular point a bit more deeply.
I’ll start off by giving you a specific example of a situation where I did this in the past. As a teenager, I collected Magic: the Gathering cards (I still play with my wife using a handful of remaining cards). I had a very good idea of what some of the valuable ones were, including a few that sold for hundreds of dollars and a good number that could net $20 or more apiece.
In 2002 or 2003 (I’m not entirely sure which – I was out of college, but it was definitely before children and possibly before marriage), I visited a yard sale that was just a block away from the apartment I was renting. The couple that was running the yard sale was selling off a lot of stuff that obviously was previously owned by a teenage boy with a bit of a nerdy streak. One item was a large box full of trading cards, mostly Magic. The sticker on the box said $5. Within thirty seconds of looking through the box, I found one card I knew I could resell on eBay for $20 and a couple more that I thought could net me at least $5 each – and I had suspicions of finding some of the real valuable ones in the box.
I asked the couple if the box was really available for $5. They said it was and that much of the stuff was items their son had said he didn’t want when he went away to college. I immediately paid $5 and walked away.
I netted a nice profit from selling some of the cards, but I also kept many of the cards and some of them make up the handful of cards I still have.
Here’s the question: was I ethically obligated to tell the people running the sale that their items were potentially worth much more than $5?
My opinion is that the buyer never needs to say such a thing. The seller has the responsibility of setting the price for the item. If they want to set an accurate price, they should investigate the item they’re selling.
This is particularly true today, in the age of the internet, where you can find the value of almost any item you have. An eBay search for those cards would have quickly revealed, even after searching for just a handful of them, that the individual cards had significant value. Even just searching for “Magic: the Gathering” on eBay would have shown that such cards often have value.
To me, the question really comes down to this: should knowledge of the value of an item be the responsibility of the seller? I absolutely think so.
When I’m trying to figure out if I’m doing the right thing in such a situation, the first thing I do is put myself in the seller’s shoes. If I were the seller in this situation, would I consider it ethical and fair for the buyer to tell me that I had grossly mis-priced an item?
In a word, no. If I were the seller, accurate pricing is my responsibility, not the buyer’s. If I put something on a table at a yard sale with a sticker on it, that means I’m agreeing to sell the item for that price. If a buyer thinks that’s a good deal – and in this case, the buyer certainly did – then the buyer has every right to pay that price and attempt to turn a profit on it.
I did a similar thing with Nintendo Wiis back in 2006. During that Christmas year, you could easily resell new Nintendo Wiis in the box for $350-400 online after buying them in the store for $250. When Target or Wal-Mart put a Wii out on a shelf for $250, should I have grabbed one and ran for the checkout or should I have informed the manager that they were worth $350 before buying them?
Now, here’s a separate but connected issue: should a buyer tell a seller if they think an item is radically mispriced? I think it’s a kind thing to do, but I don’t think it’s a required thing to do.
If I had it to do over again, I would probably walk up to the seller and say something like, “This box seems like a really good deal. I think there are some cards in there that I could sell to the right buyer for more than what you’re asking.” Then, I would probably offer them more for the box than the sticker price, but I wouldn’t offer them the hypothetical resale value of the cards, either – probably $10 or $15.
Now, if I were a seller and someone did this to me, I’d refuse to take more than the $5 stated on the sticker. After all, I view the sticker price as the seller’s responsibility, not the buyer’s.
That’s my full take on the issue.
Continue reading Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story? …
From The Simple Dollar.
Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story?
In my recent post about cultivating your own knowledge for fun and profit, I mentioned that you should hit yard sales, consignment shops, estate sales, and so forth as a way to put your knowledge to work for you and take advantage of underpriced items. A few commenters thought that this was unethical, so I thought I’d look at that particular point a bit more deeply.
I’ll start off by giving you a specific example of a situation where I did this in the past. As a teenager, I collected Magic: the Gathering cards (I still play with my wife using a handful of remaining cards). I had a very good idea of what some of the valuable ones were, including a few that sold for hundreds of dollars and a good number that could net $20 or more apiece.
In 2002 or 2003 (I’m not entirely sure which – I was out of college, but it was definitely before children and possibly before marriage), I visited a yard sale that was just a block away from the apartment I was renting. The couple that was running the yard sale was selling off a lot of stuff that obviously was previously owned by a teenage boy with a bit of a nerdy streak. One item was a large box full of trading cards, mostly Magic. The sticker on the box said $5. Within thirty seconds of looking through the box, I found one card I knew I could resell on eBay for $20 and a couple more that I thought could net me at least $5 each – and I had suspicions of finding some of the real valuable ones in the box.
I asked the couple if the box was really available for $5. They said it was and that much of the stuff was items their son had said he didn’t want when he went away to college. I immediately paid $5 and walked away.
I netted a nice profit from selling some of the cards, but I also kept many of the cards and some of them make up the handful of cards I still have.
Here’s the question: was I ethically obligated to tell the people running the sale that their items were potentially worth much more than $5?
My opinion is that the buyer never needs to say such a thing. The seller has the responsibility of setting the price for the item. If they want to set an accurate price, they should investigate the item they’re selling.
This is particularly true today, in the age of the internet, where you can find the value of almost any item you have. An eBay search for those cards would have quickly revealed, even after searching for just a handful of them, that the individual cards had significant value. Even just searching for “Magic: the Gathering” on eBay would have shown that such cards often have value.
To me, the question really comes down to this: should knowledge of the value of an item be the responsibility of the seller? I absolutely think so.
When I’m trying to figure out if I’m doing the right thing in such a situation, the first thing I do is put myself in the seller’s shoes. If I were the seller in this situation, would I consider it ethical and fair for the buyer to tell me that I had grossly mis-priced an item?
In a word, no. If I were the seller, accurate pricing is my responsibility, not the buyer’s. If I put something on a table at a yard sale with a sticker on it, that means I’m agreeing to sell the item for that price. If a buyer thinks that’s a good deal – and in this case, the buyer certainly did – then the buyer has every right to pay that price and attempt to turn a profit on it.
I did a similar thing with Nintendo Wiis back in 2006. During that Christmas year, you could easily resell new Nintendo Wiis in the box for $350-400 online after buying them in the store for $250. When Target or Wal-Mart put a Wii out on a shelf for $250, should I have grabbed one and ran for the checkout or should I have informed the manager that they were worth $350 before buying them?
Now, here’s a separate but connected issue: should a buyer tell a seller if they think an item is radically mispriced? I think it’s a kind thing to do, but I don’t think it’s a required thing to do.
If I had it to do over again, I would probably walk up to the seller and say something like, “This box seems like a really good deal. I think there are some cards in there that I could sell to the right buyer for more than what you’re asking.” Then, I would probably offer them more for the box than the sticker price, but I wouldn’t offer them the hypothetical resale value of the cards, either – probably $10 or $15.
Now, if I were a seller and someone did this to me, I’d refuse to take more than the $5 stated on the sticker. After all, I view the sticker price as the seller’s responsibility, not the buyer’s.
That’s my full take on the issue.
Continue reading Yard Sale Ethics: Is the Sticker Price the End of the Story? …
From The Simple Dollar.
Cultivating Domain Knowledge and Hobbies for Fun and Profit
When I was sixteen, I bought a cigar box full of 1960s baseball cards for $5 from someone who was cleaning out their mother’s attic. I sold one single card in the box – a 1965 Topps Mickey Mantle in excellent condition – for $200.
Several years ago, I was at a yard sale. The person running the yard sale had a box full of trading cards sitting there that her son had left behind when he went to college. I offered $5 for the box and proceeded to resell them on eBay, netting almost $1,000 in the process. (The cards were Magic: the Gathering cards from the Unlimited and Arabian Nights sets.)
About a year ago, I bought a pile of used video games at a yard sale. I picked them up for $2 apiece – 15 games for $30. Several months later, I piled these up and traded them at a local gaming store for approximately $200 in store credit, which (in combination with other traded-in items) I used to pick up a Playstation 3.
What do these little stories have in common?
First, in each case, I took advantage of a hobby of mine to turn a substantial profit. I’m familiar with the value of many types of trading cards, video games, and other certain types of collectibles because they’re hobbies of mine. Thus, when I notice these items, I can inspect them carefully and often evaluate their prices.
Second, I routinely put myself in situations where I’ll stumble across these items without a proper valuation. Yard sales and garage sales are a great start, but there are lots of places to look: going out of business sales, estate sales, and so on.
Third, I knew how to re-sell the items. There are many collectibles and other items that have theoretical value, but if you don’t know how to re-sell them for that value, they don’t have any value at all.
Let’s look at how you can use each one to not only have a lot of fun enjoying a hobby of yours, but also turn a profit sometimes, too.
Know Your Hobby
This is the easiest part of the three. Almost every hobby involves some sort of equipment or materials. From rock collecting to gardening to more obvious things like movie collecting, hobbies usually involve the acquisition of certain items.
Simply by being involved with the hobby, it’s often easy to be aware of the values of many of the items associated with the hobby. Keep your ears and your eyes open and you’ll soon have a grasp of the value of many items within the hobby, as well as good resources for identifying the value of items you’re unsure of.
Know Your Situation
It gets a bit trickier when you’re looking for ways to find such bargains. Above, I named several avenues for finding such items. Here’s some specific notes on these avenues.
Yard sales and garage sales These are almost always my best bet for finding huge bargains on hobby-related items. The trick, of course, is knowing how to separate the junk from the valuable. If the price is cheap enough, I’ll often jump on board even if I’m not 100% sure of the value of the item because the profit potential is so high.
Going out of business sales I never miss these, particularly for independent non-chain businesses. Often, items are priced as a discount off of MSRP – and often they’re cleaning out everything they can find from their back rooms. Sometimes, this means older and rare items that have a lot of value are out there for less than they should have sold for new. If you know what you’re looking for, this can be a treasure trove.
Estate sales and auctions This is similar to a yard sale. It can work well for certain types of items. Your best bet is to simply peruse listings in advance to decide if the sale is worth your time.
Odd jobs Whenever you have the chance to perform odd jobs for independent businesses – or even do things like help someone clean out the house of a deceased family member (which is a nice thing to do anyway) – you can just stumble upon all kinds of great things. I’ve found great items in the back room of an independent coin shop and in the closets of a deceased cousin of a friend.
Know Your Outlet
Of course, just because you find an item that has significant theoretical value, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to make a profit. Thus, I only pick up items if one of these two statements are true.
The item must immediately be resellable at a profit. Can I go list this item on eBay and turn a profit on it? Or, can I take this item to some sort of trader or retailer and immediately get more for it than I paid for it?
The item must have immediate use. An item I might use doesn’t cut it. I must be able to immediately put the item to some reasonable use within my hobby. Ideally, the item continues to retain some value as well.
If I can’t immediately validate one of these two statements, I don’t make the purchase.
Knowledge Is Money
In simplest terms, knowledge is rewarded here, as is participation. The more you know your hobby, the more likely it is you’ll be able to identify potential bargains. The more you participate in events where such bargains appear, the more likely you are to find it.
That’s why my wife and I often go to garage sales on weekends – and why we often go away empty handed. We usually go only to look for specific items – things we need, like children’s clothes, or things we know we can profit from.
Good luck!
Continue reading Cultivating Domain Knowledge and Hobbies for Fun and Profit …
From The Simple Dollar.
A Wall of Crosses
Do you have a wall for a cross collection display in your home? I know many Christian women who do. I do too. However, I grew tired of looking at it because it was just that: a collection of crosses stuck to the wall. They almost seemed to float, so I decided that it was time to give it all a new look. A while back, my husband found a collection of old hymnals up for auction on eBay. He bought the lot of them for $9.00.
The room that my cross wall is in is also the room where we do our family devotions in the evening, so I had a thought: “Why not use some of those hymnals in a different way? Why not use the pages individually, since the hymnals are very old and falling apart at the binding anyway?” The pages and the hymnals themselves are fragile, and I thought this would be a great way to “preserve” them while making these rich treasures from the saints who have gone before us more accessible to the family.
My idea was simple: decoupage the hymnal pages onto a board, especially hymns with a title that had anything to do with the Cross. Then place a white frame around it and fasten one of my crosses to the decoupaged board, and hang this artwork within the collection of my crosses to give it the added “oomph” it needed.
Now whenever we look at our cross collection, we are not only reminded of the sacrifice that was made on our behalf, but we are also reminded to praise our Lord for it too. It has also brought to mind many hymns that we haven’t yet taught our children . . . and they enjoy that greatly!
Total cost for my little project:
Hymnals: $9.00
Decoupage paste $4.00
Ribbon (on hand) Free
4 frames $4.00
Scrap wood (on hand) Free
Total: $19.00
You can find the complete tutorial for this project in the August 2009 Money-Saving Digest. In each Digest, I feature a “Feather Your Nest” tutorial.
This post is linked to Metamorphosis Monday, It’s So Very Creative, Craftastic Monday, Make Your Home Sing Monday, DIY Project Parade, Made By You Monday, Brag Monday, Motivate me Monday, Homemaker Monday
Continue reading A Wall of Crosses …
From Econobusters.
Weekend Wonders: Amazing Deal!
Many years ago we purchased a set of high quality (and very expensive) Cutco Knives. Though it was a big stretch to our budget, I have never regretted that purchase. These are excellent knives and now, over ten years later, have yet to be sent in for sharpening!
However, over the years the tips have been broken off the paring and chef knife. And then, recently, the whole end was broken off my carving knife! I’m not naming names, but let’s just say I didn’t do any of the breaking (nor did I handle the breaking particularly well).
The company does guarantee it’s knives for life and will refurbish and sharpen them for free. However, in cases of “abuse” (our case) they will replace a knife at half price. To give you an idea of prices, the chef’s knife retails for $117. The paring knife is $45.
Several times I’ve scoured eBay for deals and nearly ordered. I’ve also printed out the paperwork to send in for replacement knives. But even getting my three replaced would be over $100, so I’ve held off. I’m SO glad I did!
Would you believe that, while casually scouring our community yard sales this weekend I came across a set of SIX Cutco knives!!?? And would you believe they were marked at $3.00!?
That’s right! Every knife I needed replaced was in the set as well as some I already have. I’m going to send them all in for “refurbishing” and they should look like new. This was probably $300-$400 worth of knives. Amazing!
I also got some goodies for our new popup camper as seen in Molly Goes Camping. We prefer the older cloth sleeping bags to the nylon ones because they make less noise, don’t slip all over and just feel better. I found two, in great shape, for $1 each. I also got a nice two-cup coffee maker, a thin cutting board, a small spatula and two adjustable measuring spoons. Lots of goodies for a total of $6. I can’t wait to go camping again to put them to use!
Continue reading Weekend Wonders: Amazing Deal! …
From Econobusters.
How to Sell Off a Media Collection
Back in 2006, when I hit financial bottom and realized I had to do something, one of the first things I did was clean out my closets and shelves and sell off a large portion of my media collection. Piles of CDs and DVDs and video games went flying out the door in an effort to simultaneously de-clutter (and make our tiny apartment more livable) and bring in some money to quickly beat back the debts facing us down.
At that time, I really didn’t have a good grasp as to how to optimally sell the items. I simply sold most of the individually valuable items on eBay (like DVD sets and CD box sets and the like) and the rest of the bulk went to a pair of used media shops.
Over the ensuing years, I’ve sold off more items myself and helped others sell off portions of their media collections. Here’s what I’ve found: there is no best way to get rid of these items. It all depends on your goals, how much return you want, and how much time and effort you’re willing to invest for those sales.
Here are six avenues I would happily follow to eliminate a media colleciton. The difference between them is more a matter of how much time you wish to invest in the sale, because the more time you invest, the greater your return will likely be.
If you just want it gone as fast as possible and don’t care about any return…
… take it to Goodwill.
The fastest way to get rid of a media collection is simply to box it up and drop it off at a Goodwill store. Get a receipt from them for the donation and use it for your taxes – it really won’t give you much money back at all per item, but it’ll give you at least a few pennies per item. Considering this will only take you a few minutes, it’s the fastest approach.
If you want a small return and have other stuff to sell…
… have a yard sale.
You’ll get more return per item at a yard sale than you will at Goodwill. Plus, you can sell other items. If you work with your friends, you can turn it into something of a social event as well. The drawback? It’ll eat a good portion of a weekend and you likely won’t sell all of the items you have available there.
If you don’t mind burning an hour to get at least some return…
… stop at a used media store.
Most cities have stores that will buy used DVDs and books and video games (and sometimes CDs as well). Selling them is often as easy as stopping in and getting the entire collection appraised, which can take thirty minutes to an hour. The offer will be more than you’d make at Goodwill but less than you’d make with the bottom two options on this list, but it won’t take too long.
If you want it done fairly quickly but don’t want to leave the house…
… list items on Craigslist.
The advantage here is that you can essentially sell all of the items without leaving the house. Just make a detailed list, post them on Craigslist, and see what you get. You’ll likely have to sell them in bulk as a collection and you’ll get yard sale level returns, but you’ve got a good possibility of finding a buyer who will come to your house, take the stuff off of your hands, and leave cash.
If you want a pretty good return, don’t mind spending some time now, but want the hassle over with in a few weeks…
… sell items on eBay.
I used Ebay to sell many of my individual items in 2006, earning a very solid return. There was a very significant time investment in doing this, as I had to create auctions for each item I wanted to sell, deal with questions from buyers on many of the items, deal with getting the payments for everything, then packaging up all of the items and shipping them out, then dealing with feedback. It was a big time suck, but it was all finished within about three weeks of listing the first item on eBay and I got a solid return on the items, much better than I would have received for the above items.
If you want the best return and don’t mind some significant time investment and some serious waiting…
… sell items on Amazon.
If time isn’t a constraint at all and you don’t mind selling tomorrow or six months from now, Amazon will get results that top even eBay on many items. Again, it takes a lot of work up front in listing all the items you’re trying to sell, dealing with buyers, and so on, but the return is the nicest. The only disadvantage over eBay is that with eBay, the item is gone in a week. With Amazon, the item can sit there for months, but you’ll have to deal with it, pack it up, ship it, and leave feedback for it whenever it sells. If you have a lot of items, you’re spreading out the hassle over a long period of time for another 20% or so more than you’ll likely get from eBay.
What’s the right answer? It’s all about the time you want to commit. The more time you’re willing to commit to it, the more you’ll get out of your items (how much more depends entirely on your items, of course).
Continue reading How to Sell Off a Media Collection …
From The Simple Dollar.