Selling your things is one of the fastest ways to raise money quickly. Get rid
of anything you haven't used in a year. Get rid of the bicycle, the second car,
the snowmobile you never use, etc. Put a few ads on Craigslist.com or in the
local paper and soon you'll have some extra cash.
Even better is if you sell things you don't need which you also owe money
on. Eliminating a $200 payment on some under-used toy is like getting a
$200 per month raise. In fact, the combination of raising cash and lowering
expenses makes this a powerful way to quickly improve your financial
situation.
Rummage Sales
One way to sell those things is a rummage sale, also known as a yard sale,
garage sale, and sometimes a moving sale. Wherever you actually have the
sale (and whether or not you are moving), this is a way to get better prices
than you'll get at a pawn shop.
This isn't going to be an experts guide to a profitable rummage sale. You
probably already know that weekends are best, and you should have several
signs at nearby intersections. But here are a few more quick tips that you
may not have thought of.
First, to save yourself the cost of a newspaper ad, you can "piggy back" on
other large garage sales in your neighborhood. Just have your things priced
and ready, and wait to see if any neighbors are having a yard sale this
weekend. If so, the traffic is there. Now just be sure you have a lot of signs
pointing the way to your sale.
To make even more money, you may want to sell refreshments. Keep it to
packaged snacks and cans of pop so you don't have a health inspector asking
you about the food service license you don't have. You may want to only
sell things that you normally consume, so you don't lose money on the
leftovers that didn't sell.
By the way, if there is a flea market near you, consider setting up a stand
and selling your things there instead. I have seen flea markets that get ten
times as many visitors as the average rummage sale and still cost less than
$10 for a spot. That's cheaper than a classified newspaper ad, and for a
better result.
You can raise cash and get rid of unused things. That's just a start, though.
There will be more on rummage sales in the section on money making
projects.
Ebay
You might have a rare lamp that two dozen people around the country are
willing to pay $150 for. But what if none of them live near you? Then you
can sell it for $5 at your rummage sale. Or you can get online and put it up
for sale on ebay.
What if you don't know how to use Ebay, and don't want to learn? That's
okay. Just find an Ebay Trading Assistant. Most towns have a few, and you
can locate them by going to Ebay.com and searching "Ebay Trading
Assistants." These are individuals or businesses that will do everything for
you for a fee. They take the photos, list your things for sale, ship the sold
items and then send you a check.
My wife and I were enjoying a local hot spring last year and I started talking
to a man there. He had been buying, rehabilitating and selling classic cars
for many years. One day he learned about Ebay and checked it out. In the
following weeks he made $20,000 selling various auto body and engine
parts that had accumulated in his garage. Prior to Ebay his best option may
have been to get a few hundred dollars selling the parts as scrap metal.
Maybe it's time to look around at what you might be able to sell online.
Consignment Stores
We have a consignment clothing store in out little town, as well as a used
furniture store that will sell things on consignment. The latter keeps 40% of
the price an item sells for. Considering that you can often sell things for
twice as much there as at a rummage sale, that's not such a bad deal.
Since they are in the business on a daily basis, the owners of these places
can usually estimate pretty accurately what something will sell for. Ask
them for their opinion and even if you don't decide to sell your things there,
you'll have a better idea how to price them. There will be more on this in the
"Money Making Projects" section.
Books
You can sell books to places like Cash4Books.com online, or local used
book stores (although they often pay only in credit for future purchases).
Text books sell well if they are not too old. These can be sold on Ebay.com
or Amazon.com to get the best price.