Selling stuff to buy other stuff

[Mike Key]

I had the brilliant idea that we should sell all our furniture when we moved from Virginia to Florida. This way we could fit all our stuff into our two cars. It worked out, except we haven't had a living room since we moved in August.


So after throwing down the gauntlet and selling my car I came across great deal on a 3 piece leather couch on Craiglist for 250.00. We have Schwinn Elliptical that we simply don't use, so I listed it, and managed to get $300.00 out of the Elliptical. Turned around and bought the couch.


I've got a few other items we'd like for our home, so I'm going to try to sell off a few more items I'm not using in an attempt to raise cash for the things we do want. Anyways, this is usually one of the ways I go about getting things, I sell one thing, to get another thing.


Anyone else use this tactic?

[adam]

I'm selling things to pay off other things.  I sold my Macbook pro for $850 and sent that to the boat.  In my drawer I have a 32GB iPod and a PSP-3000 with a bunch of games that I'm preparing to sell and hope to get about $375-$400 to also send to the boat.

The wife sells things at a consignment shop so she can use the money to shop with though.  That's pretty much the same thing.

[j3000]

I've been doing this since high school!!  Back then I didn't have a job, and I was/am into playing guitar and so what little money I had I had to stretch out to support my hobby.  I had a way of always finding good deals on interesting guitar gear that down the line I could sell off when I got tired of it, usually for more than I paid.  Luckily music equipment retains its value for the most part.  This way I was always pretty much dealing with the same amount of money, but could enjoy a rotation of equipment.  As time went on, it just made sense to do this since this was the only way I could really get good cash for new things that I wanted.  More recently, when I decided to move from VA to CA to go back to school, knowing I didn't want to bring a lot with me I sold most of what I could instead of storing it in order to help pay for my move.  When I came back, I sold even more guitar gear to help pay for a fairly expensive model iMac (~$3k) without using any of my money in the bank.

Before I even thought of growing a 'stache, I was really focused on minimalist living so whenever I wanted something new I'd find stuff that it would replace.  I'd then sell that stuff and naturally the money would go towards the new thing.  Now I just want to sell stuff and keep the money!!  But yes, the sell-then-buy tactic is one I've used for a long long time.  Keeps the place cleaner too.

[Mike Key]

Before I even thought of growing a 'stache, I was really focused on minimalist living so whenever I wanted something new I'd find stuff that it would replace.  I'd then sell that stuff and naturally the money would go towards the new thing.  Now I just want to sell stuff and keep the money!!  But yes, the sell-then-buy tactic is one I've used for a long long time.  Keeps the place cleaner too.

I embraced Minimalism a lot and I've really got my wife on board with it since being married. I also made a switch to MAC after years of being a die hard PC/Windows only guy. And I was socked when buying used at the prices of used Apple products, but I was so excited when my 09 Unibody 15 inch MacBook Pro sold for the same price I paid for it a full year earlier on ebay. I rolled that into my existing Macbook Air which I bought refurbished from Apple and only needed an additional $200.00.

While others say you're paying for an Apple logo I strongly disagree. The fact is, I had an HP Laptop I paid $800 for (high end, I'm a web developer remember) that I could barely get anyone to pay 250$ for a year and half later. PC's hold almost no value. So unless you want to keep buying $300.00 one's it's actually been cheaper swapping Apple products every few years and paying a very minimal upgrade fee.

I plan on selling our iPhones off contract to someone who want's an iphone and rolling into a new contract with the cash going towards the contract price. Lifehacker actually did a great write up about how to properly sell and never pay for your iphone but once.

[CptPoo]

I have noticed the same thing with Apple computers. I bought mine my freshman year in college, and I am currently finishing up my 5th year with the same laptop. In the time I have had my one $1,000 macbook, my sister has gone through two Windows laptops that each cost about $600-$700. The price of admission for Apple is higher, but the quality is definitely there.

Like Joseph, I am also a musician, and I have done very similar things. Ebay is a fantastic place to buy music equipment, and often I buy something that replaces older equipment that doesn't have the features that I want. I recently bought a new pedal-board and sold my old one to pay for it. I ended up making one more dollar from the old one than I spent buying the new one so it worked out perfectly.

I had a way of always finding good deals on interesting guitar gear that down the line I could sell off when I got tired of it, usually for more than I paid.  Luckily music equipment retains its value for the most part. 

I agree with this, but only if you buy gear used. Guitars are marked up incredible amounts when they are new and often lose 25%-50% of their value as soon as they are considered used. I bought my current bass "used" even though it was only a couple of months old for 25% less than the new price. And that included a $75 dollar hard case. If I ever decided to sell that bass, I should be able to get pretty close to what I paid for it. Most other music hardware is the same way, but nothing at the scale of guitars.

[dahlink]

I'm going to echo the apple/mac depreciation or lack there of factor.  Because of apple's price controls, these products consistently retain their value.  You can buy the new model as it comes out (or by the the model before) and retain most of the value when you sell.

[MEJG]

We just moved from overseas (so sold most everything when moving back).  This will be part of our new "Not in school, pay down debt, grow a badass 'stach" lifestyle. 

1) only buy what you NEED
* Pay 75% less that everyone else (if at all possible)
* preferably used
2) If you buy a want then you must
*pay 75% less than everyone else AND apply the one thing in = one thing out principle.  Preferably selling what is leaving the household to fund what is joining the household.

Oh and Macs rule :-)

[tannybrown]

I had the brilliant idea that we should sell all our furniture when we moved from Virginia to Florida. This way we could fit all our stuff into our two cars. It worked out, except we haven't had a living room since we moved in August.


So after throwing down the gauntlet and selling my car I came across great deal on a 3 piece leather couch on Craiglist for 250.00. We have Schwinn Elliptical that we simply don't use, so I listed it, and managed to get $300.00 out of the Elliptical. Turned around and bought the couch.


I've got a few other items we'd like for our home, so I'm going to try to sell off a few more items I'm not using in an attempt to raise cash for the things we do want. Anyways, this is usually one of the ways I go about getting things, I sell one thing, to get another thing.


Anyone else use this tactic?

We use the same tactic, but seemingly only when we want something different.  Right now, we're selling things laying around our garage on craigslist to then buy a dresser and nightstands...on craigslist. 

Craigslist giveth, and craigslist taketh away.

[kolorado]

I was very happy when I figured out this concept too. You can sorta trade-in your items and get something "new" without touching or barely denting your budgeted money or savings. Even though most times you sell items at much less than you originally paid, you still get ahead because you become a more patient and satisfied shopper. Things become less important to acquire, quality over quantity becomes paramount. And if you're really lucky(or have been clever with prior purchases)you'll get ahead financially when you sell stuff. We've made profits on more things than I would have expected. Some of the stuff was picked up roadside and secondhand.
This week I "traded in" a popcorn maker(got free), a bottle of perfume I changed my mind about(it was rare and sold for a profit),a dresser &  cabinet(got secondhand and used 8 years), cake decorating supplies(got free),a set of old wicker furniture(new clearance 12 years ago) and a toddler bed(got free). I'm getting a 7 piece wood dining set with 6 foot wood hutch, and two big plastic outdoor toddler toys for $0 out of pocket. Retail prices for the "new" things would be around $1300 or more.

[j3000]

I embraced Minimalism a lot and I've really got my wife on board with it since being married. I also made a switch to MAC after years of being a die hard PC/Windows only guy. And I was socked when buying used at the prices of used Apple products, but I was so excited when my 09 Unibody 15 inch MacBook Pro sold for the same price I paid for it a full year earlier on ebay. I rolled that into my existing Macbook Air which I bought refurbished from Apple and only needed an additional $200.00.

While others say you're paying for an Apple logo I strongly disagree. The fact is, I had an HP Laptop I paid $800 for (high end, I'm a web developer remember) that I could barely get anyone to pay 250$ for a year and half later. PC's hold almost no value. So unless you want to keep buying $300.00 one's it's actually been cheaper swapping Apple products every few years and paying a very minimal upgrade fee.

Minimalism is what led me to ERE and MMM, and is something that's really improved my life and my attitudes greatly.  Never considered frugality as a means towards free time before but the savings was always a nice byproduct of minimalism!

I'm a recent Mac covert, and it was pretty much after like 2 years of buying my first PC laptop and having it fail, and having the worst experience with customer support, buying another to replace it, having THAT one mechanically break due to faulty design (became well known with other owners), and getting fed up with having wasted all that time and money on such bad products.  I sold them all off and (somewhat out of anger) threw down for the biggest, baddest iMac at the time (27" i7 quad core w/ SSD, probably a little too much in retrospect).  Wow, it is so fast and amazing, and much nicer to use.  I scoffed at Macs before (mostly because I didn't understand them) but got the chance to use them in audio school in 2008-10 and started to appreciate the quality the more familiar I became.  I use them now at work and even simple tasks are much easier on them than PC.  And yes, even though it was super expensive, I can't see myself ever needing to buy another computer for a while, since it's so powerful, and the build quality is easily way above any PC made out of plastic.  And if I do sell, they do seem to hold their value more than PCs, a LOT more.

I agree with this, but only if you buy gear used. Guitars are marked up incredible amounts when they are new and often lose 25%-50% of their value as soon as they are considered used. I bought my current bass "used" even though it was only a couple of months old for 25% less than the new price. And that included a $75 dollar hard case. If I ever decided to sell that bass, I should be able to get pretty close to what I paid for it. Most other music hardware is the same way, but nothing at the scale of guitars.

You're totally right, and yes my past purchases that I used to flip were all on the used market.  Definitely taught me the truth about gear at a young age, especially since all of my purchases were in almost store-bought condition.  I pretty much never bought a new guitar until I was working many years later (and I fully intend on keeping it).

[zoltani]

Last year I made a mistake and purchased an expensive (for me) vintage designer sofa and chairs.  This was one of the only times in the past few years I had buyer's remorse.  Finally put it up on craigslist and got most of my money back, and found a like new solid wood sofa handmade in the US for $70 from a church yard sale.  Really happy with how it turned out in the end.

We've moved overseas twice, and both times sold furniture and bought new stuff at our destination.  Surely we lost money in the end, and it is tiring to buy stuff.  I am glad to just settle in for awhile now.

[masont]

This is about the only way I buy toys for myself.  My two weaknesses are bikes and bass guitars.  If I want a new toy, I need to sell an old toy.  This way I have cool toys, and as long as I buy/sell smart, it doesn't cost me anything except the opportunity cost of the money that's sitting in toys.

I have just finished a round of selling, and am waiting on pins and needles for the parts I need in the mail to finish building my new bike.  :)

[onehappypanda]

Right now I'm selling things to pay off a stupid high-interest loan I took out in the past.

But I've done this in the past for other things. I found a table I really liked on Craigslist (the used version of one I'd been eyeing new, but for 40% of the price). I needed a better table anyway, but didn't want to spend the cash. That's how I ended up selling my tv and DVD player. Took that money and bought the table, which I've gotten significantly more use out of anyway.

Occasionally when I want new clothes I'll sell off some old things at a consignment shop and use the shop credit to get something else. Of course I can't buy item-for-item that way but it's a good way to minimize the wardrobe.

It's pretty satisfying to get the things you want (or pay off the things you have) without having to take it out of your paycheck ;)

[smedleyb]

I'll say this:  if you're debt free and a great saver, selling stuff to buy stuff is simply another tactic employed to get the maximum material benefit with the minimum expenditure.

If you're in debt, operate check to check, and don't have a grasp on your finances, selling stuff to buy stuff is simply feeding your shopping addiction and you need to stop accumulating "stuff" altogether.

[sulaco]

I'm trying a new tactic where I'll buy something without remorse if I can cover the cost (and hopefully  make a few buck) through arbitrage. For example, I found a set of Blu-ray movies selling for about 60% of their market value (not MSRP - but actual market value). I purchased six copies knowing I could sell 5 for below market value (high liquidity) and keep the sixth while making a small profit. Whether I decide to ultimately keep the set or not is only a matter of the space it consumes. The total time spent to put the items into an online marketplace and fulfill the orders is about an hour of extra work.

In my experience, a lot of arbitrage is luck - I'm not a distributor or in any sales profession. I've been successful with as little as 20% difference in price, but I always want to make at least $100+a copy of what I'm selling to make it worth my time.