Author Topic: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk  (Read 5025 times)

kkbmustang

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Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« on: August 21, 2013, 06:46:32 PM »
The Hubs and I have thrown down a gauntlet for ourselves: fund all upcoming Christmas gifts with cash we've raised by selling our crap. We'll primarily use CraigsList.

So far we've sold two bookcases (this past weekend) for $65.

Anyone else care to join? There's also a thread for homemade Christmas gifts (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/homemade-christmas-2013/), but I'm not the crafty type, so that's not a good option for me.

free to do what i want

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2013, 08:40:43 PM »
I think this is a great motivation to clear out clutter.  I've been doing this to fund travel this year, so I like the idea of selling items for to fund Christmas.


Irishmam

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2013, 08:50:32 PM »
I just made $193 by selling my text books on Amazon! It took a couple of hours to list them by ISBN number, but it was worth it. I'm now looking around the house for other books that might be worth selling. BTW I have Amazon Prime so the shipping was free.

livetogive

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2013, 04:06:12 PM »
I like it!  I'm going to start going through my little apartment and digging stuff up.

On the chopping block:

- automatic ice machine for knee.  3 surgeries later and I HOPE I don't need that anymore...
- textbooks I haven't opened in over 2 years

At what point do you guys donate instead of sell?  For me clothes seem like a terrible resale market but an easy tax write-off / donation, but maybe i'm just being complainey about it.

kkbmustang

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2013, 03:10:51 PM »
I try to sell my stuff on CraigsList twice. If I don't get a hit after two tries, I donate the item. I'm on the mailing list for several charities that come to my house to pick up donations. They come about twice per month. I just have to put the stuff on my porch.

I also don't bother listing items with a very low value. So for clothes, I usually don't bother unless it's something in very good condition. I try ebay for clothes before CL.

I'm in major declutter/purge mode, so hope to have lots of sales. I definitely have had lots of donations.

Irishmam

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2013, 03:50:08 PM »
Remember if you donate stuff to Salvation Army to write out everything and give it a valuation based on its condition. The attachment to this post is their valuation guide which is actually pretty generous. Sometimes it works out better to donate a paperback book for a value of $0.75-$1.50 than to try and sell it online and pay for shipping.

http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf/0/D477340FFA28755C8525743D0049D1EF

CommonCents

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #6 on: August 30, 2013, 09:11:30 PM »
TurboLT - I throw away really old, personal, or not useable items. 
I donate things that aren't worth the time/effort to list (e.g. clothes, or things of very low value).  I also donate highly needed items (e.g. my stockpile of toiletries - soaps, shampoo, conditioner, contact solution from hotels, couponing, etc.)
I try to sell higher value items, but if I can't after a couple of tries, I will donate too.
I also give away items as I come across things perfect for someone else.

HumanCalculator

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2013, 08:17:07 AM »
I prefer the gift of love and the fun of gathering together. Why would I give more stuff to the people I love the most. Unless it's a food gift.

MakingSenseofCents

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #8 on: September 01, 2013, 10:41:50 PM »
I think this is a great idea! I recently filled a bag full of clothes that I need to sell, but I also know that there are a ton of other things that I could sell.

Rebecca Stapler

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2013, 10:05:58 AM »
Awesome idea!

I made $28 selling clothes to Twice (get $10 store credit with this link: liketwice.com/FlB4H) and I'm going to sell more. I made $80 at a yard sale this summer. Next on the block are a few items slated for craigslist and my old macbook, which I'm selling to Gazelle (again, another $10 bonus for you if you sell something and use my referral: http://gazelle.extole.com/a/clk/4cRFVS)

PlayOutside

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #10 on: September 12, 2013, 10:37:59 AM »
I love this idea! I'm currently trying to clear out the clutter by listing on eBay, so that fits perfectly into what I'm already doing. I have a hard time staying motivated, but I think if I set a daily goal of getting 3-5 items on eBay, that should be do-able. Of course, I'd like to list MANY more than that, but that minimal number seems achievable, I think. Any other suggestions to stay motivated to keep listing? You would think that the $$ coming in would be motivation enough...

lifejoy

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #11 on: September 12, 2013, 10:56:39 PM »
Really excellent idea.

ace1224

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #12 on: September 16, 2013, 08:08:34 AM »
love it! i sell old clothes to twice. 

Happyback

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Re: Fund 2013 Holiday Gift Purchases By Selling Your Junk
« Reply #13 on: October 05, 2013, 09:53:59 PM »
I'm in!