I've been doing a lot of this lately. Amazing what I find going through my garage or closets.
When I find something I want to get rid of, I evaluate the situation sort-of using a 3-variable equation (all subjective and qualitative; I don't generally actually run any numbers.)
1. Encumbrance (high is bad): How much pain/grief is the item currently causing me? Size, weight, storage space, clutter, maintenance responsibilities, monthly payments, etc. This determines how quickly I want this thing out of my life. High encumbrance are things like a used car, furniture, major appliances, bicycles, stack of tires, etc. Low encumbrance examples include small electronics, collectibles, individual books, etc. This is a spectrum, so small, low-clutter objects like jewelry may nonetheless be high encumbrance due to the insurance liability. Most things are somewhere in the middle.
2. Potential market value (low is bad): How much I think I can get for the item. I'll look for similar listings on CL or eBay to find a starting price, or just begin at 20-30% of its current retail price. I've rarely been able to get 50% or more, even for brand-new-in-box items.
3. Potential market demand (low is bad): As opposed to #1 which is how quickly I want to get rid of the item, this estimates how quickly I think I can realistically get rid of the item. For example, in my family friendly neighborhood, I can get rid of a used kids bike on CL in a day or two, usually to a neighbor and with minimal delivery/pickup hassle. On the other hand, a niche item like a ham radio receiver or other piece of specialized hobby equipment will need to sit on eBay for a while to reach a larger market audience.
If my item in question scores "bad" on two or more of these variables, then I seriously consider donating or trashing it, because the monetary payoff is not worth the effort, or the encumbrance payoff of just disposing of the item trumps the monetary payoff. Again all of this is pretty subjective.
ebay selling tips:
- If doing auctions, time them to end on Sunday night (7pm PT / 10pm ET). Most bidding wars happen in the final minutes, and this is when the most people will be at their computers. Obviously, adjust appropriately during football season.
- Auction final price tends to be inversely proportional to starting price. If I am selling an item I know is in high demand, I open the bidding at 99 cents. This works great for things like used smartphones.
- For niche items or rare but low demand items (specialized hobby equipment) that will attract at most one or two bids, sell at fixed price or best offer. The people interested in such things are often searching for a particular hard to find item more so than they are interested in getting a smoking deal on it. They are also likely to know its monetary value and more likely to pay 75-80% of retail for it.
- A couple good photos are better than twenty crappy ones.
- List and sell your items in batches, especially auctions. Another reason to have them expire Sunday night. This way you can have them sitting prepackaged and ready to go, and all you have to do at the end of the auction is buy and print labels, slap them on and take to UPS or post office or wherever on your way to work (of course wait for buyer to pay before shipping). This is a good way to get rid of low-value low-demand items; price them at shipping cost plus 1 cent and take what you can get for them. Roll them in with the same trip to the post office as your bigger ticket items, so you aren't hurting your hourly rate for the effort.
I'm still learning this trade. But over the past several months I've offloaded probably a literal ton of crap/clutter, and brought in about $5000. The money is nice, but having the crap out of my life is even better!
