CLEAR OUT YOUR CRAP

My latest obsession is Buy/Sell sites. Because I live in a complex, I'm not allowed to have yard sales, so all these years I've been donating stuff I no longer wanted to charity when I could have capitalized on my chronic overspending. But now, with all these apps popping up, selling your things has never been easier.

Used to be Craig's List was the only guy in town, but now there are so many more options to choose from. The saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure," is indeed true. I bought twenty dollars worth of filthy, dismembered dolls and doll heads for my Halloween display this year. But I've also managed to get rid of home decor and clothing I no longer wanted in order to make room for new crap. Here are some of my favorite sites I use to list my unwanted crap.

Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, and Letgo are all places to list your crap to local buyers. The advantages of these sites is you can sell larger, heavier items, like furniture or electronics, that is too impractical to ship. Also, once sold, you receive cash in hand right away. No payment of any fees necessary. 

The disadvantages are you sometimes have every Tom, Dick, and Harry messaging you about the item, telling you they're interested and want to buy it, and then, poof, they drop off the face of the earth. There's also the matter of actually having to meet the buyer in person which is a nightmare if you happen to be an introvert or have an aversion to people in general. But when doing so, it's of course always best to do so at a safe, neutral place like the parking lot of a local Starbucks. Coordinating the time and place with the buyer can sometimes be a hassle, but once the item has sold, it's history, never to be seen again. 

If I want to reach potential buyers all around the US and I don't mind packaging and hauling my butt to the post office or a FedEx center (which I don't), I choose Mercari and Poshmark to list my crap. The pros are if someone wants to buy your item, click, they buy it, and you never have to see their face in person. You can either choose to have your earnings deposited into your bank account or keep a running balance to use toward your own purchases on the site.

The cons are they take a seller's fee. Mercari is reasonable, while Postmark takes 20%, which can eat into your small profit. And, if you're shipping anything breakable, you'd better make damn sure you wrap and secure that puppy like it's a newborn. I don't know if mail workers have parties in their warehouse where they dance on top of the packages or what, but every package I receive nowadays looks like it's been through a war. Yes, I'm pointing at you, FedEx!

Always remember that you will indeed get offers on your crap so low you wonder whether it's worth it at all, but the way I figure it, you're making more money than if you were to toss the item into that Goodwill donation bin.

Have any experience with buying/selling online? Let me know in the comments!



Tiffany N. York writes romance and in her spare time, she buys crap. A lot of it, which she ends up struggling to make room for. Don't even get her started on all her Halloween crap. Check out her website at tiffanynyorkauthor.com