It’s spring cleaning time. That means most of us will soon be going through all the clutter we’ve somehow accumulated over the winter months. What are you going to do with all that junk-to-you?
Here are 35 places to buy, sell, trade, exchange or simply give away the things you don’t want.
clothes
- Swap clothes – This site hosts local meetups where attendees can bring their gently-used clothing and get you new items for free.
- Freestyle clothing exchange – Take your unwanted clothes, shoes and accessories anywhere and get 35% cash or 50% store credit on the value the store marks your items.
- threadup – A trusted name in secondhand children’s clothing, ThreadUp pays you upfront (plus free shipping) for your unwanted children’s clothing. They have recently expanded to include women’s clothing, shoes and accessories.
- Facebook group
- Poshmark
- Depop
kids stuff
- Rewrite – This is a great place to unload gently used baby gear. The site keeps 20% of each sale as their service fee.
book
Outdoor gear
- get my boat – Self-explanatory
- bike share – How many bicycles have you bought just to ride once? Maybe you don’t want to commit to buying a bike for fear of that happening. Capital Bikeshare will help you rent a bike.
- Jillok
personal space
- Airbnb – Rent out a room or your entire house for visitors.
- Home Exchange – Similar to Airbnb
- Couch surfing – Perhaps you need some company. This site doesn’t allow you to charge visitors – and won’t charge you for using the site – but you can let someone flop for free if you feel so inclined.
- GoSwap – This site allows you to do home business. Say you have a cabin in the woods and are looking to get away to the beach for a weekend, this site can help.
- Liquidspace – Need to meet a client or colleagues and do not like to do it at your home? Find a coworking space here.
- just the park – Rent a parking space for travelers or event-goers.
- SharedEarth – This site helps connect landowners with farmers/gardeners in need of space.
Tech Gadgets
everything
- the amazon Take your unwanted electronics, books, CDs, DVDs, computers and more in exchange for gift cards. I’ll take it!
- Freecycle – Find a community of buyers/sellers/traders near you
- Listia – This is an auction site that works on site credit as opposed to cash. Sell things you don’t want for Listia credits. Use that credit to get things you want for free.
- Offer up
- let’s go
Expert tips for online sales sites
We’ve had some hugely successful posts on how to sell online this past year. We spoke to several successful sellers, from those who make a full-time income on eBay to a great woman who makes over $40,000 per year on Amazon.
Here’s a round-up of those tips, recommended resources and opinions on reselling online
Ebay
Sarah Titus worked as our specialist for selling on eBay. Sarah has been an active seller on the site for over 15 years and was able to generate a full-time income selling used items. Sarah had the following tips for new sellers:
- Start with what you have – sell gently used items from around the house and invest some of the profits to buy more that are selling. You can find a great list of places to find salvage items here.
- Watch your fees – shipping costs can add up quickly. Get your shipping materials free when you can and make buyers pay postage when possible
- Opening an eBay store can charge you up to 20% more
- Customer service will make or break your business – answer questions within an hour if possible
- Sell the weird stuff – the rarer it is, the more money you’re likely to make
- Find Your Niche – Carve your own special corner of the eBay world
Sarah’s Favorite Seller Tools: Weighmax postal shipping scale
the amazon
There are several ways you can make money with Amazon as a seller We spoke to Cynthia who makes over $40,000 a year through the Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) option. He is only able to work 10 hours per week because Amazon takes care of shipping and any returns. Cynthia had these tips and resources to share:
- Keep track of sales tax with TaxJar. It integrates with Amazon and will remind you when to pay. Cynthia says the software takes her about 15 minutes to pay her sales tax.
Cynthia procures items from retail stores and wholesalers at events such as “Target, Walmart, IKEA, Walgreens, my local grocery store, Biglots, Bed Bath and Beyond, Tuesday Morning.”
Cynthia’s Favorite Tools of the Trade:
eBay is much more relaxed when it comes to used items than Amazon. With Amazon, you often have to be “unaffiliated” to sell in categories like apparel. If fashion is your thing, check out sites like this post.
And if you’re a bookworm, Peter stopped by to share some tips for his $100,000+ Amazon FBA success. He sold the hardbacks for over $400 each. He gave us some tips here. Check out this post To identify opportunities to pick up used books for resale in your community
If you need immediate cash, Facebook buy/sell groups are the place to go right now. Most cities and counties have groups available where members can share what they have for sale or trade. If anyone is interested, you can designate a place to meet for the exchange.
As Victoria of Snail Pace Transformations tells us, “Meet buyers in public places during daylight hours where you’ll always have people around you.” Also you should only accept cash. Victoria recommends sticking with items that sell for $25 or more or “lots” to ensure it’s worth your time and trouble.
Craigslist is a similar setup to Facebook Groups if you want to unload your products quickly and locally Safety precautions are the same. Meet in public and take cash only.
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