What was more shocking was how much money I spent on this stuff in the first place.
Item 1: A Wii. A gift for the Chief Engineer years ago, it never really got played. Bought for $180 and after shipping I made a $35 profit on it. That's $145 wasted. Ugh.
Item 2: A sound hole cover for my guitar. Taylor Swift has one of these so of course I had to have one! It made my old guitar sound better but it completely smothered Jolene's voice. I was horrified. It cost $75, and I sold it at a $30 profit. That's $45 wasted.
But she looks so pretty with the sound hole cover! Why can't she sound pretty, too?
Item 3: A Glacier Park guide book. Instead of being smart and getting the book way ahead of time from the library, I waited until the last minute and had to get a brand new copy with expedited shipping. Cost: $20. Sold for $7. $13 loss.
In college I would sell used books and I made a small fortune -- around $2,000 after four years of picking people's old textbooks out of trash piles on the day dorms closed and then reselling them online. And what did I do with that money? I wasted it on crap. Not this time.
All told I wasted $203 on these three items. I'm glad I made at least a little money off them, and I did put the money straight towards our mortgage. I've decided that the profits from anything I sell on ebay or amazon will go directly to pay off the principal on our mortgage.
~ The Reckoning ~
Items 188, 189, 190
$203 wasted
For a total of $2261.99
Have you sold anything on ebay?
I've done Ebay, and I honestly hate it. Ebay takes a cut. Paypal takes a cut. I MUCH prefer Craigslist. Sure, there's more leg work involved, but you make far more money. In my experience, I can usually sell items (NOT clothing) for half of their retail price, assuming the item is in near perfect condition. I like to buy items off CL too, and I've often been able to make a profit on an item when I'm done with it/it no longer fits our life. Basically, I'm a CL groupie lol!
ReplyDeleteright after you posted this, I got three emails about the craigslist posting I made A WEEK AGO for the wii...offering me quite a bit more than I made selling it on ebay. Argh! But I guess that's the way things go. I need to take a page from your book and just be more patient with CL!
DeleteI've only ever sold my old uni books on Amazon. They take a cut, so I only bothered selling ones worth a decent amount of money. I have some listed at the moment (I had a bit of a clear out after realising that, no, I was never going to re-read them/use them to write an essay...duh..), none of which have sold...if they don't sell in a month or so, off to charity with them.
ReplyDeleteI've never bothered selling anything else- I tend to offer any electronics/kitchen stuff to my friends via Facebook, and if not...charity! I tend to want stuff out of the house fast more than I want the money...
We're in the process of selling some things online but I often will just donate my old items to Goodwill. A lot of the things I'm getting rid of are kind of low value, but there are a few that qualify for sale.
ReplyDeleteSorry the stuff isn't netting that much, but it's still a pretty good profit when you add it all up.
Goodwill is a great option, and the tax deduction can be great. I'm happy to be making even a little money, anything that takes even a tiny bite out of my mortgage has got to be worth it. I'm trying to see it as money added to my net worth, not money lost!
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