It’s that time of year! As much as you hate to do it, spring cleaning is absolutely necessary. Last weekend, I went through my entire closet and got rid of a few items to make room for the new. This clean out included mini skirts and girly dresses from Forever 21 I used to wear in college – I couldn’t pull them off now if my life depended on it. I’ve realized now the significance of the name “Forever 21”. Whatever, I still shop there.
Anyway, what’s even better than de-cluttering your closet is that you can make MONEY selling your old stuff. Here are 3 ways you can make this happen.
1. eBay: I always have items listed in my eBay shop, and I’ve made a couple thousand bucks selling my old stuff within the past year or two. I know it can be intimidating, but all you have to do is setup an eBay and PayPal account, and you’re good to go. They make shipping things really easy, allowing you to print shipping labels directly through eBay.
Fees: there are 2 types of fees, insertion fees & final value fees. You can list up to 50 items a month for free, beyond that you’ll pay an insertion fee per item. Final value fees are charged when you sell an item and are usually around 10% of the total sale value. More info on fees HERE.
Tips & Tricks:
Take photos in good lighting (natural is best) and display any imperfections for items you’re selling so people know what they’re buying. Buyers and sellers rate each other after each transaction, and poor ratings will hurt your chances of selling/buying in the future.
If you don’t know how to price an item, do an eBay search for what you’re selling and filter for items that have already sold. You can also find the market price for popular items on pricegeek.
2. Threadflip: If you’re lazy and don’t want to deal with taking photos & listing your items, Threadflip is the way to go. They offer a full-service feature that allows you to mail in all of your unwanted items via a prepaid box, and they take it from there. Super easy process! Any items they don’t accept will either be returned to you or donated to Goodwill.
Fees: fees range from 20-70% of sale price. More info on fees HERE.
Tips & Tricks:
Threadflip does not accept items from Sears, JCPenney, WalMart, Costco, Kmart, Old Navy, or Target (unless it’s from a designer colab).
All items need to be clean, undamaged and less than 5 years old (excluding vintage).
3. Consignment Shops: I’ve also sold items at consignment shops such as Second Time Around. The catch here is that they tend to be super picky about the items they take, and the commission is high (typically 50-60% of sale price). However, if you have a shop like this in your neighborhood and don’t want to deal with the hassle of selling online, it’s worth a shot.
Hope these tips were helpful!
xo
Tina
Photo source: DeviantArt
