In this beautiful age of HGTV, DIY everything, and I-can-so-do-that-myself Pinterest finds, if you have the time, you can do anything! Okay, maybe not anything, but DIY is sure easier thanks to the internet. So, I found myself pinning some awesome crafts and thought to myself, if I can find the items that I will refinish and make my own on sites like Let Go, Craigslist, or Varage Sale, I'll be set! Although, what I found when I started my search was that people have forgotten the most basic hand-me-down rules for selling their crap.
1. Selling your "new" crap.
If it is not in its original packaging, its not new. Give it up. You are not going to get full price (or even above retail for those of you who are really disturbed) for the item you bought and couldn't return. If it is brand new, sure, knock off about 5-10% and sell it with your big "Brand New" advertisement. But trying to get full price is just silly. I will march my happy ass down to Best Buy and buy it with the warrantee rather than meeting up with you in a sketchy parking lot.
2. Used Crap.
I get that you paid $1500 for it in 1996. But, its 2017 and bringing it down by $300 is going to get you nowhere. Of course depending on the item, if it is a collectible and now worth $2000, sell it for $2000. TO A COLLECTOR. Get it off the thrift sites. We are here for a deal. I expect everything to be at least 50-75% off its original price, but I really shoot for 75-90% off. This is second-hand selling and buying 101. Your "gently used" mattress filled with your dead skin cells is not worth the 10% off your listing it for. Unless you want to keep it. Then again, get it off the site. Before you post, think to yourself, if you walked into the Salvation Army store and saw your item for what you have it posted for, what would you do? If your answer is leave the store, then lower your price. One man's trash is another man's treasure, but that treasure has a price limit.
3. But the crap has sentimental value.
Not to me there isn't. I don't look at that tattered old dresser and see years of my babies' laughter and memories. I see a tattered dresser whose dings I need to sand down and spend hours priming, staining and adding new hardware to. So unless I can buy it and all the supplies I need for the redo cheaper than buying it brand new, its a waste of my time and energy. The downside is, we both lost out because you couldn't cut the cord.
4. Final Words.
If you threw it in the garage sale pile, you don't need or want it anymore. If you can make a couple of bucks off of it, its better than deciding to wait for a better time to sell it. Three years later, it will have built a nice stack of dust on it in your cabinet and become so irrelevant that you finally decide to just donate it. Trust me, I practice what I preach and I always have a successful purchase. So, get on my band wagon thrifty sellers! Your buyers are trying to make successful Pinterest fails!
