This time of year is incredibly slow in my line of work (I'm in the Hospitality Industry ~ Banquets & Catering to be exact), so I am spending the majority of my days off right now.
It's a nice break from November & December, when I was only off on Sundays, and trying to cram everything into the one day (laundry, grocery shop, dishes, housecleaning, garbages out) so it was hardly a day off! And the 6 days I was working days were long, very busy run-off-my-feet kind of days. The ones in which you don't get home till 6-7pm, barely have energy to throw something in the microwave, feed the kid & go to sleep to do it all again the next day.
I barely saw my kid those 2 months. I got waaaayyy behind on the "sort & get-rid-of / garage sale in spring", there was just no time.
I've spent the last few years trying to have a big yard sale, and never got to do it. This last year, there was hardly a break between Christmas Season 2011 and Christmas Season 2012 -- it was just constantly busy. I'd be too tired on days off to accomplish much (I have fibromyalgia & CFS, which I will blog about at some point).
I think largely what I need to so is just do it every week -- instead of trying to have everything sorted & ready for one big weekend, because there's always more stuff to go in the pile, so I'll never be ready for just one sale.
And don't get me wrong, I'm not an un-generous person, I have given truckloads to charity. But I also feel that I should get something for the rest of it. I could use a little extra cash, you know?
(For those no in the know, I'm a widowed single mom -- there are no custody-shares or child support coming in, which is why I would like to make a few bucks.)
Because my husband & I had split up when he passed away, I had assumed that we would be splitting everything we owned -- so I bought a bunch of new stuff so that when I started over, I would have everything I needed. Then he passes away, and now I am left with multiples of things, household goods, mostly still brand-new.
I also had to go ot his house to get his belongings, as we weren't divorced yet, so I was next-of-kin... I sorted a lot of the clothing, etc, because so much was dirty I just threw it out (long story, will tell it another time). Some clothing, especially his rugby shirts that our daughter loved I have kept, as well as the sweater he wore to the hospital when I had my daughter.
There was also a ton of his stuff here at the house that he didn't come pick up, stuff that I am dreading sorting through.
I'm also a newly-ex Avon rep, so I have quite a bit of stock to get rid of, stuff that was part of big packages, special rep-specials, stuff I use regularly or things that I had clients use often, but then they moved away.
I wonder if trying to ebay anything would be worth it? I am oretty backwards when it comes to shopping online. I have never had a PayPal account, even! Maybe I ought to look at doing that for some of the new stuff?
Do you ebay? Do you have to have a store? What about Amazon? I don't know how that works, either. Does PayPal take so much that it's hardly worth it anymore? What about shipping? How do you know how much to charge for it?
Hope you are having a wonderful Saturday!
I was going to suggest Ebay to you. I have bought items on Ebay but I've never sold anything.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem you might have is that you are an "unknown" there. When you buy or sell something the other person in the transaction leaves feedback about you. If you've never used Ebay, you wouldn't have any feedback so folks might be afraid to deal with you.
I'm not sure that this would be an issue but I mention it because I always check a person's rating before buying anything from them.
Of course, I might be all wrong about it. I don't think it would hurt to check it out, at least!
What made you stop selling Avon? (yes. I'm nosy)
Ditto to what Cathy said. There's also a considerable time investment, considering that you'll have to 1) invest a lot of time in the listing; 2) wait for things to sell/auction to end; 3) deal with the time and nuisance of shipping; and 4) deal with re-listing if it doesn't sell the first time.
ReplyDeleteIf you have the time now to work on gathering up and staging/prepping for a big yard sale, that would be the better option from my perspective. Gather up as much as you can before the big day, and sell as much as you can in one fell swoop. What you don't sell, you can; 1) hold onto for the next yard sale (which makes sense if you're still gathering/staging at the time); 2) try to sell on eBay; or 3) Donate. If you do your due diligence and advertise in advance (flyers, Craigslist, PennySaver ad), and get your neighbors to do yard sales at the same time, you could make a nice chunk of change. I made over $200 at my last yard sale.
The one thing I would try to sell on eBay instead of a yard sale is anything that's brand new and still in packaging. You'll make more money on eBay with something like that, but you might want to consider using someone who sells it for you. (Like a broker, they do all the work and just take a commission from each sale. You're paying a commission, but there's a good chance you would make more money using a broker.)
Hmm... food for thought. Thank you both for your suggestions! I was also wondering about Amazon, there seems to be a lot of selling of used stuff there. Bah, I don't know.... I have to do something!
ReplyDeleteI'll talk about Avon in a future entry...