Some years ago there were a series of classes taught by @Josh_Melnick on eBay.
Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to take any of these. Now I find myself with a ton of stuff I’d like to dispose of. I find myself in a situation where I’ve accumulated things over most of my life, and now I don’t really have room to keep it all.
There was also a discussion about hoarding a while back.
It seems like a lot of makers are also hoarders/collectors/purveyors of things. Cool things, wonderful things, antiques, heirlooms, useful stuff.
I plead guilty.
All of the de-clutter folks say you need to ask yourself if you’ll ever use them and if not could someone else better use them. They also said you should get rid of your vinyl and cds and now both are coming back as retro things. I have quite a collection of both.
I used to look for trees to harvest after a thunderstorm to harvest the wood from, drive around the neighborhood before large trash pickup and go to garage sales to find treasures. Now not so much.
I’ve also inherited some stuff from my relatives which I know I’ll never use.
So my question for the community is:
What avenues do you use to unload your stuff
a. DMS freebie shelf
b. Facebook marketplace
c. eBay
d. Nextdoor
e. Amazon
f. Goodwill
g. Others
Is it worth it? Some would say it is more hassle than it is worth.
Statistics say that the younger generations just don’t want the Baby Boomer stuff. That is certainly the case with my millennial son.
On a side note, how many of you have off-site storage locations for your stuff?
I have sold stuff on eBay, but just the product I made. I took Josh’s classes on it.
If it is worth donating, I would donate to CCA in the past.
Mostly everything I own is at home, no storage other than my shed. I to tend to lend tools to friends & family. A friend of mine had my table saw, miter saw, (1) of my air compressors, pneumatic nailers for quite some time. He would pull it out of his garage when cleaning & would always have someone stop to ask if he was selling it. He probably had it for a couple years. My brother currently has my miter saw. I lent my tubing bender to a friend for a few years as well. He modded it, put wheels on it & the studs that hand the dies off the side.
Thanks for the feedback. I haven’t resorted to an off-site storage unit yet and my HOA doesn’t allow storage sheds, so it is all at home at the moment. Not the best of situations. Still, I get both cars in the garage.
I used to sell a lot of my stuff on eBay and occasionally on Craigslist and Nextdoor. I switched to Facebook Marketplace because shipping isn’t required and it’s less dangerous than CL since you can sort of see if their account is legit (based on longevity) and see their transaction reviews/star rating (however a few months ago a local guy was shot and killed trying to sell his phone on Marketplace). On Nextdoor I saw minimal enquiries so I stopped posting there. Dealing with the general public can be a pain for too many reasons. On Facebook, be prepared to acknowledge an item is “still available” a dozen times for every serious buyer.
The only time in recent years I paid for storage was on a short-term contract to store an estate’s furniture while I tried to find buyers. I was able to liquidate of most of the estate on Facebook Marketplace within a month and the rest was donated to Salvation Army (they offer scheduled pickups of furniture donations but they tend to book several weeks out). Be aware that as soon as your contract runs out on storage they jack up the price because they know they have you in a vulnerable position.
There are other local charities that offer pickups for clothes – harder to find for household items. As for “is it worth it”, it comes down to the resale value vs. the value of your time vs. apatite for potential danger. All things considered, donations that are well documented are a valid tax write-off, so I tend to go that route nowadays.
Very well-thought-out sir. I have had serious reservations about in person sales to anyone except those that are my DMS, military, blacksmithing and church friends. Still, there are no guarantees about what some people will try to do.
A while back @HankCowdog and I arranged a DMS sale of leather donations from Gulfstream Aerospace and it went really well selling out of the storage locker, but then we didn’t open it up to just anyone either.
Thanks for your feedback. I like the donations idea.
I used to spend my spare time in college selling stuff on eBay, kept me in beer money quite well. It’s great for items that have enough value to justify fees and shipping.
When I was selling consumer electronics (primarily cell phones and the like) things would move pretty fast, but customer service/returns was a pain. When I switched to car parts things would move more slowly, but I got much higher quality customers.
Learning how to separate emotions from money and accept the occasional loss on a transaction helped. Getting good at packing and shipping was huge. If you have the facilities to palletize items even freight shipping isn’t that hard (just time consuming).
It was fun, I still sell things here and there. Keep track of expenses, you’ll get a 1099-K before you realize.
Maybe we can get Josh to teach an Ebay class next time he is in town.
I emptied a rental storage unit that was mostly my junk and some work related things last month. Some of the discoveries were like ‘Christmas’ as I had forgotten about the front clip and windshield for my Thing, and some old Army armorers cabinets and more.
I ended up with some Chem Warfare gear - masks, gloves, and ponchos as well as some Personal Protection Equipment from my ANG days. They decided to keep the M9 they issued me in the desert and the one issued to me for Katrina.
I also have some other miscellaneous gear that was about to be disposed of that I confiscated.
