Since we’re getting ready to move, it gives us a great opportunity to assess whether we really need all the stuff in our place. We look around at all the furniture we’ve accumulated over the past few years, the books, and everything else you just seem to accumulate when you live somewhere for any significant period of time. We live in a country where it’s easy to get caught up in the pursuit of stuff. Of course, when you think about it, you don’t need that much stuff. You don’t need to drive a cool car, or have a huge collection of rookie cards, or new gadgets as they hit the shelves. You don’t need much of it at all. You can be more than happy with less.
My wife has taken action on this and has started to put our stuff on Craigslist. Craigslist and eBay are the newer, easier garage sale. Our stuff has generated a lot of interest, thanks to what we think are very reasonable prices. My wife loves doing this, too. She’s fine living with less, too. Plus, she knows she’s going to help move it if we can’t sell it. The only thing I would say about Craigslist or eBay is that you are taking on some measure of risk. With Craigslist, anytime we post something, we get contacted by several people within minutes. Unfortunately, lots of the people don’t end up following through. There’s a chance that people won’t follow through with the transaction. Fortunately for us, we sold both our kitchen table and entertainment center almost immediately to out of towners. They’re both sending us cashiers checks by priority mail, then having a moving company come by to pick up the stuff. It’s a clean way to do these types of transactions.
Even if you aren’t moving, using things like Craigslist or eBay is a great way to sell your stuff to raise extra cash. Everyone seems to win in these situations. People get to buy things they want or need for less than the cost of buying something new, and hopefully, the market takes the goods to the people who are most likely to get the most use out of them and who value the item the most highly. Thanks for reading.
The Personal Finance Playbook was included in a blog carnival over at Greener Pastures. Lots of great posts over there. Check it out.
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