Thrifty Mommy » craigslist

Make quick cash off your castoffs

Jennifer Chait — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:55:52 +0000

If you’re looking to make some quick cash, you can go though all your stuff, find the stuff you never use, and sell it. You could technically hold a garage sale, but that’s a whole other huge event. I mean, you just sorted your closets, save the garage sale for warmer days and try the following places for selling your gear…

Consignment shops: The key to making quick cash at a consignment store is to ask them how they pay. There are plenty of consignment shops, but not all pay right away, and not all pay in cash. Possible scenarios include the shop paying you in store credit, paying you when your items actually sell, or cutting you a check at the first of the month when their payroll runs. The best (for fast cash) are places that pay within one to two days of you giving them your stuff. Take in items that are in style and in good shape for the maximum payout.

Craigslist: I know folks who do make money on Craigslist, but you should follow some basic rules. Advertise details; i.e “10 pairs size 9 jeans – dark navy” vs. “JEANS”. Never meet a buyer in private – meet them in a public place and only accept cash.

Specialty shops: Record stores, CD exchange stores, video game shops, bookstores, and other specialty sellers will usually pay decent prices for items that are in good shape. Do not take a boxful of scratched vinyl in for example, they check this stuff. Also if you trashed all your CD and hardcover book covers, you’re pretty much screwed. Resale shops get more money for covered items, and usually won’t accept uncovered books or discs.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Ebay and Craigslist Scammers

Karen Weideman — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:32:37 +0000

If you sell anything online, then you need to be aware that you may be contacted by scammers. They will claim to have interest in your product and they may even offer to send you a cashier’s check for a large sum above what you are asking. They’ll say the extra amount is for your troubles, the shipping to another country, or some might even ask you to cash the check and send them the excess. AS IF!!!!

Unfortunately, many have fallen for these schemes and lost large sums of money. Here is an example of a scammer email. Actually, this is one that my husband received this week.

Hello
I am interested in immediate purchase of your ITEM .After several consideration over the advert placed on the website, my client has really shown interest in it and would really want to buy the item. I will however like to see the pictures; showing the parts, full body and most importantly the condition before finalizing the buying process. I wont be chanced to come down to inspect the ITEM so kindly provide me with necessary details regarding the said ITEM. I will as well appreciate if you can reduce the price cos I’m highly interested in buying it

Hoping to hear from you
Thanks.

You may notice that Mian Dans didn’t even bother to change the item information in his scammer letter template.

Have you ever received emails such as this one?

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Frugal Friday 17: Using Free Classifieds

Karen Weideman — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 12:22:48 +0000

We all have things in our house that we need to get rid of. Instead of having a yard sale and underpricing your stuff, or paying to sell it on Ebay, try placing a free online classified ad.

Craigslist has become a very popular classified website. Several years ago Ebay bought 25% of Craigslist. For a while, they didn’t do anything with it and just let it sit there as an investment. But now, Ebay is going into competition with a company they partially own by launching Kijiji.com.

Now we have two free online sources for selling things. Looks like the two companies will be competiting for our business, which is good for us.

I confess . . . I have a huge pile of boxes in my house with yard sale stuff in them. I need to get busy and list this stuff on one of these sites so that I can make some money.

Source: Clark Howard

Post from: Thrifty Mommy