Hidden Gems

If you read my Intro to Budgeting blog post, you know about Net Worth. Most people focus on their house and vehicle part of their assets which makes sense since they are the largest assets people have. But, in all of our homes we have stuff, sometimes referred to as crap by those we live with. This stuff may not be worth anything to us, but it can be worth a lot to someone else. As they say, “Another man's trash is another man's treasure”. Obviously something’s value is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay. So it's important to note that although most people would not pay for an unopened StarWars Pogs from the 90s (I actually have this). A handful of people would be interested and a smaller amount would pay good money for it. Everyone’s home is just like this, full of hidden gems, just like the show Antiques RoadShow or American Pickers and Canadian Pickers.

Finding the right buyer can be challenging and a large part of why people haven’t sold their old wares in the first place. They just don’t know someone who values their stuff. Then you cannot sell something if no one knows it exists or is for sale. Just getting your items listed will open you up to a world of eyes that may be interested in your possessions. 

Places to List

There are many places to list your items for sales, Facebook Marketplace tends to be the best, but there is eBay, Kijiji, Let go, Karrot, Craigslist etc. The problem with a lot of them is market penetration. They could have the great user interface, cleanest design, and ease of use. It doesn’t matter if no one uses the service. These services are 100% users driven. Kijiji used to be great, but is now mostly good for Cars, and items not sold on Facebook Marketplace like guns and animal skin.

How Much to List For

The general rule of thumb is to list higher for what you want. This has three benefits. 

1. It will give you wiggle room as many buyers want to feel like they are getting a deal just like stores will raise their prices from $50 to $100 just to list it again for $50 and say it's 50% off. If you want $200 for something you should list for $250. If you want $50 you should list for $70 or even $80. They can talk you down a bit and you might even get $60 if you are lucky. Bonus if you just happen to find someone who is not willing to haggle and pay listing price.   

2. You may be under-valuing your items. Once again your trash is someone else's treasure. Just because it has little to no value to you doesn’t mean it's of no value to someone else. A great way to know if you have listed too low is if you have 20 offers within the first day. You only need one offer, plus it's annoying to go through lots of messages. If you list higher than you expect, it will cushion your loss if you unvalued the item and drop the amount of messages you will have to deal with had you listed for even lower.    

3. You will have to deal with less responses. It is quite annoying to constantly tell people that the ad is still available or where you are located. Higher prices will lower your amount of interactions.    

Selling

Selling has many benefits from clearing up space, a quick way to make cash, tax free money and free removal of your items. If your house is becoming a hoarder house, simply start listing at a low enough price and items will start flying off the shelves. Struggling to pay your bills, you can skip the drive to the pawnshop and get quick money straight to your door and at a much higher rate versus a pawnshop. As long as your selling is not a business (personal selling of your goods) not only do you not have to pay sales tax you don’t have to claim the money on your income making the money that much more valuable. $500 is around $750 per income tax. Don’t want to move your heavy couch, have someone pay you for the pleasure of removing it (obviously this isn’t always the case and sometimes people will ask you to deliver, but you get the point). Selling can recoup costs on purchases, lowering overall cost of ownership. For example, you buy the newest video game for $84 (80 plus tax), beat it then sell used for $60 your total cost is $24. Even better if you buy the game used for $60 and sell it again for $60 making the gaming experience completely free. If your purchases retain their value then reselling is a great way to recoup the value. This can apply to everything especially if you only need the product for a limited time like baby toys or tools for a particular job. You can sell an old dinning set and use the cash to buy a dresser turning your trash into gold and saving you from pulling the cash from your bank account.    

  

Buying Used

Not only is there hidden Gems in your home, there is hidden Gems in everyone else's home as well. This takes some hunting and it can be quite addictive since it's online shopping and ease of setting up a purchase is simple, but with way more of a hunting feel to it. You have to find the hidden gems then claim it before anyone else does, then beat out the competition by offering more, responding faster and feeling friendlier.  

It helps to have done some research so when you spot a great deal you can pounce on it. This is essentially true with expensive items. Want to have nice things but you cannot avoid it. Buy used. Plus if someone asks how you can afford it, brag about how much you saved versus buying new.

Buy Nothing Groups

If you are really feeling the hunt and want to spend zero dollars, you can join a buy nothing group on Facebook where like the name implies, you don’t buy anything. Everything is free, which seems insane I know. You won’t find anything fancy, but there are lots of goodies to be had. Expiring food, old light fixtures, toys, books, anything really with low value that people just don’t care to sell or they simply want to give to a good home. Because everything is free there is a lot of interest on most items so you will have to comment quickly as even though the items are low in value they “sell” quite fast. If you feel charitable or want to give back or save something from the landfill feel free to post anything you wish to get rid of. Great thing is, it saves you a trip to GoodWill or ValueVillage as they pick up right from your doorstep and you circumvent companies profiting off of your charity.       

The preowned market is full of hidden gems and opportunities. It just takes a little bit of effort to sniff out a deal or list your items. Neglecting peer to peer selling can be a huge loss in potential earnings not to mention missed savings from buying used. It can be exhilarating snatching a rare find and satisfying ridding yourself of “crap” in your house. Buying and selling used can give you a new outlook on the value of items and hopefully inspire you to find the gems in your house. 

If you found this helpful and would like help budgeting or investing please email me at TaylorMckeeCoaching@gmail.com