Four Tips on Selling

Have you ever come across an ad for a yard sale, it has awesome pictures and you just can’t wait to go to it? It’s the moment you see the items that you want and start making plans of what you would do with those items if you had them? Well, that happened to me this week. Tuesday, I was on Facebook and saw this HUGE barn sale that was happening yesterday. I had two whole days to look at those pictures and I got so excited! They were selling a TON of Primitive and Rustic decor. I saw it as a great opportunity to re-decorate my house. Well, my husbands day off was yesterday and we were able to go to it. They had rented a tent and had a pole barn FULL of things. As we walked up, I said to my husband, “I am for sure leaving with something today.” He looked at me frightened and said, “okay.” We started walking around and I started looking at the price tags, this was no yard sale, this was a private craft show. These were not yard sale prices. I became disappointed and walked away with nothing. Sad, right?

Well, from there we went to Goodwill. We love Goodwill! Yes, sometimes their prices can get high too, but we can usually always find a good steal. Not only do we find a good deal from time to time, but it also helps us make some extra money. When we lived in Florida we needed to make a little extra money and so my husband got started buying and selling items. I really didn’t like it at the beginning, until one day at a yard sale Matt came across a pair of Gucci Sneakers. He came to the car and asked me about them. I said, “yes, get them.” He came back to the car with them and he got them for a dollar! Yes, one dollar! So we took them home and listed them on Ebay. Three days later we sold those Gucci Sneakers for $137. After that, I changed my mindset on buying and selling and it was a whole new ballgame! 

Here’s a “How To” on selling stuff:

1. Do Your Research

     - Look up your item and find out how much it is worth.

     - Know your item. Is this a good brand or should I even waste my time trying to sell it?

     - Is this Genuine or a knockoff? There are a lot of knockoffs out there but it’s not too difficult to tell whether it’s real or not.

2. Determine where to sell it and how to price it

     - There are a few options of where to sell. Our go to places are Ebay, Facebook, Etsy and Craigslist. Ebay is for your higher priced items. Etsy is for your homemade things.

     - You can’t sell something on Facebook and expect to get what you paid for it if you bought it brand new.

3. Sell it

     - Take a few minutes and clean the items if they aren’t clean already.

     - Take a good picture. You don’t want to have a background with dirty clothes on the floor or garbage laying in the background. It’s not hard to add a nice background and keep it from being blurry.

     - Have a good description, it doesn’t have to be a long one. It does however need to be well written. It should be very clear, and detailed with no spelling mistakes.

4. Follow through and protect yourself

      - When shipping an item, always include a tracking number.

      - Depending on how much the item is worth, you might want to include shipping insurance.

      - If you have to meet someone, meet in a public place during the day.

      - Try and always take someone with you.

Do you have any tips that you would like to share?