Sell The Stuff You Don’t Want To Move: Know Your Options

One way to keep your moving costs down is to minimize the amount of possessions you need to move. Selling the stuff you don’t want to move puts cash in your pocket, which is always handy to have when you’re about to move. Here are some tips to make selling your stuff easier and more profitable:

Start Early: We cannot stress this enough! People who are trying to sell things in a hurry are people who wind up making less money than they could. Selling things properly takes a little bit of time, as you need to determine what you have, what it’s worth, and what the best avenue for selling that type of item is.

Do Your Research: As you identify items you know you want to sell, hop online and see how much that item is selling for on eBay, Amazon, and other websites. Taking condition into account, this information can help you set realistic prices for your items. Bear in mind that eBay prices are what people are asking, not necessarily what people are paying: use those numbers as a starting, rather than final, price estimate.

Take Pictures of Your Items: A good picture is worth a thousand words. Take a good, well-lit picture of any item you want to sell. Try to do this against a wall or other plain background, without other objects involved in the image. This makes it clear exactly what you’re selling. Better pictures command better prices.

Find the Right Sales Outlet: Craigslist, eBay and other sales sites are ideal for many types of household goods and possessions that don’t necessarily command top prices. However, if you have valuable or collectible items, including high end clothing, electronics, antique furniture or artwork, it can be well worth your while to find a business that specializes in those kind of items. Sometimes businesses will purchase these items outright for their own inventory; in other instances, they may accept the items on a consignment basis.

Have a Cut-Off Day Plan: As your moving deadline approaches, you need to know what you’re going to do with items you planned to sell but for whatever reason didn’t find a buyer for. Many charitable organizations accept donations: with research, you may be able to find a group willing to pick up your items. It’s a good idea to have your cut-off day be seven to ten days in advance of your actual move deadline, to minimize your stress and the number of items you need to deal with.