Got Something Someone Else Might Want...

... and you are done with? Sell it. It is a gorgeous October day in Massachusetts, perfect for a Yard Sale. If you have a lot of stuff you don't know what to do with, sell it and make a little cash. Someone else might need it and you are certain to be offering a great deal and we have so much stuff in this country, reusing things is not a bad idea.

I don't have a yard, so yard sales are kind of out of the question and I have not ventured into the world of Ebay yet, so even virtual yard sales are out of my league. I do resell some things though, primarily Books, CDs and DVDs and this is how I do it:

CDs and DVDs: Part of my pile of debt is an old fascination with CDs and DVDs. Now that I get almost all of my music digitally and watch all of my TV shows On Demand or through the library I find myself able to part with a lot of the cases that clutter up my place. I looked online for places that bought used media and found Second Spin.

Second Spin buys good quality used CDs and DVDs for decent money (the amount of money depends on the supply and demand of each piece). You log your sale, get the price, box up the stuff and send it media mail to their California warehouse and within a week or so you get a check for the amount of your stuff and the postage you spent to ship it.

The merchandise has to be in really good condition and the liner notes must be in the CD case. This is key as I have also bought stuff from Second Spin and it is a great deal for great stuff. Their quality control is top rate.

I have sold stuff to them multiple times, always gotten paid in a timely fashion and never had a problem.

Books: I own a lot of books in a small apartment and there are rules for what gets kept on the shelves. If I know I will never re-read or reference a book it does not stick around gathering dust. Most of those disposable titles are now library check outs, but I still end up with a stack of books every few months, gift books I have read or hot titles I was unwilling to wait months for from the library and it is time to purge.

My apartment building has a book swap downstairs near our laundry, which is awesome and I often bring books down there and grab a few new titles. You can certainly donate books to a wide variety of charities, but today I am going to sell a stack.

I sell my books at Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner. They too are very picky about their merchandise, but they give a decent return. You can get 15% of the value back in cash or 20% in store credit. Today I am going to opt for the store credit and do a little guilt-free under-the-budget-radar Christmas shopping!

Divesting yourself of excess clutter will make your home a more pleasant place to live and if you make a little cash in the process, all the better!