How to Find £3,000 You Never Knew You Had!
Hi ,
£3,000 is the amount of money researchers say most families have tied up in unwanted household and personal goods and that's also how much you could make by offloading those items quickly on eBay... or in some cases by selling your unwanted goods at car boot sales or though local classified ads, postcards in post office windows (and other high profit, low price marketing options...)
The reason you need to look outside of eBay, sometimes, is to sell goods that are too big and bulky or too heavy or oddly shaped to send by post or courier. Offline selling is also best for ridding yourself of stuff that's worth just a few pounds but will cost thirty or forty pounds to process and deliver through eBay.
So overwhelmingly I'd say you're better off selling small items like jewellery and mantelpiece ornaments on eBay, but household furniture and big bundles of unwanted toys and clothing I'd personally sell at car boot sales...or maybe through local classifieds in newspapers or postcards in post office windows.
However, there's nothing to stop you selling bigger items on eBay, you can also insist people call in person to pick up their goods, but in reality you'll probably find very few local buyers for your big and bulky cast-offs.
That's because eBay tends to attract a local audience much smaller than the number of people reading a regional newspaper or popping into a main town post office, even people turning up at car boot sales!
So I'm suggesting now that anyone with a modicum of energy and the tiniest bit of ambition to make big money fast should move away from eBay for a few days and set aside time to make money offline, literally within fourteen days or less, starting with car boot sales.
You do it like this:
* Call a family meeting to take place in the next forty-eight hours maximum - parents and children only; or a wider audience of aunties, uncles and grandparents - announce yourself as chairman and give each person two sheets of blank paper and a pen. Tell them to list at least ten items they own which they no longer want and which they prefer to turn into cold hard cash. Gather one list from every person and send everyone home to sort out their unwanted items. Agree a commission for yourself on every item you sell belonging to other people. This is extra to the £3,000 you'll make selling your own cast-offs!
* Next day call on everyone with goods to sell, check your lists against theirs and make sure all items are neatly stacked in relatives' spare bedrooms or garages. Begin sorting through, make a pile of everything in good clean condition, another pile of items in good condition but dirty, another pile of rubbish items which no one in their right mind would want to own and certainly no one would ever buy! Bin the latter group, place the better items in clean condition in the boot of your car (you might have to call back for larger items), get your relatives to clean whatever goods remain.
* Store all the good clean stuff somewhere safe, preferably in your own garage or spare bedroom. If you don't have space ask neighbours to help.
* Give relatives a day or two for cleaning remaining items and call round to collect. Put those items with the others in your own garage or spare bedroom or space donated by neighbours.
* Get the local daily and weekend papers this Friday and Saturday night and make a note of car boot sales operating in your area. Call organisers to reserve a spot for the following weekend, and the one after that. In most cases you don't actually have to reserve a spot, you can drive in unannounced on the day, but in my experience the best boot sales ..... the ones that make the most money .... are quickly filled and late arrivals are turned away.
* Two days before the sale begin pricing your goods, not with sticky labels that damage your stock and reduce its value, but by writing prices on tiny pieces of card tied with cotton to goods large and small. Get a box or tin for a float and add plenty of small change ..... you're going to have hundreds of buyers, none will offer the exact money for their transaction, and you don't want to make your long and growing ever l—o—n—g—e—r queue wait more than a few minutes to hand over their cash!
* Buy half a dozen or more plastic stacking boxes from Asda or Tesco or other supermarket. They're often better than tables for displaying your goods at boot sales, and they can be ready packed and used instead of tables or placed under tables to add more selling space to your pitch. Keep all your newspapers for the week, hoard plastic bags from your own supermarket buys, fold them all neatly inside one plastic bag and use them to wrap customers' goods on the day.
* Pack goods into your car the evening before the sale ..... I should say 'sales' because you should be in personal attendance at two sales each weekend, and you should have relatives taking your overspill ..... stuff you can't get into your own car ..... to other local events.
* Morning of the sale make a flask of coffee or tea ..... don't drink too much before leaving home ..... if you've stood with legs crossed all day long you'll understand why .... leave home to arrive at the event between 6.30 am and 8.00 am depending on how many items you have to display.
* Wrap up warm, even in summer, because you never know if it's going to turn cold or be draughty where you are pitched.
* Try to get a pitch close to the toilets or snack van, places most people visit on the day and which bring lots of passing trade your way.
* Your first customers will be trade buyers, including fellow car booters, and other visiting sellers. They can make life hell for the new booter, mainly by picking through and messing up your stock while you're still offloading it from the boot of your car. But hey, that's a small inconvenience because fellow traders can be your biggest money makers, especially full-time antiques dealers and high street second-hand goods sellers who often buy in bulk from new boot sale traders. They will want a discount on whatever they buy, ten per cent is usual, and some will ask for more, much more! I suggest you give ten per cent on anything up to, say, fifty pounds total, and a tad more for fifty pounds plus.
* Most of all enjoy your day, make friends with other booters, study their selling practices, and you may find yourself using your £3,000 plus all those commissions from relatives, to buy more stock for a full-time career in car boot selling. Make that a half-time career, I don't want you to give up eBay for more than a few days each week, because eBay is much more profitable than any boot sale or flea market I've ever attended, except for selling big and bulky items such as we're talking about today!
watch out for next week's tips