Featured Do you get buried under things you've bought to sell but they aren't worth selling?

I buy boxlots at auction and end up with lots of stuff that isn't worth selling online. One of my methods for getting rid of all this crapola was to take it to a big weekly auction and set it out in boxes. Buyers would go through and make piles to bid on and I made decent money on stuff that I couldn't sell otherwise.

But the auction house decided that there would be no more piles and now large lots sell for practically nothing. So I lost that option.

To make up for that, I now do the occasional flea market and sell everything for a dollar. I don't need to price anything, or sort stuff out, I just put out the boxes and let people root through them and bring me piles of stuff to buy. It means one very early morning occasionally, but I get as much as I did at the auction.

I had one scheduled last weekend but the hurricane made them cancel it, just in case. And I now have a whole Summer's worth of crap I need to sell because I don't do well in heat and didn't do any flea markets this Summer. It's rescheduled for next weekend but I fell like I'm drowning. I have so much stuff I need to get rid of! My house looks like one of those hoarding shows.

 

God help me if it rains next weekend and it's cancelled again.

 

I can empathize. I have lots of items that aren't worth listing because they're only worth a small amount of money. They're mostly small things, like postcards, though, so don't take up a lot of space. I keep saying I'll put them in lots on eBay, but never get around to it.

 

I have same problems, left over from my days of lot purchases and treasure huntings. I don't have an answer for you, but want to follow your thread for ideas. I think having a market space with one-dollar items is brilliant for cooler weather, as I don't do well in the heat either. Thanks!

 

If the weather forecast holds, it's supposed to be 81 degrees Saturday. Since we'll be out of there by noon, I can handle that.

I love it when Fall comes around.

 

I just spent the weekend with my daughter at her paternal grandmother's memorial service. For two days, the children & grandchildren went to her house and chose things to keep. The woman had her mother's things, her things and things she'd collected over the years. It was overwhelming. I think that now that everyone has chosen they're going to have a tag sale to get rid of everything else and split the money. It really came home to me that I don't want to leave my kids in that position. I wanted to have a yard sale this fall, but we've been away nearly every weekend.

 

I have way too much"stuff" that I bought in box lots, at thrifts etc. I did honestly have a plan to add money for our retirement and was revving up selling online and at a monthly flea market.

Then DH got sick and for a couple years I wasn't sure what our future would be like long term. After he passed I found that I won't have to worry so much about long term (I don't think) but I have a houseful of stuff that isn't "special" to me.

Anyway I feel your pain. I did pack up a couple boxes of purchases to give to charity just this week and I feel better for it. I think part of my winter chores will be to whittle down the stuff. But then my list of "chores" is pretty long so we'll see

 

It is cathartic to get rid of stuff.

But selling piecemeal can be hard work.

If it isnt worth much just give it away if need be.

 

SIS, I'm sorry for your loss.

 

Bev, that's a good desire!

I know first-hand, 'cause that's what my mother did to me. Like you, she had a lot of really good things, too, so I couldn't just toss most of it.

We don't have children and no close relatives, really, to leave things to. So I'm feeling a strong desire to sell the best things so they don't someday end up put in the trash by someone who doesn't know their value or care.

 

Yes, yes, and yes to all of this sadly..

 

I'm still trying to find my spare room carpet. It's under there someplace.

 

Thanks

 

I haven't seen my pool table in several years now, as far as my kids go when I'm gone well at least they will have to do something for a change!

 

I am so glad to see this thread. My place is beginning to look like a crowded
Sanford and Son house. Living in an apt makes it very hard to store things away neatly.
Oy.

I inherited a bit from my mother, a bit from my grandmother. Not much from my father.
I have the mistake purchases I made that I need to donate but never seem to find the time

I should sell all the cookbooks I can't use any more due to being GF, but I feel like I am cutting off a piece of my past and my soul since I loved baking so much, And I should sell all the baking pans too.

So I have no suggestions, only empathy.

 

Part of the problem is that there is too much of the same stuff out there for the market. Boomers are retiring and downsizing. They had an appraiser come into my ex husband's mother's house and look at everything. Nice stuff, but he pointed out that it's just like everyone else's stuff and there's a glut in the market right now. The grandkids really only wanted memories - photos or a few things that reminded them of their grandmother. Even if they have a tag sale, the agent told them not to expect much. Sad.

 

It is sad, both in terms of the connection of the items to people and experiences and in terms of nice items not being valued.

 

I have found that I am making better money at small pop-up markets that everyone is doing here and there. Last week they rented parking spaces in front of the businesses that were closed for the weekend and I did really well. I try to rotate and do different ones so I am not always being seen at the same ones over and over too close together. I think it makes a difference because people are excited to go through "new stuff" they possibly haven't seen. At the end of the day, I give all the leftovers to the animal shelters to sell.

 

Hi I’m in England and we have car boot sales, basically you rock up in a field pay a small fee for the plot and sell from the boot of your car anything clothes, toys, antiques what ever you like. Is this something you could organsise locally a few leaflets would rally up some interest?

 

So sorry to hear SIS, I have the same. After Hubs died, the stuff we'd collected together became merely "stuff" and no longer holds the special memento value status it once did. I still have his clothes neatly hung in my closet, occasionally I have a friend who can wear giant shoes or tall man's shirts, and I can give some away, but not often.

I will likely wind up with LOTS on ebay, although the shipping costs could be killer for that idea. As for the rest of the stuff, craigslist will be a less expensive method. I downsize fairly often, but still getting rid of the stuff from my old antiques shop. I have so many old and beautiful books that I have no idea where to sell them online other than ebay or Etsy. I'm not big time seller with enough new stuff to sell to want to learn the ropes of amazon.