Don't overlook what could be Treasure
Out on an adventure walk around Sydney the other day, a friend of mine and I stumbled across a charity box which was overflowing. We had a quick glance at the content and found this genuine Chloe handbag. My friend had been working out in Dubai and said that these retail for $2,000+ and a quick check on ebay proved just that. The leather was amazing and it was in perfect condition so we assume someone was moving house and just didn’t have the space!
You could easily sell something like this on ebay for $500 and clear almost all of that as profit – not bad for a bit of internet selling!
TOP TIP – Use your camera to make money on Ebay
A quick way to make some money is to find someone who wants to sell items on ebay and sell them for them. Some shops may like this (I did it for a Rare Book shop), or individuals who are not so good on ebay. What you do is the following:
- Find people who want to sell things and make a bit of extra cash
- Identify low-size, higher value items (jewellery, some books, small technology items etc) as these are cheaper to post.
- Take photos of the items for that person and get a description from them.
- Put the article on ebay with the description and photo and one of two things will happen:
- It sells – you take$15 or 20% (whichever is higher) or whatever you agree with the seller.
- It doesn’t sell – you wear the cost and can either re-list it or decide it’s not worth it (cost = a few dollars)
Step 5. If it sells, you get the money, go back and give them their cut, then take the item and post it. Easy.
Happy ebaying!
Hey great tip! Another aspect of this is to lookup the papers or online for people in your area having garage sales to either source items, or sell items. You’ll find most people who are having a sale are happy to sell one or two items of yours if you give them a cut, and it can beat the hassle of eBaying. Gumtree.com.au is also another good avenue to sell items (or pick up something cheap you can resell on eBay.
Wait, you STOLE something worth $2,000 from a charity? Nice tip.
Hi Ambrose, thanks for your comment and that’s a valid point, perhaps the bag could have been sold and contributed to charity. I consistently provide free services to people in need and am looking to work at a soup kitchen on Christmas day for a whole group of homeless people so charity is close to my heart. In addition the environment is important to me and unfortunately, the pile of belongings next to the charity bin was also strewn with rubbish, broken furniture, smashed cups etc and I decided that us taking that bag from among the rubbish was an appropriate reuse of something which may have been thrown away.
I certainly do not encourage stealing but do encourage people to be aware of items which have been discarded and reuse them if possible.