Sell Things on eBay or Craigslist

One of the best money-makers for any household is a yard sale.  However, sometimes it pays to seek a larger audience when selling your stuff.  For instance, the typical yard sale buyer may not be looking to buy your M&M teapot with a Santa hat.  You may be able to unload such an item for $0.50 at a yard sale.

Lo and behold, on eBay, we can see that similar M&M teapots recently sold for between $9.00 and $41.00.

How do you find items to sell?

1. Time since it was last used.

Here's a decent rule of thumb, if you don't remember when was the last time you used something, you probably don't need it.  A friend of mine had a power washer that he bought for $200 and used once. He left it in his shed and squirrels chewed through the tubing on the bottom side of the compressor.  The whole thing became worthless.  Funny thing was that he didn't even know what happened until four or five years later when he was packing his things up to move to a new house.

2. Do I have more than one of these?

Let's say you've got two coffee pots.  One is practically brand-new and your older one works just fine.  Considering listing the like-new version on eBay.  Or, you've purchased a newer car and now you've got an extra, list the extra vehicle on Craigslist.

3. Is it small enough to ship?

EBay sells to a wide geographic area.  If you are selling on eBay, consider the cost of shipping the item.  You can easily ship coupons for the cost of a postage stamp, but if you want to sell a large microwave, it's going to cost you.

4. What is it selling for now?

It's pretty simple to see the market price for an item by searching for it.  However, if you want to know if an item is actually selling, do an advanced search on eBay.  Click the box that says "Completed Listings" and you will see if an item is selling and what price it is fetching.

By boosting your cash flow, you can use this money to pay down debt and increase your monthly free cash flow over time.  This is a great way to speed up a debt snowball.