Sample Content Preview
I generally keep a spreadsheet with all the group names, items posted in each group. I also have the pictures and item description all typed out. This way I can just copy paste the item into one group after another to speed things up. Some groups post immediately, other groups wait for admin approval. Don’t worry about it. Just read the group rules first, just to make sure you’re compliant in case they have any specific requirement. For example, some groups will say item must be plugged in if it’s electronic. So be sure to take a picture with it on and working. Sometimes the group requires you to say if you require pickup or not. Or some groups want you to only post if you live in that part of town. But I just post anyway and change the pickup location. Then when somebody wants to buy, I tell them I’m stuck watching kids, etc. And they will almost always come pick up. But once or twice I met someone half way at a parking lot. No big deal. I still made money.
Now, most people have stuff they can sell right away. But what if you don’t have a lot of valuable stuff. First, you probably do if you look hard enough. It you haven’t used it in a while, you’re not gonna miss it. Sell it. Make some cash. Move on. But if you don’t, here’s a way to get some valuable stuff for FREE, that you can sell.
FB GROUP / FUNDRAISER COMBO:
Think about having a garage sale. Then come up with a fundraising reason to have the garage sale. Do you have kids? That’s always an easy one then. Tell people that you’re raising funds to pay for the kids camp, school, sports team, whatever. Or, do you or a family member have a medical condition? Then tell people your fundraising for whatever med fund, or paying for procedure, treatment, surgery, therapy, whatever. Or, do you need to pay for a class tuition? Etc, etc. Just look at some GoFundMe campaigns and come up with an honest reason to have a garage sale.
Now, post on facebook and email some friends. Tell them you’re having a garage sale to raise money for your project/reason. Please don’t lie. Be honest. A little creativity and you can come up with a legit enough reason. Now, ask people to donate to your garage sale. Tell them you’ll come by and pick up. Many people hate to have garage sales. They hate to clean out their garage and closets. They will be glad to donate to your cause. They feel like you’re doing them a favor. Sometimes people will even drop off stuff to you. You can let people know at work, at church, in the neighborhood, community leagues, your local bar, whatever. It doesn’t even have to be people you know. If you live in a neighborhood, join the neighborhood association facebook group and post your fundraiser there. Let people know you can swing by on Sat morning or whatever. Or let people know where you live and tell them to drop off at your place on their way out. Believe me, this works.
I’ve had people drop off hundreds of dollars worth of stuff I sold for cash a day or two later. Now, yes, sometimes I do have a garage sale. I’m honest. Some stuff, especially small items sell better that way anyway. But bigger, nicer, more valuable items, I put all those on the facebook groups and make a lot more money for. People won’t pay as much at a garage sale. So don’t put the nice stuff outside. Sell it on facebook. Then you can always tell friends, facebook friends etc that you raised whatever amount, but are still a little short and will do another sale. Many times other people will give you stuff because they just forgot the first time. So you can have multiple fundraisers. And get a lot more stuff to sell on the facebook groups.
A FEW SCENARIOS:
Now let’s discuss a few examples of how this works. And make clear your mindset to make this work. Again, I’m an introvert. So I don’t like to go door-to-door selling stuff. Thankfully here, with this method, I don’t have to. And neither do you.
First, think about human nature. Most people, probably at least 50-70% of people collect things. They buy stuff they think they need or want, and a little while later they hardly use it. Electronics, clothes, art, furniture, memorabilia, lawn care, kitchen gadgets, etc. Often people have buyers remorse, but they feel attached to the items now. They often feel guilty or have angst about just throwing it away or even dropping it off at Goodwill or another collection service.
So if you offer to people to give it to you, especially for a good cause, like a fundraising project, they are glad to help you and get rid of their extra stuff at the same time. Did you get that? This is key. Most people have stuff they no longer want, but are reluctant to part with it, unless they get something out of it. And what they ‘get’ out of it here is helping you. So this is how you are providing them a service and doing them a favor. You are a good reason for them to get rid of stuff they no longer want, and inside they feel happy to give it to you.
If you own or rent a house: This is probably the easiest scenario. Because you can have donors drop stuff off and have buyers come pick it up without ever have to leave your house.
What if you live in an apartment or condo? Especially if you are a single lady living by yourself and are not comfortable with strangers coming to your door, which is completely understandable, there is a way around this. Do you have a neighbor a few doors down? Ask your neighbor if you can come over and have the buyer meet you there. Then when they show up, you are with another person, and the buyer doesn’t know where you live. Or, what if you have a friend at work, or a relative that doesn’t mind helping you store the items at their house? Then you can have people drop off stuff to their address and the buyers pick it up there too. You can even offer to cut your friend or relative in on a share of the profits if needed; but most likely you don’t even need to do that.
What if you work at a job where your boss doesn’t mind if you store some items at work? You can have people drop off stuff at your work, during business hours, and have buyers pick it up from your work during business hours too. See how this works? With a little creativity it’s not hard to find a dropoff point / meetup location.
The point here is you are just bring buyers and sellers together and it doesn’t even have to be your house.
A few examples of stuff I’ve sold & how it works:
I let a few neighbors in my neighborhood know that we were raising money for our child’s school tuition. And our goal was $3,000. So I don’t them I was having a garage sale or two to raise money, and was wondering if they had any items they wished to donate. Some people said they’d think about it, and some people said sure they had stuff to donate. Just like that. Some will donate and some won’t. And some will think about it later and donate later. That’s ok.
So, one older lady down the street lived by herself. She sometimes bought stuff off QVC infomercials. And she had stuff, like the air purifier, that was practically brand new, still in the box. She opened it, but never even used it. Why, I don’t know, but that’s not the point. What’s important for you, is that she had this $300 air purifier just sitting in a box in her closet and didn’t need it but didn’t want to just throw it away, because she would feel guilty about being wasteful. So now, she’s happy to help you out and get rid of some clutter in her house. So, I walked a few doors down, picked up the air purifier, plus a few other gadgets too, and then posted it on facebook. I put in the post, in the case of the air purifier, that it was bought brand new off QVC for $300. Now I didn’t buy it, but it doesn’t matter. People on facebook just want to know that it was bought off QVC for that price and was almost brand new. So that helps potential buyers feel like they are getting a great deal, and are willing to pay more for it than what they’d offer at a garage sale. Understand?
So you don’t want to sell an item like this air purifier at a garage sale because people always want dirt cheap at garage sales. But they will pay more on facebook, especially if you have nice pictures and a nice description. And they will stop by and pick it up from you. All you do is use the facebook messaging system to give them a time a place for them to pick up. If you work, or don’t want people stopping by late, then just tell them you will there today or tomorrow from 5-7pm or whatever. Then, if they really want it, they’ll make arrangements to come by at that time. And I also ask them to message me first when they’re on their way.
Another example: I let friends know on facebook that we raising money for the kid’s tuition and are where a couple garage sales. So one couple said they have some children’s furniture, toys and clothes that their kids had outgrown, and her husband would drop by with a truck to unload everything. Easy for me right. I sold the dresser and some of the toys, and a few of the clothes too, all on facebook. Easy money.
One lady said she had stuff in her garage that I could come by and pick up. So, in my Toyota Corolla, I stopped by her place after work on the way home, and literally loaded up the car with stuff in her garage. She was happy to help clean out her garage, and happy I was there to haul it away for a good cause. She was glad to get rid of it and glad to help us. So I sold her stuff for a few hundred bucks. One example was a jogging stroller of hers. She hardly used it. I googled it, and found it selling retail for about $249. So I posted it on facebook for $149, and got $125 for it. Easy money.
NOT EVERY ITEM IS BEST FOR FACEBOOK:
Most bigger or valuable items sell well on facebook. You want to try it on facebook first to maximize your profits. I even sold an old pickup truck on facebook! A friend said he’d help me, and I was shocked to find out he was just going to give me his old truck. So I paid him $10 or something to sign over the car title at a local bank, then posted his truck on facebook and made $2,300 cash less than a week later. Boom!
Now, that was a really big item. And not everyone gives you a TV or truck. So what if it’s just a bag or box of clothes and small items that are not worth much individually? You can try selling them as a ‘lot’ on facebook. Put several related items together and sell them that way. I’ve done this many times. I sold a few collection of books. I put a fiction collection together and sold a whole box of books for $45. I did this with old school textbooks too. I also did a ‘self help’ collection which had some self-development books, DVDs, and ‘how to’ books together. I’ve done this same idea with music CDs and movie DVDs too. People are more likely to pay for the whole lot and pick it up. This way you can avoid a garage sale and trying to sell each one for $1 each.
CRAIGLIST & EBAY:
I’m not a huge fan of ebay. Not sure why. I guess it’s just the extra step of mailing something across the country. But there are cases when something just doesn’t sell on facebook, even after reposting it a few times. So I did ebay with a few items. One was a wireless home network a friend gave me. It was work about $150-200. So I sold that on ebay. In the U.S. you can pay for a preprinted label online at the U.S.PS. website, and the post office will come by and pick it up. So, research the item price on ebay, offer free shipping, have the post office pick it up, and you leave it on your doorstep. Then you just get paid via paypal or whatever. Not a big deal. You can just transfer the funds to your bank, or leave it in paypal to buy stuff. Still pretty easy.
Craigslist works similar to facebook. But I find that people like to haggle a bit more there. Not sure why. It may be because more men use craigslist, but whatever. I just found that some items, like a pack of baseball cards and starwars memorabilia sold off craigslist. I think sometime collectors search craigslist nationwide. So that’s just something to keep in mind.
GARAGE SALE VARIATIONS:
Yes, I do prefer facebook because it maximizes the profits. But at times, you get a lot of small stuff that’s not worth a lot, and can’t really be combined into a ‘collection’ or ‘lot’ for facebook. So then a garage sale may be necessary. But this can be just one morning for you. And you can still make a few hundred bucks here too. The key is to wait until you have enough stuff collected to have a lot of things to put outside. This looks better when people walk or driveby. People are more likely to stop by when you have a lot of stuff. So what I like to do is price everything to sell, and after a few hours, I have signs ready that I put out saying ‘everything $1each’ or something like that. Sometimes I’ll tape a paper sign to a table ‘this table $3 each’ or whatever. People like that. They buy more. So I consider Garage sales to be a way to get rid of stuff that didn’t sell or wouldn’t sell on facebook/ebay/craigslist. And you can even let your friends know that on that date your doing your garage sale, and if they want to stop by and drop off stuff they can. I’ve had some of the same friends drive by with an extra bag or trunk load on the day before or even that same morning with more stuff.
SCALING UP:
I just use this method as needed. But, let me tell you about my friend Donna. I am facebook friends with this lady in my city. I see her posting stuff all the time. Most weekends she is buying/selling like crazy. This is basically her ongoing cash business which supports her and her two kids. She is a single Mom, but is able to provide for herself quite well. I’ve seen her house and her car, a brand new full-size truck actually. Anyway, she pays for everything cash. How does she do it? She has just learned how to scale up the methods I have just shown you. I have spoken with her many times, and she even helped me learn from her. She does a few things you might consider if you like this method and want to keep doing it long-term and for bigger profits.
1. She obviously does facebook buy/sell item flipping. What works for her, is she has let many people know over the years, that she buys/sells online to support her family. It’s no secret. In fact, she tells people that if they ever have any extra stuff her, or her son may come pick it up. Or if you’re in town, just to drop it by her friend’s location. Donna lives outside of town. But she has a friend who lets everyone drop stuff off at her place. See, how nice this works. So people know they are helping her and her kids. And she gets a regular supply of nice stuff to sell for free. And it’s a significant enough quantity to literally live off with no debt! Pretty amazing huh.
ETSY:
2. Donna does Etsy. A lot of people do Etsy. I do not. It’s not my style. But Donna does it in a clever way. Let me explain. Donna doesn’t make any of her own stuff. She knows some older ladies who love to quilt and sell their quilts, and other knitted handmade stuff at local outdoor markets (‘flea markets’, craft fairs, sidewalk sales, community centers, etc.) What she does is offer to help sell these ladies stuff for them online, and split the profits with them. Most of these ladies are older, don’t go online, probably can’t even use the computer. So they are happy to let Donna do that www thing and make them all money. And it’s not just quilts. Donna sells purses (handbags), jewelry, scarves and accessories, household decorations, etc. There are lots of folks out there, that probably know they could sell their handmade stuff online, but they don’t want to take the time to learn how to do it. They think it’s too hard or whatever. They just don’t want to learn the computer thing. So you could be their new best friend. You’re doing them a favor. It could be a great ‘all cash’ business arrangement, and they’ll love you for it.
3. Donna does Thrift Stores. Kinda the same idea as her Etsy ladies. She has approached from thrift store owners and offered to sell stuff for them online. Same thing. The shop owners are ‘old school’ and happy to let Donna do the online thing for them. Again, more profits to split. Everybody’s happy.
Other Details- 2 Ebooks (PDF, DOC), 26 Pages
- 6 Graphics (PSD)
- 9 Ecovers (PNG)
- Year Released/Circulated: 2016
- File Size: 282,865 KB
License Details:
[YES] Can be edited
[YES] Can put your name as the author
[YES] Can be broken down into articles
[YES] Can be used as web or e-zine content
[YES] Can be added into membership sites
[YES] Can be sold in any format
[YES] Can be packaged/bundled
[YES] Can be offered as a bonus
[YES] Can be given away
[YES] Can be sold on auction sites
[YES] Can offer Resell Rights
[YES] Can offer Master Resell Rights
[YES] Can be published offline
[NO] Can resell Private Label Rights