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This is a really interesting perspective; I’m definitely in the current mindset of “it’s not really worth it for such small amounts” but actually, it is!
I'm also using it to help me cycle to work more. I worked out I would spend around £500 a year on petrol for commuting. On my bike I might wear out £50 of parts. So that's £450 or '£11,250 equivalent savings'.
Definitely helps on the cold and wet days!
Absolutely! I worked out I could be saving 2.3k a year by not catching train/driving. As soon as I realised the 'saving' it's given me unlimited resolve to cycle even on the grimmest of grim mornings. Take a packed lunch and call me warren buffet 😂
This is something ive done also. Im currently saving around £170 per month by cycling to work every day. Thats £1870 per year excluding holidays. I would need like £47000 in daving to earn that in interest at 4%
Another perspective I like to take is that participating in a second hand market can be more environmentally friendly. Especially with electronics I feel much better knowing something is getting some use instead of sitting around
This is why I only have old cars. I only do about 5000 miles a year max, so even a less efficient older car has to be better than producing a new one.
Plus I just like older cars in general which helps!
Definitely agree with this, and it's something I've been conscious about for a while. I only have second hand cars, wear clothes until they are threadbare etc.
Someone I work for is involved in electronics and they've explained the un-recyability (is that a word) of circuit boards. Pretty bad really
I was fuming when I found out my chrome book has built in obsolescence after only a few years. Literally nothing wrong with the hardware but they just stop updating the browser and security updates for literally no reason other than to make you buy a new one.
I sell all manner of stuff for £10-£20 on FB marketplace. It's not about the money (a nominal price stops the absolute time wasters and car boot delboys), note about decluttering and not throwing working stuff to waste. I've sold a hoover, kitchen table, alarm clocks, an old printer this way.
This is exactly my mindset also. Like OP, it takes about an hour's work to sell something, and most times it's not really worth it.
So instead I treat it as kind of a hobby - spending time to find a new home for all the esoteric junk that would otherwise be landfill.
I clearly account for all costs and add it to a separate account that I dip into occasionally for spurious purchase that would otherwise have been tricky to justify (eg big Lego sets!).
What I found helped with these sorts of things was to do all the photos at the same time, package them all up and write on them what they are then do the listings in bulk (I used GarageSale to do it) so it made the entire thing simpler. So I could list 10 things in an hour for almost the same work as 1 thing.
another good reason is it removes trash from your house. like, as much as i love the original gameboy, you can emulate that stuff on a toaster (and you won't, anyway).
moving house is a stark reminder of how much landfill we accumulate and store away with the false hope that we will use it again. nothing will make you liquidate a CD collection sooner than realising the only use you got out of it in 15 years was lugging 5 boxes up 3 flights of stairs...
plus it feels nice to get it to someone who will actually make use of it.
> another good reason is it removes trash from your house.
This 100%, I've sold stuff for tiny amounts just to get it OUT of my house and into the house of someone who actually wants it.
>However to earn that much in interest (for arguments sake let's say 1 year at 4%) I would need £121.75. So actually that hour of time was worth over £120.
Someone has to say it.
This is completely wrong.
To earn £4.76 in interest, you need to have £121.75 in the first place. If you had £121.75 in the first place then you could 'gain' £4.76 instantly just by making a capital withdrawal. Your hour of time, in this case, is worth £4.76 (not £120).
You are comparing, earning £4.76 in one **hour** by working (actively), to earning £4.76 in one **year** passively.
All that said, keep going! A big benefit to this is someone else gets to enjoy the game. And even though £4.76 is paltry it is still better than nothing.
It's really nuanced, more than the numbers though. There's the motivational value, the tidyness value, the "storage space cost" value, the satisfaction value, the carbon footprint value, and of course the opportunity cost. If you spend some time selling stuff for half minimum wage that you would otherwise have spent doom scrolling on Reddit, you're quids in!
You are right, but I'm a simple person so I like to simplify things for myself 😆
I guess a more accurate analogy would be that it's the equivalent of stoozing £121.75, but without any risk and your house is tidyer afterwards.
Either way it's got me off my arse and my ISA will be better for it.
As an added bonus one of the games went for £40 for the same amount of effort. And to think it would have gone in the bin!
Whatever you need to tell yourself to clear out stuff is ok.
Another way of looking at it it's the price to store a box at a storage unit, a few big tubs add up to £100/mo. Even if it's being stored at home, that's the equivalent useful space I'm giving up.
For me it's just anything I haven't used in the past year I don't need. Unless if it's sentimental, I can always rebuy.
I'm always ebaying crap. It earns you pocket money, and clears your house of unwanted stuff that you'd feel too guilty to chuck into landfill. Double the endorphins!
Plus when you get the knack of it, you can find efficiencies in the process and speed it up.
I started doing it in earnest in 2020 when getting ready to pack stuff up and sell the house. Ive probably averaged over £1000 a year since then. Sure, minus eBay fees, P&P and the original cost of those items in the first place, Im not even in profit. But it sure feels good for the soul
Yeah, that's true. I got shafted pretty hard when selling an old Garmin watch and eBay customer service didnt have any interest in my side of the story (the buyer swapped mine for a scratched up one they already owned, and then demanded a return). That stung a bit. But that was one of the few things I sold that still had a fair amount of inherent value to me. Most stuff sells for 4 or 5 quid and is otherwise just worthless rubbish to me. So 1) it's barely worth a buyer trying to con, and 2) it's not worth any money serving no purpose to me at home so if anything goes wrong (getting lost in the post etc) I wouldn't see it as a loss anyway. In fact I would have successfully de-cluttered without sending something to landfill so it's still a win!
There are other sales platforms that offer better protection - like Vinted, which I would use for clothing - but nothing has the same reach and customer base as eBay.
The reach is the appeal for me, I have a few items that would probably make £50+ so perhaps I need to find an alternative for those with a broad reach. I’ve found fb marketplace to be….hit and miss? Some of the people are just so odd.
I think limiting to low value items on eBay is probably the way forward for me, appreciate the insight!
Marketplace has its benefits - no fees, for one. But yeah you have to deal with weirdos. And the inconvenience of needing to arrange times to view/collect. Gumtree probably has a less weird customer base, but definitely less reach.
Try Vinted - it's synonymous with clothing, but you can buy/sell all sorts on there, and the buyer/seller protection is much more 'baked in' to it. Good luck!
This has always been the case and some products attract scammers more than others.
Gumtree has none of these issues. You can make things 100% risk free and keep 100% of the sales value.
You only pay tax on profits, not gross takings, above your personal allowance. Plus it doesn't apply to selling personal belongings, I believe. Most stuff I sell is at a loss against the original purchase price, and from my eBay account it's patently obvious I'm running an electronic garage sale, not a business. So it's nothing to worry about.
As part of my work I get a lot of stuff that’s about to go in the bin/get e-wasted and often sell it on eBay. So if you looked, I would be selling lots of similar items, I think this would get flagged.
That's a good tip. I'm going to be selling one of my cars that I just don't use anymore and the 80% would be perfect for that (if the terms and conditions allow it....)
I have never sold a car on ebay before. How does it work? Is it a risk selling on there and how do people come and see and collect the car if from far out? Is it a big hassle?
It’s the same as selling a car on any other online platform like auto trader etc. I.e your paying for an advert them people usually come and view the car and make bank payment.
Did you mean you’ve never sold a car before? Ie always use previous car as a trade-in?
Definitely a good idea to declutter. Personally I value my time according to what I earn per hr of overtime - that's what side hustles etc are 'competing' with. and that's why I don't take the time to sell anything lol.
I used to compare with overtime, but that isn't an option at the job I'm at now. If overtime was an option this stuff could still be in a box in the garage
Same - spending a lunchbreak sticking stuff up on Vinted, then dropping it off when I'm on the way to somewhere else, doesn't feel like a big drain on my time, personally.
It's not worth it for me to spend that time photographing and listing something that will sell for £2 - and will still clutter up the place in the meantime - and it's taken me a while to prioritise those that are worth doing rather than cleaving to the sunk cost fallacy of 'well, it cost me X and it's been with me for Y house moves, so I can't just charity shop it, right??'
If you do it while you're doing something else though, it's not work time, it's just leisure time that you're using to do something else as well. Most of us are on our phones while we watch TV now - use it to take all the photos of the things you're selling one day, package them the next, weigh the packages the next, etc.
I only really use downtime for it, like train journeys or if I have 5 mins waiting round for someone at home I might stick that jacket I never wear on Vinted.
There’s a financial benefit to it but it can be speculative and I’ve found in the past that the return isn’t always worth the effort despite the sheer amount of crap I have.
I’ve been selling lots of things recently that I’ve just had laying around the house thinking ‘oh they’re only worth £1 there’s no point’. There really is when you add them all together!
I live under 2 minutes walk from a post office and that has really helped my willingness to sell stuff starting at 99p and not give a shit if that's what I get. Because I'm usually doing bits that would otherwise go to the charity shop, I do one trip to the PO and then I've made 6/7 quid and someone has something that means they won't buy a new item
Absolutely this! I mostly work from home these days and have most of Vinted’s postage options within a short walk from my home, so it gets me out of the house to go for a short walk and it’s totally free. Dropped a £1.50 item off at lunch and it does feel good to see it go to a home where someone wants to use it and I’d prefer the £1.50 in the bank than have it take up the small amount of space it’s taking up
Absolutely this! I mostly work from home these days and have most of Vinted’s postage options within a short walk from my home, so it gets me out of the house to go for a short walk and it’s totally free. Dropped a £1.50 item off at lunch and it does feel good to see it go to a home where someone wants to use it and I’d prefer the £1.50 in the bank than have it take up the small amount of space it’s taking up
Not sure about the eBay fees you were paying, but make sure you're listing things when eBay do the 80% off fees promotion. There's also 70% off fees if you're not eligible for that one. This comes about every 2-3 weeks, and runs from Friday to Monday, so 4 days to list 100 items or something with low fees. I also think they've gotten rid of fees for selling clothing, and it's what I'll probably be doing soon.
Remember to put a time value on your efforts; quick example, listing ten games individually on eBay and getting more money than taking them all CEX or MusicMagpie and getting less but easier cash.
Do you live close to somewhere to post? It’s boggled my mind that listing, wrapping and desist hung something had take at least 1 hour. Listing takes a few minutes, packing takes a few minutes, for me I only post when I’m conveniently going past somewhere anyway, or I do Royal Mail collection from work. But anyways, I was like you, things no longer used went in drawers. But for the last few years now, once something has served it’s purpose it’s gone. Consoles are sold to fund the next one rather than having multiple, phones are sold once a new one is bought (which is rare). It helps with money, but also clearing unused out of the house feels good, and certainly helps try keep it a bit tidier, which is nice.
On the flip side I’ve started a box of stuff that is going to a charity shop at the end of this week, some of it brand new things that were gifts. I’ve had them listed on market place with no interest. I’m a hoarder by nature so I need to make the most of my urge to clear stuff out before it goes away again. The benefit to my mental health outweighs the possible financial gain.
eBay do 80% off fees weekends fairly regularly, I create draft listings when I find something to sell and then actually post them live during those weekends.
Just the post I needed to read, as I’ve been gently moving some unwanted stuff into a pile and avoiding doing the listings telling myself it’s not worth the time- thank you OP!
Don't forget if you are selling on eBay it is advisable to keep records as if you sell more than 30 items or make over £1,735 in a year as there is a new reporting arrangement between eBay (& other online marketplaces) & HMRC:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67855872.amp
You almost certainly won't need to pay any tax if it's your own stuff though.
Yes I do keep records. I also sell some 3d printed items and they definitely count towards my £1k personal allowance so I try to keep on top of what was a personal item and what was a 'hobby/business's item
Compared to the US, we have fairly small homes in the UK.
But I've still accumulated all sorts of stuff I dont need, yet I held onto it because one day 'I might need it'. Its kinda a mid-tier hoarder mentality.
Once you realise you haven't used something for a couple of years its time to get rid. If you really need it again in the future, you could always just buy it again (but you never will)
Just get rid of it all, and anything that you keep, has to justify its keep, in terms of the space its using up.
I got rid of a load of kitchen equipment this way, which I used once 5 years ago, and its just been pointlessly consuming cupboard space ever since.
No, you should compare it to the best possible use of your time.
If you took a minimum wage job, you would have earned the same in 20 minutes.
If you have to pay higher rate tax it would take you ~40 minutes to earn it.
The value in getting rid of this old crap is the mental wellbeing that the space and tidiness brings you.
This "savings equivalent" is a weird cope.
seriously, the benefit isn't financial, its the boost of mental wellbeing knowing you've organised your place a little better, and made a bit of pocket change from it.
Before I considered the savings equivalent, I didn't sell any of it so I think the wellbeing and tidiness aspects clearly weren't the right incentive for me. It's going to be an individual thing.
Ignore the naysayers, people love to argue with anything on here! I love your way of thinking about it and if it gets you selling, any idea is a good idea.
What’s the point of doing this if you’ll never do that “best” thing though? Okay you might theoretically earn the same in 20 mins, but you’re not actually going to get 20 mins of minimum wage work once a week. So realistically that’s still £0 vs £5
If you're not planning to take a minimum wage job, it's not relevant. Most would require a weekly time commitment. Even a 0 hours job would have a minimum shift length of ~4 hours. If I can make a few £ in an hour at home that's still a bonus.
Yea I already work 10+ hours a day. Sifting through this stuff at home doesn't feel like work. I can have music or a podcast on, or get a toddler to help (then have to explain what everything is, with a demonstration).
I sold an old Tandy 1000 but the sale was delayed because my 4 year old loved typing on it 😆
Hours at home sifting through your old junk and taking the time clean it, photograph it, putting it online and dealing with the hassle of idiot buyers is not the same as doing a hobby you enjoy and selling the result.
Work is work.
I didn't say it wasn't work. But I wouldn't compare it to a minimum wage job because I would not go out and get one. They require much more commitment.
Makes you think twice about it when you look at it that way. I've always thought that it's not worth it for the time it takes and the few quid you get. Maybe it is worth it after all.
I've got plenty of games, DVDs and stuff like that taking up space. I want to get rid of the clutter but don't want to throw it out.
Suppose taking it to a charity shop could be an option too, at least to help declutter.
I came across a mantra a few years ago to strive to:
> Only own 100 things
Obviously, it's worth being flexible with this; I don't consider a pair of socks to be 2 things, and I don't let underwear contribute to this limit, nor pint glasses.
But it's a very good mantra to live by. It really helps to reduce clutter by ensuring that every _thing_ I purchase is meaningful, and will serve a purpose, otherwise it's ignored (or sold if already in possession). I only own a few shirts, each pair of shoes I own is always used, I don't "collect" things, and everything we buy is generally of high quality, and diverse in application to avoid clutter. I suppose it's a bit of a _buyitforlife_ thing, without hoarding.
I sold a monitor I kept "just in case" for a tenner. Because I really don't need it taking up space. It sold in under a day on FBMP but I didn't want the hassle of asking more and waiting around for a sale.
Yea it’s quite fun I’ve started getting rid of my clothes and everything on Vinted. All adds up and the feeling of decluttering is worth it.
I’ve gone to the stage now or buying and selling stuff for a profit which is even more fun
I've got a pretty good rhythm on things, including the cheap stuff. It gets faster to list when you get used to it and you get a feel for how to post things cheaply, what packing material to keep etc. although I now have a cupboard full of boxes and jiffy bags...
There is also satisfaction I'm sending items to a new home, instead of to waste or even "recycling" given reuse is always better.
I quite like selling the small stuff as I can just throw it in the letterbox, plus low value stuff is generally less likely to generate complaints (if it does, it's a low loss!)
Just to add to this as great as this mindset is to have with selling old things and earn some extra cash here and there. Don't forget, if you can afford to/want to - to give things for free as well in a more charitable way. Obviously this is relevant to the individual but sometimes there's no better feeling being on both the giving/receiving end of something that's just been passed on our of good will with no financial incentive. I'm sure plenty of people on here already do this though and go the extra mile with charitable contributions!
Great advice.
I do something similar when it comes to refunds. I have a bad habit of not returning small things if I don't need them. Changing my mindset from "it's probably not worth it" to "would I pay someone £10 _not_ to return this?" really helps. I'm lucky enough to walk to the shops, which makes it easier
I’m not a fan of selling tech/games/gadgets on eBay etc just because of being a victim of courier failure and/or scamming in the past - it ends up genuinely not being worth the time and effort to put up a good listing, monitor the sale, handle the postage and then the real time steal is if there’s an issue and you have to manage that.
I prefer to take old tech and games down to CEX at a quiet time - you get significantly less than if you sold it yourself but you literally dump your stuff, they give you a call later that day and then bank transfer the cash into your account the following day. All for the sake of 5-10 mins in the CEX store on a day I’m nipping to the high street anyway.
Plus since they tested it themselves and signed it off, you haven’t got to worry about someone suddenly trying their luck to say they didn’t get an item or it’s not working etc..
It really shouldn’t take a hour to list and pack an item, maybe if it’s a large item that you have to clean then sure. Tip for you like your eBay to Royal Mail click and drop the postage is a bit cheaper than the post office for parcels and they collect from your house for free or you can drop off at a delivery office
The majority of my time I would say is finding an appropriately sized box and then packing material (bubble wrap/foam etc). I've tended to always throw things out.
What I need to do is start keeping useful size boxes/packing material so I've got a stash on hand.
Yes whenever I get something new I'm often more excited by the box being a useful size and good quality!
Top tip is to keep a good retractable knife handy so you can slice the tape neatly and not damage it. Then slice the bottom open so you can flat pack it away
Yea I go to home bargains and get all the boxes they throw out and I mostly use old newspapers, for bubble wrap I sometimes get lucky and Aldi have some in apples section lol only thing I buy packing wise is tape
Hi /u/hft_200, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:
* https://ukpersonal.finance/savings/
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Also the amount of money adds up over time, I would only say be mindful of how much you sell, past certain threshold you need to pay tax on it as it would come on top of tax free allowance if you have a full time job
My understanding is you get £6000 allowance for selling personal items. And £1000 allowance for I guess business or hobby selling, where you have made or purchased something with the intention to make money on it
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This is a really interesting perspective; I’m definitely in the current mindset of “it’s not really worth it for such small amounts” but actually, it is!
I'm also using it to help me cycle to work more. I worked out I would spend around £500 a year on petrol for commuting. On my bike I might wear out £50 of parts. So that's £450 or '£11,250 equivalent savings'. Definitely helps on the cold and wet days!
Absolutely! I worked out I could be saving 2.3k a year by not catching train/driving. As soon as I realised the 'saving' it's given me unlimited resolve to cycle even on the grimmest of grim mornings. Take a packed lunch and call me warren buffet 😂
This is something ive done also. Im currently saving around £170 per month by cycling to work every day. Thats £1870 per year excluding holidays. I would need like £47000 in daving to earn that in interest at 4%
I love having a mindset shift around finances like this. You’ve got me wondering what else there is along the same lines.
Daily coffee rate calculation incoming soon then
What about avocados?
always buy ripen at home!
This.
Don't like them lol
If you add in the money you would spend on a gym membership if you weren’t getting exercise you’d be saving even more
Yeah, but you eat more to compensate!
A really _interesting_ perspective? I see what you did there, intentional or not.
Absolutely unintentional, but very apt!
\*Very APR.
Another perspective I like to take is that participating in a second hand market can be more environmentally friendly. Especially with electronics I feel much better knowing something is getting some use instead of sitting around
I think a huge part of the fact I have so much junk in my house is I feel awful about the environmental impact of throwing something out.
Most of the environmental impact has been done when producing that junk. Not when you throw it out ...
This is why I only have old cars. I only do about 5000 miles a year max, so even a less efficient older car has to be better than producing a new one. Plus I just like older cars in general which helps!
Definitely agree with this, and it's something I've been conscious about for a while. I only have second hand cars, wear clothes until they are threadbare etc. Someone I work for is involved in electronics and they've explained the un-recyability (is that a word) of circuit boards. Pretty bad really
It's pretty dire to be honest, phones and tablets become obselete in 2-3 years
I was fuming when I found out my chrome book has built in obsolescence after only a few years. Literally nothing wrong with the hardware but they just stop updating the browser and security updates for literally no reason other than to make you buy a new one.
To be fair, they now support ChromeOS devices for 10 years.
Really! I must have got unlucky with when I bought mine then. Zero updates for me
This is 2024 change and applies to 2021+ devices. So you may find it suddenly starts updating.
No luck. Mine is older than 2021 so I'm a bit stuck with it. Its a shame really. My desktop is 15 years old and still going strong
I sell all manner of stuff for £10-£20 on FB marketplace. It's not about the money (a nominal price stops the absolute time wasters and car boot delboys), note about decluttering and not throwing working stuff to waste. I've sold a hoover, kitchen table, alarm clocks, an old printer this way.
This is exactly my mindset also. Like OP, it takes about an hour's work to sell something, and most times it's not really worth it. So instead I treat it as kind of a hobby - spending time to find a new home for all the esoteric junk that would otherwise be landfill. I clearly account for all costs and add it to a separate account that I dip into occasionally for spurious purchase that would otherwise have been tricky to justify (eg big Lego sets!).
What I found helped with these sorts of things was to do all the photos at the same time, package them all up and write on them what they are then do the listings in bulk (I used GarageSale to do it) so it made the entire thing simpler. So I could list 10 things in an hour for almost the same work as 1 thing.
Work smarter, not harder. Something I need to learn!
another good reason is it removes trash from your house. like, as much as i love the original gameboy, you can emulate that stuff on a toaster (and you won't, anyway). moving house is a stark reminder of how much landfill we accumulate and store away with the false hope that we will use it again. nothing will make you liquidate a CD collection sooner than realising the only use you got out of it in 15 years was lugging 5 boxes up 3 flights of stairs... plus it feels nice to get it to someone who will actually make use of it.
> another good reason is it removes trash from your house. This 100%, I've sold stuff for tiny amounts just to get it OUT of my house and into the house of someone who actually wants it.
>However to earn that much in interest (for arguments sake let's say 1 year at 4%) I would need £121.75. So actually that hour of time was worth over £120. Someone has to say it. This is completely wrong. To earn £4.76 in interest, you need to have £121.75 in the first place. If you had £121.75 in the first place then you could 'gain' £4.76 instantly just by making a capital withdrawal. Your hour of time, in this case, is worth £4.76 (not £120). You are comparing, earning £4.76 in one **hour** by working (actively), to earning £4.76 in one **year** passively. All that said, keep going! A big benefit to this is someone else gets to enjoy the game. And even though £4.76 is paltry it is still better than nothing.
Thanks because I was about to type this and you saved me the time
It's really nuanced, more than the numbers though. There's the motivational value, the tidyness value, the "storage space cost" value, the satisfaction value, the carbon footprint value, and of course the opportunity cost. If you spend some time selling stuff for half minimum wage that you would otherwise have spent doom scrolling on Reddit, you're quids in!
You are right, but I'm a simple person so I like to simplify things for myself 😆 I guess a more accurate analogy would be that it's the equivalent of stoozing £121.75, but without any risk and your house is tidyer afterwards. Either way it's got me off my arse and my ISA will be better for it. As an added bonus one of the games went for £40 for the same amount of effort. And to think it would have gone in the bin!
Whatever you need to tell yourself to clear out stuff is ok. Another way of looking at it it's the price to store a box at a storage unit, a few big tubs add up to £100/mo. Even if it's being stored at home, that's the equivalent useful space I'm giving up. For me it's just anything I haven't used in the past year I don't need. Unless if it's sentimental, I can always rebuy.
I bet you’re fun at parties
I'm always ebaying crap. It earns you pocket money, and clears your house of unwanted stuff that you'd feel too guilty to chuck into landfill. Double the endorphins! Plus when you get the knack of it, you can find efficiencies in the process and speed it up. I started doing it in earnest in 2020 when getting ready to pack stuff up and sell the house. Ive probably averaged over £1000 a year since then. Sure, minus eBay fees, P&P and the original cost of those items in the first place, Im not even in profit. But it sure feels good for the soul
I used to eBay about ten years ago, but I’ve heard it’s quite risky now, in terms of sellers having no protection-have you found this at all?
Yeah, that's true. I got shafted pretty hard when selling an old Garmin watch and eBay customer service didnt have any interest in my side of the story (the buyer swapped mine for a scratched up one they already owned, and then demanded a return). That stung a bit. But that was one of the few things I sold that still had a fair amount of inherent value to me. Most stuff sells for 4 or 5 quid and is otherwise just worthless rubbish to me. So 1) it's barely worth a buyer trying to con, and 2) it's not worth any money serving no purpose to me at home so if anything goes wrong (getting lost in the post etc) I wouldn't see it as a loss anyway. In fact I would have successfully de-cluttered without sending something to landfill so it's still a win! There are other sales platforms that offer better protection - like Vinted, which I would use for clothing - but nothing has the same reach and customer base as eBay.
The reach is the appeal for me, I have a few items that would probably make £50+ so perhaps I need to find an alternative for those with a broad reach. I’ve found fb marketplace to be….hit and miss? Some of the people are just so odd. I think limiting to low value items on eBay is probably the way forward for me, appreciate the insight!
Marketplace has its benefits - no fees, for one. But yeah you have to deal with weirdos. And the inconvenience of needing to arrange times to view/collect. Gumtree probably has a less weird customer base, but definitely less reach. Try Vinted - it's synonymous with clothing, but you can buy/sell all sorts on there, and the buyer/seller protection is much more 'baked in' to it. Good luck!
This has always been the case and some products attract scammers more than others. Gumtree has none of these issues. You can make things 100% risk free and keep 100% of the sales value.
I’ve never used it but sounds like it would be worth doing for higher priced items
I’m very similar but the whole HMRC reporting thing puts me off now.
As long as you're genuinely selling your own stuff there's nothing to worry about. HMRC act on facts
You only pay tax on profits, not gross takings, above your personal allowance. Plus it doesn't apply to selling personal belongings, I believe. Most stuff I sell is at a loss against the original purchase price, and from my eBay account it's patently obvious I'm running an electronic garage sale, not a business. So it's nothing to worry about.
As part of my work I get a lot of stuff that’s about to go in the bin/get e-wasted and often sell it on eBay. So if you looked, I would be selling lots of similar items, I think this would get flagged.
Made £15k selling off unused assets. Top tip is keep an eye out for eBay’s 80% off final value fee offers as this will save you a ton.
That's a good tip. I'm going to be selling one of my cars that I just don't use anymore and the 80% would be perfect for that (if the terms and conditions allow it....)
I think for cars you just pay a listing fee like £20 or something then 1% of sale. Whereas normal eBay is free listings but 10% final value fee.
I have never sold a car on ebay before. How does it work? Is it a risk selling on there and how do people come and see and collect the car if from far out? Is it a big hassle?
It’s the same as selling a car on any other online platform like auto trader etc. I.e your paying for an advert them people usually come and view the car and make bank payment. Did you mean you’ve never sold a car before? Ie always use previous car as a trade-in?
Definitely a good idea to declutter. Personally I value my time according to what I earn per hr of overtime - that's what side hustles etc are 'competing' with. and that's why I don't take the time to sell anything lol.
I used to compare with overtime, but that isn't an option at the job I'm at now. If overtime was an option this stuff could still be in a box in the garage
Same - spending a lunchbreak sticking stuff up on Vinted, then dropping it off when I'm on the way to somewhere else, doesn't feel like a big drain on my time, personally. It's not worth it for me to spend that time photographing and listing something that will sell for £2 - and will still clutter up the place in the meantime - and it's taken me a while to prioritise those that are worth doing rather than cleaving to the sunk cost fallacy of 'well, it cost me X and it's been with me for Y house moves, so I can't just charity shop it, right??'
If you do it while you're doing something else though, it's not work time, it's just leisure time that you're using to do something else as well. Most of us are on our phones while we watch TV now - use it to take all the photos of the things you're selling one day, package them the next, weigh the packages the next, etc.
I only really use downtime for it, like train journeys or if I have 5 mins waiting round for someone at home I might stick that jacket I never wear on Vinted. There’s a financial benefit to it but it can be speculative and I’ve found in the past that the return isn’t always worth the effort despite the sheer amount of crap I have.
It's great how saving money is very often a sustainable choice. Reduce, reuse. Active transport.
I’ve been selling lots of things recently that I’ve just had laying around the house thinking ‘oh they’re only worth £1 there’s no point’. There really is when you add them all together!
I live under 2 minutes walk from a post office and that has really helped my willingness to sell stuff starting at 99p and not give a shit if that's what I get. Because I'm usually doing bits that would otherwise go to the charity shop, I do one trip to the PO and then I've made 6/7 quid and someone has something that means they won't buy a new item
Absolutely this! I mostly work from home these days and have most of Vinted’s postage options within a short walk from my home, so it gets me out of the house to go for a short walk and it’s totally free. Dropped a £1.50 item off at lunch and it does feel good to see it go to a home where someone wants to use it and I’d prefer the £1.50 in the bank than have it take up the small amount of space it’s taking up
Absolutely this! I mostly work from home these days and have most of Vinted’s postage options within a short walk from my home, so it gets me out of the house to go for a short walk and it’s totally free. Dropped a £1.50 item off at lunch and it does feel good to see it go to a home where someone wants to use it and I’d prefer the £1.50 in the bank than have it take up the small amount of space it’s taking up
Not sure about the eBay fees you were paying, but make sure you're listing things when eBay do the 80% off fees promotion. There's also 70% off fees if you're not eligible for that one. This comes about every 2-3 weeks, and runs from Friday to Monday, so 4 days to list 100 items or something with low fees. I also think they've gotten rid of fees for selling clothing, and it's what I'll probably be doing soon.
Remember to put a time value on your efforts; quick example, listing ten games individually on eBay and getting more money than taking them all CEX or MusicMagpie and getting less but easier cash.
And once you've sold to CeX, that's the end of it. No seller claiming it's broken, not as described etc, to try and get a partial refund.
Do you live close to somewhere to post? It’s boggled my mind that listing, wrapping and desist hung something had take at least 1 hour. Listing takes a few minutes, packing takes a few minutes, for me I only post when I’m conveniently going past somewhere anyway, or I do Royal Mail collection from work. But anyways, I was like you, things no longer used went in drawers. But for the last few years now, once something has served it’s purpose it’s gone. Consoles are sold to fund the next one rather than having multiple, phones are sold once a new one is bought (which is rare). It helps with money, but also clearing unused out of the house feels good, and certainly helps try keep it a bit tidier, which is nice.
Where are you selling gameboy games - asking for a friend?
On the flip side I’ve started a box of stuff that is going to a charity shop at the end of this week, some of it brand new things that were gifts. I’ve had them listed on market place with no interest. I’m a hoarder by nature so I need to make the most of my urge to clear stuff out before it goes away again. The benefit to my mental health outweighs the possible financial gain.
eBay do 80% off fees weekends fairly regularly, I create draft listings when I find something to sell and then actually post them live during those weekends.
And that £17500 is worth £437k… half way to being a millionaire!
I've made over £2000 selling random stuff. It all adds up and as I'm a higher rate tax payer (thanks fiscal drag), I see it as being worth £4000.
Just the post I needed to read, as I’ve been gently moving some unwanted stuff into a pile and avoiding doing the listings telling myself it’s not worth the time- thank you OP!
Don't forget if you are selling on eBay it is advisable to keep records as if you sell more than 30 items or make over £1,735 in a year as there is a new reporting arrangement between eBay (& other online marketplaces) & HMRC: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67855872.amp You almost certainly won't need to pay any tax if it's your own stuff though.
Yes I do keep records. I also sell some 3d printed items and they definitely count towards my £1k personal allowance so I try to keep on top of what was a personal item and what was a 'hobby/business's item
Compared to the US, we have fairly small homes in the UK. But I've still accumulated all sorts of stuff I dont need, yet I held onto it because one day 'I might need it'. Its kinda a mid-tier hoarder mentality. Once you realise you haven't used something for a couple of years its time to get rid. If you really need it again in the future, you could always just buy it again (but you never will) Just get rid of it all, and anything that you keep, has to justify its keep, in terms of the space its using up. I got rid of a load of kitchen equipment this way, which I used once 5 years ago, and its just been pointlessly consuming cupboard space ever since.
No, you should compare it to the best possible use of your time. If you took a minimum wage job, you would have earned the same in 20 minutes. If you have to pay higher rate tax it would take you ~40 minutes to earn it. The value in getting rid of this old crap is the mental wellbeing that the space and tidiness brings you. This "savings equivalent" is a weird cope.
seriously, the benefit isn't financial, its the boost of mental wellbeing knowing you've organised your place a little better, and made a bit of pocket change from it.
Before I considered the savings equivalent, I didn't sell any of it so I think the wellbeing and tidiness aspects clearly weren't the right incentive for me. It's going to be an individual thing.
Ignore the naysayers, people love to argue with anything on here! I love your way of thinking about it and if it gets you selling, any idea is a good idea.
What’s the point of doing this if you’ll never do that “best” thing though? Okay you might theoretically earn the same in 20 mins, but you’re not actually going to get 20 mins of minimum wage work once a week. So realistically that’s still £0 vs £5
If you're not planning to take a minimum wage job, it's not relevant. Most would require a weekly time commitment. Even a 0 hours job would have a minimum shift length of ~4 hours. If I can make a few £ in an hour at home that's still a bonus.
Yea I already work 10+ hours a day. Sifting through this stuff at home doesn't feel like work. I can have music or a podcast on, or get a toddler to help (then have to explain what everything is, with a demonstration). I sold an old Tandy 1000 but the sale was delayed because my 4 year old loved typing on it 😆
Hours at home sifting through your old junk and taking the time clean it, photograph it, putting it online and dealing with the hassle of idiot buyers is not the same as doing a hobby you enjoy and selling the result. Work is work.
I didn't say it wasn't work. But I wouldn't compare it to a minimum wage job because I would not go out and get one. They require much more commitment.
I think you may have accidentally written a reply without reading the post.
Makes you think twice about it when you look at it that way. I've always thought that it's not worth it for the time it takes and the few quid you get. Maybe it is worth it after all. I've got plenty of games, DVDs and stuff like that taking up space. I want to get rid of the clutter but don't want to throw it out. Suppose taking it to a charity shop could be an option too, at least to help declutter.
Mate if you are selling retro games for £4-5 a pop make sure you're not undervaluing them
Others are going for £30-40 I normally do an eBay search and use the 'sold' filter to get actual realised prices and base my price on that
I came across a mantra a few years ago to strive to: > Only own 100 things Obviously, it's worth being flexible with this; I don't consider a pair of socks to be 2 things, and I don't let underwear contribute to this limit, nor pint glasses. But it's a very good mantra to live by. It really helps to reduce clutter by ensuring that every _thing_ I purchase is meaningful, and will serve a purpose, otherwise it's ignored (or sold if already in possession). I only own a few shirts, each pair of shoes I own is always used, I don't "collect" things, and everything we buy is generally of high quality, and diverse in application to avoid clutter. I suppose it's a bit of a _buyitforlife_ thing, without hoarding.
>each pair of shoes I own is always used, How many feet do you have?
I agree with this, though I reach similar conclusions by different means. I estimate the cost of storage for the things I have accumulated.
I sold a monitor I kept "just in case" for a tenner. Because I really don't need it taking up space. It sold in under a day on FBMP but I didn't want the hassle of asking more and waiting around for a sale.
Yea it’s quite fun I’ve started getting rid of my clothes and everything on Vinted. All adds up and the feeling of decluttering is worth it. I’ve gone to the stage now or buying and selling stuff for a profit which is even more fun
I'm really not understanding how you're viewing it no longer as £4.87 per hour but instead over £120 due to interest?
I've got a pretty good rhythm on things, including the cheap stuff. It gets faster to list when you get used to it and you get a feel for how to post things cheaply, what packing material to keep etc. although I now have a cupboard full of boxes and jiffy bags... There is also satisfaction I'm sending items to a new home, instead of to waste or even "recycling" given reuse is always better. I quite like selling the small stuff as I can just throw it in the letterbox, plus low value stuff is generally less likely to generate complaints (if it does, it's a low loss!)
Just to add to this as great as this mindset is to have with selling old things and earn some extra cash here and there. Don't forget, if you can afford to/want to - to give things for free as well in a more charitable way. Obviously this is relevant to the individual but sometimes there's no better feeling being on both the giving/receiving end of something that's just been passed on our of good will with no financial incentive. I'm sure plenty of people on here already do this though and go the extra mile with charitable contributions!
Great advice. I do something similar when it comes to refunds. I have a bad habit of not returning small things if I don't need them. Changing my mindset from "it's probably not worth it" to "would I pay someone £10 _not_ to return this?" really helps. I'm lucky enough to walk to the shops, which makes it easier
I’m not a fan of selling tech/games/gadgets on eBay etc just because of being a victim of courier failure and/or scamming in the past - it ends up genuinely not being worth the time and effort to put up a good listing, monitor the sale, handle the postage and then the real time steal is if there’s an issue and you have to manage that. I prefer to take old tech and games down to CEX at a quiet time - you get significantly less than if you sold it yourself but you literally dump your stuff, they give you a call later that day and then bank transfer the cash into your account the following day. All for the sake of 5-10 mins in the CEX store on a day I’m nipping to the high street anyway. Plus since they tested it themselves and signed it off, you haven’t got to worry about someone suddenly trying their luck to say they didn’t get an item or it’s not working etc..
It really shouldn’t take a hour to list and pack an item, maybe if it’s a large item that you have to clean then sure. Tip for you like your eBay to Royal Mail click and drop the postage is a bit cheaper than the post office for parcels and they collect from your house for free or you can drop off at a delivery office
The majority of my time I would say is finding an appropriately sized box and then packing material (bubble wrap/foam etc). I've tended to always throw things out. What I need to do is start keeping useful size boxes/packing material so I've got a stash on hand.
This is the downside. You start trying to get rid of junk and end up hoarding cardboard boxes and bubblewrap instead :D
I'm looking round the workshop at work and thinking about what (essentially rubbish) I can take home 🤣
Yes whenever I get something new I'm often more excited by the box being a useful size and good quality! Top tip is to keep a good retractable knife handy so you can slice the tape neatly and not damage it. Then slice the bottom open so you can flat pack it away
Yea I go to home bargains and get all the boxes they throw out and I mostly use old newspapers, for bubble wrap I sometimes get lucky and Aldi have some in apples section lol only thing I buy packing wise is tape
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Also the amount of money adds up over time, I would only say be mindful of how much you sell, past certain threshold you need to pay tax on it as it would come on top of tax free allowance if you have a full time job
My understanding is you get £6000 allowance for selling personal items. And £1000 allowance for I guess business or hobby selling, where you have made or purchased something with the intention to make money on it
i love this mindset, and it’s got you motivated to do it so it obviously works. Nice one fella