Places to Buy, Sell, Trade, Barter, Rent or Just Give Away Your Stuff

It’s Spring Cleaning time. That means most of us will soon be going through all of that clutter we have somehow accumulated over the winter months. What are you going to do with all of that junk-to-you?

Here are 35 places to buy, sell, trade, barter or just plain give away that stuff you don’t want.

Clothes

• Clothing Swap – This site hosts local meetups where attendees can bring their gently-used apparel and take home new-to-you stuff free.
• Freestyle Clothing Exchange – Take your unwanted clothes, shoes and accessories to any location and receive 35% cash or 50% store credit of the price the store marks your items.
• Thredup – a trusted name in secondhand kid’s clothes, Thredup pays you upfront (plus free shipping) for your unwanted children’s clothes. They have also recently expanded to include women’s apparel, shoes and accessories.
• Facebook Groups
• Poshmark
• depop

Baby Gear

• Recrib – This is a great place to unload gently-used baby gear. The site keeps 20% of every sale as their service fee.

Books

• Sell the books you don’t want for cash at Bookscouter.
• Trade books you don’t want for books you do at PaperbackSwap or BookMooch.

Outdoor Gear

• Get My Boat – self-explanatory
• BikeShare – How many bicycles have you purchased to only ride once? Maybe you don’t want to commit to a bike purchase in fear of that happening. Capital BikeShare will help you rent a bike.
• Zilok

Personal Spaces

• Airbnb – Rent out a room or your entire house to visitors.
• Home Exchange – Similar to Airbnb
• Couch Surfing – Maybe you just need some company. This site doesn’t allow you to charge visitors – and won’t charge you to use the site either – but you can let someone flop for free if you feel so inclined.
• GoSwap – This site lets you trade homes. Say you have a cabin in the woods and are looking to get away for a weekend at the beach, this site can help.
• LiquidSpace – Need to meet with a client or colleagues and prefer not to do it in your home? Find a coworking space here.
• Just Park – Rent out a parking space to travelers or event-goers.
• SharedEarth – This site helps connect landowners with farmers/gardeners in need of space.

Tech Gadgets

• Decluttr 
• Gazelle

Everything

• Amazon will take your unwanted electronics, books, CDs, DVDs, computer and more in exchange for gift cards. I’ll take that!
• Freecycle – Find a community of buyers/sellers/traders near you
• Listia – This is an auction site that works on site credit as opposed to cash. Sell stuff you don’t want for Listia credit. Use that credit to get stuff you want for free.
• OfferUp
• LetGo

Expert Tips for Online Selling Sites

We have had some greatly successful posts about how to sell online this past year. We have talked to several successful sellers, from those earning a full-time income on eBay to a great lady making over $40,000 per year on Amazon.

Here is a round-up of some of those tips, recommended resources and opinions on reselling online.

eBay

Sarah Titus served as our expert for selling on eBay. Sarah has been an active seller on the site for over 15 years and was able to create a full-time income selling used items. Sarah had the following tips for new sellers:

• Start with what you have – sell gently used items from around the house and invest some of those profits in buying more of the items that are selling. You can find a great list of places to find arbitrage items here.
• Watch your fees – shipping costs can add up quickly. Get your shipping materials free when you can and make buyers pay the postage when possible.
• Opening an eBay store will allow you to charge up to 20% more
• Customer service will make or break your business – answer questions within an hour if possible
• Sell weird stuff – the rarer it is, the more money you can possibly make
• Find your niche – carve out your own specialty corner of the eBay world

Sarah’s favorite seller tool: Weighmax Postal Shipping Scale

Amazon

There are several ways you can make money with Amazon as a seller. We spoke with Cynthia who earns over $40,000 a year with the Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) option. She was able to do this working only about 10 hours per week as Amazon takes care of the shipping and any returns. Cynthia had these tips and resources to share:

• Keep track of sales tax due with TaxJar. It integrates with Amazon and will remind you when payments are due. Cynthia says it only takes her about 15 minutes to pay her sales tax because of the software.

Cynthia picks up items at “retail stores like Target, Walmart, IKEA, Walgreens, my local grocery store, BigLots, Bed Bath and Beyond, Tuesday Morning” and wholesalers on occasion.

Cynthia’s favorite tools of the trade:

• ScanPower Mobile
• Un-Du and a Scotty Peeler
• Dymo 450 Turbo printer

eBay is a lot more relaxed when it comes to used items than Amazon. With Amazon, you often need to be “ungated” to sell in categories like clothing. If fashion’s your thing, check out sites like those in this post.

And if you are a bookworm, Peter has stopped by as well to share some tips to his $100,000+ Amazon FBA success. He has sold hardbacks for over $400 each. He gave us some tips here. Check out this post to locate opportunities to pick up used books to resale in your community.

Facebook

If you are in need of immediate cash, Facebook Buy/Sell Groups are the places to go at the moment. There are Groups available for most cities and counties in which members can share what they have available for sale or trade. If anyone is interested, you can then designate a place to meet for the exchange.

As Victoria from Snail Pace Transformations told us, “Meet buyers in public places in daylight hours where there are going to be people around you at all times.” You should also only accept cash. Victoria recommends sticking with items or “lots” of items selling at $25 or more to ensure it is worth your time and trouble.

Craigslist is a very similar setup to Facebook Groups if you are looking to unload your goods quickly and locally. The safety precautions are the same. Meet in public and only take cash.