SWAP IT! You may think I'm crazy for saying this, but as long as you own stuff you don't really need, do whatever you can to trade your old stuff at a neighborhood swap meet once a month. Sure, you can use Craigslist for the bigger stuff, if you don't mind total strangers showing up at your house -- possibly to case the joint. Maybe you can meet at at public location instead, such as your workplace -- that can be safer, especially if the security guard is on duty when your buyer shows up.
And there's always eBay. But why should that giant online auction site get such a big cut of your every sale? Yeah, we all procrastinate listing our stuff on eBay, if we ever do it at all. Meanwhile, the freight and postal delivery services raise their rates like clockwork every January, and since the ongoing spike in the price of fuel, usually in between too! Every time they do that, it eats away at your profit.
And what about PayPal? Well, guess what -- that's owned by eBay too. So eBay could be making money off your sale in up to three places: going in the front door, when you probably paid eBay a fee to list it; in the middle of your sale, when your customer goes to buy it with PayPal; and out the back door, when eBay takes its commission from you.
Next, there's the hassle of packing and shipping, and then the concern that your goods might not show up in the same shape they left in. Better know what you're doing when you pack it, or pay a professional shipper! Is it worth much? Maybe you want to buy shipping insurance, too, just in case you are asked to make a refund!
Barter is better. If you can figure out how to trade your stuff for other stuff that you want, this is always a good deal compared to spending your money to get it out that door. Why? Simply because it keeps more money in both your pocket AND the other guy's.
We have been more or less programmed in this culture NOT to haggle about the price of things, and ALWAYS to pay with cash or plastic! To make matters worse, we're all brainwashed to believe that full bags equal happiness! From the time we're old enough to stand up in our cribs, point, and say "I want it!" Clearly, this is not the way to cut costs. Yes, you will have to rethink the way you have done some things up till now. No, it is not as hard as you think.
Look at Craigslist, for instance. No, not in the hook-up-for-sex sections! Seriously, now, you can find online ads where others will be asking for trades rather than cash. Not a lot, but they're in there. There ought to be more. Lately I've even seen folks swapping property for vehicles! In Hawaii, where I live, we have a popular early morning radio talk show with a community announcements section. Plenty of folks here use that call-in time as an opportunity to trade and even give away stuff they no longer want.
Now, if we can make this loose kind of networking work on an island that has under 200,000 total inhabitants, then it has got to be achievable anywhere with a larger population base. Sure, folks on the outer islands of Hawaii have to be a bit scrappier than most, simply because many of us don't have access to some of the services that are easily available elsewhere and taken for granted by others there, such as municipal water and weekly garbage truck pickups. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't learn how to trade goods and services in order to save your money for something you really need it for. There's a reason that "save my money" is such a popular Google search request.
Many of us are also trained to think that "only an expert" can do our negotiating for us. Don't believe it. If you can split a restaurant bill, then you already have the basic skills it takes to drive a bargain that two parties can live with. If not, then take along someone who does. And pay attention when they do it, as knowing how to barter is a valuable life skill. (HINT: Ask for more than what you want, since this gives you some room to bargain with.) If you are a parent, then teach your kids how to haggle, while you're at it.
If you like to meet people, you can throw a yard sale, of course, but why not with the whole neighborhood at once? And why only once a year, the way most of us do it? If you're searching on "save my money" during bad economic times, then stay home and host a seasonal garage sale, or a monthly block sale! Maybe you can even make it across town to swap and sell at another neighborhood sale. Whatever works.
Make it a festive event if you can. Make your own entertainment and save money at the same time! Get a kid you know to videotape the event. Then you can upload your neighborhood block sale, or community association flea market, or homeowner association swap meet highlights to YouTube, so that the rest of us can laugh along with you! It's worth thinking about.
Wishing you a beautiful day,
Bill Brent
[this page last updated: 2009.07.14, 12:25 p.m. Hawaii time]
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