Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
I hope that you’ve enjoyed the challenges thus far and are seeing how small steps each day can really add up to help you become more prepared.
If you missed the previous challenges, you can catch up here:
On to Today’s Challenge…
One of the things that keeps a lot of folks from being as prepped as they’d like to be is money. (Or the lack thereof.)
Today’s challenge may not seem very related to prepping, but if your finances are keeping you from being as prepared as you’d like to be, then you’ll see this is very closely related.
List some items on Craigslist or your local garage sale website.
We all have those things kicking around the basement or attic or spare room that we no want or need. But you know the old saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Hop on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or your local garage sale website and list your items for sale.
Be very careful of scams. We recently had a piece of furniture for sale online and a number of people contacted us, offering to send a certified check or money by PayPal and have their “shippers” pick up the furniture. What happens with this particular scam is that they end up with your furniture but the check, even though it appears to be certified, is no good and you’ll be on the hook for the money as far as the bank is concerned. Be strict about cash only and in-person transactions. As well, unless the item is to large to easily transport, meet in a public place for the transactions.
What will you sell?
Do you have any items you can list to raise some money for prepping? What will you sell? Do you have a creative way to sell them aside from online? Share your ideas in the comments.
Here’s the link to the post on the forum.
If you are selling, begin by anonymizing your home address and phone. All phone companies have a privacy option for which you pay a little extra to have an unlisted address — whether or not you wanted a listed phone number. But don’t use that phone in your selling ads. Set up a cheap VOIP phone number (MagicJack is just one example) that a potential stalker can’t use to find out where you live.
Also, be thoughtful about where you run your ads. I once knew of several women who placed ads in the classified section of their local town’s online discussion forum. The problem was that the forum rules didn’t allow them to use a different screen name for running ads, compared with the screen name they used year around for chit chat — that had attracted stalkers’ attention in the first place. So when the stalkers spotted their screen names in the classifieds, that was an open invitation to respond to those ads, and find out what the women looked like when meeting to inspect the goods for sale. That could also provide an opportunity to notice the women’s license plate numbers, and especially if the sellers were unwise enough to invite these strangers to their home, all hopes for security and anonymity went out the window. This created a bad stalking problem for several women, but the utterly shameless owner of that discussion forum refused to change the software to allow for different screen names in the classifieds. He also refused to put in a warning to forum users about that security hazard.
So where to meet with your potential buyer — for security reasons? Some police departments have been inviting sellers to meet with their buyers at the local cop shop. In theory, that might work. In practice, it might run off some prospective buyers. The higher the value of what you’re selling, the greater the need for security. It’s your judgment call.
Another suggestion is to meet at a bank … where there are cameras and guards. If the item value is high enough to justify your travel time, consider offering to meet at the prospective BUYER’S bank. That provides not only security, but also eliminates any need for you to carry cash for exact change purposes.
Special problems: If your item needs to be fired up from AC wall power, you might not have the opportunity to do such a inspection demo at your cop shop or bank. One workaround might be to do a video with good sound of that quickie demo — with a clearly visible time and date stamp — so your prospective buyer can see, hear and inspect the goods so s/he doesn’t need to back out of your deal. Consider either bringing such a video with you (via smartphone, eg) or posting it online so you can provide that access link to your prospect.
Another alternative, if you have the vehicle and a buddy with muscles, is to volunteer to deliver and demo your monster sized gadget to the prospect’s home address. That should also lessen the likelihood of the prospect being a scammer. If your prospect says NO to that offer to deliver, that’s probably a welcome warning sign.
On the buying side, I have successfully used the good people with uship.com to negotiate a successful cross-country purchase from an eBay estate sale seller who had advertised “local pickup only”.
–Lewis
Excellent way to generate a few extra dollars. As a one-income family with two kids and a stay-at-home spouse, I’ve sold items online many times to make a little extra “disposable” income. Keep your eyes open at garage sales for items to potentially resell at a profit on Offer-Up, Craigslist or eBay.
If you’re the “fix it” type person, look for slightly damaged goods that can be restored, then resold.
Daisy, this series of day-by-day challenges is a wonderful exercise in the realities of getting/staying ready. Thanks for all you do for us.
Although I don’t have a lot of money , I’m not good at selling things.
I’m really careful when I buy things to only buy things I will use and use it until it’s worn out so I very seldom have things to sell that way.
However my son is excellent at scraping cars and anything like that so when I have items that qualify I have him take it to the scrap yard . Auctions and swap meets are also a good way to make money.
Books, movies, jeans 3 sizes too big with a friend at his garage sale. It works great when a few friends get together and have 1 sale.
While selling things on craigslist, eBay, Amazon, Oodle, Etsy or wherever can be done, there is a whole universe of money generating ideas being overlooked — many of which will give you an opportunity to monetize other skills and enthusiasms you have that online selling does not. As always, YMMV. Pull up Amazon.com, click on the books category, and run a search on
SIDE HUSTLE BOOKS
You’ll be amazed at the several titles being carried. Then, in homage to cheapskates everywhere, remember that whenever a book has passed the six months point since it was released by the publisher, it becomes fair game for a free interlibrary loan request. Most of the time such requests will come through for you.
–Lewis
Lewis had a lot of hood ideas on protecting yourself, or loved ones from the ‘bad guys’ out there. I have accompanied one granddaughter a couple of different times when she found something on Craig’s List. She’s always asked me to go with her/ She does have common sense.
I’ve sold on ebay before. And I’ve bought a loot on ebay. I personally don’t like or use Craig’s List.
I agree with Lewis. Our local police dept has spots in thier parking lot dedicated for ‘shoppers’ exchanges, in full view of their cameras and right outside their front door. Also, many larger chain stores who have cameras encourage folks to utilize their parking lots for exchanges as well (however, they usually don’t have onsite security). IF I were involved in a transaction like this, I for sure would choose the police station. Somebody doesn’t want to meet you there, you likely don’t want their business.
I live too far from most buyers to sell on Craigslist but I did start sorting things toward a sale were having at the church parking lot the last Saturday of the month. I’m getting quite a pile of stuff set aside to sell. Ill keep most of the proceeds but donate some to the church as well.
Short answer is no, I don’t have anything of worth that I can sell on Craigslist or otherwise. I feel more comfortable going to a pawn shop or consignment shop anyway. Cash in hand and no sketchy people to case your house!
That being said, a friend of mine has sold some stuff on Craigslist and her experience has been positive. To each their own.
We recently sold a Honda Reflex motorscooter this way…!
I have a(n extra) Pfaff sewing machine that I could sell (it’s electronic so would be less than useful after SHTF). Also fabric. More pots and pans than I really need, though I do use them occasionally. Books!
A local church rents out tables for sales; a friend has one in an upcoming sale and has offered to let me share.
Already sold all my grandchild’s baby stuff, some unwanted items in the house, but used the money to buy more prepping items! Wrong? Perhaps time to take a serious look at the house again, as, if we have to run we may lose everything anyway. Tough one.