I do this all the time with Amazon's Trade-In Program. A couple of times a year, I look at my book shelf and video games. If I haven't read/played them within the last 6 months, and have no compelling reason to hold onto them for the foreseeable 6 months, into the box they go.
Amazon then gives me a pre-paid shipping label.
I find the whole process enjoyable. "How much will Amazon give me for this?" is an exciting game. Then things go in the box, and you can visibly see the consumer weight you're lifting off your shoulders. Then you get to see the fruits of your labors with a newly empty bookshelf.
The money they give me for it is only a small part of the benefits I feel from doing it. I try to do the same with Goodwill donations of old clothes, but I have to admit some laziness in actually getting down to the Goodwill (which is essentially zero difference from driving the box to the UPS Store. Procrastination is a weird and wonderful thing.)
You can make a little bit more money by shipping them to Fulfilled By Amazon and selling them at a higher price with Amazon Prime. It's great for things that people don't buy enough to warrant their trade-in program, and there's the risk of the occasional return, but it gets it all out of your house with really cheap shipping.
Nice approach. I personally can't force myself to get rid of books that I've read, which is not very rational, because I very rarely reread books. But other stuff I try to get rid of, or not buy at all.
I wish I could just bar code in media and books, accept / reject the prices en masse and then generate the shipping label to send it to Amazon. I'd be a lot more inclined to send in stuff if the process was a little more streamlined.
The FAQ says they buy textbooks, but the page shows recent non-textbook books I've purchased as items I could "get up to $10.98". Have you sold books before? I usually sell my books to my local Half Price Books, but they pay a pittance.
This treats the symptoms, not the cause. The ultimate solution is buying less shit and buying what you do need local and used (usually on Craigslist). If you do this, you get these great benefits:
1. You prevent all the waste included in manufacturing new shit
2. You can usually sell it later for about what you paid for it
3. Since you usually have to shop quite a bit to find what you need, it eliminates the highly addictive, instant gratification feedback loop that comes from buying online or in a store and ultimately leads to less buying.
"You can also use it as a free way to “store” your unused goods. I didn’t hesitate to sell my papasan chairs today, because I know if I ever need them back, I can open up Craigslist and find plenty more just like them at any point in the future."
and
"So I view Craigslist not just as an Environment Saver – by preventing the unnecessary manufacturing of a bunch of new stuff – but also a Community Machine – connecting millions of people to do real activities together, as opposed to the soul sucking model of big corporations stamping out stores across the world, staffing them with minimum wage workers, connecting them to a stream of wasteful products flowing straight from China, and having us all drive into the big boxes every day to bring home SUV-loads of it which will soon end up buried in a landfill."
Unfortunately some of us have relatives who insist on gifting us shit, regardless of how tactfully we try to ask them not to. I'd love to join a club like this. (Right now Goodwill suffices, but there's definitely non-cheap stuff we give away just because we don't have time to deal with it.)
And then we enter into a massive deflationary recession, you lose your job, people go hungry, etc... all because there's been massive demand destruction for 'shit'. Doesn't sound so great.
Or just let people decide what's worth buying for themselves. If they decide they'll get utility out of it, great. If not, then they don't have to buy it. No need to foist your desires on others.
You're definitely right. However, it does help those of us who understand that there is a problem push ourselves in the right direction and not only embrace the start of a solution but help us make it part of our lives, which makes it far easier and more honest to advocate the same.
> The cost of postage and the check along with all the processing costs are covered from the money generated from sales of valuable crap. Remember: one man’s crap is another man’s treasure.
And yet, Goodwill doesn't hand out $10 checks for every donation.
I suspect that the money earned from selling "another man's treasure" will rapidly decline.
At first, you'll have the type of people we imagine other HN readers sending things in - nice books, perhaps art, a few desktop toys and things like that. But after a few months, you'll start receiving things that I'd send in - desk lamps that are 99% functional, but don't quite bend in the angle that you want. Paperbacks that have been dropped into a puddle one too many times. An old thermos.
I used to work at a thrift store. The amount of value we could extract from the average box of stuff dropped off to donate . . . was nowhere near $10. In fact, a lot of it couldn't be sold at all -- it just got thrown away.
Broken toys, clothes with holes, dirty shoes, smoke-damaged, water-damaged, and just plain damaged stuff. Ugly nick-nacks, beat up plastic cups, dated books no one wants to read. We got so many tins and baskets! Everyone gets them full of cookies or gifts, no one wants to throw them away, and no one actually has a use for them.
My co-worker and I did the master sorting -- sending stuff to different departments or to the trash. I saw it all. Her summary? "People send us their garbage!"
And that's the stuff that people could be bothered to drive to the store, look a person in the eye, and drop off without too much embarrassment. This was stuff they genuinely thought was valuable.
A box you can fill with crap from your garage?
Well.
Paying $1 for that sight unseen is probably too much. $10 plus postage is . . . endearingly naive.
things that I'd send in - desk lamps that are 99% functional, but don't quite bend in the angle that you want. Paperbacks that have been dropped into a puddle one too many times. An old thermos.
I give to my local thrift shop (or charity shop as we call them in the UK) and their average bag value is £25 ($39) [1]. That probably includes the 25% extra they can reclaim through tax breaks.
71 comments as I read this, and no mention of eBay. That says to me that eBay itself is broken, as time was that the only logical answer was to sell this sort of thing there. In New Zealand we have Trade Me, which is much larger than eBay in population adjusted terms. They didn't court the larger sellers, but instead maintained focus on helping people sell to people. They are also, in my mind, not making it easy enough to list and sell ones goods. The bar has raised.
Trade Me has been gamed though, by importers and people using it as a virtual store for selling or trading their niche. I'm not sure what the answer is, but a way to filter out the high-volume sellers would be nice.
I'd agree -- and do, generally speaking -- due to the very excessive proportion of crap from medium.com that gets upvoted lately, except this is by far one of the best pieces I've seen from that site recently.
one-in-one-out is a good one; we already implemented this in our household. still a lot of unimportant stuff hanging around getting moved from one apartment to the next... ;)
Would it not save everybody time and money if you simply drive to the thrift store every month. A recurring calender reminder will do... They do have thrift stores in the US as far as i know right?
Another getting-rid-of-shit option: http://www.freecycle.org/
Of course, it's also a getting-new-shit-for-free source which may be irresistible for some people.
> Of course, it's also a getting-new-shit-for-free source which may be irresistible for some people
I unsubscribed for this reason after I just couldn't pass up 60 free mason quart jars. Right before we moved. Want to know how many lacerations I got from cleaning them? But, I did sell them for $30 on craigslist when it was all said and done, so there's that.
I think that this is a great idea and it kind of reminds me of http://usesold.com/ with an expanded scope. I'm constantly packing up things into bags for AMVETS, but having a box sent to me that automatically gets picked up would be awesome.
I use Goodwill for this. I take things there when I don't need them anymore, and I go there looking for things I do need. Sometimes it feels like I'm just renting from them, when I donate something there, buy it later, then donate it again when I no longer need it.
I doubt the money generated from sales of valuable crap
will cover the cost of your expenses.
The problem is that there is no such thing as "valuable crap". But let's assume people won't send you crap but only boxes they consider themselves worth more than $10.
You will have a hard time find a buyer that pays $10
.
In reality it's more like
"one man’s treasure is every one else's crap"
<shameless_plug>
I actually just built an iPhone app to help people get rid of stuff they don't need called Give or Take: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/give-or-take-bay-area/id6517....
Everything on it is free, so you won't make any money off it. But sometimes giving stuff away can be faster and less stressful.
</shameless_plug>
There's a similar app called "myfreestuff" that automates posting to freecycle mailing lists. Freecycle can be a pain due to latencies and no-shows. Liking forward to trying this one out.
[edit] oops, it requires a facebook login. As a Facebook Luddite, I'll have to ask my wife to check it out for me.
I think its a nice idea, the core problem is what others have identified: people will send crap.
What about charging people $120 / year to sign up? and then they get their $10 /month back. No one will make money, but if you're motivated by helping out, and by relieving yourself of crap, it still could be worthwhile. And there's still tax write-offs (if it's made as a charitable org).
My problem is trying to cull the wheat from the chaff. I have so much crap and so many things mixed in with it that I don't have time to make sure I'm not throwing out my children’s baby pictures with my junk.
But this could definitely solve part of the problem, and provide some well needed motivation.
You will feel so much better if you get junk and useless shit out of your life. Its a huge life improvement that requires no expenditure of money and may actually net you some.
I really like this idea. I agree there's a big activation energy to getting rid of stuff. Often I have things that are for specific tasks or activities, where it wouldn't make sense to donate them to Goodwill. Having something like this would help, because you would know it would get used, but you don't have to figure out where to send it. At the receiving point, you could even coordinate with different charities - like the ones that want eyeglasses or old cell phones. So, some could get sold and some could get donated.
I didn't know about the Amazon trade-in program. That sounds great for books and games.
Or you could just walk over to your local thrift store every month and give them your shit. Or used book store. Or used clothing store. Or record store. Or...
It's surprisingly hard considering the low benefit derived. First you have to find or buy a suitable box, which might need to be taped up. Then you have to decide what stuff is actually useless. And if you want to get the most out of your potential tax deduction, you also need to itemize everything you're giving away. Then you have to find the local thrift store. I have no idea where mine is. Then you have to find the time to either walk or drive there. For me, that'd be at least a half hour round trip. With a full time job, a baby, and a rapidly shrinking social life (did I mention I have a baby?), it hardly seems worth it to trade my time for such a small gain.
Didn't a group of MIT-ers just launch a product like this a few weeks ago? I can't remember the name - they had an iOS app, and you get one of three different sized boxes in the mail, then they sell your item for you, giving you some of the profit. It was on HN a few weeks ago.
[+] [-] Lewisham|12 years ago|reply
Amazon then gives me a pre-paid shipping label.
I find the whole process enjoyable. "How much will Amazon give me for this?" is an exciting game. Then things go in the box, and you can visibly see the consumer weight you're lifting off your shoulders. Then you get to see the fruits of your labors with a newly empty bookshelf.
The money they give me for it is only a small part of the benefits I feel from doing it. I try to do the same with Goodwill donations of old clothes, but I have to admit some laziness in actually getting down to the Goodwill (which is essentially zero difference from driving the box to the UPS Store. Procrastination is a weird and wonderful thing.)
[+] [-] benguild|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mixedbit|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akristofcak|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomkarlo|12 years ago|reply
Update: apparently there's an Android app for that: http://www.amazon.com/Cash4Books-net-Cash4Books-Scan-Sell-Bo... ... wonder if it does games too.
[+] [-] famousactress|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cpeterso|12 years ago|reply
The FAQ says they buy textbooks, but the page shows recent non-textbook books I've purchased as items I could "get up to $10.98". Have you sold books before? I usually sell my books to my local Half Price Books, but they pay a pittance.
[+] [-] toasterlovin|12 years ago|reply
1. You prevent all the waste included in manufacturing new shit 2. You can usually sell it later for about what you paid for it 3. Since you usually have to shop quite a bit to find what you need, it eliminates the highly addictive, instant gratification feedback loop that comes from buying online or in a store and ultimately leads to less buying.
Mr. Money Mustache has a great post on getting started with the religion that is Craigslist: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/08/11/get-rich-with-crai...
A couple of choice quotes:
"You can also use it as a free way to “store” your unused goods. I didn’t hesitate to sell my papasan chairs today, because I know if I ever need them back, I can open up Craigslist and find plenty more just like them at any point in the future."
and
"So I view Craigslist not just as an Environment Saver – by preventing the unnecessary manufacturing of a bunch of new stuff – but also a Community Machine – connecting millions of people to do real activities together, as opposed to the soul sucking model of big corporations stamping out stores across the world, staffing them with minimum wage workers, connecting them to a stream of wasteful products flowing straight from China, and having us all drive into the big boxes every day to bring home SUV-loads of it which will soon end up buried in a landfill."
[+] [-] colanderman|12 years ago|reply
Unfortunately some of us have relatives who insist on gifting us shit, regardless of how tactfully we try to ask them not to. I'd love to join a club like this. (Right now Goodwill suffices, but there's definitely non-cheap stuff we give away just because we don't have time to deal with it.)
[+] [-] digz|12 years ago|reply
Or just let people decide what's worth buying for themselves. If they decide they'll get utility out of it, great. If not, then they don't have to buy it. No need to foist your desires on others.
[+] [-] obviouslygreen|12 years ago|reply
You're definitely right. However, it does help those of us who understand that there is a problem push ourselves in the right direction and not only embrace the start of a solution but help us make it part of our lives, which makes it far easier and more honest to advocate the same.
[+] [-] minikites|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akristofcak|12 years ago|reply
But even if you treat the cause, these symptoms won't disappear...
[+] [-] pavel_lishin|12 years ago|reply
And yet, Goodwill doesn't hand out $10 checks for every donation.
I suspect that the money earned from selling "another man's treasure" will rapidly decline.
At first, you'll have the type of people we imagine other HN readers sending things in - nice books, perhaps art, a few desktop toys and things like that. But after a few months, you'll start receiving things that I'd send in - desk lamps that are 99% functional, but don't quite bend in the angle that you want. Paperbacks that have been dropped into a puddle one too many times. An old thermos.
[+] [-] Dove|12 years ago|reply
Broken toys, clothes with holes, dirty shoes, smoke-damaged, water-damaged, and just plain damaged stuff. Ugly nick-nacks, beat up plastic cups, dated books no one wants to read. We got so many tins and baskets! Everyone gets them full of cookies or gifts, no one wants to throw them away, and no one actually has a use for them.
My co-worker and I did the master sorting -- sending stuff to different departments or to the trash. I saw it all. Her summary? "People send us their garbage!"
And that's the stuff that people could be bothered to drive to the store, look a person in the eye, and drop off without too much embarrassment. This was stuff they genuinely thought was valuable.
A box you can fill with crap from your garage?
Well.
Paying $1 for that sight unseen is probably too much. $10 plus postage is . . . endearingly naive.
[+] [-] roc|12 years ago|reply
That was my first thought: "people can fill boxes with crap worth less than ten dollars longer than you can cut checks for $10."
[+] [-] anigbrowl|12 years ago|reply
I find this strangely endearing.
[+] [-] squidi|12 years ago|reply
[1] http://support.cancerresearchuk.org/support-us/donate/donate...
[+] [-] gohrt|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amoore|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akristofcak|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lancewiggs|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tharax|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _fs|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sp332|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] obviouslygreen|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rythie|12 years ago|reply
- Have a one-in-one out policy on gadgets, clothes, toys, games etc.
- Don't buy DVD/BluRays (only rent or stream), CDs (Spotify/iTunes) or Books (Kindle) etc. (or use one in one out)
- Go paperless with your bills
[+] [-] akristofcak|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tijs|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brightsize|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drharris|12 years ago|reply
I unsubscribed for this reason after I just couldn't pass up 60 free mason quart jars. Right before we moved. Want to know how many lacerations I got from cleaning them? But, I did sell them for $30 on craigslist when it was all said and done, so there's that.
[+] [-] ddedden|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stephengillie|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] weinzierl|12 years ago|reply
The problem is that there is no such thing as "valuable crap". But let's assume people won't send you crap but only boxes they consider themselves worth more than $10. You will have a hard time find a buyer that pays $10 . In reality it's more like "one man’s treasure is every one else's crap"
The scientific explanation is Endowment effect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endowment_effect
[+] [-] nmullaney|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] salgernon|12 years ago|reply
[edit] oops, it requires a facebook login. As a Facebook Luddite, I'll have to ask my wife to check it out for me.
[+] [-] jsvaughan|12 years ago|reply
Everything that gets posted gets more than a handful of people requesting it. Someone will come to get it, when it suits you, and take it away.
You get the warm fuzzy feeling of making someone else happy, and you also get the things out from under your feet.
[+] [-] akristofcak|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jasallen|12 years ago|reply
What about charging people $120 / year to sign up? and then they get their $10 /month back. No one will make money, but if you're motivated by helping out, and by relieving yourself of crap, it still could be worthwhile. And there's still tax write-offs (if it's made as a charitable org).
[+] [-] akristofcak|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tenpoundhammer|12 years ago|reply
But this could definitely solve part of the problem, and provide some well needed motivation.
[+] [-] toasterlovin|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tkt|12 years ago|reply
I didn't know about the Amazon trade-in program. That sounds great for books and games.
[+] [-] shva|12 years ago|reply
It's really not that hard.
[+] [-] avalaunch|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bluetshirt|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akristofcak|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aaronsnoswell|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kuyan|12 years ago|reply