We’ve all heard the saying, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, but you might wonder if this is true in this day and age? Can you really still make money out of buying and selling junk secondhand goods? I know things have changed and gone are the days when second hand junk items used to hold a good price. But can you still make money? My answer is definately yes!

It all seems to be a chain reaction. New items are cheaper, therefore making them more disposable and easier to throw out, thus creating a treasure trove of junk. One particular type of person knows they can replace certain items easily and are careless about looking after it. There is another type of person that buys their junk, but values it highly, and does not even consider it junk. It’s a crazy world, but it will always be like that because we are all different.

So how do you make money out of buying and selling junk?

Junk value?

The first thing you need to be familar with is Value. The value of the item when it was brand new, the value of it second hand, and the value of it in it’s unique condition. It not good enough to know what people are trying to sell something for. Who cares about that. The only thing that matters is how much they actually got. That’s the going value of an item. For example a Nintendo DS Lite new would cost around $150. A good secondhand one should sell for around $110 but you might only get $100. If the screen is scratched you might only get $80. There are so many different values for one item. 

How to determine Value?

How do you determine the value of an item? The answer is research. You need to study brochures, catelogs, and the classifieds. If you like dealing with junk and making money then this won’t be a problem for you, it will be fun. You can also go to markets and places where they sell junk and check out the prices.

Where can you find junk to buy and sell?

Ok there are a million places because people are always getting rid of stuff. Here is a quick list for you to start with:

• Garage sales and Yard sales: Go to garage sales either very early when you get first choice of the bargains or very late if you want to offer to buy everything that is left.
• Markets and car boot sales: The best time to go to these markets is when it’s raining but the stalls are already there. The stallholder feels like they have wasted their time by coming in the rain. This is the time to really bargain with them.
• Your local dump/tip: Tips and dumps around us now have shops in them. They get the best junk out to sell, but don’t panic because it is still seriously cheap.
• Advertising: Put an ad in the local newspaper saying that you will buy entire household lots for cash. Every now and then you will hit the jackpot!
• Auctions: Auctions are great for junk if you are willing to sort stuff out. You can get a pallet of boxes with all sorts of stuff in them. If you buy in bulk you save loads of money. Don’t forget about transporting what you buy though.
• Roadside pickups: In Australia we have council pickups. People leave stuff on the kurbside to get picked up at a set date. I am not sure on the rules but if you have the guts to go up and ask if you can remove their pile, how can that hurt?

Where can you sell secondhand junk?

If you come across something really good then you can sell it on Ebay or in the local paper. Garage sales are also good because you can have the sale at your house, without having to cart anything anywhere. Bigger items are hard to sell on Ebay and therefore need to be sold at a market, the local paper, or a garage sale.

Do you love or hate Christmas?  I personally love it!!  My tree is up in November, hey you spent the money you may as well enjoy the tree for longer than one month!!  My husband loves it too (amazing hey!) he actually went out and bought like 10 trees so we have a forest – only one tree is special and is decorated and visited by Santa but all the rest add that great Christmassy feel!!

My tips for Christmas shopping is start early.

Last year I purchased water guns for all my nieces, nephews and brothers-in-law for only $4 during winter!  These guns were worth $30-40 new and by the time Christmas came around (and it was summer) they were back in the shops again at full price!!!  Didn’t I look like a great Aunty buying these expensive presents!!

Keep on the lookout for items that may be discontinued but still look like fun!  Search through the toy items at the stores like Target and Kmart.  Sometimes items might be lost in the stuffed toy section and be reduced in the computer.  I purchased a Barbie fairies outfit for only 0.04 cents once that I found hidden behind other toys!!

Have a list and write the names of all the people you need to buy presents for at Christmas and when you do get that bargain write the present next to their name – that way you’ll know you have something for them already!

Purchase goods at the Christmas sale for the next year.  We all know to buy our decorations, cards and wrapping paper in the after Christmas sales but what about other items?  In January I purchased chocolates for half price that don’t expire until June next year!!  I have put them away in my Christmas containers so when I break them out in December I will already have choccy’s waiting to eat or gift (the kids can even use them to hand out with their Christmas cards)!

Look through Crazy Clark’s & Sam’s Warehouse!  We all like to give and receive nice gifts and unfortunately these stores don’t conjure up those images  of quality gifts, but dont’ write them off.   One year I got Spiderman web throwers for only $14.95 each and the exact same toys were in Kmart for twice that much!!  So every now and then they get some good stuff so check it out, and if you are able to get it in the middle of the year most people won’t even know where you got it from!!

But if shopping early is a real turn off and you don’t want to think about Christmas early let alone shop early wait until the week before Christmas, the shops tend to reduce items the few days before Christmas – there isn’t always alot of decroations items left but hampers and the like are always handy to have around (especially if you have an unexpected relative pop in for a visit!!).  I remember one year Kamrt had 50% all Barbie items the week before Christmas – a bargain if you have little girls to buy for!!

If you see a decoration you really want you are best to buy it in those few days before Christmas as it usually is already 50% off, but if it isn’t I hope you are one  of the lucky few that can get to the after Christmas sale and buy soemthing that at 50-60% off, that isn’t broken!

Summer clothes are aways on special around January so that is also a good time to put some away for the kids for next summer and Christmas presents – especially babies who don’t care what they look like!!

I store all my pressys in a container in my wardrobe up high in the hopes the kids will not look there – I always warn them that I can return them if they look but this isn’t so easy now that Kmart and Target have changed there return policy to 28 days, but Big W hasn’t done that yet so…

Load up with Xmas Gifts early

We all like to treat ourselves and watch a movie on the `Big Screen’ but it costs so much more than waiting until it is on DVD.  Cinemas have lots of different deals to get us to watch the movie at their cinema and one I want to share with you is Cinebuzz from Birch, Carroll & Coyle (now Event Cinemas).  Being a Cinebuzz member you get 100 points and then you get a free movie, and for August you only needed 50 points to get a free movie.  So for every movie you see you get 10 points, but there is a catch!!!

If you take your family to watch a movie `flash’ your Cinebuzz card you will only get 10 points, even if you are buying 4 tickets so give each of your kids money and get them to buy their own ticket – this will be tricky since you now have to book a seat (you could do it online separately but it does cost an extra $1 per ticket) but once you have your first ticket picked you can tell the kids where to ask for a seat!

The next catch is they have every week (Thursday to Wednesday) a movie that is only $9 on special but you can only buy 2 tickets per card you have – so if there is 3 of you you can’t get 3 for $9.  So then again you need to pass your card to another in line when you are finished!

The next thing is they are offering a code (different for each cinema – the one I have is for Morayfield-  MSMOR1179).  If this code is entered into your details account you can get your movies at a discounted rate (at the moment $11 for adults, $9 for kids until 31/12/2009).  But I found that since I live out of the area my postcode wouldn’t work to get the discount and I had to pay full price!!  To fix this I had to change my postcode to that of Morayfield’s and guess what??  It worked!! I didn’t change my suburb, just my postcode!!

Best of luck and I hope you too will be able to see a free movie soon (it is about time that they introduced something like this!!)

The Common Misconception: Auto auctions are only open tocar dealers.

The Surprising Truth: Anyone with the right resources canparticipate in the same auctions as the dealers!Think about it. How much could you save if you bypassedthe dealers and purchased directly from their sources? 30%, 50%, maybe even 75%.As unbelievable as this sounds, it is possible with alittle patience and research.

As you probably already know from past experience, cardealers will do ANYTHING to get you into the car of yourdreams. Whether you can afford it or not!

I can recall a former coworker who got into a new luxuryvehicle with a little “creative financing.” The managerdivided his mortgage payment in two. His justification: As a married man his wife was responsible for the otherhalf of the mortgage….even though she was a stay at homemom! Luckily for them, they found a way to pay their hugecar payment and avoid repossession.

Unfortunately, others aren’t quite as lucky. Thousands ofpeople default on their loans everyday simply because theycouldn’t really afford it in the first place.This can work to your advantage. The banks and financialinstitutions that serviced the loans want to recoup theirloss as quicly as possible. Add to that the exhorbitantcost of storing these vehicles, and you can easily see whythe banks want to dispose of them in a timely manner. After all, the longer financial institutions have to storethese vehicles, the less money they’re going to get back.Auto auctions are the quickest way for banks to ridthemselves of repossessed vehicles.Car dealers know this, and they go to great lenghts toprotect this knowledge from the general public. After all,auto auctions are a huge source of revenue. Dealers canpurchase vehicles at a fraction of their value, and thenresell them at a huge mark-up. But what if you could avoid the dealer’s mark-up andinstead pay what they pay? What impact would that have onyour wallet?

Amazingly enough, auto auctions are not solely restrictedto car dealers. Up until a few years ago, I too sharedthis common misconception.It was only by sheer luck that I stumbled upon a websitethat allowed me to search local auctions by zip code andvehicle make that I learned the surprising truth.

I was paying dealers thosands of dollars in unnecessarymark-ups.I tried the website’s search feature out, and to mysurprise the cars listed were exactly what I wanted. Only a few years old with very low miles. Many of them werestill under the manufacturer’s original warranty! Thismade sense of course, since most of them wererepossessions. The auction house was even willing to throw in a vehiclehistory report at no extra cost and a 3 month warranty. Sure I wouldn’t get the complimentary car washes and oilchanges the dealer throws in, but that surely wasn’t worththousands of dollars in premiums. After a little hesitation I joined the auto auctionmembership site. They helped me locate auto auctions in myarea, and gain admission to them through their exclusiveaccess rights. I learned what questions to ask, and how tohandle the bidding process. It was a lot simpler then I ever imagined it could be.The day of the auction, I showed up a few hours early toinspect the vehicle I was interested in and get a feel forthe place. It must have been a slow day, because when my car came upfor auction only a few dealers were bidding against me. Since I wasn’t buying the vehicle for resale, I succeededin outbidding the dealers! It was a truely empowering experience. I got the vehicleof my dreams, and I only paid a little over half its bookvalue!What did this experience teach me? Auto Auctions can saveyou thousands in unnecessary dealer mark-ups.
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I wonder if garage sales are becoming less popular, because people often turn their nose up when I mention that I buy “stuff” from garage sales. I personally really enjoy going to garage sales early on a Saturday morning. With the local paper under my arm, a handful of change, and the kids in tow, its a bargain hunters dream.

Of course you cannot buy everything you desire at a garage sale because not all second hand goods are in a reasonable condition.

Things that are great to buy at garage sales

• Books I usually buy my children books for 20c and 50c when a new book in the shop is around $10.00. How could you go wrong? who cares if someone has read it, as long as all the pages are there and it is not drawn all over.
• Brand label clothing. Children grow out of their clothes very quickly. You can always pickup some preloved and pre-expensive clothes for your child at a garage sale. You have really hit the jackpot when you find top clothing that has almost never been worn.
• Shoes. You can get children’s and adults shoes that seem to look almost new. Even if it is something to wear around the house, it will still save you money.
• Old collectables. Often people do not really know what they are selling. I have picked up a timber dressing table that was $5 because it was in pieces. It only had to be put together, which I did, and then sold it for $200. That was still too cheap! Paintings are also a good one..People have no idea about them.
• Furniture. If you were starting to furnish your first house, I really do recommend a garage sale trip to do the job. You could save thousands of dollars. And if you are creative, and think outside the circle, you will save so much more!

Things that are common at garage sales and you shouldn’t buy

• Glasses that are missing most of the set. Who wants glasses that are all odd? I don’t’ know why they are at every garage sale I go to.
• Old sheets and pillow cases that smell like moth balls. They are also usually faded. Lets get it straight, their price does not increase with age.
• Worthless pottery items
• Glass plates
• McDonalds kids meal toys. They were free with the kids meal at McDonald’s and now people want to sell them to you.. Are you crazy?
• Stained and torn clothing.
• Items that no longer work and cannot be fixed.

When my children were young they rarely received any gifts from me that were new. I bought books and toys from garage sales, always in excellent condition, and they were none the wiser. The items looked new but cost less than a quarter of the original price.

I also buy any timber furniture, in good condition or not, as you can always restore it to new condition. Once I bought a silky oak bedside table for $5 because it had paint on it. You have to be early to get that type of bargain.

Once you have been to a few garage sales and come home with some great bargains, you will never look back.