These last few weeks we’ve been trying to weed out some of the boys’ old things. Specifically, jackets. We have a rather large stockpile of very nice but now too small coats and jackets that have been accumulating in our basement closet.
Some are dressier styles, some are fleeces, some are 3-in-1 winter jackets, etc.
A small sampling:
Anyway, since my kids never seem to actually want to wear their jackets as much as one would expect in a Wisconsin winter, these jackets literally all look….. new. I couldn’t really bring myself to just drop them at Goodwill or something without at least trying to sell them.
(I feel like a lot of kids clothes gets pretty worn out and aren’t worth the hassle, but these are more expensive items that I think legitimately have solid resale value.)
I spent a good hour the other day uploading them all to Ivan’s Facebook Marketplace account. (Long story, but I’m somehow permanently blocked from Marketplace, for some stupid reason that makes no sense, but Facebook doesn’t have customer service.)
Fortunately, we’ve gotten several interested people!
I am very happy to see these jackets go to new homes, and we’ve made some decent cash, too; got $50 back for that top left North Face puffy jacket!
My mom also took a big bin of nice boys sweaters and other clothes to a local resale shop for me and we got ~$115 back from that.
Finally, I posted a few of the remaining “toy” items we still had around here. Specifically, a Lot of Snap Circuits, which my boys were really into for quite a long while.
These I posted on both Craigslist and Marketplace- the whole lot for $50.
This is a STEAL, because I am 99% sure we paid well over $50 new just for that Arcade set alone as a Christmas gift one year. The Light set is currently listed at $83.99 on Amazon, $102 at Target.
But I mostly just wanted to get them out of my house, and I also cannot actually guarantee that every last piece is there. So I decided to just list them all together for $50 and call it good.
Well, a man responded on Craigslist who said he runs a Boys and Girls Club and that he was interested in buying them. He lives up north but was going to be passing through Madison this week.
He was a very nice guy and seemed excited to get all of these for such a good price.
The next day, he sent me a follow up email to thank me again for accommodating his pickup schedule. He said, ” The kiddos are going to be excited to get building!”
I thought it was really nice for him to send that email! I’m happy to know they all went to a good home, too, where they can continue to be enjoyed! 🙂
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for some resale success…. not always easy to sell used stuff.
GRATEFUL KAE 
I love getting a little money for stuff knowing that it went to good new homes. The email was very nice 🙂
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Purging the home of this kind of thing feels SO good, and how nice you were able to make a little money in the process!
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It really makes me smile when strangers are kind, especially when it’s unexpected.
We do a lot of donations here, either to my helper, or to school. girls are more willing to let go of their things if they know it will help someone. We should do another round before the end of the year. A charity sell is coming up at school.
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My heart melted when I saw the Snap Circuits. Those were a BIG DEAL in our house back in the day. I’m not sure if we still have them, but our set was well loved.
We never sell things but it’s really cool when it works out that way. The boys have slightly older cousins and then we have friends with younger boys, so we had a really good hand me down system for clothes. It’s funny to look at family pictures and see the clothes move down the line through the cousins.
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Wow, your experience with FB Marketplace etc. has been so much better than mine! I put one item out just as a test and only got spammers! So I put two more and on the first one, I got 10 requests, but only 2 (I think) are real people (still TBD)… It has not really been that fun, to be honest.
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I’ve never had much success selling things, but to be honest I’ve never really tried that hard. I think the things you were selling were perfect items- kids winter coats that are like-new. Kids outgrow thing so quickly, so it’s a good deal for parents if you can buy a winter coat used.
That’s really nice about the guy who bought the building sets- you made a little money (as you should, considering how much you spent on them originally) but you also did a good deed- the kids at the Boys and Girls Club will get so much use out of them, and they really did get them for a steal. It was a win-win!
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I’m with Kyria and Jenny. Selling stuff on FB is so hard. People just don’t show or they try to bargain you down and it’s all such a hassle. LOL. My laziness is definitely showing, isn’t it?
Isn’t it lovely what writing a short email can do? Now, only imagine if that had been a handwritten thank you note?! (My snail mail brain loves things like that.)
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It always makes e so happy if someone can use things we don’t need anymore and if you get some money out off it all the better. I feel like the online forums were a little more hit and miss for me compared to a couple years back – e.g. people not showing up or it taking forever before you get a reply. So that message you received about the games is so sweet. I started collecting for a garage sale sometime soon – we will see how that goes.
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That is great that you’ve had success selling things. It can be a total pain but some things sell great there. I had a lot of luck selling baby stuff on FB market place. People can be totally flaky so I won’t hold things for someone for example. It’s first come, first serve. I’ve sold baby carriers, a crib, and halloween costumes off the top of my head. But I’ve sold other things as well. That’s how we bought our Halo bassinet. Glad you got some cash for those items!
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Such a good reminder. I have to boxes of stuff sitting here to be sold. Maybe I load some up tonight. Bit it really is always so much time that is needed to do so. Glad your efforts were so successful.
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