Selling Stuff

[livingdeb]

Yesterday I gathered up my nice things I don't want and travelled around town getting rid of them.

I got some fancy sneakers a couple of years ago that were comfortable in the store but then by the end of my first jog I discovered the arch supports were just too lumpy. In spite of my normally fabulous receipt-saving methods, I could not find the receipt anywhere. I felt a little bad about returning the shoes and thus canceling out the commission of the guy who worked with me. (My favorite thing he said was that my cheapo Reeboks weren't that bad for me; my running technique was fine when I was wearing them.) I thought about trying to rip out the arch supports. Finally I decided to sell them to Play It Again Sports.

I went to the closest branch (Anderson). They don't sell running shoes, only cleats, but their south store sells them. I was going that direction anyway, so I went their next.

They really want a South Lamar address, but since they were only kind of sort of near Lamar, it took me a while to find them. The good news is that they agreed to buy my shoes. I had spent around $80 on them and was hoping for at least $20. Nope, I was offered $5. Ugh. I took it anyway.

Next stop: some consignment shop that I'd researched. Most of them only want brand new in-style things, but this one seemed to like classic things and places like J. Crew. So I brought my new ill-fitting LL Bean jeans, my good-condition LL Bean lined slacks, and my good-condition Duluth blazer.

But when I got there, they started talking about in-style things and they did not want any of my things. I really wish I had friends who could wear these, but they all claim they are too big to fit in them even though they are obviously thin. (Except for my friend who is way smaller than me, which I only know from trying on some of her old clothes which I cannot fit into even though I am also thin.)

Normally I wish people would publish their blog entries at this point in case I have good suggestions. But instead I just passed these things (along with a bunch of other things) to Good Will.

E-Bay is an obvious choice, but the way I am, I would have to pack it up for shipping before I even listed it (otherwise I'd never get around to it in a reasonable amount of time). Well, basically I really don't want to deal with that. Or trying to meet people safely from Craigslist. There are certain things that are easy to do that I have an irrational dread of doing which I don't feel is worth fighting, and these things are in that category.

I've also been told that garage sales are kind of horrible.

Lessons: Always keep receipts and return things ASAP once I've figured out they won't work. Otherwise, consider it worth $0 in resale (except possibly for my car and definitely for my house). Only buy things I really want (and have room for).

Comments

[texpenguin.livejournal.com]

Check to see if your neighborhood has a buy/sell/swap Facebook page. Many do. You have to ask to join and verify that you live there, but then you can post things there. Limits the crazy, and often it's honor system (private message your addy, age to leave the product on the porch, and they agree to leave the money under your for mat.) Tex penguin

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

One of the things on my (very, very long) list of things to do is to get on my neighborhood's mailing list, so I do expect to find out whether there is such a thing here.

That's an nteresting culture of trust you describe!

[texpenguin.livejournal.com]

Well obviously you're not going to sell your great great grandmother's Tiffany brooch this way, but a $5 shirt or a $20 end table would be worth the risk. And you only give your address to the person by private message so no one else tries to snag it off your porch. Thus is also a good way to freecycle. Fewer flakes when it's limited to your neighbours.

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

Yep, makes sense. (Depending how flaky my neighbors are!)