One Person’s Trash is Another’s Treasure

How to increase your income by re-homing unwanted items!

It’s true – one person’s trash is another person’s treasure!  Especially in the industry of recycling. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.  You may see an old dresser with missing handles and a cracked drawer.  But someone else sees a project that will earn them good money!  They can replace the handles, strip the old varnish off and repaint the dresser – and even ignore the crack because it all adds to the character.  Suddenly your old dresser has real value and real ‘cred’. And someone will buy it for real money! That money could be yours!

Taking an imaginative approach to discarded, unwanted items has opened up a whole new income stream for those who are prepared to put in the effort.  But more than that – it’s opened up a new opportunity for the planet.  We’ve talked before about the mountains of rubbish the world has to contend with.  Every effort we can make to recycle or reuse items is a tick for our environment.

Meanwhile, you can earn a lot of extra cash with a little effort and a little ingenuity.  There are some very successful businesses out there that were founded on items other people had thrown out.

Here’s an example.

Just three years ago one woman started selling a few ‘unwanted’ items she’d collected from the kerbside. She now turns over tens of thousands of dollars a year through her business. It’s already allowed her to put a deposit on an investment property so she’s delighted!   What’s more, she holds down a full-time job as well.

Her story might inspire you!

Here is how she did it. 

She kept it local. Her collection area and her sales area were in the same postcodes because she didn’t want to bother with postage or freight, both of which added extra work and extra cost.  So, she concentrated on ‘pick up’ and ‘collection’ customers only.  If you’re not sure how that works check out Come and Get It, a new site that matches Listers (those with items to give away) with Collectors (those who are looking for similar items).

She only spends five hours a week on her ‘side business’.  That way she can manage both her full time job and her ‘extra job’.   Her allocation of time?

• 3 hours per week on the hunt for items online or driving around the local area;
• 2 hours per week repurposing or renovating them for sale. But mostly she simply cleans the items up before advertising them.

Before she started, she spent time really getting to know her local market.  To help you start, here are some things you should ask yourself:

• Do you know when your local council does its kerbside collection of bigger items like furniture and exercise equipment?
• Do you know what sells well in your local ‘tip shop’ if you have one?
• Do you know how long, on average, items take to sell online?
• And do you know what people are prepared to pay for recycled/unused items?

Our successful friend checked the price on items listed for sale on commercial sites using her nearby postcodes to filter the search and tracked the items to see if they sold.  It helped her build a detailed understanding of her neighbourhood in terms of what they might buy and how much they might pay.

Mostly the items she advertises sell within 5 days.  If they don’t sell within 14 days, she takes down the listing.

Why not follow her example … here are some pointers to get you started.

• Once you begin to sell, keep a very strict sales history. And don’t be afraid to sell an item when you don’t know anything about the category. You can sell a fishing rod without knowing how to fish!
  • What location did the item come from?
  • When did you post it for sale?
  • What category did it fall under e.g. furniture, clothing, sporting goods etc etc?
  • How much ‘revamping’ did you do before it went on sale?
  • When did you receive your first enquiry?
  • Did that lead to a sale?
  • Final selling price?
• Get involved with your community. All sorts of opportunities might crop up to get more items to sell but you won’t know about them unless you have ‘an inner ear’.
  • Who is selling up?
  • Who is downsizing?
  • Who is holding a garage sale or simply giving stuff away?

That sort of information can save you hours of time and present opportunities to get in ahead of the pack and have the pick of the best products.

Don’t drag the chain!  There are all sorts of organisations and individuals who are just waiting to pounce on preloved and unused goods.  They know how valuable those items might turn out to be!

Give it a go!  Visit Come and Get It and see opportunities to turn trash into treasure in your neighbourhood.

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