The Virtual Garage Sale

As much as I love technology and would happily hold on to my random "stuff" till they pry it from my cold fingers, I periodically have to do a clean-out. Now, this isn't the strategic "sell-off" that I've discussed which occur so that I can upgrade. Now there is a bit of that going on here since I have a few projects/targets I'd like to get done. But in reality, I just need to get rid of stuff! Since we don't live in one of our famous American "Mc-Mansions", I just don't have room, plus there are a few items that are in a time-sensitive situation. A good example are minidiscs which are in a "out-of-production" timeframe right now and a little bit of a collectors period, but not yet in the "worthless" part of their life cycle. So, now was a good time to sell. Although I had a number which sold in the $5 range, several were $10-15 and a Pink Floyd double album sold for over $90! This made the whole group of 24 end up going for $250+. Of course that meant that I was going to be selling off both of my decks, all 3 of the portables AND the 45 recordable disks. All-in-all, that made my virtually never used Minidsic rig create about $600. Sure, I'm kind of sad to see it go, but "good grief", that's a chunk of change for something that just sits and gathers dust.

The miracle that is eBay (as frustrating as it is to use sometimes) isn't as appreciated as it should be. I often use it as a barometer to tell what things are selling for (whether it's selling at all), what should be gotten rid of, and what I should be paying for something. I also use it as a research tool things such as finding part numbers, which parts work with what, and what is going to be available. Recently, less than an hour on eBay told me that it wasn't going to be worthwhile to replace a cracked LCD, so we sold the old machine for about $50 and bought a better one for about $125! The treasure-trove of information is without hours, borders, or currency barriers. It is often entertaining for me as well. I know; it's really geeky!

Beyond the minidiscs, I used the virtual garage sale to get rid of computer carcasses of machine that are leftover after I finish, and they will often bring close to $50 for a completely non-working laptop. This often allows me to do work for friends for "free". I don't charge them for finding a "new" working machine and transfer their data to it and they leave me their old dead machine that I'll eventually sell to recoup the time I've spent on their behalf. Yes, I know it's cheap labor, but these are often friends and family members. 

Another area that I've used eBay successfully is with photography equipment. It allows me to find parts, etc. cheaply so I can experiment. I wanted to try out "Strobist" techniques and was able to find a Sunpak 422D shoe flash for cheap. Years later, after loading up with Nikon flashes, I sold the old one for nearly as much as it originally cost me to buy. The principal here is that it was something I wanted to try, but couldn't spend a lot of money on. As I became better at it, and found some good deals on more sophisticated equipment, I could sell off what I was previously using back into the same system that I had acquired it from in the first place. If you are careful in your shopping in the first place, you can in fact, often resell at a profit. Another example was my Tokina 80-400 lens. I bought it a few years ago when I was getting into auto-focus photography and wanted a super-telephoto in Nikon mount that didn't cost an "arm and a leg". It was in the low $300s when I bought it. I used it for 3+ years; found that I used other lenses far more often, sold it on eBay for almost $360. Can I take a vacation on the difference....NO. But tell me of something else that you can buy, use for quite some time and sell for more than you paid for it!?! And the fact is, that the person who bought it will have gotten a very decent lens and experience virtually the same effect when they get done with it. $360 was a good deal for it.

In the end, it was a pain in the neck, but well worth the time and effort to do in terms of financial payback. Plus it has cleared up space for future endeavors. Am I finished? Not even close......I've got all manner of stuff ranging from original a James Bond movie poster to computer stuff and even vinyl records that still need to go! I'll bet you do too.