Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover... More Recycled Goods Saved & Sold For $1,197
To most, this looks like a broken TV left for ruin.
To me, it's a TV stand sold & hand-delivered for $120 a few subway stops away.
If it hadn't rained, the TV's main and power boards would be easy to test and resell for $100+ more if the screen was simply cracked (the usual scenario).
This is what I wish more people could see. Find the value in things instead of writing them off on the surface.
More free recycled item sales:
Most people see this as trash because it must not work...
I see this: Epson Pro 3880 printer sold for parts for $250.
Several new Cat's Paw full and half boot soles sold for $283.66.
Yep... rubber boot soles tossed & found = real money.
Aerogarden seed growing system sold for $128, after offering it to my Mom who declined.
6 empty Veuve Clicquot Gouache chiller tins sold for $85. Fancy now.
Samsung TV power board tested and sold for $88.
Not my pic.
Visio TV main board sold for $65.
TV stand sold for $50.
MBE study book sold for $45.
This must be old junk not worth taking...
My screwdriver said: Vintage Bozak speaker sold untested for $44.
Chemistry textbook sold for $38.
It's not about the lucrative finds. It's about each and every item not being wasted and now in the hands of people who needed them (won't need to buy a new one).
Add this up in the thousands of items I've saved in this fashion (and shipped in recycled packaging), and it really does make a dent.
Please give it a try. It'll be fun and rewarding. Feel also free to message me with any success stories no matter how big or small.
For example, @rmsbodybuilding just scored two large working monitor speakers he's now blasting workout music through in his home gym.
As always, let me know if you have any questions or could use some advice. I can also help you value something if you'd like.
Thanks for your support in helping me spread this valuable message,
@steemmatt
It's all about how you see things. :)
being multi-dimensional is the way to go!
keep doing what you are doing brother! <3
Exactly. Thanks for the nudge as I go out to get more now.
Printers are terrible here. The price of a new printer is often lower than the price of a replacement ink cartridge so consumers will just throw the old one to landfill and buy a new one. So wasteful.
Quite a few years ago when I worked for a furniture company, I borrowed the company van during "hard rubbish" week (when bigger awkward items that won't fit in your bin can be left out) and drove around my neighbourhood picking up nothing but metal. Sold it all to a scrap dealer and made about $300 for about 3 hours work.
Awesome stuff man!
How does one go about testing TV power boards and such?
If the TV wasn't in the rain, I take it home (like I just did tonight on a Sony flat screen), and plug it in. Sometimes, the TV will not have a cracked screen, so I can see it power on and then see the mother board is fine. Sometimes I'll plug a video game system in to test it that way. The only other things I check closely are the ports to see if there's any damage to them. If the screen is cracked, I can still get the same testing in the same fashion, minus seeing a clear image.
You just know when it's good. If I'm ever not sure, I'll sell the main board for parts if it's worth the effort to extract it. Out of every board I've ever sold, I only missed one issue, which was an ethernet port being busted, which taught me that lesson. He kept it for a partial refund. When there's a cracked screen, you get a gut feel that's why they tossed it.
I just scored a massive haul in just my first 2 blocks. Easily $900 or so from three main finds. Going back out now to do the rest of the run.
Thanks for the tip!
Hope you scored even more :D
Wow - you are personally making one hell of a dent in the landfill issue, whilst earning money and providing goods affordably to others. Seriously impressed!!
Shared this post to the @c-squared curation community and also to @gogreenbuddy.
NICE work!! @eco-alex Did you see this??! :)
Leading the curation trail for both @ecotrain & @eco-alex.
Together We’re Making This World A Better Place.
Click Here To Join the manually curated trail "@artemislives" to support quality eco-green content.
@ecoTrain
Thanks again for catching this. I'll be posting on what I found last night, and you won't believe how much I can get by just walking around a few blocks in my city near my apartment. I've been posting on this stuff forever with dozens of blogs like this, but it seems like I finally found a good eco-community on Steem to appreciate it/motivate me more.
I think for most it comes to ignorance of who values it. I mentioned I have sold items most of my life, but many of the items you find interested buyers for escapes even me. Maybe you could put together a guide explaining how one finds interested parties for parts. I say guide, because I believe you could easily compile in a word document, make a cheap cover (or pay someone on Fiverr, just provide the pic to know there is no copyright violation) and self publish via Kindle, Nook, Kobo etc.
Love these posts.
Thanks for the view from another angle. The short guide idea is interesting. Many of my friends have prodded me to write a book, guide, or follow up with people who've offered to film a documentary on me, but I often talk myself out of it because it might take my focus off of the low-hanging fruit in front of me to save.
The bigger vision is to do this, which is largely why I save all of my records, but your quick guide might be a good step in that direction. Steemit has been my initial opening up on this topic so far. Most people I interact with simply don't get or respect what I do, so it makes me shy away from opening up more. I'll get there eventually once I feel I have more stats people can't deny and don't need to be begged to see the value in.
As some possible insight into why I get some of these prices,
I've never gotten negative online resale feedback, so I clearly advertise this in every listing for added value/consumer confidence. I think this convinces people to spend a little extra for the peace of mind this may offer, or buy mine if price is comparable with others.
I often aim high on price and stick to my guns, even if it takes a year to sell. I observe the watchers/view counts and regularly tweak the pricing down slightly when there's a spike to let the platform algos kick off to send out price drop alerts when eyes are active. I can't tell you how many times I've had sales on long-term listings within minutes when I do this. I also aim high at times because I want quality higher-tier buyers who aren't going to be so sensitive to price.
Supply and demand. I often find discontinued/older parts that I carefully test and clean that I list for the "one or two people in the US" that want or need them. That's my mindset when I list certain items and those who need them eventually surface, buy, or email for a discount if the price is just out of reach.
If I find something unique, and there's a competitor listed, I'll wait for it to sell and then list at whatever price I want. This leverages the FOMO of anyone who recently passed on it and also makes sure the competition is out of the way.
Most of what I sell is in close to in line with recently sold items on eBay, so some of these items simply may have a higher asking price than most would expect.
Hope these little tips can help. Thanks for the support.
wow crazy gains indeed. Do you think it's worth it flipping stuff like this on ebay as auctions starting at 1USD and no reserve?
Posted using Partiko Android
I almost exclusively sell as "buy it now" or "cash and carry." I do roughly 2-4 auctions a year and they usually result in a price I'm not happy with, so I just wait it out for things to sell (and adjust my asking price over time if I don't get enough nibbles). I like to be in control of the price I get, and don't like giving up that influence.
thanks for the answer. What's your rotation?. I mean, how long in average does it take you to sell an item?.
Posted using Partiko Android
I have so many items. It varies. Some hot sellers move within 12 hours of listing, while most take a week or two. For an example of fast movers, 3 things I listed in the middle of the night sold within 4 hours while I was sleeping.
The things I price high or are super uncommon/rare (waiting for the rare buyer to come along) can take a few months, or even a year+. I try to keep those items smaller in size to manage my space here. If something takes too long to sell, I'll discount the price or take it apart into smaller pieces to save room.
Love seeing these posts still. I'm about to move to another area for a but so I hope I'll have some more luck there. Will have to keep my eyes open.
I was wondering about taxes though for income you make by reselling. Mainly I was wondering if the self employment tax applied to reselling goods.
Posted using Partiko Android
Thanks as always. Happy to be able to connect to people about this here. Good luck with your move. ...Most of my sales run through PayPal, and they give me a tax form to report my income. I'm not sure about the specific self employment tax re: reselling you're referring about though.
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here
To the @c-squared crew: Thanks a lot for consistently getting behind these types of posts of mine.
Hello!
This post has been manually curated, resteemed
and gifted with some virtually delicious cake
from the @helpiecake curation team!
Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!
Manually curated by @blewitt.