I sold my soul for $26
Memories...
Yesterday I went to Buffalo Exchange, where I tried to sell three bags of old clothes that had been sitting in my closet, festering.
I’d been meaning to dispose of them for some time… In light of my recent layoff, I decided to sell instead of donate. I thought it might be fun (and practical) to see how much money I could make… I knew it wouldn’t be much, but in these hard times, every penny counts, right?
After waiting in line for an hour or so (yes, I probably should have gone in early in the day when most people were at work), it was finally my turn. I walked up to the buyer and dumped pieces of the past 10 years of my life onto the store counter.
My heart broke a little as they priced the old lady cardigan my college roommate gave me in a clothing swap 9 years ago. But now was not the time to get sentimental. I once heard (on Oprah) that if you haven’t worn something in six months, you should get rid of it.
Out of the dozens of articles of clothing, the store bought 6 or 7, and offered me $26. Ouch. But okay, it’s better than nothing.
After signing some paperwork and collecting my cash, I said to the buyer: “Next stop, Goodwill!” But he assured me there was no need for another trip – they would kindly take the unwanted garments off my hands and donate them to a battered woman’s shelter. A very worthy cause, and quite honestly, the thought of lugging mounds of clothes across town in my now torn garbage bags was not very appealing. So, I obliged.
It was only after leaving the place that it crossed my mind: what if they DON’T donate them? What if I go back there tomorrow and find my allegedly undesirable clothing displayed on their racks? What a scam!
And then, I was struck by guilt. I should have just donated everything in the first place. To be fair, I have absolutely no evidence that they don’t donate the leftover clothes, so let’s assume for now that they do. Even still, there are people out there who need the 6 or 7 articles I sold much more than the hipsters who are about to pay a mark-up for them. I’m not so bad off (just yet) that I need to scrimp on this type of charity. What’s next? Rummaging through the canned food drive in front of my old workplace?!
Lesson learned.
And you’d better believe that tomorrow, I’m going back to Buffalo Exchange to check their racks for any foul play.
Oprah has a job, she can afford to edit her closet every six months.
They will donate them, but you could have gotten a tax write off at Goodwill.
There’s no reason for them not to donate them. If you did go back and see you’d been scammed, that would hurt them. They are in a business to take what they honestly think they can resell. They’d have little motivation to do it otherwise.
Good point. Thank you. I feel better now.
And yeah, the tax write off would have been worthwhile.
good luck with this amazing endeavour of maintaining a blog in such adverse times ..
i fully support your cause and pray for your financial well being in the near future…
you actually get much more $ from ebay sales vs. selling to a thrift store ’cause they have to mark stuff up so much to make a profit
Hey guys.. good luck with what u’re doing. It’ll definitely help encourage those who are victims of this global meltdown..
ATB
Cheerz
hi from china.i read china daily today and saw ur pics on it^^
wow. now i know to not trust oprah on giving away clothes tips
best wishes with wat u do
Very interesting story !! Thanks for sharing it
you should have taken them to crossroads in the castro. i got about $100 for a couple bags of clothes once. although i wasn’t unemployed at the time … just cheap.
Selling clothes is the worst way to make bucks. I suggest selling books and DVD’s. Green Apple hooked me up and Ameoba (cheap bastards) did away with the rest.
Hi
I donate huge amounts of stuff every year. I get a nice tax write-off too. Am I making huge bucks at a great job or something? No, I am unemployed also.
So how do I do it?
I “freecycle” with online friends. I get on yahoo! and look for people with stuff to give away. I go pick it up. I go through it and keep what I need. I donate the rest and take a tax write-off.
Although I must point out that one rule of freecycle work is very important. You can not just be a taker. You must have something to give and offer up to others once in awhile. It’s the polite way to be.
Just An Idea,
Susan
you can actually make money buy going to goodwill or some cheapo place like that and going through the dollar a pound box, picking out any brand names and reselling them to places like buffalo exchange. i did it a few years ago and made 50 bucks not to mention some cool threads
I found more here if anyone’s interested
I found more here if anyone’s interested