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The problem is that there is no such thing as "valuable crap". But let's assume people won't send you crap but only boxes they consider themselves worth more than $10. You will have a hard time find a buyer that pays $10 . In reality it's more like "one man’s treasure is every one else's crap"
The scientific explanation is Endowment effect.
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Thanks! I had no idea Amazon did this. The FAQ says they buy textbooks, but the page shows recent non-textbook books I've purchased as items I could "get up to $10.98". Have you sold books before? I usually sell my books to my local Half Price Books, but they pay a pittance.
I sold 50 or so of my books through Amazon when I moved. I usually got a great price through the trade-in program, which is nice because you get paid as soon as they receive the book from you, but if I didn't think the trade-in price was high enough, I just sold it through the Amazon seller program. This is a service where you ship your books to them, name the price you're willing to sell each one for, they warehouse…
I do this all the time with Amazon's Trade-In Program. A couple of times a year, I look at my book shelf and video games. If I haven't read/played them within the last 6 months, and have no compelling reason to hold onto them for the foreseeable 6 months, into the box they go. Amazon then gives me a pre-paid shipping label. I find the whole process enjoyable. "How much will Amazon give me for this?" is an exciting ga…
Nice approach. I personally can't force myself to get rid of books that I've read, which is not very rational, because I very rarely reread books. But other stuff I try to get rid of, or not buy at all.
I now have children who want to read them.
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Nice approach. I personally can't force myself to get rid of books that I've read, which is not very rational, because I very rarely reread books. But other stuff I try to get rid of, or not buy at all.
Never get rid of books. I got rid of a lot of mine and thoroughly regret it. Why? I now have children who want to read them.
This treats the symptoms, not the cause. The ultimate solution is buying less shit and buying what you do need local and used (usually on Craigslist). If you do this, you get these great benefits: 1. You prevent all the waste included in manufacturing new shit 2. You can usually sell it later for about what you paid for it 3. Since you usually have to shop quite a bit to find what you need, it eliminates the highly a…
The ultimate solution is buying less shit Unfortunately some of us have relatives who insist on gifting us shit, regardless of how tactfully we try to ask them not to. I'd love to join a club like this. (Right now Goodwill suffices, but there's definitely non-cheap stuff we give away just because we don't have time to deal with it.)
But yeah, the gifting culture drives me kind of bonkers too. I intend to establish Gift Truces with as many people in my life as possible come January 1st of 2014 (since, mathematically, I should be even with most people at that point). Or, if a person won't go for that, I'll ask them to donate to charity in my name instead of give me a gift.
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Extremely interested in this idea - I've gotten to the point of pricing out FedEx-Kinko's to cut the bindings off ($1/ book actually) and then scanning them dual-sided into Evernote with searchable text (if you're a Pro member it scans inside PDFs). Still can get past the cognitive dissonance of letting my bookshelf go.
Or you could sell the books and use the proceeds to buy an e-book PDF of the same book. :)
This treats the symptoms, not the cause. The ultimate solution is buying less shit and buying what you do need local and used (usually on Craigslist). If you do this, you get these great benefits: 1. You prevent all the waste included in manufacturing new shit 2. You can usually sell it later for about what you paid for it 3. Since you usually have to shop quite a bit to find what you need, it eliminates the highly a…
This treats the symptoms, not the cause. You're definitely right. However, it does help those of us who understand that there is a problem push ourselves in the right direction and not only embrace the start of a solution but help us make it part of our lives, which makes it far easier and more honest to advocate the same.
Seriously, if you have some stuff, here's how I would get rid of it on Craigslist:
1. Valuable Stuff
Take nice pictures and some time to write a decent description and get the full value of what it's worth.
Or
Spend almost zero time on a bare bones post and get half of what it's worth.
2. Worthless Crap
Post it as a bulk lot and get like $10 for everything
Or
Donate to thrift store and get a tax deduction
Either way, you'll probably get more than the $10 per box that this service would offer, plus you'll not needlessly ship stuff all over the place.
This treats the symptoms, not the cause. The ultimate solution is buying less shit and buying what you do need local and used (usually on Craigslist). If you do this, you get these great benefits: 1. You prevent all the waste included in manufacturing new shit 2. You can usually sell it later for about what you paid for it 3. Since you usually have to shop quite a bit to find what you need, it eliminates the highly a…
The ultimate solution is buying less shit Unfortunately some of us have relatives who insist on gifting us shit, regardless of how tactfully we try to ask them not to. I'd love to join a club like this. (Right now Goodwill suffices, but there's definitely non-cheap stuff we give away just because we don't have time to deal with it.)
This year so far: broken iPhones, a no brand android tablet that sucks, a pile of PMRs that don't work, a portable digital tv that was missing a proprietary power supply, an old HP server, a netbook with a nasty case of the clap, a naff 1998 vintage HP Omnibook, clothes that are too small for our children, a car (which instantly cost me £550 in repairs), a crap desktop pc full of spiders. Ugh.
It wasn't stuff i needed or wanted. It was stuff they didn't want and couldn't be bothered to get rid of.
One day I will just say no. No to everything. No gifts, no charity etc.
Get rid of it all.
The only problem is that I've been there. For a while I didn't own much and people thought I was a charity case and gave me more things.
The cycle is impossible to break.
Perhaps I'm too polite.
The problem is that most people think that things are status and people think improving status is how to help a person. Status does not concern me so I'm doomed.
My problem is trying to cull the wheat from the chaff. I have so much crap and so many things mixed in with it that I don't have time to make sure I'm not throwing out my children’s baby pictures with my junk. But this could definitely solve part of the problem, and provide some well needed motivation.