• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Personal Profitability Logo 2016

Personal Profitability

Personal finance for hustlers and entrepreneurs

  • Start Here
  • About
    • Personal Profitability Bootcamp
    • Create Your Website in 5 Minutes!
    • Profitability Resources
    • Media & Interviews
  • eBooks
    • The Personal Profitability Complete Beginner’s Guide to Personal Finance
    • Personal Finance Arsenal eBook
  • Blog
    • Income Reports
  • Podcast
  • YouTube
  • Contact / Work With Me
    • Profitability Coaching

Sell Your Junk Easily With Amazon

March 7, 2012 by Eric Rosenberg

Share
More
Tweet
Pin
Share


I am always intrigued by the idea of selling my old stuff on eBay or Craigslist to make a few extra bucks. However, I rarely put in the time or effort to make it happen. My occasional listing on Craigslist did nothing, so I put the idea on the back-burner. However, a new option to sell your stuff has piqued my interest.

Selling on Amazon.com

As far as I always knew, you could sell your stuff on the Amazon Marketplace similarly to how you sell on eBay. You list your stuff and if someone buys it, you send it over. This takes a lot of effort. You have to list each item, wait for the sale, and ship the item out yourself.

Things have changed.

Fulfillment by Amazon

If you just want to get rid of the stuff today and worry about the money later, Amazon has a service that allows you to ship your junk over in a big box all at once. When it sells, Amazon ships it out to the final customer for you.

This is a great service if you have valuable stuff to sell. If it will sell for $5 or more, this could be a great deal for the lazy seller. If the items are going to sell for less, you are probably better off with other options. When you add the item to your shipping list, Amazon will give you the value so you can decide whether or not to send it in.

Amazon also handles all customer service issues that come up after the sale, rather than you. Items sold through the service are also eligible for free Super Saver Shipping and free Amazon Prime shipping. This makes your total sale price lower so your items are more desirable than competitors selling on Amazon.

How to Sell Your Stuff

If you already have an Amazon account, getting started is easy. Just go sign up as an Amazon seller and add the Fulfilled by Amazon service to the account.

Next, get your boxes (Amazon does not provide these) and your stuff that you want to sell. Pick your first box (you list items by the box, so it is important to stay organized) and figure out what will fit inside. Go to Amazon Seller Central and choose “add a listing” from the inventory menu.

Follow the prompts to add your item, list its condition and selling price, choose to sell it using the Amazon fulfillment service, and where you are sending the box from. You can keep adding as many items as you can fit in the box. Make sure to add the items to the existing shipment rather than create a new one.

Sending Your Stuff to Amazon

After you are done adding items to your box, choose the option to “work on shipment.” Follow the prompts and make sure your inventory list matches what is in the box. Choose SPD for your shipping option and send from the Amazon partner carrier.

Print your packing slip, stick it in the box, and seal it. On the next page, enter the box size dimensions and weight. You will be charged for shipping, so try to be accurate so you are charged correctly and the carrier accepts your shipment.

Print your label and attach it to the box. From there, schedule a pickup from the carrier or just take the box to a shipping store. Amazon will take care of the rest for you.

If you have a lot of old DVDs sitting around and you are now a streaming person, or you are a big reader with a lot of old books that could be worth something, or are a reformed married gamer that has a big stash of conquered quests you won’t play anymore, this could a great service to use.

Image by public.resource.org

Related

Share
More
Tweet
Pin
Share

Filed Under: Around The House, Earn More Tagged With: Amazon, Fulfillment by Amazon, Selling Your Stuff

About Eric Rosenberg

Eric is the founder and editor of Personal Profitability. He left his corporate finance job in 2016 to take his online side hustle full-time and now earns a six-figure online income.

Get the free Personal Profitability Playbook Instantly

Enter your first name and email address to get your free download and join the Personal Profitability Community.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Evan @Smartwealth says

    March 7, 2012 at 6:44 am

    I have sold many books in the past on amazon, and also sold old movies, CDs when they used to be  a bit more popular.  Amazon is not a bad way to go, but if I remember correctly their fees are higher than ebay’s fees are.

    • Eric says

      March 7, 2012 at 1:37 pm

      I think you are right about the fees, but for the time savings it could be worth it for some people.

  2. Jeff @ Sustainable Life Blog says

    March 7, 2012 at 9:02 am

    that is awesome! I didnt know it was this easy.  I may be moving soon so this could really help!

    • Eric says

      March 7, 2012 at 1:37 pm

      Plan on a little time to get familiar with the system. After you send your first box, it is pretty easy.

  3. Beating Broke says

    March 7, 2012 at 9:39 pm

    I’ve looked into this myself, and if you’re moving a fair amount of items, I think it really could be a great way to go.  One thing to keep an eye out for is that they do charge a fee for the storage of items.  I haven’t looked far enough to know what it is, but I believe it’s based on volume used for storage (so DVDs are likely cheap).  

    • Eric says

      March 7, 2012 at 10:42 pm

      I didn’t know about the storage fee, I’ll have to check on that

  4. Debt Recovery says

    March 8, 2012 at 9:23 am

    Wow, it almost sounds too easy! I have a lot of old stuff up in the attic that i never use. Mainly a lot of electronic equipment from my old business venture.

    • Eric says

      March 8, 2012 at 10:07 am

      They might take them, just check on the weight first for shipping costs to Amazon.

  5. shanendoah says

    March 8, 2012 at 11:46 am

    As a married gamer (but married to a gamer) who also has the remnants of a game store in her basement, let me know if you are noticing any game items that are actually worth anything. Much of what we have would only be worth selling on eBay in batches

    • Eric says

      March 8, 2012 at 12:04 pm

      I don’t have too big of a stack of games at home. Most of what I have that I don’t use anymore are old PS2 games, which are not worth much anywhere

  6. JP @ Novel Investor says

    March 8, 2012 at 6:22 pm

    Had no idea Amazon even offered this.  Sounds like it might be time to head back to the ‘rents and clean out some old stuff in storage.  Certainly seems to be easier than dealing with eBay.

    • Eric says

      March 9, 2012 at 7:11 am

      It is the easiest way to sell, just make sure your old stuff will sell for enough to cover the higher fees.

  7. Geoff says

    March 8, 2012 at 7:44 pm

    Eric, I’m quite surprised that Amazon offers something like this.  I’ve got a ton of stuff to sell but didn’t want to go through the hassle of selling it all separately.  Definitely need to look into the Amazon fulfillment option soon!  I wonder if anyone would want to buy a bag of 10-15 usb flash drives….

    • Eric says

      March 12, 2012 at 10:31 am

      Selling the USB drives in bulk, you might have better luck on eBay. It is a lot of work to list everything there, but I have seen success stories. I didn’t want to go through the work, so this seems like a great option.

  8. Don says

    March 11, 2012 at 5:51 am

    I’ll have to check it out!  I never consider them as an option really.  Good job finding a new path!

    • Eric says

      March 12, 2012 at 10:33 am

      Thanks Don. Let me know if you give it a shot.

  9. Eric says

    March 12, 2012 at 10:32 am

    That’s a great story. It looks like you just sold the books directly. Does this sound like a better deal based on your experience?

  10. H says

    March 13, 2012 at 12:10 pm

    Aha! I learn something new every day. I sell stuff online already mainly through eBay and etsy and my own website. I never really considered Amazon before but will definitely check it out now. Thanks for the informative post.

    • Eric says

      March 13, 2012 at 12:23 pm

      It is best for selling used stuff with a bar code, so Etsy products probably would not work. Without a bar code, you would have trouble adding it to a shipment.

  11. Emoney Ross says

    March 23, 2012 at 5:30 pm

      Etsy products
    probably would not work. Without a bar code, you would have trouble
    adding it to a shipment.

    • Eric says

      March 24, 2012 at 12:44 pm

      That is correct, this method really only works well for items with bar codes.

Primary Sidebar

Connect with Me!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Join the Email List

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Subscribe to get on the path to Personal Profitability

  • Bootcamp
  • Podcast
  • YouTube

I started a little side hustle blog in 2008, and left my full-time day job as a Senior Financial Analyst to turn my side hustle into a full-time gig. Learn how I did it so you can build your side hustle. It all starts with the first dollar.

Copyright © 2022 · Narrow Bridge Media, Inc. · All Rights Reserved

Go to mobile version