The Cairns Post

How to make fast cash

Selling household clutter could earn you thousands of dollars with little effort, writes Sophie Elsworth

-

SELLING unused goods lying around the home could leave many Australian­s thousands of dollars better off.

A quick cash injection can easily be made by getting rid of items cluttering your home, and turning what is often your trash into someone else’s treasure.

Online classified website Gumtree’s new Second-Hand Economy Report, released today, found Australian­s have, on average, $5300 in unused or unwanted items.

The report, which surveyed 1000 Australian­s aged 18 to 64, also found: • 89 per cent have unwanted items in the home. • Households have, on average, 23 unwanted possession­s. • 57 per cent of those surveyed have sold second-hand items in the past year. • The main unwanted items are shoes and accessorie­s (62 per cent), general electrical tools (43 per cent), furniture (35 per cent), sports and fitness (34 per cent), and tools, gardening and DIY items (25 per cent).

Gumtree spokesman James Walmsley said it was a win-win to offload your unwanted goods and fatten your wallet.

“From a seller’s perspectiv­e it helps generate more money and boosts your income,” he said.

“Knowing you have money literally lying around your house that you know you can sell really enables you to boost the income you actually take home. And, from a buyer’s perspectiv­e, it helps you save money because you are not purchasing new items and you are not spending as much.” The report also found Australian­s are happy to offload their items to help contribute towards a house deposit, holiday, cover their expenses or reduce debt. It found 41 per cent of people are concerned about being able to finance buy now, pay later purchases, and selling unwanted items could be a good way to help do that. Listing on Gumtree is free, but customers are charged if they want to do things such as bump up their items online, so they reach more shoppers.

Be realistic about the asking price, because if you are greedy it’s harder to sell listed goods.

Tribeca Financial chief executive officer Ryan Watson said offloading unwanted goods was a simple and painless way to generate fast cash.

“If people really put their mind to it, I reckon the average person could easily generate thousands of dollars by selling their items on a platform like Gumtree,” he said. “Once you have generated the extra cash, the key thing is to put it to good use, for example, paying off or down debts, as opposed to just blowing the money.”

The report also found 43 per cent of Australian­s believed they could save half the cost of a brand-new item by settling for second-hand goods.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia