Cash in the attic: How to make money from clutter

From forgotten Lego sets and Pokemon cards to unused dinnerware, the dusty storage boxes you’ve dismissed as old junk may be filled with sought-after collectibles

Agood spring clean can be a big boost to your mood, but it can also offer a boost to your wallet. Those boxes gathering dust in the attic may be worth more than you think, so rather than giving everything away or throwing unwanted items straight in the bin, take the time to sort through the clutter.

Jane Bell, an eBay specialist consultant (janebell.co.uk), estimates that the average person has around €2,000 worth of stuff to sell, quoting that old adage: “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.”

Items don’t even have to be particularly old to fetch a tidy sum — an issue of British Vogue from 2020 with Taylor Swift on the cover recently sold for €80 on eBay.

It’s not guaranteed money, and listing items online takes time and effort, but if you’re looking for a little extra cash, we asked seasoned sellers how to identify what’s worth selling.

Determine the value of your item

To check if something is worth selling, music memorabilia dealer Laurence Carpenter (rocksolidinvestments.ie) advises doing a little research on eBay.

“Everyone uses eBay: it’s the most popular platform on the planet for selling collectibles. Go to ebay.co.uk — because eBay is used more in the UK than in Ireland for some reason — type in the description to the search engine, check if there’s any for sale and if any have sold, and that will give you a quick indication as to whether it might have some value or not,” he explains, noting that filtering your results for “sold” listings will offer a helpful price guide.

“Hopefully, an identical item pops up and you can see it sold for €50 over the last two months, so that’s a ballpark figure to work with.”

Likewise, if similar items are only selling for a couple of euro, you can save yourself the bother of preparing a listing.

Choose a resale platform

Although eBay is the most popular, other options may be more convenient, depending on the item you’re selling. Bear in mind that eBay charges fees, generally at least 10pc of the final sale value.

Facebook Marketplace and adverts.ie are free, which makes them useful starting points if you want to test the waters.

Laurence suggests trying to sell locally first; if there’s no sale after a couple of weeks, post it on eBay or another specialist website.

Snap it, list it, sell it

That’s Jane’s advice for putting your listing together. She recommends searching for a similar item to give you an idea of how to write your description.

“Fill in as much of the listing as possible, especially item specifics,” she says. “Describe your item clearly — point out any faults and photograph them.”

All of our experts emphasise the importance of being upfront and transparent about any flaws, wear or tear on the item, to save your own and potential buyers’ time. Highlight any defects in the description as well as in the images.

Use up as many of the available image slots as you can with clear, well-lit pictures.

“Some people love colourful backgrounds and outdoor settings for items, but I always try to keep my background white and plain as to not take away from the item, and try to show the item from all angles,” says Amy Quinn, who sells classic video games, consoles and accessories at retroralph.ie.

Matthew Turnbull, owner of crystalantiques. ie in Carlingford, adds: “If there are makers’ marks on the item, or silver stamps, include good, clear photos of them — anything that gives more information to the buyer is good.”

Take the time to measure and weigh your item before listing, too, so you can calculate the postage costs.

Schedule for optimal exposure

You can set a fixed price or run an auction, which Jane notes is often the better choice for selling collectibles.

“Set auctions off for 10 days starting on a Thursday night so they end on a Sunday night between 5-8pm, when eBay UK has the most traffic. This also goes over two weekends, so it gives people more chance to find it,” she says.

Pack and post with care

Put the effort in when packaging — if the item gets damaged, it’s your responsibility to provide a refund.

“Your parcel needs to be packed so well that it has to bounce without breaking the contents,” Jane explains.

Tony Gammell, Pokemon collector and owner of specialist retailer pokebundles.ie, advises sending your parcel with tracked shipping where possible to protect yourself during a sale.

“The onus is on the seller to ensure that the buyer receives their item. This will protect you from fraud.”

Items to look out for: Vinyl records

“Vinyl, like books, is printed in a lot of countries all over the world and sometimes Irish vinyl has been more valuable due to the lower printing numbers compared to the UK or America,” says Mark Carey, owner of Limerick record store steamboat.ie. One album to keep an eye out for is Led Zeppelin 1. “It has 453 different prints of vinyl in about 40 different countries, so it’s an extremely popular album. The most the first print of it has sold for is €177 on discogs.com and the lowest at €15 — that’s why it’s important to know exactly which pressing you have.”

‘Everyone uses eBay — it’s the most popular platform on the planet for selling collectibles’

Specialist website discogs.com has a comprehensive guide to help decipher the pressing and other identifying information, plus it’s a handy place for reselling, along with eBay. Another option, Mark adds, is to take a stall at a vinyl record fair or car-boot sale, or you can offload your entire collection at a store that deals in second-hand records.

“You’ll never make full value selling into a record store because, well, the store has to make some money to keep the lights on. What we do offer is the opportunity to sell all your vinyl in one go,” Mark explains.

If you’re sitting on a substantial CD collection, Laurence suggests you’ll have better luck selling it in bulk rather than individually.

“CDs are hard to sell, so definitely selling them in bulk would be a good idea. And be realistic about the value — you’d be lucky to get 50 cents for a CD, if even,” he says.

Games and toys

If they’re not totally battered and missing parts, you can make serious money from childhood toys, particularly Lego sets. However, you’ll need to spend a bit of time ensuring that the set is complete.

“Bottom of the list is selling the Lego in the shoeboxes you found it in. That would sell for around €10 per kilo,” says Ronald Vallenduuk, co-founder of brick.ie, the Irish community for Adult Fans of Lego.

To make a decent sale, you’ll need to comb through the pieces, taking out “clone” bricks made by other manufacturers and figuring out which exact Lego sets you have.

“If you or your child have kept the instruction booklet in a box, that helps a lot, both in getting sets together and in selling. Most sets have an inventory in the booklet that you can use to find all the parts.”

His co-founder, David Fennell, notes that there are various places to sell, from adverts.ie and eBay to dedicated online marketplaces like bricklink.com and brickowl.com. The most valuable items, he says, are “complete but discontinued sets in popular collector themes such as Star Wars” — a complete Star Wars Cloud City set [number 10123] is “extremely high value”, selling for hundreds or even thousands of euro.

Ronald adds: “If you’re looking at sets from the 1980s, with instructions in good condition, parts not chewed, you could be looking at a good bit of money. If you have boxes from those days, your price goes up again.” The Steam Engine with Tender set [7750], he adds, could be worth €700.

With video games, there are certain series to watch out for, too. “Mario and Zelda games for the older Nintendo consoles are always very popular, as well as some Pokemon Gameboy games,” explains Amy. “Before listing any item, always test it to make sure it’s running correctly and if it isn’t, put this in the description.”

If you come across a collection of Pokemon cards, look out for any special or first editions (printed 1999-2000). “With Pokemon, the shinier, the better,” says Tony. “Approximately one in every three packs of the older Pokemon cards had a shiny foil card. From the base-set era, the most valuable card is Charizard followed by Blastoise and Venusaur.

“I think the best strategy is to sell all the shiny holo cards individually and then sell all non-shiny cards as one lot — this will give a good balance of higher resale value without a lot of the additional sorting and pricing.”

Tableware

“The main thing that comes out of attics tends to be dinner/tea sets people got as wedding presents,” says Matthew.

“The most sought-after sets are by Royal Albert — the most well-known is the Old Country Roses pattern. Another wedding-present staple, Waterford Crystal, has had a little bit of a resurgence after quite a long lull in popularity and price. Pre-1990 pieces are definitely more sought-after. Along with these, gold jewellery and pieces of solid silver, especially Irish silver can sell well.”

If you have trouble identifying an item, or if your online research indicates it could fetch a substantial sum, he notes that it might be worth taking it to an antiques dealer for a valuation. There will be a charge, but an authenticity verification could lead to a smoother, faster sale and a higher price.