Top 10 Tricks for Turning Your Junk Into Money

If you're looking to declutter a little bit, there's no better way to do so than selling your junk online. Here are our top 10 tips and tricks for getting the most money possible out of your old, unwanted stuff.

10. Find Out How Much Your It's Worth

The first thing you need to do, obviously, is to get an accurate figure for how much your junk is actually worth. After all, it may not be worth selling if it'll only net you a few bucks. You can always search eBay's completed listings for a good guide, but web site WorthMonkey is even better. Just type in what you want to sell and it'll search all sorts of stores online—including eBay, Amazon, and others—and it'll let you know the average price its been selling for around the net. Then you can decide whether it's really worth the trouble.

9. Make Sure It's In Good Condition

Whatever you're selling, it'll fetch a better price if it's in the best condition possible. If you have the original box and other materials, that's fantastic, and the more you've protected it from wear and tear, the better. We've discussed these issues at length in our guide to selling your gadgets online, so check that out for more info. We've also done a guide specific to the iPhone, as well as shared ways to give an old laptop new life(which will also give it a higher price tag).

8. Securely Wipe Any Data on Your Gadgets

If you're selling an old piece of tech, one of the most important steps is to wipe it clean. You don't want to send someone a laptop they can easily hack into and steal your personal information. Here's how to securely wipe your laptop before selling it, and here's what you should do to your phone—including a secure wipe and, obviously, deactivating it from your current number.

7. Take a Good Picture

One of the best ways to make your stuff more enticing is to take a good, high quality picture. If all you have is a blurry cellphone photo or two, people are going to pass it by for the more professional looking ones. Here are some tips for getting the best photo possible, like using white posterboard and getting natural light at sunrise or sunset. A decent camera always helps too, of course, but some good lighting can go a long way.

6. Figure Out Where to Sell It

So your stuff is all ready to be sold, but you need to decide: is this more of an eBay transaction, or is it a better candidate for Craigslist? Each outlet has its pros and cons, and it depends on how much your stuff ends up being worth. Check out our guide on where to sell your stuff for more info. Of course, if you'd rather not deal with strangers, you can try just selling to your friends using Facebook, or a service like List of Things for Sale.

5. Avoid Unnecessary Fees

It may seem like penny pinching (literally), but why pay extra fees and percentages of your sale when you don't have to? For example, try a service like Amazon WebPay instead of Paypal, or use a bit of simple HTML to embed extra photos on an eBay listing without incurring fees. Keep track of what fees you're paying as you sell, and Google around to see if there's a way around them. You might be able to make a few extra bucks off your sale.

4. Avoid Coming Off Like a Scammer

Like a high quality photo, you should make sure your listing doesn't fall into any of the unprofessional traps that can make you look like a scammer. A detailed description, proper grammar, and honesty about its condition can go a long way. Check out our checklist for remembering the important details and make sure you sound reliable. You're likely to get a lot more hits (and money) if you do.

3. Maximize Your Listing's Views

The more people see your listing, the quicker you'll sell your stuff (and the better prices you can get for it). There are a lot of tricks to maximizing the eyeballs on your page, depending on the site you use. For example, you should end your eBay auctions between 6:30 PM and 10:30 PM, when most people are browsing the site and your soon-to-end listing will be at the top. Similarly, if you're on Craigslist, you should edit and repost your listing regularly so it stays at the top of the search results. Selling in a nearby, more popular (or richer) neighborhood can help a lot, too. You should also check and make sure your listing is spelled correctly.

2. Sell Your Stuff Quickly

Patience will likely get you better results than being hasty, but if you want to sell your stuff quickly, there are a few things you can do. You canbundle items together, use services like eBay Instant Sale, or try Amazon's Fulfillment program. It won't necessarily get you your money quicker, but you'll take a lot of the selling and shipping burden off yourself, which can be invaluable.

1. Don't Get Screwed

Unfortunately, when it comes to dealing directly with other people, sometimes someone will try to screw you out of your well-deserved money. Know what you can do to avoid getting screwed online, and know the rules for your specific site, too. Craigslist has its own anti-scam strategies, and you can use more dastardly methods to deal with eBay deadbeats. If, in the end, you do end up getting scammed, you can at leasttry to get some of your money back, if not your dignity. Photo by Quazie.

Title image illustrated by Dominick Rabrun. You can find his illustrations on his personal web site, or works in progress on his blog.