Making Money on Buy_Sell_Trade (or Creating Your Own)

More and more people are cleaning out their closets and selling their "stuff" on Ebay. And some of them are making good money. We all have stuff lying around the house and we would all love to make money off it. However, not all of us want to pay fees and hope that our junk is someone else's treasure.

I joined our local FreeCycle group last year to see what it was all about and get rid of some items. While there, I saw an email for a Buy_Sell_Trade group and joined. The group allows me to post my items for sale while picking my own price. All I have to do is send an email to the group and if someone is interested, they email me back.

Other members post items they are searching for and are willing to pay for. That is how I sold my bread machine I had completely forgotten about. I have also sold a clock, toys, jackets, furniture and a DVD player. I have seen some great things come across like toddler beds, X-boxes, video games, pets, and movies.

Some of the advantages of Buy_Sell_Trade include:

• No fees
• No Shipping, the buyer comes to pick it up.
• No auctions (though you will probably have to negotiate).
• Unlimited (within reason) re-listings

While searching for a list of Buy_Sell_Trade groups, I realized there is not one. So I emailed our group owner only to find out it is not a national group. Though others exist, there is not a list of them. One place to start looking would be do a search in Yahoo Groups for Buy Sell Trade and your city, county or state. If you can not find one, you may want to consider creating one.

Here are some tips on starting your own group:

1.) Start a Yahoo Group. They are easy to begin. Go to your Yahoo Group main page once you have signed up. Near the top right you will see a text link that says "Start a Group." Next name your group and you are on your way.

2.) Next find a group of local people interested in participating. You may want to ask your Freecycle moderator if you can post an invite in their group. Look for other local groups to post in and put up flyers. I also recommend writing a press release and sending it to the media. Make sure they know it is a not-for-profit group.

3.) Set your ground rules. This will involve how items should be listed, what can not be listed, and what posts are considered acceptable. For example, all items for sale must have a FS (for sale) abbreviation before hand, while all relisted items must have a RL. Other rules may include not advertising your businesses and make only relevant posts allowed.

4.) You will need to decide if you want to moderate and approve all the posts yourself. Your other options are to find another co-moderator or to let anyone post. However, if you do open it to all posts, expect a lot of spam.

5.) Begin listing items you have to start the group off. Realize it may take time to build, but it will be worth it.

6.) Don't forget to continue to market it. See if your radio stations will announce it on air for you or ask your local community website to link to you.

Buy_Sell_Trade groups are a great way for you to both make some extra money and get a good deal! It is like a garage sale all year round.