by Elizabeth Wordsmith

Created on: September 15, 2008

When considering the options of selling unwanted possessions on eBay vs. a garage sale, consider and weigh the preparations and wait period for a buyer against an immediate cash buyer in a garage sale. Also, consider increased potential for higher profit by selling on a highly visited site sucy as eBay. There are advantages and disadvantages to both venues.

Anyone who has held a garage sale knows the pitfalls. First, savvy garage sale devotees tend to show up before you are completely ready. They will quickly grab up your best items at a low price. Those people are experienced hagglers and want rock bottom prices because they plan to resell these items on eBay or at a flea market. The advantage, though, is that you get cash and you don't have to deal with the bother of packing items up for mailing.

As the day progresses, you'll then have serious bargain hunters rifling through clothing and other merchandise. They cleverly seem to know only a few words of English: one dollar, fifty cents, a quarter. Anything higher than that and they will not understand a word you are saying.

Sometimes you get very aggressive shoppers who insist on making a foray into your garage for a look see. You tell them those items are not part of the garage sale, but they still insist on pursuing the topic. This happened to me. One day I left my daughter in charge for a few minutes while I went inside. A buyer talked her into selling him a train set that was actually inside a garage cabinet. The cabinet door was slightly ajar and his sharp eyes detected a good deal in the making. When I returned, I found out my daughter had sold this set to the buyer for a song. The guy even had the nerve to call back later to see if we had any other such collectible objects around.

Garage sales are not for the sentimental. Your treasured objects will go for cents on the dollar. But, at least you will have cleaned out your house, earned some tax free cash, and made some bargain hunters very happy. It's a quick way to get rid of items that you would have had to pay a bundle to haul away.

On the other hand, you could make some money by selling on eBay. To do so, you will, however, need to do some work. It's a little more labor intensive than sticking a sign out in your yard and throwing some stuff on the lawn and driveway.

You will need to set up an account with eBay such as a Pay Pal account. That's not too difficult and takes just a few minutes.

Then you should write a brief description of the article

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