Christmas is now almost a dim and distant memory, but chances are that some of the gifts you received are still sitting somewhere in your house taking up space.

Possibly you’re thinking…

“I’m not sure I need that…but it’s too good to throw away…”

“It could go to charity…but truth be told I could do with a bit of cash; it’s brand new after all…”

“…I would take it to a car boot sale, but they don’t start until the spring… ”

What can you do?

If you are looking to dispose of your unwanted goods online, then you have two options:

• Retail – You can either try advertising on Amazon or eBay with a fixed listing or by auction. If you go this route you might eventually get the price you were hoping for, but it might take time. Or…

• Wholesale – You could try out some of the Trade-In websites for a more immediate return on your money. The upside of using trade-in sites is that you get an immediate offer. The downside is that any given offer will effectively be ‘wholesale;’ much less than retail, as you are effectively selling your item to a third party merchant, who will then finally sell on to the public in their own right.

For many, the Trade-In option does have appeal. Apart from getting an instant quote, resulting in a guaranteed return (albeit a smaller one) you are also able to clear your clutter today, rather than at some vague point in the future, and that can be very cathartic!

Also, if you trade in certain second-hand goods, e.g. music & film media, books, mobile phones, you will often be able to find a home for some of your stock which would not easily fit into your normal retail model.

For instance; some of the heavier books which I have in stock might not be worthwhile selling directly on Amazon’s Marketplace site, as the prohibitive postage due to the weight, would make the sale untenable. If I sell the same book via a trade-in site the postage is usually free.

Suddenly this releases some capital from a potentially unsaleable item and improves the overall profitability of my stock at the same time.

If you think the trade-in option might be for you, here are three sites worth investigating:

1. The Amazon Trade-In Store

• The web address for their store is so long and tortuous, I therefore recommend you simply Google the following “amazon trade in,” and you will find a direct link at the top of the page results. Alternatively click here

• They are currently only offering trade-ins on two commodities; books and video games e.g. Nintendo.

• The above screenshots reflect what they would offer on two of my books.

• If they recognise and accept your items (they won’t offer on everything) and you are happy with their offer, they will give you a pre-paid postage label to cover the costs to send to Amazon.

• I highly recommend you pay the extra £1 for recorded delivery. That way there can be no quibble as to whether the goods have been received.

• Once your items have been checked to make sure they meet Amazon’s quality guidelines, you will receive a gift voucher; redeemable only at Amazon. Sorry, no hard cash actually exchanges hands with this system.

2. We Buy Books – www.webuybooks.co.uk

• This UK based site buys: books, CD’s, DVD’s and games

• They site will pay cash (via a cheque)

• They also pay for your ‘free postage’ labels

• Their ‘Hot List’ of books, are:

• Food/cookery books,

• Arts and crafts books,

• Text books,

• History books,

• Travel guides.

As a general guide popular paperback fiction and children’s books are not often accepted.

3. Music Magpie: www.musicmagpie.com

I have mentioned Music Magpie before in my newsletter, in relation to selling music CD’s, but they are worth mentioning again in the context of Trade-In sites, also because Music Magpie have now increased the overall range of items which they are prepared to trade.

They will now accept:

• CD’s, DVD’s & Games

• Electronic equipment e.g. Apple products, second-hand Kindle devices, laptops, PC’s

• Mobile Phones

• Clothing – Original Labels only.

They will pay cash (cheque), rather than voucher and will also pay for the shipping of your goods to Music Magpie. As with the other two sites, their offers are subject to minimum quality requirements.

My Observations

For Books:

• ‘We Buy Books’ seem to have a better feedback rating than Amazon, but they are newer and appear to be trying a bit harder at customer service.

• Amazon will usually offer a higher price for books than We Buy Books, but it should be remembered that We Buy Books pay cash, whereas Amazon only offers in-store gift vouchers.

For Music CD’s:

• On the whole, Music Magpie will pay more per CD, when compared to We Buy Books, and seem to have a larger catalogue of titles which they recognise. There are occasions however, when We Buy Books will pay more than Amazon.

• Therefore, when working through a pile of CD’s, it’s worth comparing values on both sites in order to maximise your return.

• Music Magpie will pay a minimum of £0.30p (for titles they accept) up to a maximum of £3.00 per CD. These values can change, even on a daily basis.

• I have not tried to trade clothing or electronic goods and therefore cannot comment on those categories.

• Hopefully this little guide to Trade-In websites will help you clear out some clutter and possibly improve trading profitability at the same time.

And Finally… Survey Winner Announced!

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to complete the survey last week – it has been a real eyes opener to find out what people are keen to learn more about. Of course I will be translating that feedback into future issues of Maverick!

And so, I am delighted to announce that the winner of the £50 Amazon voucher: we pulled the name out of the virtual hat (using a random number generator I should add) and the lucky person was….

Helen Furness!

Congratulations Helen – a £50 Amazon voucher is winging its way to as I type this!