11 Things to Sell to Make Money Fast | Frugal For Less (2024)

Written by Jason Michaels Last Updated: Mar 6, 2024

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We have many articles on selling stuff to make money, but how do you know what “stuff” sells well and where?

I’ll list a variety of different things you have that can sell and where’s the best place to sell them.

Here are 11 things to sell to make money fast.

Table of Contents

1. Gift Cards

Have you ever gotten a gift card from someone that’s for a place that’s either not in your local area, or for a place you don’t even like?

Instead of tossing it into the junk drawer and forgetting about it, you can make a little money off it, or even trade it for a gift card you’d rather have.

Sell or trade in your gift cards at these places:

MyGiftCardPlus
GiftCardGranny
Raise
CardPool

For example, get rid of that $50 “24 Hour Fitness” gift card on Gift Card Granny for$43.25!

You could also save a little money and just pass the gift card along to someone else as a gift.

2. Amazon Trade-In Program

Another option is to sell many of your things in the Amazon’s trade-in program for Amazon gift cards.

The things you can trade in for cash, an Amazon gift card, or an upgrade are:

Kindle e-readers
Tablets
Streaming media players
Bluetooth speakers and Amazon Echo
Cell phones
Gaming consoles and video games
Books
Toys, and more!

What items you can sell depends on if there’s an offer for it, but the site upgrades frequently so you can keep checking back on it.

How much you can make depends on the demand as well as its age. Let’s check out a few items you can trade in and their value:

A 4^th Generation Kindle (2011) in great condition can be traded in for $15.00.
An Apple iPhone 6 (2014) in great condition can be traded in for $55.00.
The “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” (December 2018) video game can be traded in for $24.73.
A “Game of Thrones” (1996) Book set can be traded in for $9.09

If you traded all these items, you would get $103.82 in your Amazon gift card account to buy something you really want.

3. Books

I can just imagine the Bibliophiles gasping at the suggestion of selling books.

But you have to admit there are books around the house that you can sell – old college textbooks, books on hobbies that you never took up, travel books you kept long after the trip, and so on.

Try these apps and sites for selling your books:

How much you can make depends on the book of course, but one seller made $750 from selling all his old textbooks and books.

4. Electronics

Not only selling all your old electronics make you a little extra money, but it’s one less item tossed in landfills.

These places will take your used (and even broken) electronics:

Let’s say you have a used unlocked iPhone 7 (128GB) in great condition to sell, how much you can get for it? Gazelle will give you $173, uSell will offer $175 , and Gadget Salvation will offer $163.

In case your electronics isn’t salvageable enough to sell, please take it to a recycler such as Call2Recycle.org to take care of it for you.

5. Papers

We all have some old magazines, newspapers, junk mail, and a lot more laying around, right? Did you know you can make a little money off of these?

6. Clothes

We all have an abundance of clothes in our closets, whether they’re from previous jobs, previous fads, or lifestyle changes – we can always sell the ones we are not wearing.

This handy guide will help you simplify your wardrobe and make it easier to decide what items you should sell.

There are several convenient apps and websites to start selling your clothes on:

Swap – Sell women, men, kids, baby and maternity clothing. Earn up to 60-70% commissions as well as get $10 per friend referral.
Poshmark – Sell Women’s clothing, accessories, handbags, shoes, men’s and kids clothing. Get $5 for signing up and $5 per friend referral.
Tradesy – Sell your high-end brand clothing, shoes and jewelry here. Name your own price (minus a 14.9% commission fee).
Mercari – Sell your clothing at any price (less a 10% commission fee).

Then there are the more common selling routes like Craigslist, and online buy sell and trade sites.

One woman made $1,200 in two months by selling her clothes online.

7. Collectibles

Do you have a collection stashed away that you no longer have any interest in? Instead of it collecting dust, collect money on them.

Cash in your different collections on these sites:

GetCashForComics – Comic Books
Cutting Edge – Antique and Collectible Knives
Watch Box – Old valuable watches
Neat Stuff Collectibles – Comics and other collectibles

You can also try your local pawn shop, collectibles meetup clubs, and flea market vendors. Find out how much your collectibles are first by reading this reference guide.

8. Junk

We’ve heard of the phrase “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure” right? We even have a “junk drawer” or two around the house. Instead of throwing out your junk, you can make a little bit of money selling them.

Junk such as:

Aluminum cans – If you’re in a state that pays to return cans, do so and collect 5¢ or 10¢ each. Otherwise sell for scrap metal for about 33¢ per pound.
Large batteries – Take your car, boat, or other large batteries to a recycler like Call2recycle.org. Car batteries can fetch around 22¢ per pound.
Boxes – Sell all your boxes in bulk (like after a move) to Box Smart.
Ink Cartridges – Go to Staples and sell your old cartridges for $4 each when you buy new ones.
Old tools – Sell your old, or multiples, tools to your local buyers like American Tool Buyers.
Toys – Sell your kids toys on Once Upon a Child (after they’ve outgrown them, of course).

Lastly, you can try your local flea market and see if a booth owner is willing to buy all your stuff to sell themselves.

9. Craigslist

If you don’t want to bother with having so many different apps and websites to keep track of, you can sell many things through Craigslist.

Craigslist is pretty easy to use and just requires an account and at most a camera (from your phone is fine). You can either keep it local or be willing to ship items (the buyer pays of course).

Here are some pointers to get the most money from selling on Craigslist:

Research – Research your items and find its value so you’re not underselling.
Good Photos – Get the best lighting and angle to enhance your products.
Clear headlines – A good headline attracts readers as well as gives many keywords for searches.
Good descriptions – A detailed description will provide all the relevant information a potential buyer wants.

Simply put, the more information about your item, the higher chance of it selling.

10. Furniture

You may think that a garage sale is the only way to sell your used furniture, right?

Here are a few ways you may not have heard of:

Online – list on Craigslist, or your local buy, sell and trade sites.
Furniture Consignment Shops – The furniture is out of your house; the store can get higher prices for it with a small commission fee.
Antique Shop – Depending on the item, an antique shop may buy it outright.
Estate Auctions – Some estate auction and auctioneers buy furniture to fill up their auction sales.

Now, how much would your furniture be worth? Did you know there’s a Blue Book for furniture?

I checked out how much I could sell my couch I originally paid $800 for – $90, not bad for a couch that’s 10 years old. How about a tv stand that’s only a year old and cost me $250? I can sell it for $190.

11. Garage Sale

If you want to simplify the selling process and just sell everything in one weekend, you can have a garage sale.

Depending on what you have and where you’re located, it’s possible to make anywhere from $100 to $1,000 or more in a garage sale.

Some useful tips to maximize your sales include:

Make a list – Make a list of the things you want to sell to be sure everything is included on sale day.
Set up tables – Set up a lot of tables for optimal viewing – no one wants to bend over and scrounge through boxes.
Hang clothing – Run a clothesline or garment rack and hang up all the clothes you have for a more visual attraction.
Have a proper float – Be sure to have a lot of different currencies available to make change.
Advertise! – Make signs for all the intersections near you, put an ad in the local paper and post on social media about your garage sale.
Offer goodies – Offer free drinks and snacks at your sale, people will browse longer increasing the chances of a sale.
Offer to take Debit/Credit Cards – Some customers may not have enough cash on hand, but want an item. Order the Square Reader for free to swipe cards. Advertise that you have this feature!

For best results in your garage sale, grab this useful resource.

Conclusion

Now you have a nice collection of apps, sites, and ideas on how to sell things you have to make money.

These listings were focused more towards one-time or infrequent selling. I did not include places that require setting up a shop or required staying active with recurrent sales such as eBay, and Etsy.

Let’s get started by learning how to declutter our spaces: