Can You Get Rich Selling Used Skis?

Today I made my way to the used sporting goods store to sell some old skis I found in my garage.  In yesterday's post, I ran through my thought process as I decided where to sell the skis.  The big question for today is:  How much would I get?

Can You Get Rich Selling Used Skis?

The skis were made in Austria and seemed to be in good condition, but I had no idea how much they were worth.  I briefly searched on eBay to get some idea of how much they could sell for, but I didn't find anything similar.

So this was going to be somewhat suspenseful.  I realized that the skis were pretty old- but maybe that would be a good thing.  Maybe they were collectible, or maybe even antiques.  Perhaps I would get really lucky and find out that I was the owner of some really valuable skis...

I carried the skis into the Play It Again Sports shop.  The man at the counter had me fill out a standard form with my name and address.  While I filled that out, he measured the skis and checked out the locking mechanism on them.  It was clear he knew how the skis were supposed to work.

I finished filling out the form about the same time he finished examining the skis.

"Okay," he announced.  I knew that the big reveal of the value of the skis was about to happen.  It reminded me of Antiques Roadshow where people take old items in to be appraised and are sometimes pleasantly surprised when the value turns out to be really high.

"I have a lot of skis and there hasn't been much snow, so I'm going to offer you store credit," he began.

This was not very encourgaing, but I was curious to know how much store credit we were talking about.

"Okay," I said.

"I would sell these for $20.  They are an older style with a gravity-operated mechanism, but it still works.  I can give you 40% of the price, $8 in store credit," he said.

This was not the big payday I was hoping for!  I told him I wanted to think about it for a minute.  I walked over to the ski section and did in fact find similar skis priced at $20.

I decided that I didn't want the skis, I would never use them and they were taking up space in my garage.  It seemed that the price he came up with was reasonable based on looking at the other skis for sale.  If I could get $8 that I could use to pay for a birthday present for my kids, or bicycling gear, etc. then I should go ahead and sell them.

I walked out with a $8 store credit certificate in hand.

It pays to sell unneeded items instead of throwing them away.  I got something for the skis, someone else will get to use them, and the store will make a little bit of money and stay in business.  It seems like everyone gets a (small) win.

Penny Pincher Journal

Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Where To Sell My Old Sporting Goods?

How Can I Get the Most Money for My Used Sporting Goods?

Where Should I Sell My Used Sporting Goods?

When cleaning out my garage, I came across an old pair of cross-country skis that came with the house when we moved in.  These skis seem to be in good shape, but appear to require some kind of special shoes to use them.  Since I do not have this kind of shoes and have no plan to get special ski shoes, it is time to sell the skis.

So the question of the day is:  What is the best way to sell my old skis?

Of course, I want to get as much money as possible for the skis.  Also, I would prefer something quick and easy rather than slow and painful.  Here is what I am thinking-

I could list the skis for sale on craigslist, but I have no idea how much to ask for them and I couldn't answer any questions about them.

I could list the skis for sale on an eBay auction.  This would solve the problem of not knowing how much to ask for them.  But if they sell, I would have to deal with shipping a large item.  This seems like a lot of trouble.

I could take the skis to a local auction house to avoid shipping.  But it would probably cost me more to drive there than I would get for the skis.  Most people go to the auction to buy things such as tools, furniture, and antiques.

I could take the skis to my favorite consignment shop.  Again, the problem is that almost no one goes into the consignmet shop looking for skis.  Although there is a small sporting goods section in the store, most people buy housewares, furniture, and clothes at the consignment shop.  I fear my skis would sit on the shelf until summer and then sell for a very low price...

So a good place to sell the skis would be a consignmet shop where people go to buy sporting goods.  Fortunately for me, there is such a place:  Play It Again Sports.  They buy used sporting goods to resell.  And "skis" is on their list of desired items since it is still winter.  According to their website, they will pay cash for used sporting goods, or you can sell items on consignment.

I have the skis loaded up for a trip to the Play It Again Sports store that is not too far out of my way.

The best place to sell used sporting goods depends on the item and how much you know about it.  In this case, I decided to give a used sporting goods store a try.

Stay tuned to see how much I get for my old skis...

Penny Pincher Journal

Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Car Stereo Upgrade FAIL

Sorry for the false alarm, but I decided to return the car stereo I bought to upgrade my older car.  How did such a great plan fail?

Car Stereo Upgrade FAIL!

The plan was that I would drive my wife's newer car (which had a modern stereo with bluetooth, XM, etc.) and she would drive my older car instead of buying a different (and likely newer and more expensive) car to drive.

The only problem was that she was not excited about the old school radio.  She would miss her XM satellite radio and streaming songs from her phone via Bluetooth.

Fortuately, the shortcomings of an older car radio are a pretty easy problem to solve by replacing the old radio with a new one.  For around $120 you can get a fancy new car radio with a USB port that supports Bluetooth streaming.  For about $80 more, you can add an XM satellite radio receiver.  Throw in about $100 more for cables and installation, and you can make an old car seem a lot newer.

So why did I decide to return the car stereo and get my money back?  The first problem was that the buttons on the steering wheel would no longer work.  It would cost over $100 extra to hook them up, so we decided to skip that feature.

The next problem was the total bill for the radio and installation was around $350 with taxes, fees, etc.

From my perspective, the new car radio wasn't really an upgrade since I listen to music on CDs:  the old radio had a 6 disc changer and the new radio only held 1 disc.  Plus, the steering wheel buttons would no longer work.

After further review, we decided to skip upgrading the radio.  My wife will continue to drive the newer car and I will continue to drive my older car.

This reminds me a lot of going with "Option 1" for my computer upgrade.  As you may remember, I decided to do nothing and not upgrade my computer.

Now I have decided to do nothing and not upgrade my car radio.  Do you sense a trend here?

Penny Pincher Journal

Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Make Your Small Desk Seem HUGE

One of the ways I have been able to save money is by having less stuff.  Less stuff not only saves you the cost of buying the stuff, but also saves you the cost of paying for space to store your stuff.

Make a Small Desk Space Seem Like a Huge Desk!

In the bad old days when I had a lot more stuff, I also had a lot more stuff on my desk.  I had stacks of papers and equipment all over.  It didn't really matter how big my desk was, because it was covered with stuff anyway.

The past few years, I have applied the principles of having less stuff to maximize my desk space.  Over the years, I have downsized from having a large desk to having almost no desk surface now- yet I am more productive than ever.

How do I do so much with almost no desk space?

In my latest article published on Wise Bread, I lay out 11 ways to make a small desk space seem like a huge desk space.

Penny Pincher Journal

Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Avoiding a Fleecing at Sport Clips

I Avoided a Fleecing at Sport Clips!

As you may know, I went 8 years without paying for a haricut at a barbershop.  I bought a $25 pair of buzzers so I could get all the free haircuts I want.  My winning streak came to an end this summer when I paid $12 plus a $3 tip at the local barbershop.  In my defense, I was tricked into going to the barbershop.

After about 6 months and one more DIY haircut with the buzzers at home, I was ready to go to a professional again.  They can do things in the barbershop with scissors that I can't do myself with the #8 buzzers.

Ready for another sharp haircut, I went to the nearest shop- a Sport Clips- and gave my information at the counter to get in line for a haircut.  While waiting, I remembered that waiting was one thing I didn't like about getting a haircut at a barbershop.

Next, I spotted the price board.  The lowest cost haircut was $18.  This was before a tip.  Since this was a pretty fancy shop, I am sure a pretty fancy tip would be expected.  This would put the total damage north of $20.

Plus, since this was a sports-themed shop, I imagined that the barber would try to make small talk about sports during the haircut.  This would be rough since I don't get many TV channels and don't really keep up on sports.

Enough was enough.  I fled.

I quietly gathered my coat from the coat rack and slipped out the door.  I figured they would simply call the next person waiting a few minutes early.  No harm done, and I would save $20+ dollars and most of my lunch break.

This experience got me thinking... How much money would I need to have right now to get haircuts for life?  Let's say I get a haircut once every 3 months at $15 per haircut and I plan to get haircuts for 40 years.  That works out to $2400.  If I had $2400 in a "haircut envelope", I could get haircuts for the next 40 years.

What if I put the money in something with a better rate of return than an envelope?  Let's say I were to put a sum of cash into a fund that averages a 4% rate of return.  How much cash would I need now to get haircuts for life?  The answer is provided using a annuity calculator.  I used an annuity calculator from bankrate.com.  The total works out to $1191.69. 

Of course no one knows what the rate of return will be over the next 40 years.  Plus, the price of haircuts is likely to go up over time due to inflation.  As a matter of fact, the price at my local barbershop went up 50 cents after the first of the year.

Looking at big numbers like $2400 and even $1200 for haircuts makes me think I should stay on course and keep using the buzzers at home for free.

I am not sure if I will cut my hair at home every time, but I am pretty sure I won't go back to Sport Clips.

Penny Pincher Journal

Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

My New Car (Radio)

My 12 year old car has about everything I want- except for one thing.

It has 4 wheel drive, heated leather seats, sun roof, allow rims, rides great, and runs great.  What else is there?  It lacks a modern radio.  It does have a quality sound system with JBL radio which was top of the line in 2005.  But the OEM radio doesn't have a auxillary input, Bluetooth input, or XM radio.

My Old Car Radio Is Getting an Upgrade

Why does this matter?  My wife was looking at new cars that have a modern radio with these features, but has decided to drive my old car instead.  But what about the radio?  She wants to be able to listen to XM satellite radio and stream podcasts and music from her phone.

The good news is that you can buy a new radio with all of these features for under $200.  The new radio also has a USB port for charging and for receiving streaming music from a phone.  Add another $100 or so for installation and cables, and she's all set.

The Replacemet Radio with Bluetooth, USB, CD player, and Adjustable LED lighting effects

Of course, it would be less expensive to skip getting a new radio.  But spending $300 to fix the one thing wrong with the car seems like a good investment to make the old car more enjoyable reduce the risk of ending up buying a newer car which would cost over 100x more than upgrading the radio.

XM Receiver Module for Radio Upgrade

I haven't looked into this yet, but I might even be able to sell the old JBL radio with 6 disk CD player.  Why would anyone want to buy an old car radio?  Someone who has upgraded the radio in their car (like I am doing) may want to take out the upgraded radio when they sell the car.  I can use any proceeds from selling the old radio to offset the cost of the new radio.

I can't wait to get the new radio installed!  This reminds me of when I was 16 years old and installed a new stereo in my car with a cassette tape player and FM stereo.  This was a big upgrade to the original AM radio that came with the '81 Plymouth Horizon.

If you want to extend the life of your older car, upgrading the radio can be a cheap way to enjoy driving it for years longer and save money over buying a newer car.  The radio is one of the easiest tech items to upgrade.   I have been using my 10 year old Garmin GPS unit that attaches to the windshield with a succion cup, so it has a navigation system too.

Stay tuned for an update on how the car radio upgrade works out.

Penny Pincher Journal

Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Too Much Money- My Problem Today...

Today I had an unusual problem.  I had too much money.  Allow me to explain...

When I pay cash for something and get change, I put the change in the center console of my car.  So there is a small amount of change flowing in every month.  But I almost never take change out and spend it.  It just slowly accumulates and fills up the space in my car.

I rounded up the change and put it in a big jar to take to the bank.  Here's a challenge for you:  look at the photo and try to guess how much change is in the jar...

How Much Change Did I End Up With In My Car?

Thankfully, my credit union has an automatic change counting machine.  You just dump the change in and the machine counts it.  The entire jar of change took only about a minute to count, and it was fun to watch.

Automatic Change Counting Machine

Turn Your Change into Bills the Easy Way

At the end of the process, you get a ticket printed out that you take to the teller window.  You can have the money deposited into your account, or you can get cash.

So how much change did I have?  $112.09!

If you are not a member at the credit union, it costs you a 10% fee for using the machine.  Fortunately, I did not have to pay the fee.  There are other automatic coin counting machines such as Coinstar at places like Walmart, but these machines also charge a fee to use if you want to get cash.  The current Coinstar fee is 10.9%.

My advice is to take your change to your bank and have it counted for free using an automatic change couting machine.  Hauling around about 10 pounds of change in my car wasn't doing me any good.  Now I have the change in the form of bills that I will actually use, and I didn't have to pay a 10% fee or spend a lot of time counting change.

Seeing the change build up over time and become a sizable amount of money is an interesting phenomena.  The flow rate of the change coming in exceeds the flow rate going out, so the total is going to grow.  This happens even without the benefit of compounding that you get from investments.

This is a nice reminder of the power of saving small amounts of money over time.

Penny Pincher Journal

Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy