A Few ItemsWhich it Pays Off to Shop For Secondhand
Not only is it more expensive, but the practice of buying all of your clothing, home furnishings and other belongings new is inherently wasteful. An unbelievable amount of stuff is available for sale used, whether it’s via yard sales, thrift stores, online/offline classified ads and other means, and unless consumers take advantage of these great deals a lot of them will end up in landfills to mar the face of our already polluted Earth.
All of these items are generally in perfectly good shape (sometimes even /better/ than new – I’ll explain) and offer you significant savings and perhaps even profit. Here I outline a simple list of items that it pays to shop around for used for several reason, including up front and long term savings.
Clothing (Especially for Kids)
Style doesn’t really change /that/ much-you’re not going to walk into your local thrift store and see bell bottoms and leisure suits–mostly it’s all hype to feed the masses and keep them buying. A cute shirt from a year or two ago is probably still cute now, and when you get right down to it fashion has much more to do with the creativity of the wearer than It does the individual articles of clothing that they’re wearing.
If you’re looking for clothes with the /intention/ of messing them up, as in yard work or hiking and camping (you’re probably not thinking about fashion as you’re tromping through the woods) I can’t even get it through my head why you’d think about buying them new. Kids clothing is great because they have that habit of growing so fast. What’s good now might not fit in a year, and what’s the point of spending a fortune to furnish them with a stylish new wardrobe if it’s all for naught every time they go through a growth spurt?
Home Decorations
This is one of my personal favorites for two reasons. One: home d?cor is so radically overpriced when buying new, and two: you have such wider variation when shopping used. Yard sales are probably best for this since sellers understand that people are only looking for deals, so prices usually range in the dime – quarter range. It’s unbelievable! These items are often pristine, due to their very nature: how much use does a typical decoration get? Absolutely none – they just sit there.
Exercise Equipment
It’s one of the most common practices in the civilized world: New Years hits, and somehow with lofty goals of personal fitness runs out and buys a bunch of home exercise gear to really commit to the new change. That is unfortunately about the extent of their motivation, and months or even years down the line it’s time to sell that expensive treadmill and weight set for a small fraction of the original cost. It happens all the time, and if you’re shrewd you’ll be the one buying the “un”used stuff as opposed to laying out the cash for all new. Careful, though, that you don’t end up reselling yourself a year or so down the line.
This is but a small sampling of the many, many items that can be had used for ridiculously cheap prices. Buying used is not indicative of poverty, it is a symbol of environmental awareness, frugality and creativity, and hopefully you too will soon start to take advantage of all the savings.
CB Michaels is a practiced creator of web-based content and an experienced author, and at this point in time writes about subject matter such as aluminum patio awning and vinyl patio covers.
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