Being an university can be hard when we are talking financially. I am lucky enough to pick up a job on the side of school or in between school semesters, but without a degree, I can only make so much (even if I am working 40 hours a week). And not to mention, hitting my early 20’s, the idea of saving money and moving out from home is also in the air. Spending money is easy, but what about making money? So recently I found a great way to make some extra income on top of my bi-weekly paycheck and that’s by selling my stuff online. I first thought of this through selling my last semester’s textbooks. I posted them on Kijiji and then people would message me, I would meet up with them, and I get some cash (hopefully break even from what I paid), but then cha-ching, I just turned an useless textbook that would have been just lying in my bookshelf for cash.
So then, that got me thinking, what about if I sell all the things I hoard around in the house or if I never use it?! I can liquidate that into cash! For the past few weeks, I looked into this as bit more and actually found some other platforms that make selling and buying things easy. I am so excited to say that I’ve already sold $500 worth of my stuff that’s just sitting in my room collecting dust! In today’s blog post I will be sharing a few of my findings and tips to selling your things.
An app I live off of is called Carousell. This app is actually originated in Singapore but has made its way to Canada. There’s a pretty big user pool in the app. I would say the users using this app is younger (age 17-25) – a guess. However, I find that the products I sell and/or buy are trendier and instyle. This is a perfect app to sell your clothes. You can join groups within your school or your area, which really helps with meeting up with people. The design of this app also allows you to mark products as sold, reserved or available. Another great thing about this is that you can leave reviews on each other’s account. This helps with creditability and knowing your seller or buyer is legit.
Image Courtesy of Carousell | via
Although I did start selling my items on Kijiji, I have been using this less and less. Compared to Carousell, I feel like Kijiji isn’t as safe of an environment. You can’t really see the seller’s profile or how their past transactions went. I also find that Kijiji has a way larger user pool including a lot more adults, thus making finding products are bit harder to filter. https://www.kijiji.ca/
I found another app called Varagesale. This app is similar to Carousell but from what I’ve been seeing, it seems to be more targeted towards mom’s or new parents. This is great for posting home products, furniture and of course baby products. https://www.varagesale.com/
Lastly, I started joining groups on Facebook. This varies between your community and city, but if you are in Toronto, there are so many different ones based on your niche that you can join. I am in a few fashion and beauty focused ones and aside from selling my own items, I often find some great deals on there too!
Ending this post off with some tips if you haven’t buy/sell within the community before. It’s so important to meet up in a public area where there are other people around you. I try avoiding inviting people to meet up at my house because it’s best to not disclose personal information. In Toronto, there are designated areas outside a police station where you can exchange items with buyers. This is great for more expensive transactions.
Image Courtesy of Eloan | via