It was an interesting emotional experience, to say the least, when I put a pile of stuff I had removed from my home out for sale.
Bit of context: my Thai herbal business Pure Thai Natural Co Ltd was having a stall at a local Made With Love community craft market, and we've sold there often before. It's not unusual to see people with a small side-table of second-hand oddments, and it felt like a great way to release some "stuff" and recoup a little cash. Living in what was previously a serious tourist town (Thailand had 39 million tourists per year, pre Covid!!), we get friends, customers and travelers CONSTANTLY leaving us "stuff" - stuff they have bought and used during a long stay, stuff they can't carry. We pass everything practical and functional on to the refugee communities along the Thai-Burmese border. But we're often left with the not-very practical but too-good-to-throw-away stuff... 🤣 Things like heavy little Buddha statues, weird books, a radio, an extra computer monitor...
And so I decided to price it all low to sell, release it with intention and see that happened.
Gotta say it was a super interesting - and challenging - experience!!
The things that sold didn't surprise me - they were a fab price and mostly the more practical things:
- the rock hard herbal-bamboo pillow (popular for Asian people)
- a woolen pashmina
- a brand new stainless steel refillable cup
- only one of the books ☹️
- two big cans of unopened roof-concrete paint
- the artwork a friend had made & gift that didn't feel 'right' hanging in my house.
What was unexpectedly challenging?
How defensive I felt at displaying what people assumed I had frivolously bought! 😆
What felt GREAT?
That feeling of seeing people walk off with what they felt was a great bargain, and seeing something going off to a new home - wanted. The little bit of cash returning felt nice too! But perhaps the BEST part were some of the awesome laughter-filled conversations I had with people who admired or commented, but declined to buy what they didn't need. That poor Quan Yin statue - maybe I should just RENT it out? So many people picked her up to admire her and then, like me, commented that they don't need or want statues and icons gathering dust.
But NOW WHAT?
I felt deflated packing up the stuff again and refuse to put it back in the house - currently under the roof on the front porch. No, it is NOT going back into the spare room!!
The monitor didn't sell, so today I'm going to post that in a local facebook group for all things second hand. Fairly confident some digital nomad will grab that. And going to photograph the books in logical sets and offer them in the same way. The remnants I will post in the local Buy Nothing Group on facebook - for FREE. And hope to release some energy and create some nice karma, which is about as important as cash in my world.
Have YOU ever tried to sell off 'stuff' at a Market or Garage Sale?
How did it work for you?
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