Don’t despair over your rubbish Christmas gifts – you can make £3k flogging them if you follow expert’s savvy tips
YESTERDAY the majority of us sat in a circle around the Christmas tree tearing wrapping paper to see what our loved ones got us.
And while we are always grateful for the thought – sometimes the present itself isn’t exactly what we had in mind.
Whether it’s a jumper that’s too small or yet another perfume to add to your collection – sometimes there’s just no room for a gift.
But instead of throwing it away or giving it to charity, this year you could try selling it and make some cash back from pricey Christmas shopping.
This Morning‘s money-making expert Dan Hatfield, speaks exclusively to Fabulous on what presents to shift to make some extra cash and the exact website to do it on.
He says: “Christmas time is a wonderful, magical period for a lot of us, but it’s also financially quite a stressful period as well.
“We’re all striving to have the most magical Christmas we can, but the problem is that we spend about 156% of our monthly income on Christmas alone, which means that we’ve got a massive shortfall in terms of other bills to pay and just general living.
“So the problem is, come January, we find that on average Brits have a £3,000 credit card bill to pay, and it usually takes them about three to four months to pay that off.”
It’s an eye-watering amount of debt to start the year off with, but thankfully, the money-making pro says it can easily be erased.
“We know that there are, on average, Brits have 42 items in the home that they don’t use at present, which equates to about £3,000, which is a wonderful figure, isn’t it?” Dan explains.
“Because if your credit card bill’s about £3,000 and the average family in Britain has £3,000 of unwanted items, straight away, we can see that on average Brits can unlock that money-making potential in order to alleviate any big bills in January.”
And each year, 21 million people receive a gift they don’t want plus, further research from eBay found that 77% of us have an unwanted gift still in its original packaging, meaning you can make good money from it.
Jewellery
For those that have been gifted Jewellery this Christmas they aren’t in love with, well, you’r in luck.
The value of gold has increased by 30% in the past 12 months making it the perfect time to sell and earn some extra cash.
Dan adds: “Think about it, how many of us and how many of our family members have got a charm bracelet or a ring?
“I find in my job that every day I get people coming to me with jewellery boxes full of stuff that they just didn’t realise was worth as much money as it was.”
Best site to sell on: Etsy
Beauty
Many of the items we get for Christmas include fancy perfume gift sets or skincare.
But we all have particular brands and scents we like, so if you’ve been given one you’re not in love with sell it on.
Dan says you can get more cash for the product if you leave it unopened and it can be a good way to start paying back that Christmas credit card bill.
Best site to sell on: eBay
Clothes
Dan says we have an average of £900 of clothes we don’t wear hanging in the back of our wardrobes.
Not only that, we also tend to buy new clothes for Christmas and New Year which we wear once.
Instead of keeping it hanging in the wardrobe for years to come, Dan recommends selling it off, and that includes your ugly Christmas jumper.
“Brits pay £14 million a year on Christmas jumpers,” he explains. “And that number’s increasing every year.”
Best site to sell on: Vinted
Kitchenware
We hope you aren’t getting kitchenware for Christmas – but if you do, here’s how to sell it on.
According to Dan Etsy is a great place to sell kitchenware especially brands such as Pyrex.
For larger pieces – say a juicer, or kitchen aid Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace can be easier to get them gone quickly.
Best site to sell on: Etsy
Technology
Whether you have old phone slying around the house or you’ve been bought another portable charger – there’s a way to earn some extra cash.
In fact, it’s worth looking around the house for unwanted tech as most of us have around £800 worth not being used.
Dan says: “And even old technology can be worth something, once it becomes retro, so broken Gameboys can be worth £50.
“But if you’ve got a Gameboy that’s working, then you’re looking at between £100 and £200 for one of those.”
Best site to sell on: eBay
Items worth money
We probably all have at least one or two of these items lying around the house, but you could make hundreds selling them online.
- Bikes – £290
- Computer tablets – £180
- Smart watch – £125
- Christmas tree – £38
- Juicer – £36
- Nokia 900 communicator – £800
- 2009 Sony Ericsson W995 – £500
- Super Nintendo – £50 to £200
- Sega game gear – £150-£350
- 90s football shirts up to £100
- 90s Royal Daulton figures up to £400