Ways to Get Free Stuff to Sell

Here's a picker video I just found on You Tube, doing a little Curb Scouting for free stuff.  This is just one of the many ways you can get stuff for free (with a vehicle and a bit of gas) that you can resell to make money.

Here's a few of my personal stories of money made off of free stuff:

- I got the bug to buy and sell stuff from my dad.  Both of my parents loved checking out garage sales, and my dad was really into shooting when I was little, so he was always going to gun shows.  I learned how to haggle over prices from watching him.  He was always buying and selling guns and gun parts to make a few extra bucks here and there.  One of my favorites was when he bought a whole case of 10,000 pro-gun bumper stickers off a guy for $30.  The classic "I'll give up my gun when they pry my cold, dead fingers from around it," was one of the six different stickers.  Within a month, my dad had sold enough stickers to pay for the whole case.  At that point, the rest of the stickers were free.  I watched him use those stickers to sell, trade, and to sweeten deals for the NEXT TEN YEARS.  He ended up getting hundreds of dollars of stuff from that case of stickers.

-Working as a furniture mover for years, people were always offering us movers stuff just to get rid of it.  I got a free refrigerator, a washer and dryer, and lots of odds and ends.  I actually turned down most of the stuff offered because I didn't have a place to put it.  My biggest score as a mover was in Newport Beach, California when a guy offered me a custom made leather couch and love seat.  They were awesome, except for being a weird peach color.  "The wife says they just don't match the new house," the owner said, "Can you guys get rid of them."  I said, "We sure can," in a flash.  After checking a few consignment shops, I figured they were worth about $6,000 new.  But I just needed some extra cash, so I sold them in the Recycler (SoCal classified newspaper that pre-dated Craigslist) for $300 in a couple of days.

-In an earlier post I wrote about how I saw an old dining table in two pieces by the dumpster at my storage unit.  I hauled it to my unit, took a few photos, and sold it to an antique shop about four days later for $150.  I don't go to great lengths to find free stuff, these deals just came my way.

If you're looking to find free stuff to start selling, here are some places to start:

-Cruise your city, like the guy above, and look for decent stuff sitting on the curb for free.
-Dumpster diving.  OK, there are a lot of crazy dumpster diving videos on You Tube.  Don't pull medicine or other potentially dangerous stuff from the trash.  Also, it's illegal to dumpster dive in many places, there's no need for you to get busted.  But if you cruise the dumpster areas in apartment complexes, you'll often find pieces of furniture and other items sitting outside that you can grab for free without getting in any trouble.
-Craigslist.  Scan your local Craigslist "Free" section regularly for things you can pick up and resell.  I saw a piano for free here in my area once.
-Facebook groups.  I've never done this one, but I just saw a video about it on You Tube.  Join a bunch of groups and look for free stuff.
-Garage, moving, and estate sales.  Here's another one I just saw on You Tube.  There's a picker who emails all the people advertising garage sales every week in his area, and says he'll haul off anything left over for free.  He owns a for-profit thrift shop, and says he gets two or three calls a week to come pick up a van full of stuff each week.
-Clean out houses for real estate investors.  Another idea I just saw on You Tube.  If you have a truck and can find some help, you can offer to clean all the junk out of houses for investors who are flipping houses in your area.  You can actually get paid to clean out a "hoarder house" and then sell anything that's worth money.  Obviously this is a lot of work, but it's another way to get free stuff.

OK, there's a few ideas to get you going in the picker world for no money.  Have fun.