You wouldn't make as much money, possibly a tax deduction, but you might check with the local library and see if they want those DVDs. Many library systems will, withing certain limits on subject matter and licensing, accept and put to good use books, CDs and DVDs.

An acquaintance gave away about ten years of a magazine he had collected. The library gave him credit for the full magazine stand price of the magazines for tax purposes. Roughly three times what he paid as a subscription. He was then able to apply this to his taxes and have about $150 come back in his tax return. Not a bad return for what would have been filler for the landfill if he hadn't donated them.

E-bay, consignment shops, libraries and public service organizations, are potential places to have your discards do some good. Some give you some return. Others you just get a warm feeling and get your halo polished.

Just a thought...

Why couldn't one or two people who know how to sell on eBay set up a 'store', and put up for sale all that stuff you guys don't want. The eBay dealer takes a certain percentage, includes shipping in the price, the owner/seller does the actual shipping, and the store/seller sends them a check for the whole amount, minus their percentage?

Keeping in mind that I really don't know what I'm talking about...

Sue

Sounds like a good idea to me. A shop specializing in survival, preparedness, and camping gear that has been pre-owned and/or lightly used. Sold at a discount or a nominal cost.

I am notoriously frugal and tend to use, reuse and patch gear until it is useful only as compost. I have gear that is thirty years old and, although patched and not quite as pretty as it once was, it still works. Even if it has been demoted to less stressful jobs. Stuff I used to use to hike with, now carries lunch. It also means I rarely buy new gear and tend to be a little skeptical of the claims that this or that new product is a substantial improvement over what has been around a long time.

That said I have pensioned off gear to friends and family of friends and generally like the idea of recycling and reusing it. I also think that people getting into preparedness or camping is a generally good thing. If the availability of reduced price but reliable gear gets more people involved so much the better.

Setting up an exchange or store specializing in used gear might be made easier because a lot of people tend to go through cycles of heavy then lighter emphasis on equipment. I know people who have started with borrowed camping gear. Went on to get deeply involved for a few years and spend thousands of dollars on new gear and then, for various reasons, found they only actively used a small fraction of what they bought.

Lots of people find that after a time they settle on a few favorite pieces and the remainder, often enough to equip several people, just acts as closet filler. No reason this excess shouldn't be sold and reused.

Your idea for an e-store sounds like a grand idea.

+1

An ETS "store" for used goods would be cool. I think you'd have to set it up whereby the seller would keep the item until it's sold and then ships it directly to the buyer otherwise you'd have to ship the item to whoever is running the store and then ship it again to the end buyer.

Not sure if Ebay is the way to go, they're gonna take a percentage of each listing whether it sells or not, which is fair but what if it were possible to funnel some of the money to the ETS foundation instead?

What would be needed is a pretty simple website that allows the posting of multiple photographs and someone to keep it organised, pay for the domain and server etc.

The seller would have to provide a description and some photos of each item and agree to forward a percentage to the foundation. Otherwise you'd have to set up some sort of payment system on the site which is gonna cost more and require more band width and more work for whoever runs the site.

Another idea, there is already a marketplace forum, we could ask Doug to make it accessible for individuals to sell only used gear with a percentage sent to the foundation in return for the listing privilege. Set some reasonable limits on number of items one person can list and make the donation a reasonable amount and easy to make and I know I'd use it.

I'm on another web forum/group dedicated to overland/expedition travel that has such a listing for members to use, I've picked up a couple of items there for very reasonable prices and without really competing with the site's advertisers. I read still another web forum that also has a classifieds listing for members only, they take things a step further by allowing the seller to either list an item for public view or only for other members, I've purchased a computer and several pieces of photographic equipment there and it's been a painless experience.


JohnE