The old saying “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is never more true than when you browse eBay. Selling stuff on eBay is an easy way to put a few extra bucks in your bank account, but what you probably don’t know is that you’ve been throwing away free money every time you take out the trash.
Here are six things you’ve been throwing out that you could instead be selling on everyone’s favorite auction house.
1) Plastic bottle caps
Mike Wehner
If you buy disposable plastic water bottles by the dozens, you’ve probably been disposing of the caps each time you drain a bottle and recycle it. Craft lovers will pay you for them.
2) Destroyed t-shirts
Mike Wehner
Think your old shirts are too rough for Goodwill or a similar charity? You can sell your torn, stained, ruined pieces of clothing as rags and rake in some cash at the same time.
3) Paper towel and toilet paper tubes
Mike Wehner
Every time you replace a roll of paper towels or toilet paper, you probably just toss out the cardboard tube. Little did you know that people will take them off your hands and stuff your pockets with cash instead.
4) Empty candle jars
Mike Wehner
Once you’ve gotten your money’s worth out of your candles, put the empty jars up on eBay and score a few bucks—which you can then use to buy more candles.
5) Soda can tabs
Mike Wehner
If you don’t already love pulling the tiny aluminum tabs off of your soda cans—seriously, everyone already does that just for fun, right?—then perhaps a cash incentive will be enough to get you to pop those tops.
6) Coupons
Mike Wehner
How many coupons do you get in your junk mail, newspaper, or magazines? Chances are someone out there wants them, and eBay is a hot spot for coupon buffs who will buy those tiny slips of paper from you.