Don’t you love those commercials; you know the ones, where the happy family is driving away in their brand new car, joyfully buying new clothes at the mall, and running their hands lovingly over their new bedroom suite or living room furniture. Yeah baby, feel good marketing. Problem is, the commercials end after 30 seconds of feel-good and they don’t follow up with real life facts, such as the credit card bills–including interest–on all that new stuff; bills that can last as long as a college education, or longer.
Of course you love new stuff…who doesn’t? But new stuff has a price, and not just the one on that tag. Once you factor in the true calculated price of items, which by the way includes corporate advertising, profit, taxes, and interest, you end up paying a lot more for that stuff than you could imagine.
I–on the other hand–love used stuff. There are a hundred reasons why, but I encapsulated them into ten specific reasons why previously-owned merchandise is more advantageous than new. Once you get over the stigma of buying used and begin to rejoice in the significant deals and reduced prices, I promise you’ll be hooked as well:
1) Used stuff is cheaper, sometimes ridiculously cheaper. New is expensive, used is less expensive. Plain and simple. New merchandise, as referenced above, has a lot of additional fees attached to it. The stores need to recoup, well, everything—employee salaries, advertising, taxes and fees of their own. Then, they need to make a profit. Finally, you have to pay sales tax on the item. Now sure, it’s fun to have that new thing in your home or driveway. But that newness doesn’t last long; pretty soon that new thing becomes a used thing (in, oh, about two hours). Save yourself a ton of money and buy used. You may have to compromise a bit on color or fix a nick or two, but more often you can get items that look brand new, and certainly upgrade on merchandise you couldn’t afford to buy new in the first place.
2) The thrill of the hunt is exciting. Hey, anyone can walk into a store and in five minutes put a pricey item on their credit card. It takes a skilled, sharp-eyed and eternally patient consumer to put off instant gratification and wait for that wanted item. But the item always surfaces. Yesterday I bought a super cool desk for my teenage son’s room ($15) which matched two tables ($10 for two), both purchased from private sellers off craigslist. New those items would have cost me anywhere from $70 to $90 new. They weren’t perfect, and it took me about three weeks to find what I wanted, but I assure you in a day or two they would have had a nick or scratch on them anyway, knowing my kids. And the wait was worth the price.
3) Items you buy used are already assembled for free. There are people that just live to assemble stuff, but I’m not one of them. After awhile all those a’s to c’s, b’s to d’s, War-and-Peace directions in six different languages, nuts and bolts and screws have me pulling my hair out. The desk I purchased yesterday had all of those wonderful letter stickers on them, evidence that someone else some months ago spent an hour or two of their precious time assembling a desk that I simply and easily put in the back of my van, and simply and easily carried up to my son’s room. Ahh, the miracle of pre-assembly, at no additional cost!
4) You can barter. The desk I bought above was priced at $20 used; I paid $15. The two tables were $15 used; we settled on $10 for both. Try to offer 50% less for starters and work your way up. They can always say no, but they usually say yes or they agree on a price in the middle. You can save hundreds of dollars and, over time, thousands. In the same way, allow others to barter with you when you sell an item. Bartering helps the world go ‘round.
5) You often end up helping out some poor soul who didn’t read this article and now has credit card debt. I know what folks are paying for brand new stuff, and it’s pretty scary. You can’t help but read horror stories in magazines or even just overhear in the checkout line credit-unwise consumers lamenting over their debt. Soon, they are forced sell that pretty stuff, and you can be the one who comes out way ahead while you’re helping them pay off that expensive credit card.
6) You don’t pay sales tax on used merchandise. I mentioned it before, but it’s worth repeating. This is a primary reason why I love buying used, you never pay additional taxes or fees! You can’t imagine how much money you save for this reason alone.
7) You help the world recycle. Recycling is always a good thing, because you can get the most out of an item before it enters our landfills. Recycling is a must for thrifty families, and will save you a lot of money as well as the environment.
8) You can often resell used stuff for the same if not more money. Unlike new items, which go down in value the minute you walk out the door, used items are often exceptional values. People get rid of merchandise for a wide variety of reasons and the savvy shopper wins. In a previous article I wrote about a pair of Nike football cleats my son bought off—yup, craigslist—for only $8 (price new…$30). Well, he didn’t make the team unfortunately, but at least our wallet didn’t have to suffer along with his poor ego. And, when we resold them we made a little profit, which I gave to my son as a consolation prize.
9) You don’t sweat the small stuff. Those of you who have ever purchased a new car: do you remember the first time it got scratched? Or, ever buy an expensive sweater only to spill coffee on it? Really burned you up didn’t it (no pun intended). Well, that’s another positive to buying used. I’ve bought really nice shirts at goodwill or yardsales and being the klutz I am, ended up spilling something on it, or my kids do. I don’t sweat it. We bought our Plymouth Voyager with 38,000 miles on it, one owner, looked brand new. Less than a week after we brought it home, our then six-year-old put a nice, long scratch in it while riding past on his bike. I was irritated for sure, but not nearly as incensed than if I had paid the new sticker price for it.
10) It makes sense. Look, in the end stuff is just stuff. The only benefit to buying new is that you can return the item if it breaks. Okay, for some purchases–relatively small in number and usually electronic in nature–you do want that guarantee. But for a huge majority of other items such as cars, clothing, furniture, sports equipment, household goods, specialty items, toys, books, tools, and just about everything else, used makes so much sense. Your credit card will be sad and lonely for you, but your wallet will be one happy camper.
Sharon Cece © 2009
About Sharon Cece Sharon's articles, stories and ideas are featured in a variety of columns, websites, magazines and newspapers. In addition to writing for Factoidz, Sharon is a columnist for the Raleigh Examiner, an AchieveYourCareer.com feature writer and a contributor for Associated Content.
