Did you know you can list stuff you want to sell for free? So you get to keep more of the money you make off of an item because you're not paying for an advertisement. I actually got an unplanned lesson in this, though I ended up being grateful for it later. I have to tell you how this all happened:
We have a purebred Black Lab. Her name is Shonie and she's nearing six years old now. When we bought her, we couldn't afford to pay full price for her, so the guy we bought her from made a deal with us. He really liked her bloodlines, so he asked that we let him breed her one time, and he would cut the price in half.
Since he was willing to work with us and seemed like a responsible breeder (he didn't even want to consider breeding her until she was at least two), we went for it. There was no way we could walk away from her after seeing her, so we were hooked. She's beautiful! So, long story short, we never got her spayed. She was pretty good about sticking around, and she's also an alpha female, so even when we did the agreed upon breeding, she had to be held in place since she thought she was supposed to...um...be the one on top--sorry for the visual folks. Haha!
Now, let's fastforward a few years. Since Shonie hadn't been very cooperative with the male, and we kept a pretty close watch on her when she was in heat, we hadn't rushed to get her spayed, mainly for financial reasons.
I admit though, I watched Oprah, and saw that show she did on dogs. So I was thinking maybe I should stop populating the earth with more puppies when there are so many dogs out there needing to be adopted. I had the plan that as soon as we had some extra cash (which wasn't looking like it would be soon with the bad economy starting), I would take her in and get her spayed.
God had other plans. Shonie went into heat again. I wasn't sure at first, but thought I noticed the signs. I let her out one afternoon, and then opened the windows so I could hear her. I sat by the window and started to nurse my baby. A few minutes later, I heard yelping and jumped up quickly, with my poor baby trying to figure out why her meal was interrupted.
I started yelling like a maniac when I saw she was....um....connected.....to another dog. "Why?!" I screamed. Why was this happening? What was I going to do now? I put down the baby, told my preschooler to stay there with her little sister for a moment, and ran outside. I was going to get that dog. I noticed he was wearing a collar and planned on giving his owner a call.
Turns out, the dog traveled three miles to get to our house, went around to our back yard and laid in wait for our dog to come out to greet him. I don't know how I missed him when I let her out. The good news was (yes, there was good news) he was a purebred Chocolate Lab with decent bloodlines.
We were able to sell every puppy without paying a cent in advertising. I did a search on free online classifieds. The popular one in my area that sold better for me is KSL Classifieds, but I also got calls from listings I made on: Go County, Kaango, Kijiji, Superads and Domestic Sale.
You can use these links I've given you, or you can do a search for free online classifieds in your area by typing in "free online classifieds" and your state. We sold all our pups in less than two weeks from the time we listed. We also made some much needed cash at a time when we definitely needed it. See? Even if we don't always understand God's plans for us, He knows what He's doing:)
So, the point of this post is: if you're looking to make some money from selling something you have at home, don't pay for that ad, list it for free!
Stay strong and have faith!
*I do have to add one caution and that's to watch out for scammers. There are some people who lurk in these sites and will tell you they're from out of state, working in some profession or other that will make you think they're honorable, and they'll offer you a deal that's too good to be true--because it is. They'll offer to give you more than your asking price, ask that you keep some for your trouble and ask you to send the rest back to them. It's a scam and you won't be making anything. In fact, you'll be losing whatever you send them, plus whatever the fees are for the bad check. So be leery of email-only inquiries, or Relay calls.
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