Using Ziffit to declutter and make money
Many of us have unwanted clutter in our homes, and much of it can be sold to make some money at the same time as clearing some space. I sometimes sell unwanted books, DVDs and games etc on auction sites, although these don’t always result in a good sale and fees and postage can eat into profits too – which is why I also check what companies such as Ziffit are offering for them.
For those of you that haven’t used Ziffit before, they’re a company that make you an instant offer on the items that you’re selling and they also cover the postage or pickup fees, allowing you to sell in bulk if you wish. This is nearly always much faster and more convenient than using auction sites, which is a bonus if you are short of time but still want to make some cash. Prices offered by Ziffit change regularly and are based on what they already have in stock and what they think they can sell.
I downloaded the app to my phone and registered for a free account, which took a few seconds, but you can also sign up via their website if you prefer. Then I made a pile of all the books, DVDs, Blu-Rays, CDs etc that I wanted to sell and scanned them all in one session to save time.
If you’re using the mobile phone app, it’s easy enough to use your phone’s camera to scan the bar codes on the back of the items you’re hoping to sell. This then gives you an almost instant valuation of each item, which is Ziffit’s current offer for whatever it is you’re selling, allowing you to decide whether to sell for this price or not. There is no obligation to sell anything if you don’t like the offer.
There was one book bar code that wouldn’t scan, perhaps because it was in a smaller font than the others, but at the touch of a button I was able to switch to typing mode and type the number in instead. This immediately brought up a valuation. Everything in my ‘to sell’ pile had a Ziffit offer made on it. Most of the books I hoped to sell were fairly new non-fiction paperbacks and the app offered me between £1.12 and £3.35 for each one, which was more than I was expecting for most of them.
Once I’d gone through the pile of items I decided that I was happy with the prices offered for nearly all of them. I deleted a couple from the basket that I think will fetch a better price for me at auction (it was very quick and easy to remove them from the basket), and went ahead with the remaining trades by clicking the Ziffit app ‘Complete Trade’ button.
Soon I was boxing up my sold goods and attaching a parcel label. You then have the choice of dropping your parcel off at a Collect+ service or booking their home collection courier service (reserved for parcels weighing over 10kg only). I took the box to a shop around the corner that does Collect+ drop offs as my parcel was under 10kg.
That was a couple of days ago, and I’m now waiting for the contents of my parcel to be checked and approved by Ziffit. I was given the choice to be paid by PayPal or into my bank account, and I’m looking forward to my £21.22 arriving in the next few days.
Reader offer
If you’re new to Ziffit, users of this site can receive an extra 15% bonus on top of whatever they trade in using the Ziffit app or website. All you need to do is sign up via this link, and use this promo code when you complete your trade: PENNYGO15.
Let me know how you get on.
