This Business Helps Sell The Stuff You Don’t Want Anymore
MONCTON – What started as an attempt to make a few extra bucks to help pay for bills has turned into a business for Randy Johnston, owner of RJ Sales.
RJ Sales is like a consignment store, Johnston said, but there’s no physical location.
“I sell for people,” he said. “If people have got things they want to sell but don’t have time to do it, either because they have kids, they have family, they have work, or maybe they just don’t necessarily know how to do it, I do it for them mainly using Facebook Marketplace and eBay.”
The process begins with the client filling a form with information about the item they want to sell – original price, age, condition, and expected sale price, among other things.
Johnston then picks the items up, checks for any defects, and assesses the value based on the market price of similar items. He said while some clients may expect higher prices from older items that may have a lot of scratches, others may undervalue their items. That’s why Johnston helps make sure they’re sold at the right price.
He then takes over the entire sale process, from putting an ad online, to meeting customers, and even delivering the item to the buyer for a fee. There’s a lot of messaging” with people asking about the items and wanting to see them, he said.
“There’s a lot of hassle that’s saved for the client,” he said.
He takes three days after the sale is completed to make sure the buyer is satisfied before he sends the money to the item’s original owner. Johnston charges a 25 percent commission out every sale.
Johnston had always had an interest in selling, with a background in customer services, sales and marketing. But it was when he was a fresh graduate from university that he started selling unwanted items from his apartment to help pay bills.
“Things were just leaving the apartment so fast that all of a sudden I was like, ‘Okay, what else can I sell?’ You get excited,” he said.
He said selling just to make a profit was interesting at first, but not motivating enough to start a business with.
While friends started asking him to help them sell items, it was a visit to his grandmother’s house in the summer that made him want to go into business.
There, he’d found a red Keurig coffee machine that he’s never seen her use. She told him somebody told her to buy it a while ago, but she never used it.
“In classic grandmother fashion, she said if I wanted it, I can have it. I was like, ‘No, but I can bring it back to my place and I can put it for sale, and I can bring you back the money when I’m done’,” he said.
His grandmother was happy to have that option, making Johnston realize that he can help people by selling their unwanted items for them while making a bit of money for himself.
“Especially for elderly people, technology has advanced so quickly, and they don’t necessarily know how to get rid of stuff, so they kind of just give it away,” he said. “But there’s an opportunity for them, especially that a lot of them aren’t working anymore, to maybe just make an extra little money either for themselves or to buy gifts for their grandchildren or whatever.”
Johnston also plans to offer his services to people who want to de-clutter their homes or garages. He says as people may find it hard to part with their things, even if they don’t need them anymore, he can help them throw things our or sell those that can be worth something.
Johnston has sold many items for people, including furniture, games, and electronics. But so far, he said the most interesting thing he’s gotten is a Macintosh Powerbook 140 from 1991, which still works well.
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” he said. “What I like to remind people is even if you think it doesn’t worth anything, well, it might at least be worth 10 bucks. And you know what? That might get you your bus ride or your taxi To get to work or to help pay that bill.”
“I really don’t discourage anybody from wanting to sell anything. I’ve been there myself as a student, out of university, trying to pay bills, and I don’t think it’s something anybody should be ashamed of.”
Inda Intiar is a reporter for Huddle. Send her story suggestions: [email protected]