If you've ever walked into a secondhand shop with a big box of items — then walked out 20 minutes later with a big box of items, minus two — you already know this: Sometimes selling secondhand stuff barely covers the gas to get to the store.
Still, it's can be worth trying to make a few bucks on things you're getting rid of anyway.
"It's surprising what something might be worth," said Bob Johnson, owner of the Battlefield Store. "It's always worthwhile to get it checked out."
Many stores recommend calling ahead before loading up your trunk, because every business has different terms and different needs. Some, for example, are exacting about age and condition. At Nu Look Consignment, 4956 Penn Ave S., Minneapolis, clothing must be brand name, no more than three years old, and free of tears, stains and missing buttons.
Others aren't all that picky.
"We take in [golf] clubs that aren't in the greatest of shape," said Mike Oliver of Second Swing, 2412 E. Hennepin Av., Minneapolis.
What a secondhand business will take is based on what its customers want to buy, trends that aren't always obvious to outsiders.
"We take our current inventory into consideration, which is totally unpredictable from an outside perspective," said Jessi Blackstock, retail manager for Magers and Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave S., Minneapolis. "We look at everything [a seller brings in], then we go on a book-by-book basis and pick and choose what we think we can resell. We pass on very good books just because we don't have an unlimited amount of space to have unlimited amount of something."
