Check Your Garage First.

Hey —

John here.

If last week's play got you anything — a reply, a booking, even one person curious — hit reply with WIN. I read every one.

Four-minute read. This week's play is different.

Before you build anything new — before you sign up for another course, pick another niche, or spend a weekend on a new idea — I want you to do something easier first.

Look around your house.

The garage.

The basement.

The closet.

The spare room.

There's a decent chance some of the cash you need this month is already sitting there. You just haven't turned it back into cash yet.

Reply SELL and tell me the first thing you find. I read every one.

What's happening right now:

Consumers are watching their money. But they're still buying.

And September has an interesting overlap happening right now.

In August, the National Retail Federation reported that back-to-school shoppers were still finishing their lists. Nearly one-third of K–12 shoppers and almost half of college shoppers had bought or planned to buy something secondhand or refurbished.

And the next shopping season has already started.

McKinsey found ten percent of consumers surveyed had already begun holiday shopping. Another eleven percent planned to start in September. By the end of October, forty-five percent expected to have started.

Meanwhile, buying used isn't some weird corner of the internet anymore.

OfferUp's latest Recommerce Report found ninety-three percent of Americans surveyed bought something secondhand during the previous year. More than half sold something too.

That's where I want you looking this weekend.

But don't buy inventory. Find it.

Start with what you already own:

Don't go to a thrift store. Don't order a pallet of returns. Don't build a store. Don't create a logo.

Walk through your house and find ten things you haven't used in the last year. Look for:

For your own stuff, look for things someone might realistically pay twenty dollars or more to own.

Put all ten in one place. That's your inventory. And you've already paid for it.

Don't guess what it's worth:

This part matters.

Claude or ChatGPT can help you identify an item. It can help write the listing. It can tell you what information a buyer will want.

But don't ask AI what it's worth.

Check the marketplace. Search Facebook Marketplace. Check eBay sold listings when it makes sense. Match the brand, model, size, and condition.

And remember: what somebody is asking isn't what somebody paid.

Look for evidence of actual sales when you can. Then price yours.

The math that actually works:

Don't make the goal: sell all ten. Some won't sell. That's fine.

Say you find one item that sells for seventy-five. Three that sell for forty. Five that sell for twenty-five.

That's three hundred twenty dollars. And one item can still sit there.

Your numbers could be higher. They could be lower. Your house decides the number.

That's the point. You aren't spending three hundred hoping to make money later. You're starting with things you've already paid for.

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1. FIND WHAT MIGHT SELL (run first)

2. BUILD THE LISTING (run second)

3. HANDLE THE OFFER (run third)

The Cashflow Check™:

This week's idea changed after running it through the Cashflow Check.

Starting another resale business didn't make it. Selling your own ten items first did.

Prove you can turn what's already sitting around into cash. Then we have something to talk about.

If this works — here's what's next:

If you turn your unused stuff into cash, you learned something. You learned how to find money sitting in somebody's house.

Now think about someone you know with a garage, basement, or spare room full of things they've been meaning to sell.

Don't start a business. Try it for one person.

Offer to photograph, research, list, and handle the messages for a percentage of whatever actually sells.

But the math changes when you're doing the work for somebody else. A twenty-dollar item might be worth listing when it's yours. It's probably not worth eight messages and a meetup when you're doing it for someone else.

Start with items likely worth fifty or more. Or bundle the cheaper stuff together. Agree on your percentage before you start. Make sure the split actually pays you for your time.

Before you sell for someone else:

Keep the first test simple. Get the items and your split agreed to in writing. Let the buyer pay the owner directly, then have the owner pay you your agreed share.

For local sales, meet in a safe public place when possible. Don't list anything you can't verify belongs to the person asking you to sell it.

If this turns into regular paid work, check the business and tax rules where you live.

5 steps — this weekend:

Where else to sell beyond Facebook Marketplace: eBay for electronics and collectibles, Poshmark and ThredUp for clothes, OfferUp for large items, Craigslist for tools and furniture, local Facebook buy/sell groups for fast local pickup. Match the platform to the item. Clothes on Facebook Marketplace sit. Clothes on Poshmark sell.

“Prove the money before you build the business.”

Sell yours first.

— John
The Money Move
@hustlepreneur.ig · theweeklymoneymove.com
See you next Thursday.