I used to collect Sailormoon trading cards from Bandai, issues of ye olde Animerica, and second-hand volumes of Chinese-translated manga (because Japanese were harder to come by). However, interests and tastes and income levels change, so sooner or later you will find yourself looking to get rid of your old collections. Here are five tips how to get rid of your old stuff, and maybe earn a little on the side.

Give them away on Twitter or on your blog.

This almost always works — just tweet or make a post saying “Free Stuff” and within minutes, someone will claim some or all of them. The best thing about this method is that your old things will find new and loving homes, instead of just being tossed into a black garbage bag and left to rot in the attic or garage.

Organize a garage sale.

And speaking of garages, here’s tip number two: put up a garage sale. And by garage sale, we mean “Sell everything at rock bottom prices till they are all gone!”. Price all items at the lowest going rates in the market place, rather than the price you are willing to let them go. Don’t put up the sale to make money — put it up to get rid of your stuff, so leave your emotional attachment and profiteering to one side and sell sell sell!

Set up a selling booth at a local convention.

This method is similar to putting up a garage sale, but with a specialized target market instead of just your neighborhood bargain hunters. The advantage to putting up a sale in a convention is that you will be able to charge more since the buyers know that your stuff is definitely worth more than what you are asking. However, on the flip side, you have to pay for your selling space and other logistics stuff, so you may still end up with a loss in spite of your best intentions.

Sell them on Ebay or in a private sale.

Ebay is a great place to sell, especially since you can charge in US dollars — making for higher profit margins. You will also be able to set your irrevocable minimum prices, getting rid of those pesky lowballers who keep asking for your “last price”. Unfortunately, like selling in a convention, you will spend more on logistics such as shipping and handling. Price carefully — the shipping may cost more than the item you are selling, putting it out of reach from your prospective buyers.

Give them away or sell them as fukubukuro grab bags.

If you have exhausted all means of getting rid of your stuff, and you still have some odds and ends left over, try selling them or giving them away as fukubukuro or grab bags. Just set all your stuff aside in small random piles, put them inside opaque bags where it’s hard to see what’s inside (part of the fun with fukubukuro is that you never know what you’re getting), and give them away or sell them at steeply discounted prices. Highly recommended for end-of-year clost clean-ups and New Year’s giveaways!