A Little Background
When we moved to SoCal, I brought with me my formal dining room table. I loved that thing. It was “new to me”, only slightly antique (NOT) but with the leaves, it seated fourteen people easily. Unfortunately my new home did not seat 14 people, easily or otherwise. So it was consigned to the garage for the longest time. When I finally made the decision to do something with it I faced what a lot of my clients face as they get ready to redecorate or sell. But what to do with it? In my case, I donated it. When the options of getting rid of your old furniture consist of donate, consign or sell, which way should you go? Let’s review!
When you consign a piece of furniture (or jewelry or last year’s Marc Jacobs Handbag) you are at the whim to the taste and specifications of the lady across the desk at the consignment store. Sometimes this will play out nicely and sometimes? Not so much. In my case, my 14-seater had a couple of significant scratches. Probably from one of the hundreds of family dinners! :(.
Now I figure, if I donate my stuff, it’s all gone. Immediately. Which is awesome. Really. And of course donations do good things in other ways to there’s a bit of good karma happening as well.
Option 1 – Consign It
For the sake of argument, let’s say the consignment store WOULD take it. They would most likely put a $400 price tag on it. (no chairs!). Of this, I would get about $200. Unless it didn’t sell in 30 days. It would be marked to $200, and I would realize $100.
Option 2 – Craigslist. Or LetGo. Or FB Marketplace.
Now, I LOVE to purchase finds online. We purchased our little vintage travel trailer on Craigslist! But SELLING on Craigslist? Hit or miss. (the stories I could share from past sales!!!). I probably have would listed it for $300 and be negotiated down to $250. Not bad, but I would field about 30 emails, suffer 4 rejections of people that asked me to “hold it for just a few days” then be stood up. Grrrrr.
Option 3 – Garage Sale
I’ve done these. My husband refuses. Said he lost his taste when someone offered him $0.25 for a camera marked $1. That was it…it was over for him. For me? I did one when we first moved in. It was a good way to meet the neighbors, netted me $500 and was a TON of work in 90 degree weather. Next.
Option 4 – Donate
When you donate an item you can assign a real value to it. I would probably assign $500 to it. This would translate into about $150 in realized tax value after claiming deductions. So, I make a phone call (Salvation Army – 1-800-SATRUCK), they come out, take my table and all the other stuff I didn’t want to load into my car and deal with. They hand me a donation receipt that I fill out with my value on ALL the items. I hand the receipt to the nice lady that does my taxes and I’m happy. Just sayin’.
So here’s the profit breakdown:
- Consign: $200 (minimal work, assuming they’ll accept it)
- Sell (craigslist): $250 (more work, what’s your time worth?)
- Sell (garage sale): $100-150
- Donate: $150 (back on the taxes next year)
At a garage sale, we could sell the table for $150. On your taxes, you could deduct between $150 and $900 from your taxable income for donating it. Sooo…if you are in say a 20% tax bracket, this would mean a tax savings of 20% of whatever your value is – assuming, you itemize. And you get this tax deduction amount for every item you donate. Or you can spend a week of your life having a garage sale and only selling 1/4 of your stuff and THEN donating the rest.
Here’s some links to give you food for thought:
- Here’s a value guide from the Salvation Army.
- It’s Deductible – the program I’ve used for years to keep your running total of yearly donations.
