I don’t trust second hand electronics due to the fact that you’re often playing Russian roulette with them
And I don’t like the idea of buying chairs and mattresses second hand because of bodily fluids or the chance someone died in one
To downvoters: I want to let you know that Surveillance Capitalism really like to keep track of Serial Numbers, especially IMEIs of phones. If you happen to buy a used phone that a violent criminal used, you could end up with a no-knock warrant being served on you because they would be triangulating your phone with the IMEI, and the authorities think the criminal still uses the phone, not realizing they already sold it and got a new burner.
Very far-fetched, I know, but that’s the worst case scenario. But there are also more common problematic situations you get get caught up in:
For Example: You could also get your phone locked because it was part of payment plan, and the previous owner stops paying (maybe because they lose their job or something), and sold the phone off to get some cash.
If you don’t know, Samsung and Motorola (and perhaps other manufacturers as well) has the ability to disable your phone and hold the data hostage, yes, actually prevent you from accessing your data until you pay. (Carriers probably can’t disable your phone, only block the IMEI, but if the financing goes through the manufacturer themselves, they could stop you from using your phone, even local access to files)
By the time you find out, you could be too late to return the phone or chargeback.
There’s just too much that can go wrong with electronics, especially phones.
Damn near every piece of tech I own is used. I’ve only had 1 or 2 duds. I figure that it’s worth it as I’m paying less than 1/3 most of the time.
2nd hand underwear?
My general rule on secondhand goods is “nothing permeable, unless it can survive going through the washer on the steam clean setting.” Secondhand clothes are fine, as long as they can survive a good strong washing. Secondhand furniture is OK as long as it’s not upholstered, like a table or dresser. But couches and mattresses? Forget it. My washing machine can’t fit a love seat inside it.
Yes, but… There are consequences. Used goods will also have price increase if new ones are more expensive.
that’s just capitalism
Buying 2nd hand reduces demand for new goods, which reduces prices in the broad sense.
That’s not what happened when demand for used cars skyrocketed a few years ago
How complicated economics is!
Demand for new vehicles didn’t drop, supply for new vehicles stopped.
Also, demand for cars can’t drop because Americans don’t have basic freedoms like access to quality public transit, walkable cities, or infrastructure to protect bikes from car drivers who watch movies on their phones while they drive
Yup, the US has managed to turn cars from a luxury item to what’s essentially a necessary good.
Like there aren’t cars outside of the US.
Your reading comprehension is disturbingly poor.
You know full goddamn well that’s not what I mean. If you’re going to argue in pithy whataboutisms then take that shit back to Reddit.
People with cars a couple years old were being asked to trade for a new one just to bolster used inventory. Don’t understand the economics but I know two people who traded their 3ish year old cars for brand new ones (and a little cash on top) at the behest of the dealer during that time.
I bought right after the lockdown. Six months later I was being offered more for my car used than I paid for it new. I’m still driving it, and it’s been paid off for quite awhile, three year loan.
I don’t know the economics either but I bought a used truck in Dec 20 and after 6months or a year the dealer started calling me every month or so with an offer to buy it back at more than I bought it for. It was really crazy.
My parents bought a their car when their lease was up then sold it back for a profit around the same time. Just to add to the anecdotes.
You mean when carvana started overpaying for used cars to build inventory to test their product and inadvertently crashed the used car market (from a buyers perspective)?
But increases demand for used goods means the price increases for them, which means the deal isn’t as good so buying new becomes more interesting…
I think we just invented economics
And we just realized how silly it is!
Only those that are uneducated in the miserable science think it is silly.
There’s alternatives to the capitalist system that leads to the situation we’re in right now.
And those systems use economists too. There are whole economic departments in universities in socialist economies studying economics. The science does not change just because the system you use to allocate goods changes.
The only clothing item I buy for durability is boots. All the rest of my clothes are the cheapest possible shit I can find, because it doesn’t matter.
No one on earth can convince me a $60 pair of jeans is worth $60.
$60 on used denim will go much further.
Learn to identify higher quality vintage denim and you’ve begun profiting. Old selvedge will last a lifetime properly cared for, newer denin barely lasts me a couple years with all the spandex in it.
Frankly, just learn to identify vintage denim at all. People have the mistaken idea that everything used to be better quality than now, and that was never true, there has always been bad and good quality stuff. BUT, the thing about buying older stuff (vintage clothing, antique furniture, old tools, etc.) is that if it was bad quality stuff that wouldn’t last, it wouldn’t be here now to begin with.
No one on earth can convince me a $60 pair of jeans is worth $60.
$60 has the same buying power thar $30 did just 15 years ago so it might be more helpful to think in living wage hours (where 50 hours of work pays for rent).
In 2025 average rent is $1650. So a living wage after taxes would be $33. In 2010 it was $890 which means a living wage was $17.
There isn’t one living wage. It varies greatly by location, and so do wages. However, there isn’t any location that consistently pays living wages.
And eventually , all of the used goods will wear out necessitating new goods.
Entropies a bitch
Matter Replicator When?
Thrift stores are expensive now anyway. Resale shops are worse. Garage sale season is coming up.
Yeah I’ve seen goodwill selling things for more than they cost at Walmart.
Anecdotally, my local thrift store used to sell men’s shirts for $2 to $5 mostly. Now shirts are 15 to 25. That’s crazy. Why spend 25 on a collar button down if a new one is 28 at JCPenney.
D:
They already did, but for different reason.
Second-Hand clothing was trendy not too long ago and the prices went up to the point where the used wares almost cost more than new ones.
Just keep in mind that everything is a business and will exploit it’s current popuarity to the fullest.
Depending on the type of product there may be several times the necessary amount already laying around.
Unfortunately places like goodwill will jack up prices. eBay prices tend to go up as well. Other places not as much since they don’t usually do market research.
In my country, a lot/most of the second hand selling is done by normal people
That is good. Unfortunately many Americans “just don’t want to mess with it” themselves. They could easily give it away directly or recycle it, but instead give stuff to phony charities like goodwill.
There’s also a massive trend of reselling where people either shop thrift to sell at a markup or people trying to sell their stuff for close to new prices
I don’t really see an issue with reselling niche items. The people looking for them aren’t going to every thrift store weekly to find that exact item. They can conveniently go online and have it shipped to their door. It has caused goodwill to jack up prices and cherry pick all the good stuff for their own auction site.
I’ve bought and resold before as well as redold my old stuff on ebay but the margins can be thin unless you have a huge difference in price bought vs sold.
There’s a big difference between resellimg and scalping.
My problem isn’t with reselling but the trend of overpricing, I suppose scalping is an appropriate term.
Are you sure that’s how it works? Seems like a huge loophole to avoid the tariffs
It’s not a loophole. And it’s not quite the tariff hack it’s made out to be here. There’s no tariffs sure. But tariffs will undoubtedly increase the price of the item when it is bought the first time which means it will then cost more in the secondary market. Still, buying things second hand is fantastic and is highly, highly underutilized in the current climate.
Tariffs are a fee you pay to import something. The assumption of the meme is that you’re buying something second hand that was imported before the tariffs (or after, it doesn’t matter, you’re not importing it).
I mean, 99% of the time you’re not the one doing the importing anyway so you don’t actually pay the tariff but the company you’re buying from will, and will almost certainly increase the price to make up for the higher cost to supply.
99% of the time you’re not the one doing the importing anyway so you don’t actually pay the tariff but the company you’re buying from will, and will almost certainly increase the price to make up for the higher cost to supply.
This is a contradiction. Yes, the end consumer may not be directly be responsible for paying the tariffs, but we’re still paying it when a company passes on the costs to us.
…
It’s absolutely not a contradiction, it’s a technicality. You as a person will almost certainly not ever pay a tariff in your life. And there’s a very small chance that a supplier might partially or entirely cover the tariff, either to retain customers during what they might hope is a temporary policy, or to undercut competitors.
I get why you want to say what you’re saying though.
God you two are both idiots you’re saying the same thing you’re just arguing for arguing sake.
Myself and @TheOctonaut@mander.xyz are not the enemy here. There is absolutely no reason to attack each other. If you want to get angry at someone, get angry at the oligarchs.
I feel like this could easily devolve into a circular debate. I see you as on the side of “technically correct”, while I’m looking at it from an “all roads lead to Rome” aspect.
Regardless, the end result is the same: people like me and you are the ones who are paying higher prices.
You will never pay a tariff, but you will pay more (about exactly the cost of the tariff if not a little more for a bit of extra profiteering) is a distinction without a difference. It’s not even meaningfully pedantic.
We are specifically discussing the situation in which it makes a significant difference: items which were already imported. Someone asked a question if second hand items were somehow a loophole which indicated they needed an actual understanding of how tariffs are applied, not your vibes-based fluff.
Yeah on second hand goods, I’m not disputing the point. “You will never pay a tariff in your life” is not qualified by this discussion.
You will (probably) not pay a tariff in your life in much the same way that will not pay the Suez Canal fee, carbon tax, employers tax or municipal rates.
We get it, you’re very clever and have figured out the absolutely bare minimum of economics that higher costs lead to higher prices. The original commenter was asking a technical question about a loophole and it’s been answered. You don’t actually have to contribute if you don’t have anything relevant to say.
I import wine. The entirety of the tariff is not being assigned to all products equally so that wine we want to hit the shelf at $12 isn’t getting a massive increase as we will take the hit to move the product. What we won’t do is bring that wine back again because next time it can’t be $12 and it isn’t worth $15-17.
There’s an example of the customer not paying the tariff and the business
If I want to buy wine from you it will now cost $15-17 if I wanted to get that wine and if you wanted to supply it. How is that cost not being passed directly to the consumer and ultimately being paid by the consumer? If you paid the tariff price and kept the retail price the same then that would be a whole different situation, but that isn’t going to happen. The end customer will pay the excess.
We are eating the tariff on the boat that’s in the water and refusing to carry it after that.
Corporate sellers are going to add tariffs prices regardless of whether that product was impacted by a tariff or not whenever they possibly can.
You’ll never believe how it effects sales tax (if you’re not buying from a second hand store).
The guy from craigslist is not paying taxes, sorry for the convenience.
Hell yeah!
i keep trying to get secondhand underwear but the upcharge is ridiculous
Secondhand needles, on the other hand, are free. People just leave them lying about!
Yes, I will buy secondhand Bell peppers.
Peppers go well from cuttings and sometimes seeds. Sorta secondhand action there
Yeah we do actually do this with peppers from friends that have more room for growing stuff when it’s not -3837473837 degrees outside.
Grow your own ;)
alas my climate lends itself to little now than carrots and potatoes.
Build a greenhouse of out junk!
I will immediately do so on my small narrow balcony. Or did you mean by a house?
Sorry about the Google affiliate there. You can make a pretty good container garden on a south-facing balcony. I even had an ok setup on my north-east facing 5th floor balcony.
As far as buying a house goes, if you are in the US, I would wait. People are going to be underwater on their home soon and will be desperate to sell them…into a market that is saturated and few buyers with the cash to get one. Give it 2 or 3 years is my advice, and you’ll be able to get a better home cheaper.
I bought my house last year, knowing full well that trump could win and would tank the market and make me underwater on my mortgage, but I don’t really care since I don’t see the home as an investment that needs to pay off, I just need to be able to afford it.
This mf over casually talking about buying houses like that’s something I’m ever gonna be able to do. Wow. Some of y’all really live in a bubble.
Sorry that stung, feel it
Something odd:
It also feels, perhaps, respectful in a sense: a stranger mentions their small apartment and no one assumes it’s necessarily the same residence they’ll be in forever. Not that it matters either way… not to people who matter. (Obviously having a garden if you want one, more peace and quiet if the neighbors are loud, etc. is still going to be the ideal for any resident)
67.4% of all occupied housing units [are] occupied by the unit’s owner
@Bytemeister@lemmy.world, did you realize the ownership situation of your housing unit matches the majority’s? I don’t know what I would’ve guessed, but definitely less or more than 67%.
🤞 to a fairer future from this optimist
It is not a casual thing. It took every penny I had, and then some, and then even more from my fam. I’m extremely lucky to be in my own tiny house. Hopefully the market gets to the point where buying a house is an option for you.
Philosophically speaking, the difference between the “haves” and the “have nots” in my parents generation was having a college degree. I think for millennials the defining thing is going to be home ownership, which is why I stretched my budget very thin to get in one. Good luck.
There are indoor grow tents available for $100-400.
I’d probably put one of these in a spare bedroom if I had one, or at the very least next to a window in case I need to manage humidity on a short notice.
Neat life hack. If you need more space, there is a tried and true solution. Simply declare the apartment next to yours as part of your people’s historic homeland. Then proceed to occupy and annex half of your neighbor’s apartment.
I’ve honestly contemplated turning my garage into one but it’s not well insulated so heating would be a challenge but I might give it a go still
How cold are your winter temps? I was looking at building a greenhouse that would connect my garage to my house, it would essentially give me another zone of hardiness for my plants and add a month or so to both ends of my potential growing season. Plus, being able to grow without needing pesticides and herbicides (or at least not nearly as much) is a huge boon on its own.
between 0c (32f) and -20c (-4f)
i think spray foam insulation may be doable since all beams are exposed in my case, it’s a detached garage so it will have it’s own thermal envelope.
I could always try it just to see what the pain points are and work from there to avoid over building.
I’d see about a small stand-alone greenhouse for starters. The look like a rack covered in a clear tarp. Monitor the temps in that, and you can probably expect similar, if not slightly better performance out of a larger GH. That should give you an idea of what you can grow and when.
Can always buy fruit and vegetables containing seeds
Don’t know if sterile seeds are legal over there for you americans though
I could be mistaken, but I’m pretty sure the seeds used to grow commercial produce are patented. I could very easily be wrong though lol
Found some info:
“In 1980, the US supreme court ruled in the case Diamond v Chakrabarty that patent protection can be used for living organisms, including plants. Seeds, which have been openly saved and shared by growers for thousands of years, could now be claimed as an invention.”
Who cares? It’s deeply immoral to patent any living organism. You’re under no moral obligation to obey patently unjust and corrupt laws. And if you’re only “pirating” organisms on a small personal scale, your legal risk is nil. If you start an industrial operation selling patented foodcrops, then you’ll get in legal hot water. But just in your backyard garden? No one is suing you over that unless you create a whole YouTube video series publicly documenting and celebrating your actions.
Fuck evil companies that dare to patent living things. The very concept is an abomination against nature and common decency. It’s not only morally allowable, but a moral obligation to violate these laws whenever it is practical to do so.
I like where your head is at. I’m trying to think of a thought experiment…
A genie is willing to give me a one-million dollar loan and guaranteed instructions on how to genetically modify a seed to better feed 8 billion people - heck, even solve world hunger. That catch is I have to pay the genie back TWO million dollars.
I try to work with the government so the public takes on the (zero) risk and is on the hook for the money, but they don’t play ball.
Is it better for me to reject the deal than patent the seed? (I can ‘sell the patent to public domain’ once I break even!!)
PS: I suppose the genie should just be an investor because that is kind of how our beautiful, perfect, and fair capitalism plays it out
I know we both just want a better system so this experiment is about the status quo
But the value of the new product goes up if people tend to buy the used version of it.
Sure you can probably get a good value on a bluray player because people are getting rid of them still to go all streaming. But can you get a good price on a used working order 4K TV? Probably not. The prices of even used 2 generation old goods are going to be as high as they were when new before tariffs hit.
Used is not going to be cheaper in a week or a month or 3 months of tariffs, it’s going to be the same amount as new right now or possibly more.
The fact also is these days there are sooo many resellers, flippers, scalpers. People who think it’s a side hustle to go around buying up cheap used stuff and selling it for just below the price of new stuff and pocketing the difference. It’s become so hard.
Gotta look at the right places and be patient
I went to an estate sale and got a bunch of freebies
I also picked up folding mattresses for 10 usd when a new one is 60 ish
My pc is a secondhand for about 600 or so when the parts itself are 1.2k new
Buying secondhand is not the same as just walking into a store and finding what you need at a fixed price.
Sure it’s harder especially for certain things (mostly hobbyist stuff and fashion) but TVs are not hard to find for a reasonable price.
Jesus Christ, every post I open up is just negativity. Go back to Reddit with your well actually. Maybe try standing up for something. Here is a clue: don’t buy a4k TV. I’m pretty much done with this platform
It was just an example. Probably not even a good one. Sorry for the negativity though. Feel badly for lending towards a negative mood but well I had my own reasons, negative experiences. Just the same I’ve edited a little.
Also, check out your local “buy nothing” groups. Basically the only reason I still have facebook.
- Freecycle
- Nextdoor
- Craigslist
- Marketplace
- Yard sales
- Estate sales
- Thrift stores
- trash cans and dumpsters/ curbs on trash day
- free clothing at the laundromat
- And so many more
Pretty sure nextdoor is full of people who are scared of non white people entering their neighbourhood
My wife used to use it, it was all the neighbors hearing fireworks or trash trucks and thinking it was gun shots all the time. But we did score a few things from their for sale section, and some yard sales listed on there.
free clothing at the laundromat
Haha, one part of me is wondering if your local laundromat has a free bin, and the other part is thinking you snuck in a joke about taking clothes out someone else’s the drier.
Either way, great list!
Reddit also has some of these. Is free Craigslist still a thing? Haven’t been in a while.
Any member of the class of people who toil in the soil are peasants in China. That’s roughly 50% of the population. What’s offensive?
Yes, but fast fashion, fast furniture, etc.
Fast global warming
fast furniture
If you make it from sapient pearwood
Nah, it’s chipboard, sometimes with cardboard as filler. My Ikea GAMER desk, while million times better as a desk than what I previously had (an old Polish socks drawer that happened to be at the correct height), it’s not very good for anything beyond that, also it’s like it’s starting to fall apart a bit.
That’s why I prefer to build my own furniture out of solid hardwood.
Which is about to be extremely unaffordable.
Much less so than imported crap from Ikea.
I significantly doubt that.
One of the best ways to save money is to always buy used. If you look in the right places everything is available.
Just the other day I found a used condom literally for free just laying on the street!
Hell yeah, just rinse that off in the sink and…
I don’t even rinse them, just remove the knot and blow them up for your next party.
Or, better yet, just give the stuff you don’t need to the people interested in getting it, and participate in mutual exchange.
Crush capitalism!
- Posts item for free
- Gets message “how much does this cost?”
- ”Its free”
- ”Can you deliver it to me? (Insert some excuse here)”
Free table - sits out for days
Put an 100 dollar sign on the table - stolen in 5 minutes
This is actually a tactic Antoine-Augustin Parmentier used to popularize potatoes in France. He couldn’t get people to accept potatoes, so he placed armed guards to protect the plants, and withdrew them at a certain point in the day so that people could steal them.
“Unfortunately, no. I currently don’t have resources to deliver stuff, but I’ll be happy to see you at my place!”
But yeah, classic on your end :D
put item on sidewalk with sign that says “free!”
Item sits there for months
Remove sign that says free, and replace with one that says “$100 OBO”
Item is gone by morning
That’s when you make them pay the shipping + a bit of extra charge for your time since they did asked for price before.
Removed by mod
Yep! This has worked really well for me! If I list things as free, I tend to get people with tons of questions and excuses, and lots of flakes or scammers. If I post things with a pretty low price, people are usually much more pleasant to deal with.
Even better to donate to a toy library, to make sure it isn’t going to someone who is just going to flip it.
Off Topic: But its the same reason why there are adoption fees on pets. Otherwise there are weirdos trying to hurt kittens.
No tariffs at the thrift store.
Don’t give them ideas
Or just don’t buy at all.
That’s the reduce part
But I want a bigger bike :(
OK buy secondhand. Or buy junked parts and build it. It’s not just eco friendly, it’s also fun
build it yourself after that build it for others. eventually later start a new BiggerBike company. profit … retire.
