Americans unload prized belongings to make ends meet

[WhiteFeather]

A sign of the times or are people just being squeezed by higher prices of everything except there paychecks NOT increasing to make up the differance. The "official" government numbers on inflation are a cruel joke at best, as this hard times increases for the average person it will be harder to hide the uncomfortable facts.

Is the glass half full or half empty?
Or did someone just pour it into a smaller glass that is now half empty as well?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080429/..._out_the_attic

Americans unload prized belongings to make ends meet

NEW YORK - The for-sale listings on the online hub Craigslist come with plaintive notices, like the one from the teenager in Georgia who said her mother lost her job and pleaded, "Please buy anything you can to help out."

Or the seller in Milwaukee who wrote in one post of needing to pay bills — and put a diamond engagement ring up for bids to do it.

Struggling with mounting debt and rising prices, faced with the toughest economic times since the early 1990s, Americans are selling prized possessions online and at flea markets at alarming rates.

To meet higher gas, food and prescription drug bills, they are selling off grandmother's dishes and their own belongings. Some of the household purging has been extremely painful — families forced to part with heirlooms.

"This is not about downsizing. It's about needing gas money," said Nancy Baughman, founder of eBizAuctions, an online auction service she runs out of her garage in Raleigh, N.C. One former affluent customer is now unemployed and had to unload Hermes leather jackets and Versace jeans and silk shirts.

At Craigslist, which has become a kind of online flea market for the world, the number of for-sale listings has soared 70 percent since last July. In March, the number of listings more than doubled to almost 15 million from the year-ago period.

Craigslist CEO Jeff Buckmaster acknowledged the increasing popularity of selling all sort of items on the Web, but said the rate of growth is "moving above the usual trend line." He said he was amazed at the desperate tone in some ads.

In Daleville, Ala., Ellona Bateman-Lee has turned to eBay and flea markets to empty her three-bedroom mobile home of DVDs, VCRs, stereos and televisions.

She said she needs the cash to help pay for soaring food and utility bills and mounting health care expenses since her husband, Bob, suffered an electric shock on the job as a dump truck driver in 2006 and is now disabled.

Among her most painful sales: her grandmother's teakettle. She sold it for $6 on eBay.

"My grandmother raised me, so it hurt," she said. "We've had bouts here and there, but we always got by. This time it's different."

Economists say it is difficult to compare the selling trend with other tough times because the Internet, only in wide use since the mid-1990s, has made it much easier to unload goods than, say, at pawn shops.

But clearly, cash-strapped people are selling their belongings at bargain prices, with a flood of listings for secondhand cars, clothing and furniture hitting the market in recent months, particularly since January.

Earlier this decade, people tapped their inflated home equity and credit cards to fuel a buying binge. Now, slumping home values and a credit crisis have sapped sources of cash.

Meanwhile, soaring gas and food prices haven't kept pace with meager wage growth. Gas prices have already hit $4 per gallon in some places, and that could become more widespread this summer. The weakening job market is another big worry.

Christine Hadley, a 53-year-old registered nurse from Reading, Pa., says she used to be "a clotheshorse," splurging on pricey Dooney & Bourke handbags. But her live-in boyfriend left last year, and she has had trouble finding a job.

Piles of unpaid bills forced her to sell more than 80 items, including the handbags, which went for more than $1,000 on a site called AuctionPal.com. Now, except for some artwork and threadbare furniture, her house is looking sparse.

"I need the money for essentials — to pay my bills and to eat," Hadley said.

At AuctionPal.com, which helps novices sell things online, for-sale listings rose 66 percent from February to March, much faster than the 25 percent to 30 percent average monthly pace since the company was formed in September, CEO Maureen Ellenberger said. She said she was surprised to see that most of her clients desperately needed to sell items to raise cash.

For LiveDeal.com, a classifieds and business directory site, for-sale listings for January through March rose 10 percent from the previous year.

"We can definitely detect economic stress on the part of the consumer," said John Raven, the site's chief operating officer.

On Craigslist, Buckmaster said, three of the four fastest-growing for-sale categories are tied to gas — recreational vehicles like campers and trailers, cars and trucks, and boats.

Raven noted more and more listings for furniture, particularly in areas around Miami and Las Vegas and other regions hardest hit by the housing crisis.

Baughman, who runs eBizAuctions, said that over the past four months she's been working with mostly desperate sellers instead of mainly casual ones. Most are middle-class customers who can't pay their bills and now want to be paid up front for the items instead of waiting until they are sold, she said.

The trend may be hurting secondhand stores too. Donations to the Salvation Army were down 20 percent in the January-to-March period. George Hood, the charity's national community relations and development secretary, said that was probably partly because people were selling their belongings instead.

And secondhand buyers want better deals now as well, driving prices down. Secondhand merchandise online is going for 25 to 35 percent below what it commanded a year ago, estimated Brian Riley, senior analyst at research firm The TowerGroup.

"It won't hit the saturation point until the (economy) hits the bottom and right now, we don't know when that is," he said.

In Alabama, Bateman-Lee said that she only received $30 for her TV and $45 for her DVD player at a local flea market. She doesn't have too much left to sell, but she's going back to "sort through more things."

Her $30 water bill is due this week.

[625]

Another "the sky is falling" story. A poorly written, alarmist story as well. Let's all panic, hoard food, buy precious metals, and use candles at night. Maybe we can hide under the bed too.

The media seems to think the average person is a helpless child. There are more and more of these stories every day. Instead of crying and whining, why don't we roll up our collective sleeves, and get some of this crap straightened out? I'm not saying there are not problems in the world, I'm just sick of the defeatist attitude some people have and others make profit from.

[quipfan]

Wow, a 30 dollar water bill.... I wish mine was that low..

[625]

Wow, a 30 dollar water bill.... I wish mine was that low..

I liked the part about selling a precious heirloom for $6. Is that $6 really going to make a difference? Like I already wrote, this is an extremely poorly written article. No offence to the OP.

[Tsgtbob]

Another "the sky is falling" story. A poorly written, alarmist story as well. Let's all panic, hoard food, buy precious metals, and use candles at night. Maybe we can hide under the bed too.

The media seems to think the average person is a helpless child. There are more and more of these stories every day. Instead of crying and whining, why don't we roll up our collective sleeves, and get some of this crap straightened out? I'm not saying there are not problems in the world, I'm just sick of the defeatist attitude some people have and others make profit from.

Hate to say this, but the average person IS helpless. I give car-care classes at my local Women in the Outdoors programs. You would be amazed how many of the women that attend my classes tell me their husbands can't even change a tire!

Let alone do any routine home repairs.

It's become way too easy to call roto-rooter, take the car to the stealership for repairs, or even worse, just throw something away rather than repair it!

Call it the fat, dumb and happy syndrome. New shit from Wal-Mart is easier to get, that fixing the crap we already have.

[LorDiego01]

Christine Hadley, a 53-year-old registered nurse from Reading, Pa., says she used to be "a clotheshorse," splurging on pricey Dooney & Bourke handbags. But her live-in boyfriend left last year, and she has had trouble finding a job.

Sucks for her. You splurge on dumb-crap, then cry because you ain't got money for bills.

Its like those people who lied on the mortgage application to buy the McMansion, and now want a government bail out.

I hope all these fiscally irresponsible a-holes end up on the street, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. That'll teach them to run up credit cards and buy junk they can't actually afford.

And seriously... $6 for a family heirloom?? WTF!!!!!!!!!

BHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!

[625]

Hate to say this, but the average person IS helpless.

Yea, I'm not a big fan of the word "helpless" here. Lazy and/or stupid, maybe. It's all too easy for those that think social programs are great, to abuse the word helpless. If you are truly helpless, you go to the nanny gubment with your hands out saying gimme, gimme, gimme. If you are just lazy, you just need to get off the couch, turn the TV off, and do something. I think a lot of people are just lazy. Most people could probably change their tire if their life depended on it, but usually it does not so they pick up the phone.

[JDePietro]

The times that we live in and enter into are a result from all of our misjudgement. You can point the finger at imigrants, oil, or your boss but they are all a direct result of not follwing the Constitution and allowing ourselves to steal from eachother to help eachother.

[Johannes_Paulsen]

Sucks for her. You splurge on dumb-crap, then cry because you ain't got money for bills.

Its like those people who lied on the mortgage application to buy the McMansion, and now want a government bail out.

I hope all these fiscally irresponsible a-holes end up on the street, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. That'll teach them to run up credit cards and buy junk they can't actually afford.

I have to agree with you. There's always someone who is doing badly, and it is nice if we individually, can help those people who deserve our help.

But, I weep no crocodile tears for people like this, from the original post:

One former affluent customer is now unemployed and had to unload Hermes leather jackets and Versace jeans and silk shirts.

What sort of world is this when we have to sell off our Versace jeans and silk shirts?

[lildobe]

It's sad, but true. I have a pair of friends in Orlando, FL right now who have been forced to sell nearly everything they own and are STILL facing an eviction. The country is circling the drain, folks, but for the most part we don't see it.