Sell Your Crap – Interview And New eBook From Adam Of Man Vs Debt

I was excited to hear that Adam of Man Vs Debt was working on a new eBook.  I was even more excited to see the finished product – Sell Your Crap: Turn Your Clutter Into Cash.

If you don’t know who Adam is then shame on you! Man Vs Debt, if I can properly summarize, is a family’s journey into a new lifestyle design.  Adam and his family were living a pretty typical life (lots of stuff, debt, etc…) when they decided things needed to change.  They sold off most of their stuff then flew across the world indefinitely.  They have since returned to the States and are working on living a lifestyle that allows them to follow their passions and do what they love.

There’s no way I’m doing justice to their story. Really, check out Man Vs Debt for yourself.  So…

…Adam has a new eBook out – Sell Your Crap: Turn Your Clutter Into Cash.  In it, he talks about all of the crap we accumulate and why we should get rid of it; a big argument being there is more to life than running around to the whims of consumerism when we can simplify our lives and work towards an ideal where we live out lives to the fullest (which is hard to do when you are in debt surrounded by a bunch of crap).  Our crap takes our money, time, and energy, and getting rid of our crap can help us reclaim our lives.

On top of telling us why we need to reduce our clutter and crap, Adam includes instructions to use Amazon, E-bay, and Craiglist to sell your crap (hence the title) and make some money while you reduce your clutter.

I was fortunate enough to interview Adam about Sell Your Crap…

Craig:  Why Sell Your Crap?  Aren’t there bigger issues we should be looking into like credit card debt and investments?  Why is “crap” bad?

Adam:  Like eliminating debt and saving for the future, taking back control of you life from clutter is a worthy financial undertaking.  🙂   I don’t think it’s valuable to compare which are “bigger” or more useful, that depends on the individual and the situation.

However, I think many of us struggle with excessive consumerism and piles of stuff that no longer brings joy or value into our lives.  This crap can clog our lives and slowly suck away our time, energy, and money.  These are resources that we could be applying to help combat other problems like credit card debt, saving, and investing.  🙂

Craig:  I found the information on income in the 70’s for a one-income family versus a two-income family in ’05 to be astonishing!  What happened to us?  Can we really get out of our consumerism?

Adam:  As a culture? I’m not sure.   I don’t think we will ever reverse this snowballing trend.  We need to, but it’ll be very, very hard.

Luckily, as individuals, we *can* change course.  You can opt-out of the lifestyle.  There are hundreds and hundreds of stories from people all over the world that are reaping the benefits of this.  Some travel like we did.   Others choose to stay in a community.   Some want to sell everything and others may just want to clean out a closet!   It’s all a matter of scale, but the underlying benefits are available for people who want them.

Craig:  I’ve spent so much on my “crap.” Do I have to get rid of it?  Couldn’t I just cut down on future buying?

Adam:  Both are great strategies.  The last section of the main guide is dedicated to preventing “binges” or future consumerism.  I talk a lot about conscious spending and putting up hurdles/filters to block incoming crap.

However, on top of that we also can receive great benefit from purging our existing crap.   If an item isn’t bringing you joy or value, it’s likely sucking resources from you.  Crap costs more to store, run, repairs, maintain, clean, and move.  We can get a portion of what we spent into the item by leveraging techniques and strategies outlined in the guides for eBay, craigslist, Amazon, yard sales, and donations.

Craig:  How easy is it really to sell stuff on eBay, Craiglist, and Amazon? Do you worry about the crazies out there?

Adam:  It’s actually very easy to get started.   There are some more advanced tips to help you maximize your final price, however most of these can be built into a system to save time and energy.   In the guides, I spent a lot of time taking screenshots (over 110+ total) in order to visually demonstrate step-by-step how to do many of these techniques.  Everything from setting up an account to a 10-step detailed guide to creating compelling eBay descriptions.

As far as the crazies go, there aren’t as many as some would have you believe.   By far, most of the transactions online go through smoothly and with no problems whatsoever.   You can also take steps to eliminate you exposure to the rare percentage of stressful buyers (in all platforms).  You can change your settings in your accounts (such as not allow buyers with negative feedback to bid on your items) or change your listings to help eliminate problems (specifically and clearly stating shipping and payment policies).  These are just a few of dozens of ways to help limit the risk of wasting your time with a fussy buyer.  [Craig: Ok, I admit I can be a bit of a paranoid New Yorker from time to time.]

Craig:  I have to admit, in my own experience in cleaning up our old place to sell, we managed to get rid of a lot of crap that we didn’t even realize was around.   Once we cleaned up, the place really looked better and leaner and psychologically it actually made us feel better!  What do you think it is about “crap” that makes us want to accumulate it so?

Adam:  Well, first we like owning crap because it makes us feel more secure.   Notice I said it makes us feel more secure.   It actually doesn’t make us more secure at all, though!  We think that owning a bunch of gadgets, tools, books, dvds, kitchen appliances, etc… for every purpose makes us independent and free.   It doesn’t.   There’s the popular saying… and it’s so true… The things you own, end up owning you.

Another problem we face is that buying gives us an immediate high.   It quickly fills a want and makes us feel good inside.  Once again, though, this is an illusion over the long term.  Over time (sometimes as short as just a few hours), we realize that the feelings of the purchase have faded.  It’s a common concept called buyer’s remorse.  We come down from out high and realize we just want something else. The stuff didn’t solve anything!

Craig:  Your Sell You Crap Clutter Buster package is super-impressive!   You really have put a lot of time into this package. What are your goals for the book?

Adam:  I have two main goals for the book…

Second, I want to help people make cash.  I want to help them get more money out of their crap, so they can re-purpose it on their passions or their goals.  I want to help people save time when they are selling, so that they can actually make progress inside of a busy schedule.  We are all busy… but this is important and worth it.  By showing people how to sell their crap for decent money in a short amount of time… people are more likely to take action.  It’s all about taking action.  Starting the purge!

Thank you Adam for the interview and for the eBook!

I wasn’t kidding when I said Sell Your Crap was impressive.  The “barebones” edition of Sell Your Crap ($37) includes:

• Sell Your Crap guide
• The Definitive Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Your Crap on eBay
• $100 Effectiveness Guarantee (we’ll get back to that later)

For $10 more (or $47 total) you can get the “Clutter Crusher” edition which includes:

• Sell Your Crap guide
• The Definitive Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Your Crap on eBay Plus guides for Amazon and Cragslist
• 10 Bonus video interviews from the likes of Leo Babauta (Zen Habits), Chris Guillebeau (The Art of Non-Conformity), J.D. Roth (Get Rich Slowly), and others.
• $100 Effectiveness Guarantee
• 30-Day email support (in the first 30 days if you have any questions, email Adam!).

For the extra $10 I’d have to say the “Clutter Crusher” edition of Sell Your Crap seems worth it!

Now what’s this $100 Effectiveness Guarantee? Adam is so confident that Sell Your Cash will help you that if you aren’t able to turn $100 of your clutter into cash then he’ll give you a refund!  That is standing by your product.

I’m not going to lie to you and say Adam is a close friend of mine or anything. But what contact I have had with him, he’s proved to be a stand-up guy who truly walks-the-walk, if you know what I mean.  If you think you are overwhelmed with all of the “crap” that’s in your home and you want to know why and how you should get rid of your crap/clutter then you should give Sell You Crap a look.

Click here to check out Sell Your Crap.