Buy things used, pay nothing

December 3, 2022

If you want to live a frugal life, yet don’t want to miss out on the fancy things today’s world offer: buy things used! I have done it myself for road bikes, headphones, furniture, etc.

Why it’s great

The great thing about buying these kinds of item second hand is, first of all, the price. Obviously, buying used is much cheaper than buying new, but even more importantly: you can always resell them at around the same price after a few years. Of course, there are limitations here to objects that don’t age well (like smartphones), but I have experienced myself a few times now that I pay (except of my time) effectively nothing when buying things used.

I once bought this second hand road bike, used it for 3 years and eventually sold it for even more than I payed!

Additionally, I personally like if things have their first signs of wear, so that I don’t get the slight feeling of pain when I add the first scratches to an item that was in mint condition before.

And finally, I think it’s just more fun to buy things used. Of course, if you have very good use of your time otherwise, you probably shouldn’t bother to buy things used. But if you’re like me, having some idle time here and there anyway, it’s a fun and rewarding thing to do.

How to get good deals

There a three things to take care about when buying things used: price, quality and timing.

Price

There are many cases where buying things used is not much better than buying them new. For example, for Apple products the price for used products is not much lower than the initial price. I think I’d only look for products that are at least 30-40% cheaper when I buy them second hand.

Quality

I usually don’t buy used things that have been worn off a lot already, like heavily used shoes, dirty ovens, etc. Luckily, a lot of expensive equipment gets treated quite well by their owners. I recently bought second hand noise-cancelling headphones for around 40% less than I’d pay otherwise and they were in more or less unused condition and less than a year old.

Timing

If you open up the classified advertisement app of your choice and try to find good deals now, you’re chances are probably not going to be good, as the best deals can often be taken quickly. Instead, use search queries that will notify you once new deals are being uploaded.