Your Rubbish is Someone's Gold

jkraft — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:00:00 -0400

Even though you don't want that lumpy old chair from Grandma's country house anymore, someone else might!

As any city-dweller knows, sometimes all you have to do to get rid of something is to put it out on the street where, sometimes seconds later, some opportunistic neighbor harvests your old stuff for their own use.

And they would probably be willing to pay something for your discards, too. Last year, eBay users sold and bought $52 billion worth of goods! Craigslist isn't far behind for greasing the wheels of the second-hand economy, one that is local and helps people connect in person. If you haven't set up an account on eBay, it's quick and simple and you can be selling your old items within minutes.

Of course the old-fashioned yard sale can be a quick way to liquidate your junk, and if you pad your stock with some new flashy items bought for cheap at places like Target and Costco, your customers are likely to linger and poke through all of the offerings, increasing your end-of-day profits. Wrap their purchases in leftover newspaper and used plastic bags and use the opportunity to praise them for buying secondhand-- it's the greenest way to shop. Anything left over from your sale can be taken to GoodWill or other charity shops for which you can take a big tax write-off (make sure to keep your donation receipt).

And the next time you need to buy a couch, a new coat or some knicknacks for Grandma's birthday, first check out the thrift stores and yard sales in your area before running to Macy's-- you may just find a hidden gold-mine!

Selling Carbon Credits on eBay—Solution or Scam?

Marcus — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Buying and selling carbon emissions as a means to lower your carbon footprint is a trend that has significantly grown in popularity in recent years. Corporations frequently purchase carbon credits in order to offset high emissions levels, helping the carbon trade blossom into a multimillion-dollar industry. For the environmentally conscious individual, however, for whom trading carbon on the corporate level is not a feasible option, there is another alternative: eBay.

Here’s how it works: small farms and, essentially, anyone who takes the initiative to plant trees can sell carbon offsets equivalent to the amount of metric tons of CO2 consumed by the number of trees that have been planted (typically, one tree will consume between 3 and 4 metric tons over the course of its lifetime). So, let’s say you sell one tree’s CO2 consumption for twenty bucks. If each tree costs about fifty cents to plant, plus about another fifty or so cents to mail some sort of carbon certificate to your buyer, you’re making about a $19 profit before eBay and PayPal fees. That’s an enormous gain. So, by just planting some trees and advertising on eBay, you can conceivably make some serious bank, and help combat global warming in the process. Sounds great, right?

Well, not exactly. With so many people eager to join the emissions trading frenzy (and hopefully make a quick buck in the process), quality control is difficult to monitor. eBay posts promise certificates guaranteeing the authenticity of the carbon sale, but who can definitively verify whether offsets from the same tree have been sold multiple times, or that trees are being planted in proportion to sold credits at all? Further, carbon credit vending on the corporate scale is easier to regulate due to its magnitude and relative uniformity on a global level. In the private sector, however, things get more complicated. Carbon credits can be sold for as much as any SUV-driving, gas-guzzling citizen with a desire to green their life is willing to pay. Since carbon trading is a relatively new phenomenon, there is no standard in place to prevent people from getting ripped off.

In short, while buying and selling carbon credits online is certainly a novel idea, if you’re going to try it out, do so with caution. You’re probably better off just planting some trees in your backyard.

Want to learn more about carbon credits?

How to Measure and Price Carbon Credits

Carbon Footprints

The Quest for the Perfect Carbon Calculator

How Much Do Carbon Credits Cost?

ebay

Your Rubbish is Someone's Gold

Selling Carbon Credits on eBay—Solution or Scam?