The story of how I sold 178 unused items on Mercari and made 770,000 yen.

“I want to tidy up, but it feels like a waste to throw things away.”

Have you ever felt that way and stopped in your tracks?
I used to be like that too.
This is Takahashi (the husband).

Things I bought with my own money back then.
Things that are still usable.
Things with sentimental value.
I couldn't bear to put them in a trash bag, so I ended up putting them back on the shelf—.
That was our home for a long time.

But there is another path besides “throwing away.”
It is the path of “passing them on to someone who will use them.”

Over the past few years, our family has let go of 178 items through Mercari.

The total sales amounted to 770,000 yen.

We didn't sell anything special.

What I want to convey in this article is that “the things sleeping in your house are worth more than you think.”

What sold, and for how much?
I will publish the full record by category.

Camping gear I got hooked on and collected.
Brand-name items that were sleeping in the back of the closet.
Even junk items I thought wouldn't work anymore—.

Even things I thought, “Surely this won't sell,” had demand and were priced accordingly.

Result: Before I knew it, 178 items had turned into 770,000 yen

When I looked back and organized the actual sales data, the results were as follows.

“I don't even go camping...”
“I don't even own any brand-name items to begin with...”

—I can almost hear those voices.

But please, don't give up.

Our home also had many things we thought, “Surely this won't sell.”
Even so, they sold just fine.

What matters is not what you have.
“Passing on unused items to people who need them”—that is all it is.
I will show you the contents one by one.

I wasn't aiming for the amount of “770,000 yen” from the start.

It was just the result of letting go of things one by one that I felt were “a waste because they are still usable” every time we moved, and it ended up being a larger amount than I had imagined.

The top categories, in particular, each had their own story behind why we let them go.

1st Place: Camping Gear (24 items, 147,180 yen)

The most common items were camping gear.

I had always been interested in camping, and since there was a boom at the time, I started by buying things little by little that were easy to get started with.

However, as I got more into it, the gear I wanted to try next increased, and before I knew it, I had quite a lot.

Even so, as you get used to it, things you don't use naturally appear.
When it was time to replace or organize my tools, I listed the items that were used less frequently one by one.

Here is one thing that surprised me.
Perhaps due to the recent rise in prices, there were several items that sold for almost the same price as when I bought them, even though they were used.

Especially with camping gear, since the new prices of popular brands have risen since then,a phenomenon occurred where “they sell for a high price even though they are used.”It was a big discovery that “value doesn't necessarily go down just because you use it.”

I don't think this is limited to camping.
Doesn't everyone have one or two hobbies they were once obsessed with?
Outdoors, fishing, golf, photography, handmade crafts—.
“Tools you bought when you were into it, but don't use now”.
If those are sleeping in your closet or storage room, they are exactly the same as our camping gear.

Actually, the more money you spent on something back then, the better it will sell for even now.

2nd place: Brand-name items (9 items, 125,300 yen)

Brand-name items were surprisingly significant.

Most of these were my wife's, and they had been sleeping in storage for a long time.

When I tried organizing our belongings to become a simplist, we decided to sell them, thinking, "If we aren't using them, let's pass them on to someone who needs them."

This includes items like Louis Vuitton and Prada, which cost a fair amount when we bought them.

It's not that I didn't have any hesitation about letting them go, but I think it was a much better choice than keeping them tucked away unused.

“It was expensive, so I can't quite let it go.”.
Those are the very things worth thinking about once.

Bags, wallets, accessories, watches—
Do you have any brand-name items sleeping unused?

They won't turn into a single yen just by holding onto them, but if you pass them to someone who needs them, they will properly turn into money..

3rd place: Gadgets (19 items, 80,250 yen)

For gadgets, I mainly sold the ones I used less frequently.

What I realized after organizing was that there were many things I "didn't actually have much trouble living without."

Functions I thought were essential when I owned them could be substituted with other things once I let them go, or I didn't have any occasion to use them in the first place.

Appliances and gadgets tend to leave old ones behind every time you upgrade.
Smartphones you no longer use,
outdated tablets,
chargers and cables you received but never used.

Do you have any idea what's in your drawers?
These things also have more demand than you might think.

And the biggest discovery in this category leads to the next topic about junk items.

Even junk items can surprisingly sell

After selling 178 items this time, my biggest realization was that even items I listed as junk (broken or damaged) found buyers.

For example,even things like compact digital cameras I thought wouldn't turn on anymore or monitors with issues sold just fine.

It seems there is demand for these things from people looking for repair projects or parts.

Things we thought were "nothing but trash" become "exactly what I was looking for" to someone else.

This might be the biggest thing I learned through Mercari this time.

However, when selling junk items, the important thing is to write the condition honestly and specifically in the product description.

If you don't clearly state "what is broken and how" or "whether it works or not," it could lead to trouble after the purchase.

The absolute premise is that "the buyer understands the condition before purchasing."

As long as you keep that in mind, I feel it is well worth listing them before throwing them away.

I will write in detail, categorized by the "items" sold

This time was a summary of everything. But what you really want to know is, "So, how did you actually sell them?" right?

So from here on, I will reveal the “actual prices” and “how to sell” for each category one by one.

▶ [Now Available] The complete record of selling camping gear
I only introduced a part of it in the main text, but after that, I ended up selling 31 camping items, with total sales of 17,560 yen and net proceeds of 123,449 yen. In this article, I am showing you everything inside.

• A price list of all 31 items sold (including sales price, fees, shipping, and net profit)

• Practical flow from checking market rates to making a sale: STEP 0-3 (with screenshots)

• The actual product description for a 50,000 yen wood stove that sold

• A prompt to get help from AI (Claude) for creating tedious product descriptions

▶ [Coming Soon] The story of realizing I had collected too many artisan-made bowls
▶ [Coming Soon] The story of 'junk' items that sold even though they were broken (things to check before throwing them away)

*Large items like furniture were shipped using 'Tano-Mercari Bin'. Details on how to send them and shipping costs are here.

Conclusion

Looking only at the numbers—178 items and 770,000 yen—it feels like a large amount, but in reality, it was the result of letting go of things one by one.

My room is tidier, and I spend less time looking for lost items—beyond the money, there are many things that have changed in my daily life. And above all, the greatest gain was realizing that 'the things sleeping in my house have more value than I thought.'

I'm sure you have things in your house too that you 'can't bear to throw away, but aren't using.' Start by listing just one item. And if you think, 'I'd like to know a more concrete way to do this,' please take a look at the articles by item category above.