Selling Online

Half.com is run by eBay and is a discount marketplace for books, CDs, DVDs, and video games and systems. You list your items for free and Half.com handles the transaction for you. When an item is sold, you ship it out and get paid by direct deposit into your checking account.

Cash for Books is less glamorous than Half.com, but it gets you money a lot more quickly. All you have to do is enter the ISBN numbers of your books and then send them to Cash for Books. The company pays the shipping, and three days after your books arrive, it sends you a check.

StubHub , another division of eBay, is the place to go if you want to sell tickets to sporting events, concerts, and plays. It's not an auction so you set the asking price for your tickets, but you can always change it if there are no takers. Once someone purchases your tickets, StubHub sends you a prepaid FedEx envelope so you can get them to the buyer. Or if you’re in too much of a hurry to wait, you can send your tickets to StubHub in advance and have the site complete the transaction for you. StubHub takes a commission off your ticket sales, which varies depending on the event or price of ticket.

Zunafish helps you connect with other users to swap CDs, DVDs, books, videos, and video games. You make a list of stuff you have to trade and then search the site to make a separate list of items you'd like. If you can find a match, you contact the other member and make a trade.

BarterBee.com is another trading site for CDs, DVDs, and video games. You can "sell" your stuff for points that you can use to buy other items on the site. Unlike Zunafish, you can stock up points for items you sell and choose what you want instead of setting up trades directly with another user. You can become a member for free, and listings cost nothing.

TradeAway.com lets you list any item you want to offer for barter or cash—including real estate and vacation homes. To post a listing, you pay $9.95 for 180 days. Simply cite the value of your item, include your personal "wish list," and other users have the chance to make you offers.

Craigslist , listed in the “How do I place an online classified ad?” section of this guide, also has a section for bartering. You can offer exchanges for pretty much anything and everything you can think of, including services, apartments, and of course, your stuff. There are no guarantees for success, but with so many users you’re bound to find someone who needs what you’ve got. The “barter” section is the first item under the "for sale" tab.

Swaptree is a swapping site for books, CDs, DVDs, and video games. Sign up for an account, enter the ISBN or UPC number of what you want to trade, and Swaptree uses an algorithm to find stuff you can get in exchange. Print mailing labels from the site and mail your item, then choose the item you want to receive in exchange—all for just the cost of postage. The site is currently in invite-only beta phase but if you visit and enter your e-mail address, you can expect an invitation.

Etsy.com is your place to buy and sell handmade crafts online. You get a free account and online store, where you can list your items for as little as $.20 and keep them up for four months. The site takes a 3.5 percent cut of your sales but helps you market and promote your stuff.

Scoopt.com is a site that helps you sell your snapshots to the press. You become a member of the site and then carry your camera around. It can be a digital camera, a disposable camera, even your cell phone. When you take a picture, send it to Scoopt. For one year, Scoopt has exclusive rights to your picture and tries to sell it. If and when they do, you get 40 percent of the profits.