Household appliances like refrigerator, washing machine, clothes dryer, microwave oven and oven make our lives so much easier and comfortable. However, buying brand new household appliances can bleed your wallet, especially if you’re on a tight budget.
Whether your existing household appliances have conked out or just need updating to a more advanced model, the used-appliance market is always an option. If you’ve decided to buy second-hand, buy only high-quality top-of-the-line models and choose reliable appliances as second-hand products come with a limited warranty.
Here’s why you should consider going the second-hand route when you need something for your home, rather than hitting up the electrical shop.
- Second-hand products are less expensive. Buying pre-loved items (except antiques) is less expensive than the new alternative. Your dollar will go farther if you buy used, and the money saved can be used for other purchases and uses.
- Eco-Friendly.Used products don’t require new resources. Rather than letting something go to waste, when you buy, sell or donate used household appliances, someone else may be able to reuse your items. Every manufactured product contributes to consuming a certain amount of resources – from farming cotton, clearcutting forests, mining for metals, or pumping out oil. All these will cause horrible environmental consequences like global warming, air and water pollution and more. Luckily, there’s an alternative – used items don’t require any new resources to be consumed.
- Used products don’t have packaging. Almost all new products come with some kind of packaging – plastic hard casing, shrink wrap, bubble wrap, cardboard box, styrofoam pellets, etc. The packaging materials and the actual product use a substantial amount of energy and resources to create. It can be really difficult to find a way to recycle all that packaging and some may even end up in the oceans and rivers. When you buy used from your local thrift shop, community group or get a hand-me-down from a friend or relative, you have almost zero packaging to deal with.
- You can negotiate the price. When you’re buying used, you’re dealing with a person who might be open to more negotiations, either because you’re taking something that they are desperate to dispose of, or because they listed it for more than they expected to sell it for. Start low and, after a little bargaining, you should be able to come close to a price you had in mind.
Finding someone to transport your second-hand household appliances to you can often be a hassle due to the size of the items. Browsing the web pages and asking around for the right shipping company for you can be time consuming and overwhelming. At Shiply, there are hundreds of rated shipping companies who are ready to quote on your job, often at rates up to 75% cheaper than usual. All you have to do is to enter a few simple details about your shipment and hundreds of rated shipping companies will send you quotes, often up to 75% cheaper than usual. Thus, you can compare quotes to move large items to see how much you could save and select the one that offers the best deals that meet your requirements.
When you’ve decided to buy second-hand household appliances, shop smart and always do your homework by reading reviews before you buy.