swanksalot / Flickr

This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.

Pawnsearcher.com is a new site that helps you find discounted items for sale at pawn shops across the country. The site is fairly easy to use and best of all it’s free. You do have to create an account, however. Once the account is established, you can start searching for things like tools, electronics, and more.

In a previous post, Bargain Babe wrote about how to make money from spring cleaning by selling unwanted gold jewelry at pawn shops. If you’re looking for jewelry, you’ll want to check out this site.

Be advised that you won’t find

listings on this site like on eBay. Instead, you fill out a search inquiry with a detailed description of what you are after, and it is sent to more than 500 pawnshops nationwide. (You also have the option of sending your inquiry to only local pawnshops.) After a few days, you’ll receive emails directly from pawnshops with the item you are looking for along with pricing and/or photos. PawnSearcher.com recommends using Paypal or a credit card in case a dispute arises.

Pawnsearcher puts you in touch with pawn shops and does not profit from transactions. The site makes money by charging pawn shops a monthly fee to receive sale inquiries from potential customers.

CEO Jeff Epstein said the idea to start the site came after he accompanied his soon to pawn shops in search of a gun. After visiting a few, he thought there had to be a way to send inquiries to lots of pawnshops at one time. Epstein launched the site in June making it easy for treasure and bargain hunters to search for wanted items.

Have you ever shopped at a pawn shop?

The Facey Family / Flickr

This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.

If you’re cleaning up your home this spring, don’t just throw things away. Make money from spring cleaning by selling things you no longer need or want. Below you will find my suggestions for where to sell used books, clothes, electronics and much more. I added five suggestions to avoiding a major headache when selling items.

1. Clothes – If your clothes are in good condition try selling them at a local local flea market. This will be time consuming as you’ll have to find a local flea market and wait till an interested party approaches you. If you don’t have time for this, use sites like eBay and Smashion.com.
2. Cell phones – If you have old cell phones lying around, try selling them on NextWorth.com. This website helps you sell, upgrade and/or recycle cell phones, iPods and video games.
3. Electronics – Sell your old laptops, eReaders, MP3 players and calculators on YouRenew.com. The site will give you an estimate of how much you could get to sell your item. My old MP3 player is worth about $25.
4. Books – There are a lot of sites to sell textbooks, but CKYbooks.com also buys fiction and nonfiction books. They pay for the shipping and later sell you a check. Cha-ching!
5. Music instruments – Have old instruments at home you swore you’d learn to play on your own? Guilty. I have a keyboard that I’m not selling because I’m still in denial. But if you are looking to sell old instruments, try MusicGoRound.com. They will look at your equipment and give you an estimate. You will have to bring it in to a store so if you don’t live near one of their stores, call your local instrument store to see if they buy used items.
6. Gold jewelry – Bargain Babe suggest selling your unwanted jewelry at a pawn shop, but you may want to visit a local jewelry store first. Compare offers and maybe even use them to negotiate a better deal.
7. Garage sale – If you live in a high traffic area and have a combination of valuable and everyday items, consider getting rid of everything at once with a garage sale. Whatever does sell, put in a box labeled FREE and post a note on Craigslist with a list of items that are curbside. You’ll be surprised how quickly everything goes! How to run a garage sale part 1 and part 2.

Here are five ways to protect yourself when selling your unwanted items and maximize your sells.

1. Make sure you are selling your items to a reputable company.
2. Try mailing your items instead of having the person pick them up at your place.
3. If they need to pick up heavy items like furniture from your place, make sure to have a friend with you.
4. Make your listings on websites as descriptive as possible and include photos. The more information you give a potential buyer, the more likely you are to sell the items. Buyers like to know why you are selling the item, original purchase price, and condition to start.
5. If you end up donating the items, make sure to ask for a receipt so you can get a tax write off when you do your taxes.

Woman are better at riding out stock market crashes, while men are more likely to sell during lows, says the Sunday’s New York Times. “There’s been a lot of academic research suggesting that men think they know what they’re doing, even when they really don’t know what they’re doing,” said John Ameriks, a Vanguard exec who co-authored the study. (Kind of like how men hate asking for directions…)

Men’s overconfidence led them to trade stocks nearly 50 percent more often than women. “This added trading drove up the men’s costs and lowered their returns,” the story said.

It is interesting that the story and the researchers interpret men’s propensity for selling in a volatile market as overconfidence and not emotional weakness. I bet many people – men and women – who sold stocks as the market fell last year were motivated by fear. Fear that their investments, their retirement, and their future would be dashed if they didn’t do something about it.

The emotional pressure to survive a falling stock market may have been felt greater by men, who carry a societal burden to be breadwinners. That could be a factor in why men mistakenly sold off stocks more often then women. If there’s one thing I’ve heard about being a good investor, it is that you can’t make financial decisions based on emotions and come out ahead.

Men’s overconfidence, however, also led them to take greater risks than women, which can mean bigger returns. Women feel safer with the slow and steady earnings from bonds, apparently.

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It’s unclear how significant these differences are, and the reasons behind it. Nature? Nurture? Or…? Researchers are studying how our emotions effect our finances and are looking at ties between testosterone and risk-taking. In the meantime, I’m holding onto what I’ve got.