One of the best things you can do for Mother Earth is to reduce unnecessary waste, whether that means recycling your plastics at home or by buying and selling gently-used kid gear. Our goal is to help parents provide the best for their children at every major milestone, without producing more harmful waste for the environment. After all, there’s no planet B.
"The baby and child entertainment industries can be so wasteful, it's so much plastic and for items that only get used for a short period of time," says Colorado mom Claire Boozer Cruse, who also shuns the wasted packaging from having goods shipped from online retailers. "If I buy plastic I always try to buy second hand, it's also more cost effective."
The facts are in too. For starters, reusing an item rather than buying it new can reduce the carbon footprint up to 82-percent. And, according to the EPA, common baby and kid gear materials such as rubber, wood and plastic account for over 21-percent of domestic waste in the United States. We can help reduce that staggering figure just by shopping smarter. An added bonus is that shopping secondhand toys, cribs, strollers, games and other kid gear saves you money too.
"I do a lot of second hand for my kids, and I do it to reduce waste and also because kids grow so fast," says Denver-based mom Arianna Sertoli. "For toys I try to stay away from plastic as much as possible or get green toys, and anything I have that I don't use I donate, or sell. Nothing goes in the trash."
Skip the Packaging
One of the beneficial reasons to shop gently-used baby and kid gear is the lack of packaging. If you have ever been bombarded on Christmas or a birthday by the sheer amount of pointless trash from unwrapping all those sparkly new toys, you know what we mean.
For local pick up, our goods either leave the warehouse in the hands of the customer or in a recyclable paper bag. Same with delivered baby gear. If something is getting shipped it comes packaged in a cardboard box that fits the item, none of that, "here's a swaddle blanket in a box bigger than your 1st grader" sort of thing. You also won't get a package full of packing peanuts or wasted plastic.
Shop Environment-Friendly Brands
We save a lot of quality stuff from becoming junk in a landfill. And yes, that even means the open box goods. A lot of open box items are returns that either the company we get it from can't or won't put back in their inventory. For them it's easier to sell to us than to restock their shelves. We aren't complaining, we love selling our customers these items at a fraction of the cost, which includes the BabyBjorn Bouncer for $159.99 (retails for $200), the Diono Carus Essentials 3-in-1 Carrying System for $69.99 (retails for $140), the Mockingbird Single to Double Stroller for $309.99 (retails for $395), and more.
This also means that some of the gear that might not be considered environmentally friendly if purchased new, becomes so when sourced secondhand. It's a good excuse to let your little ones have that plastic shopping cart and play food, all the dolls, all the toy cars, plastic animals and so on that normally wouldn't make the Earth-saving cut.
Plus, adds Claire, "I think it [shopping secondhand] teaches our children a very important lesson early on that new-to-you toys can be just as special as sparkly, shiny new toys."
Don't Forget the Benefit of Reselling
Many consumers today shop with the intent to resell. Based on a report from 2019 by the secondhand retailer Thredup.com, 40-percent of shoppers think about the resale value of items they are purchasing, which is two times the number of people who considered this five years ago. One of our favorite examples, and our customers' best-loved too, is the UPPAbaby Vista. New, this stroller system costs $930. Gently-used from us it's around $310. If you figure on using it for four or five years, you can expect to resell the Vista for around $150 or $200, all depending on the condition and how old it is. When you take that into consideration, you're only spending around $150 for a high-end baby gear item that you get to use for years.
We get it's not always easy to sell your secondhand and gently-used kid and baby gear. In fact, it's work, especially when you go through the channels like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, which can also be sketchy. That's why it’s our mission to make selling your baby and kid items as hassle-free and safe as humanly possible. We pick up gear and have local drop offs at our warehouses in Denver and Philly. Once we get your gently-used gear we take over the pricing, photos, item details and handling potential customers. All you have to do is wait to get paid, and feel good that your space is clearer and that you're helping other parents get quality gear for their family while doing something good for Mother Earth.
The number of families GoodBuy Gear helped own for less in 2021.
The future of gear is used. An easy way to make an impact is selling your children’s gear when it’s no longer serving your family and shopping secondhand.
