Dappered Donates: Clean out your closet for charity

Sell your Stuff on eBay for Career Gear

Closets are overflowing.  It’s starting to warm up.  Time for a little spring cleaning.

Thanks to eBay Giving Works, you can sell that old blazer, shoes and watch you don’t wear anymore, and earn a bit of a karma boost (and cash) in return.  Over the next two weeks, Career Gear is hoping we, the Dappered Community, will sell some of our no longer worn clothes, shoes and accessories, and donate a portion of the take to their cause.

For almost 15 years, Career Gear has been helping guys get well dressed and prepped for job interviews.  We all know the power of a good suit.  Imagine having a job interview coming up, but not having the funds to get your hands on a suit.  Since 1999, they’ve helped over 30,000 men through their Job Readiness Program, which provides interview appropriate clothing as well as counseling and preparation for that sit down with a potential employer.

So there’s two ways to help out.  #1 is dead simple:

 Click that button and you’ll be taken directly to the Career Gear site, where you can make a cash donation.

#2 will give your closet some room to breathe.  Gather up all the stuff you’re not wearing anymore, sell it on eBay, and donate a portion of the sale through the nifty “eBay Giving Works” program.

It’s relatively simple.  The easy way is to just head to the Career Gear Giving Works Page, select the percentage of the sale you’d like to donate, then click “list your item” to create a listing page on ebay.

The small team of us here at Dappered kindly ask you strongly consider donating at least 50%. Doesn’t have to be 100%.  We want you to make a little somethin’ on this too, but let’s help Career Gear do some real good.

If you’d rather just create a listing from ebay’s home page, you can do that instead.  These instructions might help.  If you don’t have an ebay account, you’re gonna have to jump through the hoops of signing up.

Once your listing is published and the auction starts, your page will carry a banner mentioning you’re donating to Career Gear.  If you want to browse other items being sold for Career Gear, just scroll down a bit on their charity page.

No reserve and free shipping on the items I’ve posted.  More to come later this week.

Once you’ve listed your item, be sure to let all of us in the Dappered community know about it by…

• Posting links in the Dappered Donates thread on our forum 
• Post it up on our Facebook page
• Or tweet @Dappered with #DapperedDonates.

Why?  Well… because I might want to buy your stuff.  Or someone else might want to buy your stuff.  The win-win-win scenario is a bunch of stylish yet neglected items get bought and sold, Career Gear gets a financial boost, and maybe some of you even make a few bucks in the end.

So whattya say?  I’ll go first.  A few jackets to start the week off, with some shoes coming later in the week.

Happy selling and shopping fellas.  Hat tip to reader Scott who inspired the idea.  And even if you can’t swing a sale or a donation to help out, thank you for being a part of this small, civil, appreciative-of-affordable style community.