Canada's second-hand economy is thriving with over 2.3 billion items changing hands in 2017

Buying and selling items seond hand does a lot of good. It saves money, obviously, but it also extends the life of items and makes them valuable to new users instead of ending up in landfills. Canada's second-hand economy is particularly strong according to Kijiji, with 2.3 billion items changing hands last year.

If you buy and sell second-hand items, you can put almost $2,000 in your pocket over the course of a year (actual total $1,959), according to Kijiji's fourth annual Second-Hand Economy Index. That's more than the average annual pay increase for full-time employees in Canada ($1,729) simply through savings from buying second-hand and money earned from selling unwanted items.

An estimated $28.5 billion worth of second-hand items changed hands in 2017 and more Canadians than ever – 85 per cent of us – are getting in on the action in one form or another. This includes buying or selling, along with swapping, renting or donating second-hand items.  

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Kijiji says that second-hand economy saves money while generating income for Canadians

Selling or bartering off items you don't need to make money for something you do want is both sensible and worthwhile. The popularity of services like Craigslist, Kijiji as well as localized trading and selling apps like Bunz and Letgo are a testament to this second-hand economy.

Kijiji's third annual Second-Hand Economy (SHE) Index found 30.4 million more second-hand goods traded hands last year than the year before, as the Second-Hand Economy continues to represent a consistent and sizeable part of the country’s overall economic activity.

Last year, 1.9 billion previously used items were bought, sold, swapped or donated by Canadians, according to new data released today by Kijiji, Canada’s largest online classifieds site.

Canadians spent a total of $29 billion buying second-hand goods in 2016, up $1 billion from the previous year. To put that into perspective, the Second-Hand Economy is larger than Canada’s entire agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing sectors combined (a total of $28.3 billion), and almost equal to the GDP of Newfoundland & Labrador ($30.1 billion, according to latest data available).

“The Second-Hand Economy goes hand in hand with the sharing economy, as Canadians find bargains and monetize their existing assets,” said Kijiji General Manager Matt McKenzie. “Canadians earned an average of $1,037 from second-hand sales, while buyers of second-hand goods saved an average of $843 last year. Most respondents to the survey say they used that money for day-to-day expenses like gas, groceries and rent payments.”

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