Easy ways to earn extra holiday cash

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Need some extra money for holiday shopping? Now is the perfect time to clean out your home and turn unused items into cold hard cash, just in time for Christmas.

Your bookshelves may be full of books, CDs, and DVDs that rarely get used. By selling them to various stores, you can make room for new toys and earn some money to help buy them.

Eyewitness News went to Half Price Books in Rice Village, where they buy used items that you might consider outdated material.

"We can scope out a diamond in the rough every day," said store employee Terri Crawford.

They make the process very easy. Just take a look around your house and box up any old books, cookbooks, DVDs and CDs that you no longer use. If you've got an old VHS player, you can grab that too.

"Books are evaluated on their condition and how many we have in the store. We buy music DVDs. We also buy eReaders. We buy Playstations. We basically buy most electronics," Crawford said.

Take your box of used goods to any Half Price Books location, but be prepared to wait for your cash on the spot.

"It doesn't matter how much you bring in, we will evaluate it at that time," Crawford said.

Once they have inspected all of your items, they will call you to the evaluation are and tell you the value of your lot.

We cleaned out the office at ABC-13 and scored $90 for a couple boxes of used books.

If you would rather do the process online, there are many companies that offer similar services.

We sold our old CDs on a site called Decluttr.com. The site purchases CDs, DVDs, and video games.

You have to manually enter in each item's UPC barcode and they will tell you immediately how much they will pay you for the item. Once you enter in every item, they email you a shipping label. Just box up the items and mail them, and they will mail you a check once they receive the items.

We received an offer of $25.62 for 35 CDs and got our check within two weeks.

Before the chance to get extra holiday cash passes you by, look around the house because your trash could be cash!