Student turns free finds into extra cash

MARTELLACCI Correspondent

Clayton Valley Charter High School is known for putting out exceptional graduates, and Matteo Mitchell can certainly be counted among them.

The hammer-throwing college sophomore just wrapped up his first year as a USC athlete and has found a way to use his summer at home in Clayton to raise money for his education.

Mitchell resells items he finds on platforms like Nextdoor and Facebook Marketplace – everything from workout equipment to furniture, most of which he obtained for free by staying active on these apps. He has earned more than $3,000 this summer and is contributing it to his household to ease the burden of paying for school.

Mitchell’s older brother graduated from UCLA just before Mitchell started at USC, so Mitchell is fully aware that back-to-back college educations are a considerable financial strain.

“USC is an expensive school, and things aren’t getting any cheaper,” Mitchell notes. “If I could help as much as possible to ease the burden on them, that’s kind of my goal.”

Mitchell had done a bit of selling on Facebook Marketplace for $10 or $20 here and there, but upon returning home from school he started looking around Marketplace with an entrepreneurial eye.

It all kicked off in a big way when Mitchell borrowed his father’s truck to pick up a new elliptical machine someone was giving away for free. “I set it up in the living room, took some videos of it and I put it up for sale,” recalls Mitchell, who ended up making $400 on the sale.

After seeing the potential of reselling in action, Mitchell went all in.

“When I wake up, pretty much the first thing I do is check Facebook Marketplace.”

He shares a little about his process: “I search free, and I have a 15- to 20-miles radius around that distance, and I just scroll until I find something that I think is undervalued.”

If the person with the item says he can pick it up, “I’m out the door in the next few minutes.”