Ummm ... ok if you don't wanna do ebay, which gives you a 90% chance of selling your item, you can use Craigslist, which is local and according to some people, a bit more risky. Ebay has you pay fees. You basically lost money because the first time around, you were posting all kinds of things with reserve, none of them sold, and you lost money because of that. If you had just put them up with no reserve the first time around, you'd still have to pay for the fees based on a percentage.
How old did you say you were again ... I keep wondering this even though you've said it before.