My Week of Buying & Selling

I've mentioned before that this blog is a way for me to chronicle what I'm doing, what I did, and if it seemed to work. Of course if people find this blog down the road and it helps them also earn more money than that is awesome! I would love that actually, but for now, no one reads this lol. So it's a record of my journey at this point. In that vein of thought, I decided that I needed to start keeping track of what I've bought, and what I've sold, and I'd like to do this weekly. I'm not sure I'll need to do this weekly, but my goal is to try and buy weekly for items to resell. I'm not going to list stuff I found around my house, unless it's a really surprising sale and feel it's worth sharing. So here goes, my first Week of Buying and Selling :)

BUYING

I bought through three different venues this week: garage sales, retail store, and ebay. Yes, you can find things on ebay cheap enough that you can resell them higher.

Yard Sales

These where not on my agenda for this week, or really for the next couple. I planned on focusing solely on what I had around the house and then move on to garage sales, Goodwill's, thrift stores, etc. However, it was rainy last weekend, and while I was out I saw a yard sale sign. Intrigued that someone was actually doing it in this weather I drove past, and much to my surprise it was 3 different houses all having a garage sale! Now that I could not pass up, so I stopped with a whopping $10 budget and here's what I got.

* Talking Teddy Ruxpin - He's in his box, but I'm pretty sure he's been out of it. If you are not familiar with him, he was one of the coolest toys of the late 80's. You bought books, that came with cassettes, that he would play, that told the story in the book. His eyes and mouth moved, and he was pretty darn cool. Mostly I bought him because 1. He has nostalgia, and 2. He's intact. His whole outfit is there, he has a book and matching cassette, his box and even his headband and shoes. Unfortunately, he needs batteries to see if he works.
Cost - $5

*Micky Mouse Pop'N Play Game - I paid .25 for this. I'm pretty sure it's not complete, however it's old, it's mickey mouse, and there is a market for replacement parts for these older games. More than likely I will wind up "parting it out". As in selling the individual pieces.
Cost - .25

*Can of TinkerToys - Again, this is an older set. It's wood, the can is completely in tact, and it also has that nostalgia factor that people impulse buy for.
Cost - $4

*Sylvester and Tweety 3D Mug - I've heard that coffee mugs can sell well, and I've seen some sell for $10, $15 even $50 before, so I thought, for .25, why not. Tweety is popular, the mug was in good shape, and I thought it was cool with his tail being the handle and all.
Cost .25

Total Cost - $9.50
I do however regret two things I didn't buy, 2 Dancing to The Oldies workout DVDs in very good condition. They were only $1 each, and when I got home to research them were selling for around $10 each :( Ah well, I didn't want to go over budget. I'm hoping to make around $52 on all these items. Now that would be a tidy little profit!

Ebay & Retail Store (Dollar General)

Don't think that you can't find items to sell from either one of these places, because you absolutely can. There are a lot of people on ebay that don't know the value of what they are selling, or they don't care because they just want it gone. Those are great opportunities to swoop in and get something to resell, all from the comfort of you home. There are also those that will buy items in bulk listings, like say someone selling 6 pairs of kids shoes, and then break up the lot and sell individually. I haven't tried this yet, as I feel you need to know your "niche" and what sells well in it to start doing that. You need to know the names and brands that people are looking for. As far as retail goes, look for good clearance, there are a lot of people that make a decent side income selling stuff they find in stores on deep clearance for close to retail. Not just on ebay either, that goes for Amazon's FBA as well.

On Ebay I got:

* Koi Scrub top and Koi scrub pants size Medium - So, I may not be the most trendy or up to date person on fashion, but I've been a CNA for 16 years, so I know what's hot for nursing scrubs. Koi is a hugely popular brand, and expensive. The style of pants is also, probably, the most popular style of pants period. No matter the brand. It's called the Lindsey style, and darn near every nurse or aide I know has at least one pair. Many wear nothing but that style. I purposely misspelled Koi by spelling Kio and found this listing. Yay me lol.

Cost - $12.49 + 6.95 S&H = $19.94

Which is a lot, but I'm certain I can sell the pants for at $16, and the top for another $15, for a total of $31, which leaves a profit of $11.06. Not huge, but I didn't have to do a lot of work for this one, so I'm okay with that.

From Dollar General:

2 7 piece Stainless Steel Cuisine Select Cooking Sets - This cute little set comes with 3 pans, with lids and a nice 9 inch skillet. These were on what Dollar General calls "Last Chance" for $3 (retail $25) and they happened to be running a special 50% off all last chance items. So...........

Cost - $1.50 each x 2 = $3 total

I'm not 100% on how much shipping is going to cost, but I'm going to estimate around $10. So I plan on charging $19.99 with $5 S&H. Which will make my profit around $15 each, or $30 total after shipping. As far as finding these deals, it's hard. Especially at DG, because they don't mark 90% of their last chance items. I belong to a few couponing at Dollar General, and couponing in general groups on facebook, and we share good clearance finds in stores along with coupon deals. Which is how I heard of this.

Next what I've sold for the week:
Total sales - $53.73 which includes my charges for shipping.
Shipping Costs - $10
Profit - $43.73

Not to bad, but at the end of the month my ebay dues will come due and that'll be another $15. I'll see if I have anymore sales before then, but I don't have any large money items listed, so more than likely it won't be much. I'll put in my monthly totals in my next post and include my ebay bill.

How To Get Started Selling On Ebay

Photo Credit: Sam Howzit

Okay, so I keep talking about how I'm selling on ebay, and I talked about it a little when I first started the blog, but I thought I might go a little more into the nuts and bolts of it. Also, we'll touch on pros and cons of selling on Ebay, and some basic beginner tips to get your feet wet. Now, I know I've been posting a lot recently about Ebay, and not much else on other income streams, but don't worry, this is NOT an Ebay blog, I will cover other topics down the road. This is just currently what I'm doing to start, and we'll talk about why it is, so I'm going over it a lot right now.

So, first we'll talk about why it really is one of the easiest and quickest ways to start earning money online. Potentially quite a lot of money, depending on the quality and amount of items you have to sell.

1. It's simple and free to create an Ebay seller/buyer account
2. It's simple and free to create a Paypal account (yes, you need this)
3. You start with items around your house, so 0 out of pocket cost to start with
4. It's very easy to research an item you are selling

Of course there are down sides to selling on Ebay:

1. As a new seller you will start with some restrictions on your account. Including how many listings you can have, and how much you can make (you can request these be raised once you have a couple transactions under your belt)
2. You will also have a funds hold placed on your earnings until a variety of criteria are met. 
3. You will need to have money on hand to ship those first few items that sell (so don't list 100 items right away)
4. Ebay leans very heavily towards the "Buyer is Always Right" mentality, and can be very lenient towards them and punish the sellers quickly. 

Don't let the above list completely scare you away from trying though! I just want you to be aware and informed about potential pitfalls so you can more easily avoid them. So, first go to ebay and make yourself an account. It's pretty simple and not a lot different than creating any other account. If you do not have a Paypal account you WILL need one. Paypal and Ebay are best buddies and go hand in hand with one another. You will also need to link your Paypal account with your Ebay account. Once all that is done go to your account, under selling, and you will see at the very top how many items you can list, and/or how much you can make for the month. Usually it's 10 items and $100 I believe. If either of those are hit within the month than they will not allow you to sell anymore until next month. 

However, it's easy enough to get those limits raised fairly quickly. Listed a few small items, have some successful transactions, heck even buy a couple things if you want, and then you can request that they raise the limits on the same page you see them. I've pretty much always had them do it immediately for myself and for friends that I've helped start selling on ebay. 

Here's a quick screenshot from my own account. Once you get past the initial limits, this is usually the second set. I've never achieved enough in sales to need them raised any higher, but I know you can again if you need to.

So, you have an account, you understand the limits, now you need to list some items! Go around your house, all that "stuff" you have that you never use, you got for a gift and can't stand, or you just have to many of, list them! You will be so surprised at what will sell and what people are looking for. You'll also notice that once you get started, and start selling some of that "stuff", you'll find more and more to get rid of. Originally I was going to into this in depth in this post, but it will just make it to lengthy, so I will make another post dedicated to listing and post the link when it's finished.

For a quick start though, pick out your items, then sit down with them next to you. Before you even begin to list do a quick search on ebay for your item. Like I sold a Boba Baby wrap, so I typed in Boba Baby wrap, and looked at what was being offered and at what prices, and what people were asking for shipping before I listed. Be sure to always be careful with shipping when first starting! It's very easy to misjudge it when you're starting out and wind up breaking even or losing money on an item because of it. See what others are charging and do your best guess from there. 

Two things Ebay will try to tell you to do that you should ignore:

1. Start your auction @ .99

     DO NOT do this, unless you are willing to accept .99 for that item. Always start your auction at the lowest price you are willing to take for an item. Within reason of course, you do want it to sell after all. It's really not that uncommon for an item to sell with just 1 bid, which will be for what you started the auction at. That's why I tell you not to start lower than you can accept for the item.

2. Always offer Free Shipping

     Again, unless you know that your lowest price will cover shipping and still leave money in your pocket, then DO NOT do that. You can choose a "flat" fee, like say $5 so even if you are off on how much shipping will cost at least it's not ALL coming from your profit. You can also choose for Ebay to calculate the shipping, but personally as a buyer I hate calculated shipping, and will avoid auctions with it. For that reason I never do it on my own auctions, I always choose a flat fee myself. 

Once your item sells you will need to wait for the buyer to pay you. This is important, because sometimes they take a few days, and sometimes they don't pay at all and you have to open a case against them (that'll be another blog post). Below is a screen shot of an item I sold, and circled in red is the symbol that when filled means the buyer paid. I also circled in blue the symbol that shows they left you feedback. Which is also important.

Once they've paid, ship that item. I'm going to tell you now, pay the extra dollar for tracking ALWAYS! This has a couple perks for you that make it worth that extra money out of your pocket. The first is that when you are a new seller they will hold your funds (the money the buyer paid) for 21 days, UNLESS you provide tracking for your item. Then they will release your funds sooner, once it shows delivered, generally about three days after that. So you can change that 21 days into around 7 depending on how fast you ship, where it's going and so forth. Second, a buyer cannot open a case against you saying they never got their item, because you'll have proof that you shipped and that either the item is shown as delivered, or that the post office lost your item. This way you won't take a ding from Ebay if a buyer does open a case. 

Lastly, there are fees associated with Ebay. They take a final value fee (a percentage of how much the item sold for), there are listing fees, and Paypal will also take fees. At the time I'm writing this I've sold around $100 worth of stuff, and around 13 items, and my fees are $13.37. You can find this under your My Account tab. Fees are accrued and billed monthly. They're generally paid through your Paypal account. Be sure to keep an eye on that number and make sure you have the money to cover those fees when they are billed. 

There is a very basic idea of how to start off on Ebay. I realize now that I will need to write a few companion posts to go with this one. There is a reason people write entire books on this subject after all lol. For now though this will give you an idea of how to get started. Once you've sold your things around the house you may decide to do this part time for extra income, or you may only do it once every year or two to clean out the clutter and make a little extra money for something special (like Christmas time). Either way, start small and simple until you start to get a feel for pricing, listing, and shipping. 

Happy hunting everyone, and good fortune.

Earnings & Weekly Goals

Sooooo, my last weekly goal post was May 3rd, it's the 21st........ obviously I got a wee bit behind ha! However, my reasoning for these posts still stands. I am a terrible procrastinator, obviously, and I need to learn to hold myself more accountable, to myself. I can easily hold myself accountable to work, to family, to friends, but to things that matter to me.... not so much. It's easy to push aside My stuff, for Their stuff, and I'm sure there are a lot of people that can relate to this. Not to mention that when I don't HAVE to do something, I generally tend to push it off until I do. Still, this is important, and really I do need to do this, for many various financial and personal reasons. So I will continue to push on, and maybe, in a few months to a year, I can look back through this blog and say "Hey, look at how far I managed to come!".

Okay, so last time I had a few goals. Here's a quick recap:

• List 10 more items on Ebay 
• Create and ship the 1st Amazon FBA Shipment!
• Write at least one more blog post (other than this one and the end of week update) 
• Get ready for the garage sale Saturday
• HAVE the garage sale Saturday!

Now, did I get them all done? Sadly, no, especially since I really had 2 and half weeks to do these. However, I did do a lot. Here's what I have done the last two weeks:

1. Had the garage sale - made $113
2. Finished my semester in school!
3. Listed 6 items on Ebay the first week
4. Listed 4 more items the next
5. Have photos for more items to list, as well a few more items to photo to sell on Ebay

You may notice that #2 was not on my original to do list, and that was an oversight on my part. I should've had that in there, because it was a major reason the other items didn't get done in a week. The garage sale and final projects sucked away my time like little leeches that first week and a half! Then, I really needed a day or two to recover from finishing school LOL. I always need a couple days to recuperate from the stress of finals week. 

Then you'll notice that there are two things I did not get done at all. One was writing another blog post, obviously since this is the next one in the line. The other was my shipment to Amazon FBA :( To be fair I did all the hard work on this shipment, I bagged it, labeled it, entered it, it's just waiting to be put in a box and shipped out. So why is it still sitting in a bag? Honestly, money. It's going to be a heavy box, and even though I had a successful garage sale I had a lot of bills to pay and little money to pay them. So I made the decision to wait until my next payday to ship that box out. It always takes money to make money folks, even just the little ideas. Enough about that though, what are my next goals........

Week 5/21 - 5/31 Goals

• Ship out my Amazon FBA box
• Start another FBA box
• Write two blog posts
• List  10 more items on Ebay
• Take more pictures!!!

Again, not a huge list to look at, but everyone of those items will take a bit of time, so I feel it's a fair list for now. I'm sure you noticed my "week" is actually 10 days, but I figured why mess up the timeline since I'm writing this on a Tuesday, so I went until next Sunday. I also added in the pictures thing because I keep forgetting to take photos of what I'm doing to load into these blog posts and break up the word monotony, so that is a definite goal for me! Plus, I know photos are helpful to many.

One last things, in case you're wondering how I did with my Ebay listings, the original 6 here's a quick breakdown. 

Sold 5 items for a total of $72

Paid - $23 in S&H

Total Profit - $49

All items were from my home and cost me nothing personally. I'm keeping my small profit for shipping on newly listed items, and to source more items to sell. There you go guys, my weekly (10 day) goals, what are yours? Jot them down real fast, put them somewhere you can see them regularly, and do your best to mark those items off and make that $20 a day!

Weekly Goal Setting!

 

    I have decided to begin posting my weekly goals on the blog. I have a couple different reasons for this, one is accountability, even though there are few readers now for the blog, I have stated my goals in a public arena. This creates that since that I HAVE to do this now, I told everybody about it! Another reason is that I am not a very organized person, and I'm a terrible procrastinator. Writing these goals down helps clarify in my mind WHAT I want to accomplish, and making them weekly goals establishes WHEN I want to accomplish them. Of course, for this to truly work I will need to make another post at the end of the week stating what may or may not have gotten done from the list, which I will begin to do as well. No better way to check your progress than to write it down, cross it off, and see what (if anything) is left.

    Okay, babbling over. Here is a quick list of my GOALS for the WEEK of 5/4 - 5/10:

• List 10 more items on Ebay 
• Create and ship the 1st Amazon FBA Shipment!
• Write at least one more blog post (other than this one and the end of week update) 
• Get ready for the garage sale Saturday
• HAVE the garage sale Saturday!

     Now I realize that this list may seem small, and on the surface it is a little list. However, the garage sale along is going to take forever! I've already been sorting through my cra... uh, stuff for about two weeks and still have to go through my son's toys. Everything still needs to be marked, and then of course the garage sale itself is an all day affair. Really, garage sales are not my favorite weekend activity (unless I'm the one shopping for fun deals of course) but they do get rid of a lot of, er, "stuff" and can make a decent little bit of money as well. 

     The first FBA shipment should be an adventure as well. The first time you do anything always takes forever, just because it's new, and you're unsure, and careful. There's also the fact that I plan on doing some bundled products, so that is another new thing I need to learn. Honestly don't see the box making it out until later in the week, but by goodness it will be done this week. All I can think is lost money every week that I don't get started with this! If you're wondering about the bundled products, or multi pack listing, talked about earlier here are a couple Youtube videos you can watch, and a neat little podcast to help you out :)

Creating a Multi Pack Listing Youtube video, Jessica Larrew Channel

Packing Multi Packs Youtube video, Jessica Larrew Channel

Thrifting for Profit Podcast 

     So, enjoy the links to some good resources and once you're done I'm going to challenge you, no not to duel sorry, but I challenge you to write down a small list of goals for the week. It can be as simple as writing down five things you want to research more, or sourcing for products, or even getting a workspace set up for yourself. The point is to get into the habit of setting goals, and striving to achieve those goals!