Month: March 2016

Blame it on the Sunshine!

flippingthrifty1 Comment

Once again, I’ve been MIA, but I can’t help but to be outside in this beautiful 70 degree weather!  One of the biggest perks of selling on eBay is that you can choose your own hours.  When you want to spend your days outside, just work at night.  If you want to go out for a night with the girls, just work during the day.

I have been doing bad.  Real bad.  I haven’t listed anything since March 16.  And it’s hurting, my sales have slowed down to about one a day.  It really goes to show you get out what you put in.

Also, I apologize about not posting my profit screenshots – my computer is temporarily disassembled while I try to replace the fan.  But here are a few of my recent sales:

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Lucky Brand Cargo Pants

Paid: $4

Sold: $29.99 + $6.35 S&H

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Lilly Pulitzer Dress

Paid: $6

Sold: $49.99

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Lucky Brand Jeans

Paid: $4

Sold: $39.99 + $6.35 S&H

For all the men out there – and all the women trying to convince their men to join them in thrifting – I am going to share with you some of my boyfriends recent flips in the next post (his flips are much larger than mine – and he sells some pretty cool manly things!)

Thanks for reading!

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Blame it on the Sunshine!

Feelin’ Lucky

flippingthrifty4 Comments

Happy St Patty’s Day!  I hope there is luck on your side today!  But, eBay selling has nothing to do with luck.  It is about your determination and your willingness to move pass the negative and to constantly learn from your mistakes.  The other day, I had a buyer open a return request for $30, which I have set to automatically accept.  She sent an item back – the wrong item, something that I have never had in my inventory.  I was furious.  I called eBay and complained, which only made the situation worse.  I threatened her with a police report.  I was fuming all day thinking about it.  Then it hit me, why was I going to let this one $30 sale ruin my day and make me consider quitting eBay.  Karma will take care of that person, I just need to let it go.  You cannot avoid the scam artists.  They are everywhere.  I hear so many stories of people giving up after one bad thing happening to them.  As a seller, you need to realize people will try to take advantage of you – but those people are far and few in-between.

Now, aside from the ability to let go, you must really have passion to become successful.  I love clothes and fashion and can often be found reading fashion blogs and magazines.  I sometimes go to fancy stores to look around at the brands they have to offer.  My boyfriend started off trying to sell clothes, but he found his passion in shoes.  We both put time in to research what’s trending and selling.  One of my favorite research platforms are blogs.  Unfortunately, my three favorite bloggers are no longer blogging.

Everyone has a different strategy when it comes to selling.  One of my favorite bloggers who no longer blogs (Maureen) buys things mainly from the Goodwill Outlet and sells them for about 20x what she paid for them, but the total sale is a lot less than what I’m used to (maybe around $20).  I, on the other hand, try to stay far away from the Goodwill Outlet – it can be a very scary place!  I buy mostly jeans, which are usually $6.99.  I started out buying ones that I could sell for at least $20, but now try to stick with ones I can sell for at least $40.  I dabble in shirts, dresses, shoes, purses, and things, but I love selling jeans.  I can crank out a jeans listing in 3 minutes.

As far as strategy goes, I’ve seen people having success having under 100 things listed, while some people have 1000 listing – it really depends on how much you are selling items for and your sell-through rate.  Personally, I am at my all time lowest with around 120 listings – hoping to get to 200 by the end of March.

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Feelin’ Lucky

February Profits

flippingthrifty7 Comments

Please don’t hate me!  I’m a little late (only like 16 days…) on updating you on my February profits – but here it is:

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In February, I made $1333.24.  For about a week or two in February, I consistently listed 5 items a day, but have since fallen way off track.  However, my profits are still outstanding for putting in around 20 hours of work for the month of February.  For those of you interested in the profit program I use – please refer back to my January profit report.

March has probably been one of the worst months of me getting things listed.  I listed 8 things today, and I think that’s probably all I’ve done this month.  That being said, I’ve still made over $500 profit in the first two weeks.  I’m going to really try to start listing 5 items a day again.  I hope that soon, I can get my eBay income to be greater than my employer paid income.

For those of you on the fence of starting eBay, just do it.  As you can see, I’m maybe putting in less than 5 hours a week and seeing a return of about $250/week!  Think of what you could do in 40 hours a week!

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February Profits