goodwill

End of January Profit Report

flippingthrifty7 Comments

T-2 Hours until February 2016!  The first month of the year flew right by!  I accomplished a lot of personal goals (joined the gym, lost 5 lbs, purged my closet) and had an awesome month reselling.  This month, I’ll be honest – I didn’t list much….at all.  I estimate less than 50 items the whole month.  Regardless of my lack of listing, I still made out!  Mind you, eBay is now my “side hustle” so I’m not solely relying on income generated from eBay.  I will tell you that my eBay income is the only money I use for food, gas, and entertainment.  So if I’m not making money reselling – I’ll be starving and riding a bike everywhere….

Without further adieu – here is my January profit (which could increase in the next 2 hours since its only 10pm!)

Jan Profit

$995.24…So close to $1000!  Also, this is before taxes, so I set aside about $300 to pay taxes down the road.

And if you are wondering about this nifty program I use it’s called easy auctions tracker.  It is the best program I have found so far – it links everything with eBay so you don’t have to do any importing or flipping from excel to eBay.  You can buy it here (this is an affiliate link, I do get $5 if you purchase through this link, but if you don’t wish for me to receive any bonus, I still recommend you buy the program, it’s awesome!  And if you do purchase through this link – thank you!)

Purchase easyauctionstracker -> here

Check back this week for recent sales!  Happy thrifting!

8ece8-blogsig

 

 

Advertisement
End of January Profit Report

The Year of the Blog

flippingthriftyLeave a comment

New year, new blog!  flippingthrifty.com finally became available and is now my blog!  I had been waiting for this domain to be available for some time now.

This year I am determined to revamp my eBay selling and my blog.  I’ve definitely neglected both towards the end of 2015.  My profits for 2015 are impressive considering I only went full time for a few months, I unfortunately had a very inaccurate profit calculator towards the beginning of the year, but later on, I discovered easy auction tracker and fell in love with it! It is such a great program to compute your monthly and yearly profits.  In 2015, I profited about $20,000.  Pretty awesome considering I went only about 6 months full time, and by full time I mean about 20 hours a week!

Already 2016 is off to a great start!  I have profited right around $700 for the first three weeks.  I probably would’ve done a lot better had I listed some things, but I’ve been rather lazy these first few weeks.  Starting February, my goal is to list at least 20 items a week -not a lot, but keep in mind I now have a full-time corporate job.  My goal with this blog is to encourage everyone that they can find the time to sell on eBay!  It is easy and not very time consuming.  For me, 20 items a week will compute to less than 2.5 hours of actual listing/picture taking and probably about 3 hours of thrift shopping (which, let’s be honest, isn’t really work!)

In February, I plan to have a more structured blog, with weekly profit breakdowns and sales.  What do you guys want to see more of?

 

8ece8-blogsig

The Year of the Blog

Recent Flips & Thoughts

flippingthriftyLeave a comment
Hey guys!  I am finally finished my last college class!  Preparing for the semester to end brought my sales down to about $1,500 this month, but now that I’m finally free, my sales should see a boost!  
Remember those KEEN sandals I bought at a yard?  Well, I sold them for over $60!  I made a profit of over $45 (this is after all the fees and shipping).  I’m so glad it’s yard sale season!
Here are some of my other yard sale flips from the other week:
Hollister Jeans
Paid: $1
Profit: $17.06
American Rag Top
Paid: $1
Profit: $6.27
These items I would never pay more than yard sale prices for, maybe $1 or $2.  I’m actually surprised at how much profit the Hollister jeans brought in.  Distressed denim is one of the things you should always keep your eye out for.  Isn’t it funny how people will pay more for jeans that are all ripped up?
This week, I increased my average profit per item from $15 to about $17, not much, but still something.  I’m hoping to bring in at least $200 profit by the end of the month, which means selling about 12 more items.  Right now, I have 107 items listed which is way under my goal.  I really haven’t brought in much this month because I haven’t bought much.  It goes to show, you get out what you put in.  My busy schedule brought my shopping to a bit of a halt, but thankfully it’s starting to pick back up again!   June comes with no excuses!  I no longer have to worry about class and can fully focus on eBay.  With this freedom, I plan on taking at least one trip to a goodwill outlet center in June. 
I’ve been talking to Steven (the boyfriend) about writing an eBook lately.  I’m not much of a writer, but he is amazing with words!  There are a lot of tips and secrets that I would be more willing to share in an eBook, including a list of very common brands that always resell.  There are about 3 brands of jeans that I find at goodwill every single time and can buy for full price ($7) and make about $15 profit.  
My profit per item isn’t very high, this makes me have to shop a lot more than other sellers.  My sell-through rate is about 50%.  This means if I want to make a $600 profit in a week I would need to list somewhere in the ballpark of 80 items per week, 100 to be safe.  For reference, today I broke a personal record and listed 25 items (go me!), and really it didn’t take too long, so this is very doable. 
Steven and I are also looking into relocating to sunny southern paradise, Florida, sometime in the near future.  We are not fans of the winter!  One factor in our search is the proximity to a goodwill outlet store, and the beach of course!  At these stores, clothing is sold by the pound so the average article of clothing is between $1 and $2, this is a lot less then the $7 average I’m paying.  This would allow much higher profit margins on individual items.  So, I’d be making more money (and would never have to brave the winter again)! 
Until next time!

Recent Flips & Thoughts

Saturdays are for Yard Sales

flippingthrifty2 Comments
It’s finally that time of year, the best time of the year, yard sale season!  I love finding items to resell on eBay (and for myself!) because they are normally a lot cheaper than the local thrift stores.  Most of the time I can get clothing items for around $1, and today I even scored a like-new pair of KEEN sandals for $1!  For those of you who don’t know about KEEN footwear, you should definitely keep an eye out for them, a used pair in good condition can easily fetch you $50 on eBay.

These are the KEEN shoes I picked up!

When I am sourcing yard sales I will normally pick up things I wouldn’t ever bat an eye at at the goodwill, but because I can get a pair of Hollister jeans for $1, I figure I can make some kind of profit from them, and if not I didn’t invest too much.

Some of the yard sales today, each item was $1, and a lot was from American Eagle!

For those of you who don’t know, I just started living off my eBay income this year.  I quit both my part time jobs and started focusing more on eBay.  I haven’t been able to make as much as I wanted because I still had a class to finish.  Class is ending in less than a week (yay!), so I no longer have that excuse.  It’s finally time for me to turn my second bedroom into an eBay room and start working towards my goal of making $1000/week.  With all of this income I have been receiving with eBay, I must start tracking my profits better.  I am looking into purchasing the Easy Auctions Tracker spreadsheet so I will know exactly how much I make and will be able to track mileage.  This spreadsheet extracts everything from eBay and lets you know your profit or loss (but, hopefully not) using all the fees and shipping costs.  I currently use an Excel sheet that I made, it seems that each item is off by a little, never more than a dollar, but I would like to be as accurate as possible when tax time comes around.  I’m new to being a business owner and am looking forward to getting some tips from the small business center in Salisbury.

Saturdays are for Yard Sales

Birkenstocks

flippingthriftyLeave a comment
One of my better flips this week has been a pair of Birkenstocks.  These 60’s style hippie shoes are making a huge comeback.  New from the Birkenstock website these shoes cost over $100!  On eBay you can fetch close to that on some models, depending on how quick of a sale you’re looking for.
I bought these recently at a Goodwill in Delaware for $8 and sold them for $49.99 + $12.35!
It’s really important to know about current trends and hot brands.  For me, I learn through magazines and social media sites.  Another good idea to learn some brands and trends would be going to a fashion forward secondhand store, like Uptown Cheapskate.  Just browsing the racks will give you a good idea of what is popular now.  The prices are usually pretty similar to what I price my items on eBay, I probably price a little higher on most items (and some, I price way more, like that recent flip of the Kate Spade dress.)  It’s usually not a good place to source because of the close-to-none profit margin, but it is a great place to gain some brand knowledge!  
EBay seller blogs can also be a good way to catch up on brands.  Bloggers often use the term BOLO, meaning “be on the lookout for.”  These are brands that are usually hot sellers on eBay.  Of course, bloggers want to help you out, but we also don’t want to give away all of our secrets so there are some brands we keep to ourselves.  
For some people it’s easier to learn just by doing.  Steven is getting into the eBay scene and isn’t too keen on brands, so he started by looking at fabrics.  Things that are silk, wool, or cashmere seem to do well.  After finding things that are made of quality material he uses the eBay app on his phone to look up the “completed listings” for a similar item from the same brand.  He also keeps an eye out for current trends like herringbone and elbow patches.
Getting started with eBay will take lots of education.  You will need to know brands, trends, time management, and money management.  Money management is probably the toughest one.  You have to put in money to make money.  When I was starting off, I was definitely “in the hole” financially.  I had invested probably $500 in inventory and it took a while for me to recoup my investment.  It was definitely well worth it though.  Being an eBay seller means I get paid to do my favorite thing, shop!  It also gives me the freedom to make my own schedule and I love to see that the time I put in directly influences my earnings.  

Birkenstocks

Goal: 100 Listings!

flippingthriftyLeave a comment
I’m still here!  I have been a little busy with school lately (and let’s be honest, enjoying the nice weather!), but I’m still eBaying – just not as much as the last couple months.  I have been averaging about $50 profit a day which is slightly under my goal.  That being said, I probably have been putting in less then five hours of work a week.  My goal is to put in at least 20 hours of work next week and list 100 items.   The most I’ve ever listed in a week was probably about 50 listings, so this is a big goal for me.
Here have been a few of my thrift flips from the past month:
Vintage Motorcycle Jacket
Profit: $28

Lucky Brand Jeans
Profit: $12.81

Ralph Lauren Blazer (Sold for $99 even with the terrible cell phone picture!)
Profit: $81.28

Minnetonka Sandals
Profit: $11.59

Pikolinos Sandals
Profit: $28.42
About 75% of my items I only profit around $10-$15.  It doesn’t seem like much, but those small profits add up fast.  And to think, each listing only takes about 15 minutes, at most, to post.  That’s like $1/minute!  I do get the occasional item where I profit over $100.  A couple weeks ago I sold the Kate Spade dress from a previous post for $200 and profited a nice $121.01!
I really have been slacking on posting and shopping this past month.  Hopefully, I will be back in action in the next few weeks and working on my goal of being able to make at least $50,000 a year!  

Goal: 100 Listings!

First Goodwill Outlet Experience

flippingthriftyLeave a comment
This weekend Steven and I went to a couple different thrift stores in VA and Baltimore.  I think the highlight was our first ever trip to a Goodwill outlet store.  We only had an hour before they closed, so we were a little overwhelmed and didn’t get too many things.  For those of you unfamiliar with the outlets, the clothes and purses are sold per pound.  The clothes/handbags were $1.69/pound, but we happened to go on Monday, and at that store Mondays are half off days, score!
Next time we go, we are going to allow ourselves a whole day.  And just a tip, if you plan on going, you should bring some gloves or at the very least a lot of hand sanitizer.  The place is pretty dirty, but definitely worth the digging.
I found two Louis Vuitton bags and a Longchamp bag while we were there,  they were under $2 for all of them!  The checkered pattern one is almost new and the bigger signature bag is in good shape but the handles need to be re-coated or replaced.  I also found my first ever Longchamp bag!

Those beaded Skechers starfish I picked up at another thrift store for $4!
We had a good little road trip and I found a lot of cute tops for myself and over 20 pairs of jeans to resell.  We even received a 40% discount at a Goodwill in Virginia for spending over $100.  The thrift stores in Virginia and the Goodwill outlet have been my favorite places to source and shop. The Goodwill around me is pretty mediocre and very overpriced.  Hopefully, it won’t be long until we go back to the ones we visited this past weekend!
First Goodwill Outlet Experience

Amazon Buyout – $1000 On Shoes!

flippingthriftyLeave a comment
My boyfriend and I spend $1000 on shoes a couple days ago!   It sounds like a lot, but we got 44 pairs!  And not just any shoes, they were all name brand!  We bought multiple pairs of Hunter rain boots, Red Wing work boots, and Timberlands.  Each pair was just $15.30 + 7.99 shipping.  The online retailer cleared out in one night and I am so thankful that we were able to purchase so many before they were all sold out.  The lowest we will resell any of these shoes is $100, but some sell for over $200!

Here are a few that we got:

The top two are Hunter rain boots and the bottom is a pair of Red Wings (these go for over $200!)
I’m a little upset that none of the Hunter boots were my size, but maybe its better that way!  
Amazon Buyout – $1000 On Shoes!

Thrift Haul

flippingthriftyLeave a comment

Unfortunately, I’ve fallen behind my goal on the first week of March.  I blame it on being sick and all this snow!  Is it spring yet?

Here are a couple things I sold today:
These jeans are a brand from Anthropologie
Profit: $21.19

Miss Me Jeans
Profit: $39.58
Steven and I went thrifting all day yesterday, since school was cancelled, and I found some amazing things!  First, I found a pair of Tory Burch sandals for under $18.  These sandals are basically brand new!
Tory Burch for under $18!
My next find literally had me jumping up and down with excitement.  I found a pair of Christian Louboutins!  And these were never worn!  They are the Barcelona wedge and I scored them for only $35.  Here is a picture of the same color I got:
Christian Louboutins for $35
Oh and here is a picture of Sofia Vergara wearing the same ones in gold!  (I’m a little obsessed-with the shoes and her!)
Thrift Haul

New Sources + Snow Day

flippingthriftyLeave a comment
Okay, the snow is beautiful but it’s putting a serious damper on my eBaying! (Being sick doesn’t help either.)  Goodwill was closed today so I had to find somewhere else to source.  I decided to head to Uptown Cheapskate, almost like a Plato’s Closet, but nicer, for those not familiar with it.  I never have really tried to source from here before because I figure they do the same thing I do, buy low and sell high.  My boyfriend and I were both AMAZED at the deals we were able to score there today.  I’m still giggling like a little girl about all of my finds.
I got this BRAND NEW Vineyard Vines Dress on sale for $5 and change, it still has the $165 tag on it!


I also got this brand new KATE SPADE dress (Tay Swift wore this same dress!)  It has a $428 price tag and I paid just $49.99

I also got a couple second hand shorts.  I got two super cute boho patterned denim shorts for myself (under $3 each) and an American Eagle denim pair ($3) and True Religion Denim pair ($7 and change) to re-sell.  My boyfriend scored some awesome deals to flip on eBay, as well.  I think his best find was a pair of brand new 7 for All Mankind colored jeans.  These jeans retail for $228 and he paid just $14.36!  He might be getting too good at this…looks like I have a little competition now!  😉

New Sources + Snow Day