A little push and a big win
As it turns out, my push to make $750 last month just needed another month’s worth of time. That very arbitrary financial goal led me to list the Toy Story RC car last month and it sold for a personal record of $240 in net profit! Not only that - it was enough to make October 2020 my best and most profitable month to date!
By the numbers
Profit this month: $1,101.89
Profit last month: $589
Spend: $208.34
Listed on eBay: 23/60
eBay rating: 99.1%
What Sold
Other highlights
As another addendum from last month's wins, I sold more of the big Lego bundle I found one thrift store Saturday morning. I ended up listing the road pieces in two bundles and sold both for a combined profit of about $65!
Plus, I stumbled on more Legos with a little help from my friends. I was just finishing up a Saturday morning coffee and danish when some of my Hoboken buddies, Annmarie and Dan, texted me about a curb-side stash. There were bags and bags of toys and they asked how quickly I could get uptown. Luckily, I didn't waste any time. I (literally) ran toward the jackpot. It was all a flash but it looked like a good amount of Legos and some other goodies. I filled an Ikea bag I had the wherewithal to bring and dragged it all home. Turns out I nabbed ten pounds of random Lego bricks after I picked out the minifigures (and a rusty razor blade)! Plus, I sorted out a total of 32 Imaginext figures.
Most of the garbage treasure ended up flipping quick. I divided it all up into bundles. I sold 33 Hot Wheels cars for $10 on Facebook Marketplace. I accidentally picked out Hera Syndulla from the Star Wars series because she was worth $15 + shipping to someone on eBay. Some random, scuffed-up dinosaur pieces sold for $20 and Imaginext lot auctioned off for $29.30!
By this point, I realized I’d gathered way too many minifigures over the past two months with no clear path on how to parse them out. Hera was a lucky find, but Lego has thousands of different characters and outfits. I decided the easiest thing to do was build a bunch of people and chuck a bunch of accessories in a pile for a great big eBay auction. Turned out to be a solid success - I sold 80+ minifigures and a small pile of minifigure accessories for one cent shy of $69. Giggity.
Not only did I sell a lot, I let go of a lot. I noticed it’s been far too long for some items to still be taking up valuable space in my one bedroom apartment. And honestly I just got sick of trying to flip some. They weren’t worth the hustle. So the Flipshark family had an impromptu garage sale. I personally didn't rid of much but it was great to see so much of the old stuff go. Technically, it was even a loss, but, hell, that’s part of the process. Marie Kondo would have been proud.
I did tell myself last month that I needed to start making moves on stuff that didn't even have photos and I'm glad to say I followed through. Quite possibly the most exciting win was selling two sets of Pyrex coffee mugs. I'd had them sitting in my kitchen cupboard for more than a year and now they're serving their life's purpose elsewhere.
Another small highlight was realizing there was a Goodwill outlet nearby. I made a trip late this month to figure out how it works. I went home close to empty-handed but I was happy to find a new opportunity for the future.
Everything about my business seems to parallel a book I've been reading - The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. We live in a world of abundance and options, but there is a false notion that the more choices we have, the happier and better off we will be. And that might not be true. Why? Because with more choice comes more responsibility. (That's the saying, right?) Choice demands personal responsibility. And more choice means we're more likely to weigh too many complicated factors during the decision-making process and after the decision is finally made. With so many choices and so many options, we've become overwhelmed and inundated with choice analysis, reject, and uncertainty.
What could be more helpful (for my business and my life) is tipping the scale from maximizing to satisfying. Schwartz explains these two types of mentalities in the book. Maximizers want the best. They do tons of research. They weight pros and cons. They ask a ton of people for their opinions. They believe there must be a single great choice and they won’t rest until they can make it. Satisificers tend to simply choose “good enough”. They’re not careless or ignorant, but they weigh a few factors, decide much quicker than maximizers, and might be radically more happy for that reason. They know another choice might have brought a bit more benefit, but the mental toll of graphing out all possible dimensions of decision was not worth it.
I’m guilty of maximizing. I’m trying to make the tiniest bit of profit on every single thing I buy, ignorant to the fact that my time is valuable too. What’s better is good enough. Continue to have fun. Make a profit and keep learning. Don’t hold on so tight.
Fails
While it’s not my own shortcoming, it feels like a fail - Facebook Marketplace transformed this month. It used to be a great, local way to make deals and maybe get to know your neighbors. But now the global social network has introduced shipping as an option, so you can buy and sell to and from anyone. Oh, and Facebook gets something like a 5% cut. The fee is not the problem, it’s the concept. Now no one is competing with the local community to sell their stuff, they're competing with the whole country. And when it comes to toys, that's not a good thing for me. Oh well. Just proves you always need to adapt.
I told myself I needed to update my website last month and while it was easy to make some updates, it’s still largely the same. I think it’s because I’m still torn with one foot in home decor and the other in a toy pile.
A number of local vintage and second-hand sellers got together to rent a space and open the Hoboken flea pop-up. It’s still going for a few more weeks although I’m a bit upset with myself for not being closer to them. I feel like I could offer something unique with my home decor but the time is dwindling down. And, again, my business seems to fray via niche. Which do I want to pursue?
Going forward
An important thing to remember is what one of my best friends, Rob, told me. He said that I'm unique in this reselling world because I don't need to do it, I just want to. I don’t know the numbers behind the motivations, but I think he had a point. I chose to do this and I’d keep doing it even if I never became a full-time reselling celebrity. It’s fun. It’s interesting. And it’s “good enough”.
What I’ve realized continues to requires remembering - buying more from the thrift store is not going to make this a bigger business. I need something new to make the money I need. And instead of floating a lot of ideas around, I think I need to rely on just one. I want to start making videos. It’s a bit uncomfortable to admit or even to consider as practice. I’m not the smoothest in front of the camera, but perhaps that’s the very reason I need to try it. There aren’t a ton of consistent toy reselling videos out there. Plus, I'm already buying a bunch of good stuff, why not show it off? Why not have some fun with it?
Okay, and one other objective could be to start straight-up asking people for toys. I’m sure there are basements and attics everywhere, filled with old and abandoned toys. It couldn’t hurt to ask for them. I could even offer some dough.
Well, that’s good enough for now. Until next time…
