Cleaning house, six months later
It's officially been six months - a whole half of a year finding stuff to flip!
And I started to hit a turning point. I looked around my kitchen, where most of my stuff is "stored" and realized it was growing to be too much. Something had to be done. My failed purchases were staring me in the face and I kept bringing home more.
I didn't think it could happen but I started to get sick of garage sales too. That's probably natural after six months of spending just about every weekend, sweating and sprinting around. As a matter of fact, without even noticing it, I barely went to any garage sales this month. A trip to Seattle for a wedding threw a wrench in the gears, as well as a garage sale of my own, and I didn't hate it.
In total, I only bought items on two Saturdays. And by passing on garage sales, I found some different opportunities:
Taking Thursdays off
I've decided to use some of my personal days not for vacation but to enjoy thrifting without any responsibilities. Just gassing up the car and going. And so that's what I did for the first time on Thursday, October 24th.
I made a map of thrift stores not far from one another. I tried to cram everything into one day but, as things go, it wasn't what I expected. And that's good. I kept trying to remind myself that it's all an experiment, and not a failure as long as I'm trying my best.
Everything took longer than expected. I thought I could crank out more stops than I did, but I managed to hit quite a bit - four Unique thrift stores (ironic, huh?), two Goodwills, one Big Lots discount store, and a handful of grocery stores. I just didn't find enough. Sometimes shit happens.
The most disappointing part was the grocery store visits. They were a bust. If you remember from last month's entry, I'm trying to explore the world of reselling discontinued beauty/grocery products. Gold is out there! But I found myself either in too well-maintained grocery stores, or I just didn't know where to look.
It was a ton of driving too. It didn't help that I ended my day by driving all my finds back into Hoboken, then driving my mom's car back to Lyndhurst, and THEN taking the train back to my place in Hoboken again.
It made me see how miserable and exhausting it would be to do this every day under the constant threat of not making my rent. There needs to be some better systems to combat these bad sourcing days.
But luckily, I had a much better time thrifting yesterday, Thursday, October 31st.
I started my day at the thrift store with my new bluetooth scanner in hand. I discovered the thrill of seeing a bright green banner blink on my iPhone screen when I scanned a book worth flipping to Amazon (more on that in the future). And then, after scanning the aisles, I found more good stuff to take home too.
Plus, I made my way to a grocery store ten minutes away and stumbled on some discontinued McCormick spices! The grocery store flip is real!
There is still more to do, but the experiment is working.
Our own garage sale
I knew we had to have one before the season ended. Some items were just not worth it to put online.
My family and I threw everything out in the driveway, on tables, and launched a couple posts to the Facebook and Craigslist communities. People came in waves.
We ended up making over $100 gross profit. I took home about $43.75 net, after accounting for how much I originally paid for it all.
It felt even better to purge the things that just weren't going to leave my kitchen. They were too heavy or weird to make back the balance of eBay and shipping fees. It made me realize how much my reselling interest is a balance between thrift store sourcing and maintaining my apartment minimalism. If the pile tips too far into hoarder territory, I'll know it's time to sell.
What sold
By the numbers
October was a good month for the financials:
Profit: $502.48
Spend: $196.50
Wins
Even though I keep sourcing new items, I was thrilled this month to make some major space. Selling an Epson printer and an Epson scanner cleared off so much shelf space, Marie Kondo would be proud.
Made a couple of bucks on commission, selling an electric toothbrush my brother got for free, brand new, and kept laying around his apartment. Maybe there is some more work to be done here!
When I went to Seattle, I forgot to save the settings when I turned on Vacation Mode for eBay, which should be a fail, but I made two sales while I was gone!
Plus, while I was 3,000 miles away , Ma still hit the sales. She called me to say she found some Skylander toys at a garage sale and wanted my advice. Luckily, she snapped a photo of a toy I'd already sold once before for $20. I sent in the order - buy it! She snatched it up and sure enough it sold as soon as I listed it on Ebay - $1 into $24 gross. What an assist!
I was totally floored to find a silly karate B-movie in the Hoboken Tunes music store (“Deadly China Doll”) and sell it on eBay the next day. From $1 to $15!
Fails
The challenge of making listing into a habit is still tough. Only managed to list 23 out of a possible 100 this month! I have to bet that listing more consistently, no matter what the item, would bring me more cash.
Because space was rapidly decreasing, I started to list anything I could, despite the profit. But some things just weren't worth the effort. After all was said and done, I paid .73 cents to sell a used Rolodex.
Sold a Garmin GPS unit by recycling someone else's Ebay listing and editing it for my own item. Unfortunately, they named their item a "bundle" and included a dashboard mount, which I did not have. The buyer asked for the piece or the $15 to buy one. I sent them a partial refund, biting into the profit.
I also had to give my first full refund. I was completely surprised to have sold the Cardscan Personal scanner. It was an old piece of technology I found at a thrift store that digitizes/scans business card information, but the eBay sales prices were so high! But after receiving the piece, the buyer claimed they took the time to contact the manufacturer and even they said the item is useless with his modern laptop. I'm not sure I completely believe the story, but unfortunately this was one of those losses I had to take on the chin. In the end, I only really lost the $3 buy cost and some $14 shipping. No sense in demanding it back for another $8 in shipping. Live and learn.
Going forward
Like Joe Dirt said, "It's not about you, it's about the consumer."
I think I need to double-down on picking a theme. Chris at Daily Refinement hammers this point home in terms of consistent sales and security. You can certainly try to drive yourself nuts visiting every thrift store and flipping every little thing for a buck, but it gets old real fast. I already had a taste of it - my apartment filled, my evenings booked, my margins shrinking.
I want to create an Ebay store and social media experience where someone knows what to expect. I know half the fun lately has been seeing what random profit I can pull from the junk, but it’s not the right move long-term.
I want people to be able to tell their friends that Flipshark is a certain kind of store, and then they can decide if it’s worth investigating. Right now, it's too hodge-podge and I know that's not going to get me anywhere closer to the goal of 5k.
Given the advantage of balancing between the suburbs of New Jersey and New York City, I have a hunch I am well-suited (and interested) to curate and resell home decor. I like finding conversation pieces - items to embellish the IKEA-based apartment living of my generation. Think interesting artwork, shelf fillers, coffee mugs, vintage cookwear, plant homes, and hipster gifts.
Now I just need to start buying with the intent to sell to these folks. If you’re reading this, and that sounds like you, and you’ve made it this far reading all about me and my business, what would you want to spice up your apartment? What should I be on the lookout to buy and share?
How can I help?
