Forget your goals and start to invest
Before we get into the details, I have to say I'm happy to report I'm sitting pretty. Even without garage sales. Winter might be here and the holiday season is around the corner, but I'm still flipping for profit seven months later.
I've tried to take a step further back to enjoy the process. This is something I've told myself I'd do for free, so why pressure myself into a bad time? Last month I thought what I needed to do to raise the bar was set some goals. If I wanted to earn beyond my "normal" monthly profit, I thought I would need to stretch out. My eBay account allows 100 free listings every month, so I thought that would be a good metric to boost. Last month, I could only list 23. This month I started with the goal to do more - 60 in total. I settled on the number because listing two items every day seemed reasonable. That quickly went out the window. After a few days, I had to do some mad dashing to list four or six or nine. The motivation kept me going, though, as I figured the more I could list, the more I could potentially sell. Quite literally, that's true. It doesn't mean it was easy. It was a rush right up to the end. I didn't make 60, but I did list 45.
Somewhere mid-month, though, I realized that setting goals was just another way of seeing everything as scalable. I could certainly use some goals to reach higher profits than I would without them, but it will always run up against the fact that I'm a single-man team. There is just not enough time, especially with my full-time job, to buy tons more good stuff, drag it all to my apartment, clean and condition and list everything. There is more to it than that. It has to be strategic.
What I did realize is the more important need for investment - arguably the opposite of scale. I was defaulting to the metrics when I should have been taking the precious time to learn the specifics of an industry. For example, if I had an hour or two free in the evening, the decision would be easy - follow the goal. I would end up listing whatever I could, as efficiently as I could. But what I feel like I'd be better served to do now is use that time wisely, studying listings for toy brands, understanding specifics on pricing, or exploring new ways to cut costs or make friends.
Sometimes you need to sit down and take notice in the hopes that your knowledge will snowball and deliver more opportunity next time.
Need some examples? Perfect. I have a few.
I'm normally a pretty big cheapskate. When I saw that a bag of steel wool was $5 I almost walked out of the hardware store, expecting to find it elsewhere cheaper. And as often as this happens in my life, it rarely occurs to me at that moment that the pressure and frustration and delay of finding a new store with a slightly cheaper product is not worth the struggle. What's the most I could have saved? $4? Is it worth it? Turns out it was much more worth it to buy it right then because steel wool does an amazing job cleaning the scuffs off toys. Upgrade!
Need a non-financial example? Okay. If you follow along on my Instagram Stories you might have noticed that I started accumulating a small library of books with vague plans to send them off to Amazon's warehouse. It had been weeks and the books were finally stacking up to a considerable weight. And so when Ma told me my niece, Sabrina, wasn't feeling well one Thursday, I decided to take the L, not source new goodies, and get some chores done at home, including shipping off those books. It wasn't the most efficient process, considering I hadn't processed and shipped off books to Amazon yet. But after some time, it did get rather smooth. And when the day was done, I found the perfect-sized box in my collection and wheeled 20 pounds straight to UPS and out of my apartment. They were processed in just a few days, and one already sold!
By the numbers
November brought some decent cash in. It would have been more if I hadn't sold a used Sony DVD recorder with a loud-ass fan for $100. The eBay buyer requested a 50% refund and I obliged.
Profit: $344.07
Spend: $184.75
Listed: 45/60
eBay rating: 96.6%
YTD total spend: $1,790.66
YTD total net profit: $3,486.74
Not bad!
Other highlights
As I continued to seek out the right niche for me, I've been glad to be reassured by more than a few people that toys are a valid category. I assumed that a single man in his 30's might be better suited or seen to resell something a bit more "mature" but who the fuck am I kidding? They're fun! It's way more interesting to fill my apartment with colorful little characters. And I think it's fair to assume getting over my own apprehension means I can have a leg up on the competition of other unsure resellers out there.
What does it mean? I need to start studying harder how to buy and sell lots of Legos, Shopkins, Fisher Price Little People, WWE action figures, My Little Ponies, Skylanders, and more.
With that being said, I think I can attribute a lower monthly profit to the ease of no longer buying small stupid shit. Just because I can buy an item for a dollar and flip it for $10 doesn't mean it's worth it. This is where the strategy and scale will continue to come in.
What Sold
Wins
Besides buying steel wool and listing more than normal, a big win this month was when my buddy Jeff contributed to my Amazon book pile. One day he told me that him and his wife were going to wheel out a cart of books to their curb to give away for free. He told me to take a look before they did and I found a solid half-dozen worth some money. One poetry anthology could potentially even sell for $13! Jeff is a good friend.
I’ve become a personal DVD shopper/broker to my cinephile buddy Avtandil. Every time I see stacks of DVDs, I’m picking through to add to his own personal Criterion Collection. November was a good month for both of us. See the finds below:
Fails
I knew it was bound to happen. One evening I was bouncing around my apartment, getting chores done, and I had to wonder what was sitting inside all the bags I had spread out on my living room floor. (I told you my apartment is filled with thrifted treasures, right?) Turns out most of the bags were what I expected but I opened one to find a pile of Fisher Price Little People toys I almost completely forgot buying! If I ever needed a sign that listing quicker was necessary, there it was.
Another month, another refund. I swear I had the thought only a day before that it's been nice to sell a variety of things and receive only positive feedback. 24 hours later and one of my customers sent me a message. He said he repaired and dealt with DVD recorders professionally. While he said he appreciated the unit I sold him, he noticed it had a loud fan which indicated it's on it's way out. He requested a 50% refund and because I'm no expert, I had to give it to him. $50 down the hole. Luckily, though, he was a nice guy and appreciated my thoughtful message and refund - "...it was great to deal with someone as reasonable as yourself - not always the case on eBay!"
Going forward
Besides always buying more, what's kept the business from getting stale is the new opportunities each month brings. December is no different. In less than two weeks, I'll be back at Jersey City's Porta for their annual Holiday Pop-up marketplace. Luckily, I don't have to do much more sourcing because I'm ready to go with fun and interesting home decor. (I'll be saving the toys for eBay.)
Hope to see you there!
