Just do it
My business had a baby. It's officially been nine months since we got hot and heavy.
It was a good month, as always, for a number of reasons. Let’s dive right in and check it out...
By the numbers
Profit: $527.61
Spend: $74.58
Listed on Ebay: 19/60 available w/o fees
eBay rating: 97.2% (Top-rated seller)
YTD total spend: $2,083.60
YTD total net profit: $4,513.45
What Sold
It must be in our blood - my brother, God help him, has a bit of a problem letting go. Where I like to dance between gathering treasure and stark minimalism, Jay has held onto things for years without any discernible reason, except the hope that it could harness some magical value later on. And yet he started to see the writing on the wall this holiday season. He cracked open his childhood bedroom and found some things for his junk-inclined big brother to hawk. We didn't take a crack at the Beanie Babies collection yet, but we did find some dollars for a few things:
Every year, the Renderman booth at the Siggraph conference would produce and give away Limited Edition 3D wind-up teapot figures. My brother scooped up one or two a few times we both were there volunteering. Years later, wouldn't you know it, some people like to collect that memorabilia! (P.S. They ain’t cheap.)
First Junk Win
Luckily, the partnership with the junk franchise has begun at a slow pace. I've been given only a few items to sell but this past week provided the first win! I went into the office to find a brand-new Safety 1st baby gate. I snapped some photos, listed it on Facebook Marketplace and found a buyer in less than a few hours. Let's hope this is the beginning of something beautiful!
Sharing on social media really started to pay off this month. I had been sprinkling in photos to my Instagram feed since I started but I always assumed that I would be boring people with the same kind of content I add to my (temporary) IG Stories. Little did I think, people like repetition, especially when they, God forbid, weren't paying attention the first time.
I tried uploading three items back-to-back on my feed and sold these two almost instantly:
Other highlights
Vintage HP calculator
This business is constantly about timing. And with great timing comes great procrastination. It took me months to finally settle down and buy a battery to test this old HP calculator. I knew it could be worth close to $100 if it worked but that didn't speed up the process one bit. Whatever caused me to make the purchase, I'm glad it did because once I popped some batteries in, and did some tests, that HP calculator sold within 24 hours for the expected, but still impressive, $100.
Skylander big win
It was a big win back in the summer to walk away from a garage sale with a box of over 100 Skylanders: Giants toys for the low, low price of $20. And then they proceeded to sit on my apartment floor for months. I didn't want to sell them without testing them and I didn’t want to buy an Xbox and video game to do it. Luckily, my brother pulled through in a different way and found himself with an Xbox laying around. I plugged in, tested a few dozen characters, and threw almost 100 up on Facebook. Less than a week later, I had a buyer reach out and we made a deal for $60. Plus, I still have about 50 left to go!
Why not enjoy the spoils?
I've found myself wanting to fill the blank walls of my apartment for months now. It never occurred to me that I've been staring tons of artwork and trinkets down without realizing I could use them!
Fails
I wouldn't quite consider it a complete failure, but I noticed that I've purchased over 800 items in total and sold only 360 so far. Seventy more are listed on Ebay and a handful on Facebook. What is all this stuff? Where am I keeping it all?! I might need to turn on the heat this month with listing and setting up deals.
I shut the door on ScoutIQ this month. It was nothing against the product, it was a great addition. But I realized after far too many months paying for book-selling services that I didn't have the energy or the interest to get really good at it. I want the hard goods. Yeah, I said it. I like reading books, but not incessantly collecting and scanning them. The math didn't work for me, so I'm closing out that chapter, just like I did with clothes.
Going forward
There are still very big moves on the horizon!
A New Car!
We might only be a week away from me locking
down my own car - a 2011 Volkswagen Tiguan.
This would change the entire game. I could save myself some Z’s on the weekend by avoiding the hour-long delays between trains home. I could bring my hauls right back to my apartment instead of through my parent’s house. More importantly, I could get to my storage unit quicker. Fingers crossed!
