Saying sayonara to the big stuff
If growth is the goal, then you need to measure something.
I let go of the profit measuring stick when I realized the hustle and time it would take to make reselling into a full-time income. I figured if I had to go to the thrift stores out of necessity instead of pleasure, it would suck the fun right out of it. If I'm being honest with myself, even going once every week is starting to feel a bit stale.
And now that the year is coming to a close, I need to make more changes. I know we've talked about pivoting and exploring different adjacent avenues (and we'll keep talking about it here), but I'm starting to think I need to pair down to make this all worthwhile.
It's a matter of time and effort. I don't want to try to make $1,000 every month if it means that my apartment is a storage unit with a bed or I'm left regularly panicking about finding a box for a large order that's been sold.
I was recently reminded of the Pareto Principle. What's that, you ask? Wikipedia says, "The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes (the "vital few"). Other names for this principle are the 80/20 rule, the law of the vital few...".
I started to ask myself, what are my vital few? As much as I make some amazing profits on the occasionally large playset, is it worth it? What if I only bought and sold a few things? Plush, DVDs, and small action figures. VHS, maybe. I could streamline shipping by only ordering small boxes and bubble mailers. I could take photographs much quicker. And I wouldn't be taking up floor and shelf space everywhere.
Sounds simple, right? It might be. But will it be easy? Time will tell. It always does.
By the numbers
Spend: $269.35
Gross profit: $1,393.67 (vs. $1,341.63 last month)
Net profit: $1,064.32 (vs. $1,082.58 last month)
Listed on eBay: 40 (vs. 36 last month)
eBay rating: 99.6%
What Sold
Highlights
Begin with a bang
Earlier this summer, my mechanic was nice enough to gift me a number of die-cast model cars he had lying around, gathering dust. One big boy sold fast (and for $250) when I took the time to photograph him. How ironic given the subject of this month’s post.
Pieces for profit
Plus, I took a chance this month buying a sealed 2,000 piece Ravensburger Christmas puzzle. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as the season rolled around, it sold for $70!
Uno mas? The month ended with a bang too - I sold a gigantic Chap Mei Darkfire Dragon for $90!
I didn't make it to 10 unique Instagram posts, like I hoped last month, but I did manage 7! Honestly, I'm really pleased with how they came out. And I'm so close to 400 followers!
I rarely acknowledge my eBay rating much in these blogs, but this month I finally blew past the 400 mark. In essence, the better my rating, the better my sales. Woohoo!
Fails
One inch too far
Shipping big stuff is not all big profits. I was happy to finally photograph, list, and sell the Imaginext Lion King Scar playset, but the only box I had to snuggly fit it was one inch too large and cost $10 extra in shipping costs. Womp womp.
Bookworm lesson learned
I'm proud to say I don't often get refund or return requests. Every once and a while, though, I need to suck it up and accept that shit happens. An eBay buyer this month made an offer for a rather thin Goosebumps book. I packaged it like the others, sandwiched between two slabs of cardboard and in a poly bubble mailer. The eBay buyer wrote to me a week later to explain that the title arrived a bit more beat-up than expected. I called what I assumed was a bluff and said he can return it for a full refund, but, naturally, he explained he wanted to keep it. We agreed on a 50% refund and the case was closed. Honestly, I learned my lesson for a mere $7 - I need to pack books a bit more snuggly.
Another return request came through no fault of my own. The buyer received their Bob Dylan Travelin' Thru CD only to realize it wasn't vinyl. They asked for a return and I processed the request. But here we are two weeks later and they haven't sent it back to me. Soon enough, the request will be automatically closed and the crisis will be averted.
Lost Legos
It finally happened. Even with the death pile dwindling and some serious Q4 traffic making a dent in my inventory, I lost an item. Luckily, it was only two Lego minifigure children for a grand total of $7.95. After tearing my entire collection apart a number of times, I decided to give it up. Time is money after all and I just couldn't find them. I explained to the buyer what happened and refunded their purchase. Bonus, though, I learned I can void the postage I purchased within a five-day window. Hooray for losing less!
Let the light shine
I was jazzed to finally purchase a LED light kit. I thought it spelled the end for these gigantic spotlights always being open in my apartment. But after setting them all up on their tripods, hooking up some cords, and placing them just right, I couldn't get the bright-white photos I wanted. I tried everything. And when I was done trying, I sent them back to Amazon.
Going forward
December could very well be crazy. It's the most wonderful time of the year and it usually means quite a few orders for the early part. Of course, as we near the holidays, I think people give up on buying online and shift to searching local.
With that being said, I'm still going to stick to the plan of finding my new angle and consolidating down to the vital few. I don't want to promise too much here for the near future because I want to take some more time to really reflect on the year. Can you believe it's almost already been one?
Until next time...
