Time to get uncomfortable
Halfway through this month, I decided I wanted to make $750. It was an arbitrary goal, but once it existed, I started pushing myself just a bit more than I probably normally would. This is supposed to be fun after all. But why not challenge myself?
With just three days left in the month, I needed $226.50 to reach the goal. It was the small push I needed to finally list a Toy Story wireless RC car that’s been sitting on my living room floor for months. What took so long? A few things. It was too big to photograph with my normal small white background poster board. It needed cleaning up from some use and abuse. I wanted to make sure I tested all the bells and whistles on the remote. But once I got it going, I realized the thing is pretty cool! You can click an "Explore" button on the remote and it drives itself around and stops if it's going to hit something.
It didn't sell but it's up there now and the month was pretty solid.
By the numbers
Profit this month: $589
Profit last month: $588.21
Spend: $255.66
Listed on eBay: 22/60
eBay rating: 99.1%
What Sold
Other highlights
I sold on the Porta rooftop again this month. And unlike last time, this was my very own pop-up. I was the only vendor and I was able to fill an entire aisle of high-top tables with all my thrifted treasure. It was so satisfying to see it all on display, hoping people would finally take it all home with them.
Like anything nowadays, it’s hit or miss. The weather was perfect, but it wasn't enough to bring too many people out to the bar on a Tuesday night. And it could have been that I was a bit tucked away.
Luckily, some of my regulars and friends showed up and grabbed handfuls of things. I went home with $110 in profit. Take away parking in a lot for convenience for $14 and a couple of dollars for bags for others to take things home and it was still all gravy.
More than even the money, it was satisfying to see some things leave my storage unit of an apartment. I had been looking at some of these things for a full year, unable to sell them on any of the marketplaces.
What Sold at Porta
A good buddy of mine, Jeff, runs his own online business teaching people music. Lately, he has been high on the idea of writing strong copy to grow his business, and so he recommended a few books. I had nothing to lose so I scooped them up - Russell Brunson's Expert Secrets and Dotcom Secrets. And despite the titles sounding like the stuff of pre-Y2K online scams, they have really started to spark some helpful ideas. More than anything I’ve started to realize I wasn’t taking this business seriously. I wanted to keep it light and fun, but you need to make a change to see a change. I've been too comfortable to just try little things here and there. I need to start asking some uncomfortable questions.
On the other hand, business or not, sometimes I just know where the value is. One recent Saturday I was rushing through the thrift store aisles on a half-off sale day. Luckily, I swung by one final row and found a Rubbermaid plastic container of Legos. Jackpot! I scooped them up for $15 and eagerly poured them out when I got home. By the end of September, I weighed out five pounds of random bricks and sold them for $40 and grouped together 20 remaining half-built vehicles and sold them for $50. Plus, there are 20 minifigures and 15 road squares left. On Ebay, 7 or 8 road squares can sell for close to $50. Cha-ching!
Fails
On the heels of new business possibilities are the old realizations - I won't make a full-time income just straight flipping thrift store treasures. I can definitely make a solid amount of money just spending one day every week finding gems, but if I multiplied that out I'm not confident it would pay the bills and put ice cream in my belly. I've been thinking about this a lot more lately and while it's not a failure, it's definitely going to force me to take a long hard look at my business and make some changes for the better.
After selling locally again and having to drag all my old goodies home, it was never more apparent that I need to buy a bit more conservatively. It's just too much fun! I constantly see things that I know someone will love but I'm starting to digest the hard truth that just because someone could love it doesn't mean I need to store and clean and market and wait on it to sell for months. I still have way too many things from when I started this journey more than a year ago. So the new rule is quit buying $5 profits. Unless it's something small or light or easy to get rid of quick, I don't need to be spending my time on small bills. I need to focus my time and energy on the good stuff.
This website needs work! It began as a gallery of things to buy, a window-shopping experience, if you will, but it's sorely out of date. It's been months since I added any new pieces here. (One thing I did change was finally removing some of the used t-shirts I bought when I first started this venture. Talk about a failure.)
Going forward
I have lots of work to do.
More than anything, I want to start by putting everything I own out there. There is no reason I should be hoarding things that I never even took a second photo of. If people don't know it's for sale, they can't buy it!
I need to finish these books and starting putting them into practice. I'm not sure I want to pivot thrifting into an information product type business but I know there is something out there for me. I love doing this and that means something. I just need to find the value. And I often do. It just takes time and a little bit of money.
Until next time...
