Personal experience: how to earn $ 40 thousand a year for a hobby

Фото: Depositphotos

When I first met my husband, we developed a hobby - going to garage sales (garage / yard sales) and sell found on eBay. Now, due to lack of time, we do not do this on a regular basis, but in the last year of our weekly “hobby” we earned $40 thousand!

Now we sell everything! But we started with what we know. Husband was very fond of figurines from Star Wars plus different old toys. I knew a lot about designer stuff.

Every Friday night we looked at craigslistwhat garage sales will be in our city on Saturday morning (they are usually on Saturdays). And even made a map with a description of what they will sell there and what time it will begin.

You will be surprised, but these sales attract hundreds of “investors” who then (sometimes on the same day) sell what they found at local flea markets. Therefore, our goal was to get there first.

As we were looking for: if we saw something interesting, we checked how well this thing is sold on eBay and at what price. We went to the app on the phone, stuffed the name of the thing into Search and selected in the filter Complete. And then Sold. So we saw how much it is for sale. Naturally, you will need to add shipping cost.

At first we took everything that brought in an income of $20 or more, but then we “became impudent” and bought only things with a minimum of $100 in income.

For example: we found a basin with Lego and bought it for $ 100. Initially, we looked for figurines in the basin (they are the most expensive on eBay, and there are some rare ones). Then at home we sorted all the details by color and all the figures by topic. Sold everything retail for $ 1000 for sure.

Found surround sound speakers for only $5! Sold for $500! Found a Tiffany table clock for $25 - sold for $225! Found 4 sweaters Coogi for $ 25 and sold each for $ 100-200. Found a naked barbie for a dollar that turned out to be Vintage from Japan and sold for $ 325. And so on ...

Then we expanded and began to search for treasures on craigslist, in stores on sales and even on the very eBay! The husband, for example, bought Star Wars figures lot (100 pieces at once), and then sold them one by one. Or you found Adidas sneakers in the store (buy one pair, get the second free). My husband bought some for himself and sold the second on eBay at the same price as the first. This way I got free sneakers.

Plus, we also found a lot of cool stuff in the house: from German knives to a large wine cooler (for $ 30).

By the way, when my mother moved, we for her two Saturdays furnished an apartment for a penny. From dishes to furniture.

When we traveled (by Bay area, in other states or even countries), we always went to local second-hand stores and flea markets. So I found a real Louis Vuitton bag for $ 10! Left myself ???? And believe me, I can now easily distinguish the real from the fake.

We also went to estate sales. And there are also days when the whole city (!) Makes garage sales. This happens once a year. AT Bay area they do it in Fremont and Santa Clara, for example. In such cases, we take a cart ???? Once they found an aircraft simulator, for which the owner wanted 500 bucks. But we had only $ 150 in cash left (we were already going home) and the seller said: ok, take for $ 150! We then sold it for more than $ 1 000! So bargain!

A few tips for sale

Good photos are the main thing! Light, background and quantity. A correct description is important, and if you offer free shipping, that’s generally good!

If there is a lot of demand, we would do an auction and start with $1. If we focused only on individual collectors, then we started with the price we wanted.

Naturally, there were losses and dissatisfied customers, but the husband provided excellent customer service - and sometimes even returned the money in full and did not demand to send the item back. But such costs exist in any business.

Not all leave feedback, but we have more than 1 600 and all 100% positive. By this, I think, one can judge how much we have sold over the years.

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