We live in rural America, and we are Scavengers — especially when it comes to making money on eBay by selling items we find in or near the waste stream, at auctions, yard sales, and thrift stores. This allows us to avoid full-time jobs, which gives us more time to scavenge and enjoy our lives. It’s a positive reinforcing cycle.
We are eBay Top Rated + Power Sellers. Each week we post one or two hour long podcasts sharing stories about our eBay selling. We welcome all questions and stories of your own eBay experiences. Sharing helps make us all better eBay Scavengers.
We are not full-on preppers, but we did move to rural parts of the US to get away from the economic nuttiness of urban living. Rural America allows us to take advantage of cheap housing prices and low cost of living. Because it’s difficult to find work in the countryside, we’ve learned to make a living online because we’re resourceful techies. We also grow/preserve food, save and make stuff so we can weather any economic downturn.
eBay helps us own our time so we can wake up naturally (without alarm clocks!), work on different personal projects, and take short and long trips whenever the idea strikes.
Scavenging for eBay in the US is a goldmine because this country has had 60+ years of upward luxury. We could easily live off this abundance and waste for the next generation. If you have the time to scavenge, the treasures are everywhere for the finding.
Our friends, Mikey and Wendy, have a similar background and helped us start this blog. You can hear them throughout the first 80 episodes. Their other projects can be found at The Good Life Lab blog. Wendy’s book, The Good Life Lab is available on Amazon. If you’re a scavenger, you should read it.
We also publish another podcast on running rental properties at Shampoo & Booze that we bought and renovated with our eBay profits. Come stay with us. We have a podcast dedicated to renting on Airbnb over at Shampoo & Booze.
Click here for all the services and tools we use in our selling.
Click here for how to subscribe to our podcast.
Click here for the videos we’ve made that show how we do things and what sold.
Contact us at
TheScavengerLife@gmail.com
or, better yet, leave a comment on any blog post.
How Does This Work?
First, you can read about who we are.
Second, you can read about how we operate our eBay business.
Third, you can deep dive into all our old episodes.
Fourth, you can subscribe to new podcasts.
Fifth, jump into our forums where we help each other with day-to-day issues.
Here’s our current format each week (which could change at any time).
- Every Sunday night, we post an hour long podcast about “What Happening in your Store”?
- We’ll often post an interview with another seller to learn something new/cool.
- Ryanne has been making awesome videos showing “What we sold” for the week. You get to see the item, hear what we paid for it, and what it sold for. This playlist is addictive.
Also if you hate blogs, then enjoy our Youtube page. It’s all the same podcasts and videos without the community. This blog started in 2013 as a way to document our experience scavenging
and selling on eBay. It’s turned into quite a community of smart people. We welcome you to join in.
Our Historical Scavenger Timeline
2008
- Decided to move to rural VA from San Francisco.
- Stumbled into selling on eBay as a way to supplement our income.
2009
- Bought a foreclosed house in cash, did extensive renovations, and now have a home with no debt.
2011
- Bought an Old Farmhouse and did extensive renovations.
2014
- Began renting the Farmhouse and making money!
- Started a second eBay store.
2015
- Bought second rental and began renovations.
2016
- Began selling on Amazon (in addition to our eBay store).