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I’m Brelis. I spent a million years in the corporate world.. got laid off.. got a sweet severance package.. traveled for a long time.. made lots of mistakes.. got divorced.. tried working again and well.. having someone just block out my time every day of the week just isn’t for me as it turns out.
Along the way, I gave away so much stuff all in the name of simplifying my life.. and as the money dwindled I thought that maybe I should start selling it.. that was about 45 days ago.
Since then I’ve sold about $1k of my own stuff and bought and sold another $3500 worth of stuff.. OK.. I had to see the total.. it’s $4,390.12 and have sold 95 items.
If someone were to take a picture of my life and home right now.. travel back in time just two months and show me the picture.. I’d be so confused. My garage is my ship station, my dining room is inventory and.. my phone is full of numbers that often don’t have names. I’ve gotten in deep.. fast.
I’ve met so many great people doing this and enjoy going out every day, making money and hearing my phone cha-ching while I sleep. I like electronics… software was my profession.. and project management.. I also like oddities but at the same time, I need to turn around my buys pretty quickly these days.
I’ve drained the local (Atlanta) markets of the sellers who will go well below market value of their iPods and keep all of the thrift stores and estate sales free from their VCRs and VCR/DVD combos.. i buy remotes, cables and print manuals to command top dollar for the VCR/DVD things.. the returns are ridiculous but more important than that is my customers are very happy…
I’m always expanding my knowledge.
I think I’ve listened to most of your podcasts while I drive around.. so, you guys are strangely familiar.. thanks for making your recordings so conversational and personal.. it’s certainly a gift.
I’m interested in auctions, though I’ve never been to one. I’m sure I will soon. I like your stories about it.. but the all day nature of it does seem tiring.
I’m concerned about taxes, as I continue.. I’m concerned about fees. I’m concerned about negative feedback.. that I’ll burn out.. that I’ll go broke.. become a hoarder.. I’m struggling with scaling the business. I’m fiddling around with FBA at the same time.. it’s a bit difficult to understand but I see lots of potential there as an additional revenue stream.. which kind of makes a full circle in which I’ll stop my stream of conscience..
I never want to be ‘at risk’ again by having a single means of income as with my big comfy (miserable, soul sucking) corporate job. Glad to join the community.. Hope I can be of value to the members here.. and to learn lots as well..
Mid 40s, 2 kids, a skip, hop, and a jump north of Atlanta, GA.
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Welcome Brelis!
You found a great community here. You can learn a lot, and whatever you have questions on, you have a lot of knowledge here that will help you.
We are in a similar situation, in our 40s, 2 kids, and sell on eBay as our main source of income. I too chucked the $120k+ salary and corporate world so sell used stuff on the internet. So any questions or anxieties that you have in that area…fire away!
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Your post is the perfect post of someone who’s recently starting selling, full of excitement and dread. The potential can feel limitless.
I think you just need to decide what kind of store you want to create. “Churn and burn” vs “List it and Forget it”. Your choice will determine what you buy and how you list. Obviously you can experiment as you go, but it was important for us to pick a path and just work for a period of time to build up our store.
As far as taxes go, nothing to be afraid about unless you plan to not pay them. The sooner you start an accounting system for your sales/expenses, the better.
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