The 5 Stages of The Scavenger Life

[Tara Jacobsen]

I was just thinking today about how funny it is we all go through the same stages of buying and selling, just like the Scavenger Life peeps do!

THE 5 STAGES OF THE SCAVENGER LIFE

Selling your stuff, getting started – You have an Ebay account but don’t really do much with it and kinda sorta think it would be cool to start doing it for real, but what if you fail?

Buying cheap stuff & selling it low – You make the leap and decide to be a “professional seller” with a store, but still don’t want to put a whole lot of money into it in case it doesn’t work. Most of your listings are under $20 and you can’t imagine anything different.

Buying slightly less cheap stuff & selling it for $30 or more – Holy cripes, there are a bunch of people out there who have no problem paying okay money for the stuff you find.

The first time you list something really expensive and freak out – Who would pay that much for something you go so cheap, oh no, someone bought it! Now hold your breath until they get it and hope they don’t send you an email and curse you out for sending it to them.

You decide to buy quality products and spend a bit more to get higher sales – You quit thinking you can make 10X margins and figure out that selling more, higher priced items is A LOT less work than selling a whole bunch of low priced items. You know what you can sell and feel confident when you are sourcing because you know what your customers like.

– – – – –

This last stage is where I am (and where Jay and Ryann seem to be). I am just so appreciative for them talking about this on their podcast and showing me that each of these stages is “normal” and that success selling on Ebay (and Etsy) is possible!

[Jay]

I love this. We went through all these stages. I think its a natural evolution if you work on the business.

It is great that we can now go scavenging and know we can make some serious money with the stuff we find. It’s not pocket change anymore.

[Tara Jacobsen]

I was talking with a scavenging buddy (we both listen every Monday morning!) and we were giggling about how we were following along right with you. But I KNOW I have gotten here faster because of getting to see how you guys do it!!!

[Flawed]

Where is the Denial stage? Denial that I’m a hoarder haha 😉

[Tara Jacobsen]

Heheheheh that is not so much a stage as it is an excuse for buying more storage containers!!!

[Ryanne]

you’re not a hoarder if you’re selling stuff!

[Steven S]

and the only way to the last stage is to stick it out.

[michael d]

Nice post! I sorta followed that path.

I’m happily stuck somewhere between the 3rd and 4th phases I guess? I still sell a lot of items below $30, heck below $10, but I also sell items for over $100. Don’t think I want to progress to just selling higher end items. When I buy in bulk I cant see throwing away items that will make me a quick $5-7, I don’t purposely buy those items they come with a bunch of junk that I do want to buy.

[Linda Shields]

I want a ticket to the Tara Jacobsen Tour–so funny and true!

[Tara Jacobsen]

Oh Linda, it is a laugh a minute!! The 3 (adopted kids when we were 44 and set in our ways), the two dogs, two cats and let’s not forget the damn lizard that costs more than all the furry ones put together!

I LOVE selling vintage. I have been in marketing for 17 years and while I love that too, it is such a rush to buy something that costs $2 and sell it for $40!!!

I feel like selling vintage is just a more socially acceptable (and profitable) outlet for my little gambling problem (hard to get to Vegas now that we have the little ones!)

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