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I store my furniture and inventory in a storage unit, and normally set up a time to meet there for furniture; that is 12 minutes from my house.
I only do porch pickup, or meet at a grocery store about 300 meters away, when I can’t leave my house for some reason for a period of time, or when the buyer can’t commit to a certain time. And only when I have a good vibe about the person. I don’t let men pick up from my porch or others I think are too picky/ask too many questions. I don’t want them knowing where I live.
April 7-13
Total sales from Ebay, FBM, Whatnot: $820
Items sold: 34
COGs: $76
Net profit after fees and COGs: $768.90
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Breakdowns:
Ebay Items in store: 328
Ebay Items Sold: 7
Ebay total sales: $145
Ebay fees: $13
COGs: $18
Ebay net profit: $114
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FBM items in store: 57
FBM items sold: 7 (roman weight chair, patio throw cushions, nightstand, rug, three paperweights, office rolling chair, wood console table
FBM total sales: $ 285
COGs: $0; all items were free, found at apartment complex dumpster areas
FBM profit: $285
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Whatnot items: I had about 50 items per auction. I spent 5 hours and 21 minutes streaming in four auctions.
Whatnot sales: $390 ($150 was a seller bonus described below)
Whatnot COGs: $58
Whatnot fees: $9.96 on $240 of sales
Whatnot profit: $369.90
I had Whatnot seller onboarding for an hour on Wed afternoon, April 10. The moderator said that we would be given up to a $150 match if we met these goals within the next 7 days: 2 hours of auction time, sales to five unique buyers, and made $150 in sales in those 7 days. Whatnot fees are 2.9% and 30 cents per transaction.
So I grabbed all my vintage clothing, some Silver Age comic books of my uncle’s, and Care Bear items. I held a live auction on Thursday afternoon where I sold NOTHING and was online for 60 minutes. It was painful. The 40-some people who attended my comic book auction didn’t want my stuff, and I struggled through the app tools. Then I held an auction Friday night, Sat night, and Sunday night. I had more fun with the vintage clothing crowd. Saturday and Sunday was a good time, reading and responding to comments. It actually felt like hanging out with people. I understand the app tools then too. You can add items to your Whatnot store as “BIN” or just add them to scheduled auctions. I am planning on holding a “vintage décor” auction on Monday night, with BIN options beforehand and during the auction.
I made $240 in the three auctions where someone bid, for 20 items. NOT a great payback for those 20 items. But these are vintage clothes that have sat in my store for a year, that I get at bag sales. The ones that sold were my “best ones”. I guess that face that I am getting an additional $150 helped allay that pain. So $390 in sales.
I did gain “followers”, which means I have folks that will be notified of my next auctions. Customers on the app can choose from categories to watch auctions. My thumbnail picture matters and I can add notes like “vintage clothing and décor starting at $5.”
After doing Ebay, Whatnot, and FBM in the one week – the same thing applied. You have to have stuff that people want, or you have to be patient to wait a long time for that right buyer. I truly realized that, because Ebay moved me to a “below standard seller” the first week in April. I had to cancel three items after I returned from Africa in March, because I just couldn’t find them. I had clicked the reason “buyer requested to cancel”, because I did ask the buyer. I know that was sneaky. But ebay said “you clicked the wrong reasons or abused the process”. They took away promoted listings for me. But I am still selling items, and those items are the desirable items like collectibles or nice clothing brands I picked up. So it was nice not to pay promoted listing fees!
I went into Goodwill yesterday for the first time in five months; normally I just drop stuff off that I find free and don’t sell. I bought a carpetbagger carry on and six stuffies for $20. Geez expensive. I recently got 50 Care Bears and a Ganz Signature with code, so I got excited. Those are on BIN or auction now on eBay. I wanted one stuffie but my 9 yo was with me. Of course we have to save the stuffies.
Experiment coming: I have a friend who just did her first Whatnot live sale. She sold ten items for $132 in 2 hours. Not great but I have decided to try it this weekend with a bin of “smalls”, a few vintage Care Bears worth $20, and some vintage clothes that have been sitting on eBay for over a year. I signed up last night, watched some auctions, and have my “onboarding” class this Friday (45 minute Zoom call). We will see. I don’t sell on Instagram but am trying to find new markets.
We are moving onto a sailboat that is in Guatemala, and then plan to sail for a few months and work our way north, live on land for a few months a year, sail a few months, travel some months…take engineering jobs and just kind of soak in the world and country. We are 48 and 50 with a 9 yo and want to get out and about.
3/24-3/30
Ebay items in store: 333
Ebay items sold: 5
Ebay gross sales: $176.98
Ebay Net Sales: $106.96 / with COGs of $5
FBM items in store: 79
FBM items sold: 7
FBM Gross and Net Sales: $350 / with COGs of $2
On ebay my “free to me” items I sold were a lion-shaped liquor bottle, a fake scrimshaw horn, and three pairs of “Hey Dude shoes. On FBM my “free to me” items I sold were an antique cast-iron planter for $100, patio cushions, two patio stools, a camo kids hanging pod, two vintage wooden side tables. I also sold a Masters Golf chair for $45 that I bought for $5.
I just read Martin’s latest adventure. It is amazing what is out there. I don’t get to dumpster dive, just look to see what is around the dumpsters. I always have a kid with me, so usually it’s as we drive by my usual apartment complexes. I do type in “free” on FBM to search and had some good results lately. Two weeks ago I must have lucked out and been the first to respond to a woman in historic Charleston giving away original art and furniture. She let my daughter and I take two tables, a chair, and the art – I did my research and listed three original pieces by Andrea Hazel (local artist) on ebay at $990 each. I took another three to a fancy-schmancy consignment shop where I’ve been told the rich people around here buy art secondhand. The shop owner priced my pieces at $1290 and then $498 for two smaller pieces. I only get 55%, but it’s an experiment as I am out of storage space and don’t want to take it with me when I leave SC in August.
My other awesome scavenging story was going to a house on Easter Sunday. The man is moving his mother to a home (in 80s). I had typed in “Free” on FBM. Her mother had lived in this house, and then she did too. I filled up my truck for $100 – not really free but they were patient with me, I was the only one who came on Easter. Items I found so far were the 70s Sears Roebuck mushroom letter holder (valued $75 minimum); two chenille blankets, multiple vintage linens, 70s lamps, two Xmas candle blow-molds, about 40 vintage perfume bottles, bags of vintage stuffies (she collected beanies and care bears), about 6 vintage 80s patchwork purses, vintage NIB lingerie from 60s, Stetson hat…and boxes I haven’t looked through. I’m going back tomorrow on Tuesday (he said the garage was full still) and just taking more boxes from the garage that relate to holidays, will fill up the truck again. I am also taking hundreds of NIB adult diapers – to donate! His mom was happy with that. Happy hunting!! I am keeping the stuff in my truck and may need another storage unit, which I don’t want. Maybe just for one month to sort through it.
I love my covered truck. I feel like having a truck brings you karma. Help somebody move something…and karma comes your way. I would have loved that sofa and table!
cluding Sears ROebuck mushroom
3/10-3/16
Ebay items in store: 312
ebay sold: 6 for $238.42
ebay COGs: $6
ebay profit after fees/ship: $159.37
FBM items in store: 62
FBM sold: 12 for $405
FBM COGs: $17
FBM profit: $388
I was in South Africa for four weeks in February and had set my shipping time to 15 business days. It should have worked out fine. However, my sister in Belgium threw her back out around Feb 24 so my daughter and I flew there from Capetown. We spent two weeks, so I had to rely on my husband to ship the items that were due. I have bins of stuff, not organized. He found the items and shipped them. However when I got back, I had to cancel three sales that I just couldn’t find the items. That dropped my rating down. I put my items on 50% off this week in hopes to make sales and raised the promoted standard to 8-10%.
For FBM, I sold a vintage bamboo chair for $130, had cost me $17 at a Salvation Army. The rest of these items were found items by me: a pair of black saddle stools, large cheese tray, Intex air mattress, a REI daypack, a stroller-tricycle, set of black pillows large, 7 book set vintage, a USC graduation gown, two sets of patio cushions, and a unicorn needlepoint.
Ebay store items: 329
<div>Ebay items sold: 3</div>
<div>Total Ebay Sales: $247.45</div>
<div>COGs: $8</div>
<div>Fees/Shipping: $49.95</div>
<div>Profit: $189.50</div>
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<div>FBM items: 49</div>
<div>Items sold: 6</div>
<div>COGs: $19</div>
<div>Sales: $285</div>
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<div>On ebay I sold a teacher edition textbook for $39.99, a black 80s velour jumpsuit for $100, and 8 vintage slides of Nova Scotia for $12. The jumpsuit was $8 from a thrift store about six months ago. I had picked up 120 textbooks for free (Shurley English) from a local small private school. I thought they were homeschool editions from the ad language, but when I got there, they were in-person school texts. I had promised to get them though, so now I have 120 texts of 3-6 grade English with about 12 of them being teacher editions. I listed the teacher editions at $39.99 and student texts at $19. Amazon would not let me join up to sell them, so everything is on ebay. I did email a K-12 resale book company, but they offered me 80 cents a book. Not worth me shipping up and mailing. Most likely sales will kick off in March or July when people start buying texts for the next year. Homeschoolers can use these, so I advertised as such to them. For the slides, they were from my grandparents’ trip in 1972.</div>
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<div>This past week for scavenging, I found an XL dog crate, a gold mirrored bar cart with wheels, and two black wood nightstands (one damaged but can turn sideways), three XL serving trays and a Simple Human trashcan (no liner).</div>
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<div>On FBM, I sold the dog crate for $30, a small wood nightstand for $35, the two black nightstands for $30, a small wool rug for $40, the bar cart for $50, a vintage rattan chair for $100.</div>
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<div>I’m in the Philly airport now, waiting for a 9 pm flight to Doha with my husband and daughter. I have friends in South Africa, so we planned a trip for all of February to road-trip around there, camping out and kite-boarding, safaris, wineries, etc. I’m very excited! I’ve never been to that continent. That will make continent #5 for me. I’ll have to go thrifting there!</div>Ebay Store items: 319
Ebay items sold: 4 for $199; COGs had been $153.
Ebay profit: $46. It was so low because the most expensive ebay item I sold was a $150 kitesurfing kite we used for two years, then sold. It sold for the purchase price we paid though, so good deal.
Facebook Marketplace items: 55 (I cleaned out some junk and donated)
Facebook Marketplace items sold: 5 for $290. COGs were $0.
I left SC on Jan 12 for Idaho and was there until the 18th. I sold a snowboard the morning of Jan 12 for $170. I had found it two months earlier (for free) at the apartment complex dumpster next to the storage unit I keep stuff in. It tickled me to sell that board for $170 right next to where I found it. It was a Miller Lite promotional snowboard. I then sold a dresser for $80, a patio set again for $60, a garden bench for $30, and antique wedding cake topper figures for $50. These were all “found items”.
People bought these and paid by Venmo on Friday the 12th and Saturday while I was traveling in Idaho, and then picked up when I got back. Sometimes I don’t sell stuff on FBM for a week, and then sometimes it floods in. I have reviews on FBM so people don’t mind sending me the entire amount as they can see I’m not a scammer. Some refuse and that’s fine, they can wait to see if still available.
It was too ambitious for me to think I could clean my late MIL home in Idaho and turn it into a ready AirBnB in three days. A snowstorm started when I got there and dumped 6 inches. I was making dump and donation runs going 20 mph or less on country roads with my 9 yo daughter shrieking a bit in the side seat and navigating. We did sled and play in the snow, but mostly cleaned up a former cat hoarder’s home and got rid of stuff. It is clean and ready for me to come back in March and outfit it. I did FBM-source several MCM chairs, a Chromecraft table and chairs, and a King sleep-number bed while there, mostly from Boise and Twin Falls.
It’s tiny Castleford, Idaho, but near several hot springs locations, Balanced Rock, and 90 minutes from Soldier Mountain for ski adventures. I did find a handyman and several cleaning ladies to interview, so not a wasted trip. Boise is where we landed and is a super cool town. I did get to thrift for 15 minutes in a small town thrift store in Buhl, Idaho where I entered just before closing and piled up on vintage 70s clothes to bring back to SC.
I haven’t used Craigslist for years. I was just searching it for free stuff but it all seemed to be mattress stores advertising! I’ll try listing a few items on it and see. Right now I have all the furniture on FBM. I do list the “MCM” stuff I find on eBay too and recommend UShip.
Dec 24-30
Total items in ebay store: 312
Ebay items sold: 4 for $165
Ebay COGs: $9, and consignment payout of $39
Ebay net profit to me: $97.23
FBM store items: 34
FBM items sold: 6 for $227.50 ( actually had someone haggle me in person for 50 cents)
FBM COGs: $0, so all profit.
On ebay the old maxim “they will buy it when they want it, doesn’t matter how cheap it is right now” held true. I have had an 80s leather patchwork purse up for a year at $52. It’s been on sale for $25, I had offer of $15, but never got an offer of $25. Then on Dec. 26, someone bought it full price.
I sourced SO MUCH Dec 27-31. I dropped my daughter off at my parents on Dec 27 and then spent the next few days scavenging the neighborhoods and apartment complexes in my area. I actually took a lot to Goodwill and SA that I ended up not wanting to list. They were so full at GW that they were loading the new items directly into a truck to go to the Bins here.
FBM items I sold were a canoe shaped bookcase for $50 (sold overnight); a solid wood skinny desk for $40 within two days (to a local author named Leslie Manning, great YA books), a cornhole set of boards the SAME day for $30, a rug for $50 within five days, and then a trashcan and wall mounted shelves for $57.50.
Things I found for free during “Curb Purge New Year 2024” were a lift-top coffee table, turquoise metal garden chair pair, cherry TV console/entertainment center, several throw pillows from World Market, boat cushions, pair of bar stools, rattan egg chair, and a white wood dresser. Those are the items I kept, I actually took a truckload to GW that I didn’t keep. There is one about five minutes from my house, so it’s easy to drive by and drop.
I’ve sold several items already from my curb purge finds, so those will be in the next set of numbers. I just completed my 2023 spreadsheet for taxes, and I had NOT kept track of my mileage since I started cruising neighborhoods in July. So I estimated 3 hours of cruising around at 15 mph for mileage, once a week. I need to research apps for mileage.
It’s worth looking up a June 2023 government report if anyone’s kids are looking for research paper ideas. My daughter and I were just researching SHEIN. I often scan racks at the thrifts for interesting fabrics, and often it’s a SHEIN item that tricks me. I wanted to know where people are buying it from; turns out it’s just the internet.
They and TEMU are covered in a government report about Chinese slave labor. The report is titled “Fast Fashion and the Uyghur Genocide”. TEMU and SHEIN account for 30% of de minimis imports into the US, because their prices are low…because of the labor they use. They don’t have US based stores that receive imports, unlike Nike or H&M who pay $700M in import fees for items that are more than de minimis (because they pay higher wages in China).
Scavenge of the week: 2 carved wood cabinet/bookcases, likely from India. Listed at $1500 and $750.
eBay item numbers:145498030001
145498039218Sale of the week: Lucchese black caiman cowboy boots, eBay item number 145467965014. These were free and sold for $375.
I am finding them in the same locations and neighborhoods. I stop by three apartment complex trash areas about 3-4 times a week when out and about. They are a five minute detour to my everyday life. That’s where I have found NIB art prints, the arborist bag, clothes, household goods, and furniture. I then drive around three neighborhoods for about an hour on their trash days, so on Mondays and Tuesdays I am out for two hours a day. I wish I had time to do more trash day driving, in Charleston they have trash pickup five days a week. I just do three neighborhoods within a 20 minute drive of me. Two are wealthy newer neighborhoods and one is old, as built in the 40s/50s.
Total Items in ebay Store: 301
Total Items in FBM: 96
Ebay Items Sold: 10 for $998
Ebay COGS: $18.25
FB items sold: 5 for $160
FB COGs: $10
Items found: I found 13 items in about a span of three hours this past week at different times.
On ebay I had a great week. I sold two pairs of my “curb find” Lucchese cowboy boots, one for $375 and one for $275. I sold a NWT “arborist” “Notch” backpack for $170, which was found at an apartment complex trashbin. I also sold three toddler/baby 1990s “Apple Macintosh” t-shirts in a lot of $85. However, one boot purchaser said he was returning the boots for fit. I haven’t seen them arrive yet, and it will be a bummer to refund $275. But it should sell again.
On Facebook I sold a solid wood coffee table for $45, a piano stool for $25, a Harbinger weight vest for $45, and a hot/cold water dispenser machine for $45. The piano stool had cost me $8 in an auction and unfortunately was damaged. The others were free curb finds.
This past week I found some great items: an antique narrow tall dresser, a promotional Miller Lite snowboard, a porch swing, 3 Simple Human trashcans, a bar height patio set, and two amazing carved wooden cabinet bookcases. The bookcase-cabinets were huge and heavy. They are India/Bali style. One was 67” x 55” and couldn’t even be budged by me. The other was 72” x 48”. Luckily I found them only ¼ mile from my husband’s office, so he left to come help me. I had to make two trips in my truck, and the garbageman nearly got the second one before I got back there. I listed the large one for $1500 and the smaller for $650 (on FBM just so far, will put on ebay this week).
