My Side Job

I’m an American and as such it is my dutiful position to try to find easy ways to make money. At least easy ways for me, that is. And I found something!

It works with my schedule, doesn’t take away from family time, and seems to be a fairly good way to make some extra money and have fun.

Ahhh, America, I love the opportunities you represent and present!

So what is this fabulous “Job” I described?

Reselling.

Yep! And on Ebay no less. Now some reading this just shut down and started scanning the rest of this article. I know that this can be a sore spot for some who have been burnt, and a boring spot for others who just don’t have the interest.

I can say I was about 50/50! Until I started reading blogs of people who resale for a lot of money…like they buy a 40 cent book and resell it for $400! Well, with no visions of quite doing that well I headed to the local thrift stores to see what they held, and to see how nice our local thrift stores are!

That first day I found “The Box” it was a very sturdy, though not too eye catching box with a horse on it and the name “Jan Barboglio” stamped on the rump of the horse. I picked it up. Put it back, then went back for a 2nd, then 3rd look. What if this was worth something? It was a whoppin’ $4 and wasn’t something I would exactly re-gift!

Finally I decided to purchase it. I came home and looked up the name Jan Barboglio only to find out she makes trashcans that sell for $300! But I couldn’t find a market or a buyer for this item, which I could find its match no where. Did that make it more valuable? I wasn’t sure. After email and waiting I started to just want my $4 back. Enter Ebay. I posted it for $.99 with $10 Shipping. It got up to $6. Yay! I had made money on it. It went up to $10! Wow! A real winner! It went up to $60 and I was instantly hooked. My $4 box turned out a nice little investment.

Then I discovered mydeartrash.blogspot.com. It is a blog that two ladies are keeping up with about how they resale on craigslist and on ebay. They purchase clothing for 99 cents and resale it on ebay. So I found out the thrift store I had visited had a .99 cent clothing day and got to work. I wrote down all the brands that where selling by mydeartrash ladies and took a few more hints from them, like Petites don’t sell well, and started making money.

That led to reselling things in our home that we didn’t need. A cell phone that I just like my old one better but was only 15 days old sold for $100 I got it from Sprint for free!!

A laptop that’s monitor didn’t work sold for $100 on Ebay while I local guy offered me $15 for it! My husband and I went to an auction and found an old Apple computer for $4 and sold it for $40 on Ebay. It had been in a barn for about 12 years and had the mud dabber's nest to prove it! We cleaned it up and made a buck.

Now, I’m by far not an American picker, and I have gotten burnt a time or two, but I try to stick with small investments, such as $4 or reselling things in my house, also some small investments turn up large items.

I found this bed for $15 complete with a desk top that didn’t work with the bed and a set of bed rails which didn’t go with the bed either. I purchased them during 1/2 price day at a thrift store & brought the pieces home, set them up and thought, “What am I going to do with all this extra stuff?”

Enter Craigslist!

I sold the bed rails for $15 the next day. The desk topper I gave away after finding no interest. It was picked up that day, after about 5 people saying they could be there by the end of the day! The bed I posted for about 4 months and finally decided it must be jinks (ok, not really) after a half dozen people said they wanted to see it/come by/ or buy it and no one showed. I finally decided I would keep it and stopped posting it. However I didn’t delete it just to see what would happen. I sold it about 1 month later for $70. Shear profit plus I used in in our guest room during that time…rent free! Lol!

During this winter I took a break from miscellaneous sales and began what I could call an attempt at business, handkerchief gal style and have been fairly successful at that. I will post next about what I sell now.