Week’s sales tally…

My closet is getting full of clothes! I’ve had to reorganize just to make sure everything fits now! Time to make some sales and get the inventory down! It will be nice when summer sales pick up! I won’t have to worry about the bulky sweaters! Lets see how I did":

The total profit is not how much someone paid for the item, but how much it cost after I took out all fees, shipping & original cost of item (with tax).

Ann Taylor Loft size 14 Marisa Fully lined Capris plaid

Profit=$8.93

Woman's Banana Republic14 Light weight black slacks.

Profit=$4.61

Women's Express "Editor" Size 6 black slack with belt

Profit=$8.74

Women's Old Navy Low Waist Courderoy skirt Size 16

Total profit: $4.53

Women's Talbots Stretch Khaki slacks size 8 w/ pockets

Profit=$1.51

Ladies size S plaid Jacket Charlotte Russe short sleeve

Profit=$7.37

Woman's slacks Express charcoal size 7/8 reg.

Profit= $4.01

Total Sales: $103.78

Total Expenses (posting/shopping fees)=$22.39

Shipping cost: $29.84

Ebay Fees: $4.61

Paypal Fees: $5.77

Total Profit= $41.18

Not as well as I did last week, but I sold more items and got my inventory down a bit!

Garage sale transformation: a new idea for a jewelry box.

Here was a nifty idea I read about somewhere and LOVE: my jewelry box.

This is made from one of those knicknack box I always saw at garage sales but never bought cuz I didn’t want to have a billion knicknacks that meant very little to me! I saw the idea for these in Apron Thrift Girl’s blog and immediate found this box in a garage sale for 50 cents!
I purchased the paper from Michael’s for about 39 cents each (I needed 3 pages.) It is hard to find pages that match when you see all those pages at the store and continually change your color ideas! I love the print I ended up with though. I also chose what my grandmother calls “‘dirty paper” (“You bought that?” she said!) a print that had the worn look I wanted to bring out in the wood.

As I went to add the paper I was plesently surprise to find that the divider board’s glue has deteriorated and they are now removable. If I would have planned on that I would have just slipped a whole sheet of paper under them. But alas, I had already made the tedious cuts! I used double sided foam tape in areas I couldn’t tuck under the dividers.
One sheet didn’t fit all the way up, -which bothers my husband more than myself- but rather than try to match the paper I left it, thinking it would be easy to change if I ever needed too.

My earrings are an easy style to hang up on nails but I did want to take one divided square and place a cork board there for my stud earrings. (Above is the “dirty paper!” LOl!)

I placed my rings in the bottom shelf and so far the is working for me. Might hang them up someday but not yet.
I found a 12″ x12″ cork board at a thrift shop that was broken and only 48 cents. I can do that! I cut out a piece and here is my last touch on my board! Now I can add my stud earrings!

Here is another great post by Kara, a local friend and blogger who made a jewelry box with the same idea, but she lays her flat! For me I have more room on my walls then drawer space!
 












Linking:
http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/

Other places to find stuff…for free!

It is amazing what you can find in this world for free! I stopped by a garage sell to grab a set of alphabet blocks I had eyed the day before but came home to price them.

I planned on offering $2 for the set but as I walked up and there were taking down their garage sell stuff I offered them $1 for the set, which they excepted.

Then I offered to haul off anything else I wanted since they were talking about what to do with it all. I got a sand & water table (retails around $60).

Also lots of small trucks, a set of cleats, soccer socks and shin-guards perfect for my son the next summer!

I sold the mini billiard ball online for small but nice profit and the bouncy cow for a few dollars profit.

As unpleasant as it sounds, stuff people have already thrown away can be really nice items as well!

I found this foldable and in perfect conditioned, new cage in a dumpster. I’m not sure what they thought was wrong with it but throwing it away must have fixed it because it works perfectly now! Not selling this! It is in our attic awaiting the dog we will someday get!

So keep your eyes open and try to avoid the real junk! I’ve brought home many a free cleaning tool and dumped it in the trash! If it didn’t work for them sometimes that means it just doesn’t work!

This weeks sales!

Ebay is really starting to pick up for me. Which is a great season of life for it to do that!

Here are some of my top sells:

Woman's Venezia size 16 orange cropped pants/ capris

I made $11.45 off these bright Capris! (That is after all fees are paid and shipping is paid)

Girl's Old Navy Size 12 Jean overalls.

I netted $11 on these overalls as well. These are the first overalls I’ve sold in state! They were in a bidding war with someone from Australia.

Women's Old Navy Low waist, Camo - cargo Shorts size 4.

Got an email on these shorts that the person had missed the bed and would I sell them again. I posted them again with a buy it now price and they snatched them up! Netted $9.14 on these!

I’m noticing that Lane Bryant seems to be easy for me to buy and easy to sell. Like these:

Woman's Lane Bryant 14/16 pinstriped black slacks.

Netted $11.45

Long pants always do well. (Even if your kids walk across the pant legs right before you take a picture!)

Woman's Express 12 Long Black slacks

Made about $9 on these long pants!!

I had a “wild card” in the mix. These bright pink pants that I thought if I didn’t sell would drive me nuts! (not a pink fan here!)

New York & Co size 12 Pink Capris/ Cropped Pants

They sold for the buy it now price! Made: $11.27!

Last week Stats:

Total in sales: $158

Total Expenses: $13

Shipping cost:$ 53.81

Ebay Fees: $6.93

Paypal fees: $9.25

Total Profit $75.91!

Reselling and making money doing it!

So the topic is reselling, but reselling what?

Here I shared how I purchased a metal box for $4 and sold it for $60. I also shared a bed I bought with miscellaneous rails that cost $15 for it all and I sold the rails for $15 and the bed for $70 after using it for an extra mattress we had for about 5 months!

But what has been my true money maker is clothes.

Any size any type (pants, shirts, dresses) Just clothes that are in good condition and are name brand.

I’ve discovered that overalls sell like hotcakes. Specially to overseas (Australia is a big buyer of short-alls right now!) People will pay an extra $17 for shipping if they get name brand overalls overseas!

This is how I do it:

I purchase items at our local thrift store on .99 cent day. They recently started .99 cent clothes day 2x a week. I was thrilled!

I then come home, cute the tags off them and post them on Ebay starting them around $7.99. with either $4.95 or $6.95 shipping. This is where you protect yourself from loosing money -the shipping.

I discovered that it is just fine to cover your paypal, ebay, and clothing cost in the shipping & handling charge. Though this doesn’t always cover all of it it helps if I am asked to refund the cost of the item, or I sell something for .99 then I still can make something for my time and money. Also, Ebay does not charge you for the shipping price, you only pay fees on the cost of the item.

Ebay does specials every once in a while and that was when I started selling. I was making money on every item I sold and not having to pay fees on the items that didn’t sell. It was a great time to learn, though I tried to follow the guidelines suggested by www.mydeartrash.com and purchase the brands they knew sell on Ebay. It is different for me. Chico doesn’t sell nearly as well for me, though Abercrombie and Fitch and Banana Republic are fabulous buyers for me as well as for them. Old Navy consistently sales and I consistently run across their brand more than any other brand it seems.

So that’s that! How I added a little cash to my life.

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.

Getting more organized: Receipt holder

Today my goal was to tackle the laundry room. I started the tackle but in mid-dive I was interrupted by a visitor at my door. A wonderful interruption, I must say, and one that lead to many other interruptions and no clean laundry room. But as soon as my 1 and 3 year old hit the sack I’m finishing that tackle (so to speak)!

No, that’s not my laundry room. However one that size would be amazing! I think that is bigger than my kid’s room! It is way less embarrassing showing someone else’s dirty rooms then my own!

However it is tax time at our house and that has made me very aware that I need to have a better system(ok maybe just any kind of system) for my receipts. And what better way than to make it cute?

So I took a (Free) photo envelope made of heavy duty cardstock and some paper from Michael’s I got for free too (another story) & some glue (ok, I had it on hand but I did pay for it.) and made the start of a filing system for my receipts. Here is how you do it:

First I took apart the envelope.

Then I traced the now flat envelope onto the back of my printed paper and cut it out.

Then I simply glued the envelope to the paper.

And walla! Almost done!

Here it is! A very sturdy way to file my receipts. I can make more of them and coordinate them by color. Now for a label.

I used a label I had printed out that is free on Cathe Holden’s site here and here.

Trust me. Cathe’s JustsomethingImade.com is a valuable resource and a great way to spend a day looking through all that she has done!

She also has another idea for receipt holder here.

Ok! Off to put the kids to bed and finish that tackle! Wish me luck!