Goodwill Outlet Income Experiment - Thrifting, Picking, & Finding Profit Day 18 - Old Candy!?
Adventures in thrifting income from the pay per pound Goodwill - Day 18.
When I walked into the store today there were no carts!
This was a common occurrence for years here, but a few days into my 30-day hustle the store received a large amount of brand new carts. Since then I have always been able to grab a cart right away. But today I had to go back to the old ways of grabbing a random bag from the bins and putting my finds into it.
Oh, and one of the Mexicans found a collection of old SEGA Genesis games! ONE OF WHICH WAS BATTLETOADS, with the instructions and everything!
Since I live close to the Mexican border, this location is the daily commute for the thrifters from below the border. They mostly mess around with clothes though.
But that was one lucky guy.
Today is April 4th and it is day 18. Let's see what I found this Wednesday.
I found some stuff that I am keeping. The book '7 chart patterns', the balsa wood planes, latex gloves, a little terminator 1 model (from after the terminator lost its legs) and the sparklers because July 4th is coming up!
For selling there are a few pairs of glasses. I am going to start saving up the glasses that have frames in good condition. You can sell glasses by the pound and get around $10 per lb. When I am paying 89 cents per lb, that can be some good profit.
I found a beginning guitar DVD lesson set by Keith Urban. It sells for good money.
Some inks, a remote, and an old electronic dictionary from 1988. It still works! Look. :D
I found a needlework set that has an interesting pattern.
That Postal X is a video game that is very rare and sells for tons! Great find.
Oh, and there is a little baggy with metal Monopoly pieces.
These dress shoes don't look like much now, but a little clean and polish and they will sparkle. Bostonian isn't the best brand, its decent, but not a high demand brand. What makes these is that they are a special size - 11EEE.
Weird sizes have a limited market but, just like really large pants and shirts, the people that do need them also find that size hard to find and so often turn to the internet to get what they need.
This is a box of vending machine parts. I decided to give it a shot. I hope it sells.
This is the neat find of the day - little boxes of vintage candy from like the 50's or 60's!
Look! Some even have the candy still!
I listed this lot as an auction as I don't quite know how to value it. Sometimes the empty boxes sell for $10-20, but then how does the condition and the fact that the candy is still there affect the price? Hmm, best to do an auction and see what happens.
I'm not into them for much money at all.
Sales!
Check it out, those old Polaroid photo album pages have sold. That was just a hunch purchase as none were listed or sold on eBay. Happy it worked out and I got $25 for them.
The Acquire board game is gone, as well as one of the John Maxwell audio/DVD combos, and some typewriter ribbon.
Day 18 Totals
Total Spent Today: $19.48
Running Total Spent: $307.03
Total Listed Price Today: $263.88
Running Total Listed Price: $3806.50
Total Sales: $1243.32
Total Profit: $744.65
As always, tomorrow is a new day and a new thrift!
I am sorry you just missed the sega genesis games.
I would almost right this day off as a bust. But those candies may sell for a lot more... well, at least they will sell.
The shoes... 50/50. I am sure they will polish up just fine, but the creases...
The monopoly pieces aren't old enough, but at least there's some dice to put in your games.
And, i will probably be completely wrong in my assessment. Postal will probably sell for BIG bucks and everything else will move in day.
Oh, the shoes need a bit of work. I got them sitting with a big old shoe tree in. When I have time I will heat treat them to get the creases out. They'll be fine.
Yeah, the best thing is Postal X, then the guitar lesson DVDs, and then the candies.
I never knew about the heat treating the shoes, thanks for that bit of knowledge, I will make sure to watch some tutorials. Thanks to your daily posts, I got motivated to try it my self and actually have 3 pairs of shoes to clean up and post with a few other things!
Hey @getonthetrain. I really miss your posts and adventure of the Goodwill outlet.
I'm just trying to catch up and see how you have been performing with the Goodwill outlet
I bet making this much money so easily is crazy to think about compared to where you live.
Yeah....so crazy. @getonthetrain that's real money 744$ is such a real profit.if you add 150, then it becomes my semester tuition.
I have always wanted to do what you are doing but I struggle to know what are items that turn over quickly on Ebay. What rules do you use to determine what deals are worth pursuing?
If you want to do it, learn it! Watch Youtube videos of people going out and thrifting. Research different categories on the eBay sold listings.
Then go and do it! :D
I don't really have any rules. I think about how easy it would be to list and ship and then how much money I think I will make from it after fees and stuff. If it is worth it, I buy the thing, if not, I don't.
I have looked at several Youtube videos. I need to take the time and look through Ebay and see what moves and what has decent margins. My problem is that I buy stuff that never sells and then I am stuck with it. I have a violin at home that my wife never lets me forget about to prove how inefficient my value radar is.
You gotta use eBay to research. Check the amount of listings and then the amount of solds. eBay shows solds that happened in the last 90 days.
What you want is something with more solds than currently listed. Equal amounts is good too. But as long as there are a decent amount sold, you can sell yours if you can list it as the cheapest.
That depends on how well you bought.
.
Lol, start taking up a pot of money for me to eat one - if it gets high enough I will post the vid of me eating it on D.tube -
:D haha! For reals.
And you are getting closer my friend! Time to raise the bar ro $1250 or even $1500?
It is like playing Limbo, if you raise the bar high enough you can just walk under it :)
I do think you can get close to 1500. Your stores is filling up and like written yesterday, to more you have to offer, to more chance you have to make a sale!
So, yes aim for $1500. And if you do, do a little celebration :) I would say buy a bottle of champagne :)
What do you think? $1500?
Sorry misposted the reply. :( It was replied on my own comment. So you read it there :)
You have an impressive breadth of knowledge. I used to do quite a bit of thrifting, garage saling and flea markets, but I was specialized in the glassware and pottery area, and that has become tough to make a living at these days.
Good for you for what you're accomplishing here!
Oh, I am a generalist! Always have been! Jack of all thrifts (and hustles)
Nice post, thanks for sharing