DIY Thrifting For Income - $131 Spent On 10 Items Sold For $722 (5.5x)
I'm much more passionate about upcycling for free inventory to save and sell, but still thrift from time to time. I have quite a bit of inventory from past thrifting I haven't listed yet, so I'm mainly focused on purging versus buying more.
Once you learn how to sustain yourself with free inventory, rummaging through often overpriced thrift stores to spend money loses its appeal. Regardless, I still like a good hunt from time to time since there's plenty of money to be made, and I have tons of experience and relationships to leverage (ex: cell phones of store managers and stock people).
Between curb recycling of household items and thrifting, it's not difficult to completely support yourself if you invest the time and make good decisions (in the right environment of course). All it takes is a first step...
When I thrift, I usually stick with electronics, toys/collectibles, housewares, video games, software, and sports equipment. I detest thrifting for clothes and shoes, but do dabble with these if I trip on something and it's too good to pass up.
10 recent thrifting sales... Revenue is before site fees/shipping.
Printer bought for $21.76, sold for $135 w/in 22 hours.
Brand new frying pan & lid bought for $25, sold for $124 to a buyer just a few miles away.
Vintage professional DJ CD player bought for $32.65, sold for $117.50.
Graphing calculator bought for $10.88, sold for $63.99 w/in 12 hours. One of the easiest resale niches.
Small specialty lamp bought for $6.52, sold for $57.50. (3 more to sell of 9 bought)
Microsoft Office software bought for $5.44, sold for $55.
Another graphic calculator bought for $10.88, sold for $54.
Pokemon card bought for $1, sold for $40.50.
New digital kitchen timer bought for $10.89, sold for $40.
Brand new Funko POP bought for $5.44, sold for $34.50.
I should have a $295 sale on a $55 purchase any time now. I hate spending more than ~$33 on any item, but this one was rare and going to be a fast mover.
EDIT: Like clockwork the item above sold for $285. I'll include it in my next thrifting post.
I also just bought 11 hard to find NIOB items for $5.44 each, which can be sold for $90 each. I just listed them and have 3 watchers so far. That'll be a nice repeating revenue stream once the sales kick in.
Other Recent Recycling:
- Recycled Sales for $887
- Recycled Sales for $1,275
- Recycled Sales for $724
- Recycled Sales For $740
- Recycled Sales For $507
- Recycled Sales For $1,269
- Recycled Sales For $609
- Recycled Sales For $845
Recent Thrifting: (sales are good, just not posting on this much)
Thanks for your interest and support,
Dude! I love learning about this lifestyle and your tips on what to keep an eye out for. I believe I'm going to start dabbling myself. I recently watched "Slobbys World" on Netflix and he specializes in 80's 90's clothing and bootleg fashion. It's crazy what he's reselling some of those clothes/accessories for. Also, I'd love to get you on my Podcast sometime if you're interested. Its called Meadows and Makers and its every Saturday from 11am-1pm Central time on the PAL discord server. I focus on topics that help people live resilient self-sufficient lifestyles. What you're doing is Fire bro.
You are the master my friend. Love seeing these.
The Funko was a tribute to you. I probably undercut yours selling online. Sorry about that! Thanks for appreciating this little niche here.
I continue to love reading these updates from you. Makes me eye so keen for such items myself!
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Thank you. For those who don't have stacks of Steem Monster cards in our digital wallets, I still have to sell Pokemon cards. I think you'll win long term...
I love your work. You are an inspiration to people. One of the most challenging situations in life is access to money. You prove time and time again. You are helping people find items they want and making great money by finding things they want and displaying these items on other platforms. So these people can find their wanted items easily. And for that they pay you a premium of what you acquired the items for. Thank you man. Where there is a will. There is a way. And on the way could be $$$$.
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I was actually caught off guard with the sincerity of your reply here.
I've begged my friends and family (who always say they need more cash) to let me mentor them to get in on this action, but nobody has ever followed through. Not one. They say it sounds cool, but they flake year after year. Exes wouldn't even come support me, and any thrifting they joined on once in a blue moon turned into their personal shopping trip.
Therefore, anyone who appreciates these thrifting and recycling posts on Steemit is a big deal, so thanks for taking the time here.
What I'm doing helps a lot more than just me, so I'm trying to figure out how to scale this up to spread the benefits. While thrifting is a fun game to reconnect market demand, the recycling for profit system works absurdly well and has mind-blowing potential in my city. I just need to crack the code to find committed like-minded people to level this operation up to a scale I know it can easily reach.
Thanks again for the comment.
This is pretty cool. I'm assuming you list them on sites and either deliver in person or some1 pick it up/ ship items after getting payment?
I mostly sell stuff online and ship it around the US. I do some international sales for items I think are fraud and damage resistant. I ship everything myself via USPS and FedEx, or offer in-person pickups for Craigslist stuff or online sales that were listed as pickup only if they're large or too fragile to ship. I live very close to both shipping centers in walking distance, so it's efficient.
Thrifting is one part of my game. Upcycling has evolved into a much bigger component, sold similarly as explained above.
Sounds like ya got a great system going lol.
I am amazed you got those TI's so cheap. Great find. Also really jealous of the Pokemon find. Keep it up, always interested in your finds and successes.
Calculators used to be $3-5 easily, but the some thrift stores boosted the prices to $8-$10. It's still a good flip, but I miss the days when they were cheaper. Some thrift stores still sell them at $3-5, but far fewer. They almost always sell in 24 hours. I have a lot of other Pokemon cards to list, but have been dragging my feet since they don't take up much space on my shelf.
Thanks for the nice feedback.
Man that is awesome ! Wanna do the same , different game here , just gotta learn it !
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What's the layout in terms of thrift stores or potential curb recycling by you? Any potential hot spots to source from? My city may be one of the meccas in the world, so I know it might be slimmer pickings over there.
Well thrift store look like this , did a vid about one near by recently
In terms of recycling , people do leave stuff out special bags or bring them to a recycle center ( which costs)
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Holy crap that's an INSANE store. I'm assuming that their prices are pretty much in line with resale online for such an organized place (they likely research everything), but perhaps there are a few mistakes or oversights to capitalize in (which is my specialty). Really cool place. Far more organized and diverse than any thrift store I've ever seen in the US by a mile.
Do they get their inventory from donations, consignment, or they're buying it elsewhere first?
Very well organized .
You know it’s a bit and sell system, they buy very cheap from people then sell for basically online prices!
But as you said , there must be something here that isn’t priced right. They may have a couple things that people just donate but then they price it at market value.
I’m thinking of selling bundles of stuff people may want from Japan, that may be less hassle.
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I recently stumbled upon your series of thrift sales! I love it, a friend of mine does it too, it's really good money. But that pokemon card, 40x return wow.
Hi - glad you caught this. if you like big return rations like that, check the links on the bottom of my post and in the future where I recycle household goods I find on my city's curbs to resell. I've sold thousands of items like this and used recycling shipping materials, all at NO cost except shipping tape. I generally focus more on this type of stuff since there's no financial risk and it helps the environment. Check them out and see what I mean!
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