Recent Flips & Thoughts

Hey guys!  I am finally finished my last college class!  Preparing for the semester to end brought my sales down to about $1,500 this month, but now that I'm finally free, my sales should see a boost!  

Remember those KEEN sandals I bought at a yard?  Well, I sold them for over $60!  I made a profit of over $45 (this is after all the fees and shipping).  I'm so glad it's yard sale season!

Here are some of my other yard sale flips from the other week:

Hollister Jeans

Paid: $1

Profit: $17.06

American Rag Top

Paid: $1

Profit: $6.27

These items I would never pay more than yard sale prices for, maybe $1 or $2.  I'm actually surprised at how much profit the Hollister jeans brought in.  Distressed denim is one of the things you should always keep your eye out for.  Isn't it funny how people will pay more for jeans that are all ripped up?

This week, I increased my average profit per item from $15 to about $17, not much, but still something.  I'm hoping to bring in at least $200 profit by the end of the month, which means selling about 12 more items.  Right now, I have 107 items listed which is way under my goal.  I really haven't brought in much this month because I haven't bought much.  It goes to show, you get out what you put in.  My busy schedule brought my shopping to a bit of a halt, but thankfully it's starting to pick back up again!   June comes with no excuses!  I no longer have to worry about class and can fully focus on eBay.  With this freedom, I plan on taking at least one trip to a goodwill outlet center in June. 

I've been talking to Steven (the boyfriend) about writing an eBook lately.  I'm not much of a writer, but he is amazing with words!  There are a lot of tips and secrets that I would be more willing to share in an eBook, including a list of very common brands that always resell.  There are about 3 brands of jeans that I find at goodwill every single time and can buy for full price ($7) and make about $15 profit.  

My profit per item isn't very high, this makes me have to shop a lot more than other sellers.  My sell-through rate is about 50%.  This means if I want to make a $600 profit in a week I would need to list somewhere in the ballpark of 80 items per week, 100 to be safe.  For reference, today I broke a personal record and listed 25 items (go me!), and really it didn't take too long, so this is very doable. 

Steven and I are also looking into relocating to sunny southern paradise, Florida, sometime in the near future.  We are not fans of the winter!  One factor in our search is the proximity to a goodwill outlet store, and the beach of course!  At these stores, clothing is sold by the pound so the average article of clothing is between $1 and $2, this is a lot less then the $7 average I'm paying.  This would allow much higher profit margins on individual items.  So, I'd be making more money (and would never have to brave the winter again)! 

Until next time!