The Why Behind Being a Reseller
I sold the above Simpson's Duff knit cap on eBay for $15 and since I sourced it from an after-garage sale free pile, it was all profit. Minus the eBay fees of course!
Not a lot of work, but still a bit of work to photograph it and get it listed; plus the five minutes or so to package it up and print out a label. USPS will pick it up for free, so that's an additional thirty seconds it took to schedule a pickup through their website.
So why go through the effort for such a small reward, when I've often written that I try to only list on eBay when I can make at least $50? Well . . . I hold myself to that general standard when I'm buying something to resell, as it's not uncommon to wait weeks if not months to find a buyer. It makes zero financial sense to have money tied up in inventory, unless the payoff is significant.
However, my motivation for reselling isn't just about the money. I personally choose to buy used whenever possible, which is how I stand up against rampant consumerism. By selling thrifted and randomly found items, I can help other people in their journeys against a consumer driven society.
Did I want my own Simpson's Duff Beer knit beanie for myself? Nope, not really my style, but it turned out that some random dude in Texas did, and I got to be the middle man woman. Without resellers, there'd be no secondhand market for people who also want to step away from that Schmeff Schmezos guy.
Taking a stand against consumerism, one goofy cap at a time.
Hey, I love your blog but this post brings up a problem for me which is flipping a popular/fun item for little profit. I get it if you spot a Supreme beanie to sell on ebay, but wouldn't it have been cool (and frugal) to let a Simpsons fan find this or gift it to someone local?
I do give away many things to my community through Buy Nothing and our free library, so I feel fine with making a few dollars from found items.
If someone asked my schoolteacher husband why he doesn't teach for free-after all so many kids need education-he would reply that he has bills to pay and needs to earn a living.
I resell because there is no fun money in our budget, and through reselling I can do something fun that I otherwise couldn't afford. And it does make me feel great about getting things to the people who want/need them, diverting them from the waste stream and throwing a spanner in the consumerism cog.
I meeeeean... it DID go to a Simpsons fan. It WOULD be more poetic if a fan had found it in the free pile, but they didn't. That was an *after garage sale* pile, too, so not one person who came to the sale wanted it, nor anyone who looked through the pile before her. How many people had already rejected that hat? What was the next stop for that stuff?
As a long-time reseller (almost 30 years!) if I had a nickel for every time I bought something to resell that had been in a thrift for so long it was half price (or even less), or bought something on the last day/hour of an estate or garage sale, I coulda bought this beanie several times over! That's the biggest problem with secondhand: all of these things are orphaned and they need to make their way to where they're wanted, but the right buyer doesn't always come along. There's no way to know for certain what will happen to something if you don't take it yourself, but the chances that no else one will come for it range from decent to high - they are virtually never zero.
I like selling on Ebay. It's a fun hobby that earns some extra cash.
All of my hobbies earn a bit of income.
That's 100% why I list some of the things I do; it's about getting an item into the hands of someone who wants/needs it!
Yes, you get it!
I love to get feedback from my little eBay side hustle from customers who say the item is just what they wanted and often times they share a memory or two in the comments.
I even had one lady send me photos of the historical outfit she had made and attached both a vintage brooch and parts of a broken vintage necklace, it was so sweet and although I made very little in pounds the warm fuzzy feeling I had more than made up for the tiny financial win.
My favorite eBay sale was when I thrifted an entire bolt of discontinued Ikea striped fabric, which sold to a children's entertainer in London. He used to it to sew his costume, which needed to replaced after years of wear. This specific guy needed this specific fabric. I don't even remember if it was a big profit.
I bought a supremely ugly teapot for $6 at a thrift shop because it was made by some posh china company and I thought it might be worth something. Turned out to be a discontinued pattern and the woman who bought it had the whole set from her grandmother EXCEPT the teapot! I doubt there are ten more people on the planet who would want that thing but she was very happy and I made $100.
Along the same lines, I received this email from the 50501 people, and want to share:
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"Join Us Nov. 27th - Dec. 1st for
We Ain’t Buying It!
This Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday – let’s make our dollars count. We’re asking Americans to hit pause on shopping from major corporations.
In 2024, 196.7 million Americans shopped during Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving retail week is a crucial period for big retailers; nearly 20% of annual sales happen between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The truth is, we have the power, and not just as individual consumers. Learn how you can take action in your community this holiday season:
Full Black Out: Don’t buy anything from Target, Amazon, Home Depot, and other major stores supporting this administration's policies during Nov 28 - Dec 1.
Redirect Spending: Shop small, local, or with businesses affirming our humanity.
Take the Pledge: Pledge to be a conscious consumer.
Amplify: Spread the word. Share the message in conversation and online.
Take Action NOW
Target has rolled back their DEI initiatives. Amazon holds a monopolistic position in the market and CEO Jeff Bezos has donated over $1 million to this administration. Home Depot is allowing ICE to illegally detain and kidnap laborers from their stores.
Until these companies cease collaborating with this administration, our dollars will go elsewhere. #WeAintBuyingIt "
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Although I don't sell on eBay (I would have gotten in too late in the game and had to jump through too many hoops), I applaud those of you who do, for all the reasons Katy mentions. I also applaud the post by Anonymous and will not be cooperating with the retail giants this holiday season (or the rest of the year, for that matter).
Finally, I didn't jump on Katy's previous post fast enough--but that Goodwill dresser looks like tiger maple to me. I'd have picked that one up in a heartbeat, if I'd had two younger and stronger folks with me to help me carry it out.
I can round up some strong young folks if you're willing to have it shipped across the country!
Thanks for the kind thought, Katy, but no. By the time we shipped it from Portland to Central NY, it wouldn't be a bargain any more. 🙁
My favorite e-bay story is this: I had an uncle who was a terrible hoarder. When he and his wife died, their son/my cousin got the dubious task of cleaning out their house, shed, barn and garage. It took him almost forever! One of the items he found was his grandfather's World War ONE mess kit, circa 1917 or so. It even had an ancient, but unopened, can of Spam (or K-rations or whatever they ate) in it. (Apparently, my uncle had brought in some things from HIS dad's estate and stored them in the garage.) My cousin said he thought, "Now who in the world would want THIS?" and was about to toss it in the trash can. But then he thought, "maybe I should list this on E-bay and see what happens." He did, and he sold it almost immediately for the Buy It Now Price. (I forgot how much $ it was, but my cousin made a nice profit, for sure.) He said the buyer (who phoned him to make shipping arrangements) was almost in tears. Turns out that the man was an avid collector of military items from World War One, had been doing this for many years, and the mess kit was the one item that he lacked. Thanks to my cousin, the guy's collection was complete. The man said that when he dies, his WWI collection will be willed to a history museum, so people will enjoy seeing the mess kit and all the other items for generations to come. "And to think I almost threw it away!" my cousin said.
The unopened can of Spam doesn't really surprise me, for this reason: Back in the day when British royal commemorative items were worth something--and, given various recent events, it's a good thing DH and I weren't collecting these for investment purposes--we were surprised to learn that two tin boxes that originally held chocolate bars were worth a lot more with the chocolate in them: one sent by Queen Victoria to troops during the Boer War, and one sent by Princess Mary (George V's only daughter) during WWI. I once saw one of the Queen Vic tins with the rather moldy chocolate in it and said, "No, thanks"--but to all of us our own peculiarities.
I am so used to the second hand market, that I am often sticker shocked when I see full retail prices these days. I thinking buying and selling second hand items is fun and useful. I recently sent a box of clothes to Thredup thinking anything is better than nothing. I actually got $195 after fees. A $141 of that was a used leather jacket I was given that my mom had paid $40 for and gifted to me. Unfortunately it wasn't a good look for me. I didn't recognize the brand, so I was shocked when in sold within 48 hours and for so much. I appreciate finding quality vintage clothing in the 2nd hand world too!
I sold the bike trailer/jogging stroller this morning after 2 months languishing on FB marketplace and taking up prime real estate in my garage. The neighbor who asked me to sell it had originally suggested we split the proceeds 50/50 which was fine with me, I didn't buy it and my portion would be pure profit. When I texted him that it had sold, he told me to keep the whole amount. The are a 2 income family and know that we have 1 income. I thought it was very kind and I will gladly keep the money.
The young woman who bought it was thrilled to have it and she got a great price. Everyone is happy!
I miss reselling. I loved to hear the chime on my phone that meant something had sold. I really had it down to a science for a while there, as far as packaging/shipping. eBay is a great forum for allowing specific people to find specific items. That beanie could have languished at Goodwill forever!
I am happy, though, that no one scooped up an unusual and offbeat pack of holiday cards that I found at my Goodwill yesterday. They have a winter Japanese landscape on the front. I'll use them for the few holiday cards I send.
If in the future I can ever give up my full-time job, I'd probably go back to reselling, to some degree.
The "cha ching" is the best!
I saw someone wearing one of those Duff hats today! (Not in Texas…)
I am too lazy to resell things. 🙂
YOUR BLOG IS BACK AGAIN!!!!!!! HURRAH!!!!!!!!!!
Such a relief. Glad you could fix it!
I am the one who used a different program expressing concern that someone had made a serious mistake in an area sweep. SO GLAD YOU ARE BACK!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU.
I buy storage units to flip on eBay. The most common reason I have seen for a unit to be auctioned is the death of the owner. The owner does and the family doesn't want to deal with the stuff, so they walk away from it.
YOUR KIDS DON'T WANT YOUR STUFF!
There is SO much stuff in this country. So, so much.
The units that get to me are the ones where the owner never even used the things they were storing. I bought a unit filled with new QVC merchandise, everything still in the box, with the invoices. All that money to buy this stuff, store it, and never, ever use it. What a waste.
Thankful for the re-sellers! I thrift and always slow down for a good roadside junk pile, but I can't always find what I need myself.
I just bought a used backpack on ebay to replace the after yard sale free pile one my daughter loves and has been carrying for 2 years. The strap gave out a few weeks ago, and she's tried using a different one, but really wanted the same one. It's no longer sold new so being able to get one that looks like new for less than I'd pay for a new one she doesn't want? Not possible without a reseller!
So true, I also buy on eBay and rely on people listing what I want and need.
Thanks everybody for the kind words and good stories about reselling; it lifted my spirits and encouraged me. I reseller in the winter months and do landscape design in the warmer months. There’s been a huge upsurge in reselling with lots of folks doing it full time and making quite a bit of money. There also seems to be some backlash, and general dislike of resellers. I’ve been thrifting/yard sale-ing for years and make an effort to put rejected items back where they belong in the thrift store, be kind to the workers and generally avoid low-balling sellers at yard/estate sales. But not every reseller does, and I understand why there are some hard feelings for the rude types that exist.