As a lot of you guys know, Corey picked up an interesting hobby to make extra money when we moved back to Ohio....
THRIFTING.
We've been trying to figure out a better name for it, but essentially, it involves buying random items from yard sales, thrift stores, etc., and re-selling them for profit. If you have a name idea for his fun new obsession, comment below!
So obviously we are not the originators of this idea. People have been doing this for years, but Corey started watching videos of Gary Vaynerchuk promoting this idea and he decided to give it a try!
I'll be completely honest, I was not on board at first. Like, at all. I was not looking forward to spending ten minutes, let alone an hour or two yardsaling on the weekends. I had just spent a lot of my time on Allie Cassazza's course on decluttering and I didn't want him bringing junk back into the house. All of that being said, there was some tension at the beginning, but after a few conversations, we designated a small spot in the basement for his "inventory" and he promised it wouldn't take up too much of our Saturdays.
Two months in and I'll be honest, I'm still not as excited about it as he is, BUT we've made a significant amount of money for the very little amount of time we've spent doing it!
With that being said, I'm going to share what we've learned and of course how much we made!
FIRST, THE DO'S AND DON'T'S
-DO Buy from yard sales & thrift stores
-DO Look for free stuff that could be resold
-DO Sell your own stuff that you are no longer using. Instant profit! You'd be surprised how much stuff is just sitting around that could be turned into quick cash! Even after taking a decluttering course and downsizing to a two-bedroom apartment, we STILL had hundreds of dollars of stuff that we sold.
-DO offer to list things for family members or friends, but always offer the profit back to them!
-DON'T sell things people have gifted to you (even if you don't like it) It's hurtful and tacky.
-DON'T sell things people have given you for free, UNLESS they say it's ok.
-DON'T buy stuff from people you know just to sell it for more. Again, UNLESS they know and are okay with it, or you offer to split the profit with them.
I think that's it for the do's and don't's. Just use your judgement and have some integrity.
Here are the places we sold:
Facebook Marketplace
-Clothes sold really well here
-Larger items such as bulky kids toys or furniture also sold really well here
Ebay
-Sold lots of board games
-Smaller kids toys
-Clothes
Amazon
-This was a great place to sell books! We found brand new books for like a quarter everywhere we went and we turned them around for 10+ dollars.
So here's the break down on how much we sold:
We spent very little time in the months of May and June doing this. Corey works a full-time job, and I had very little interest in helping. In the time that we (primarily Corey) did spend, we sold over $900.00 worth of stuff!
We did spend some money on shipping, and Corey still has about 3/4 of the stuff that he purchased to sell left. So with shipping and what he spent on buying items, we spent about $400.00 leaving us with over $500.00 of profit!
This isn't something we are trying to make a living off of, but it is helping us put extra money toward debt, have a little more freedom to do fun things with our kids, and still keep a budget. We have also been able to take these experiences and turn them into lessons for our kids about money.
So, all that being said, I would say that for us, yes, thrifting has been worth it. Corey was right on this one. It was a very small time investment for a pretty significant turn around on quick cash. If you're looking for easy ways to make some extra money, I'd encourage you to try it! Start with your closet and see what you can let go of! I'd be willing to bet that you'd be surprised how much you have that can be turned into a little (or a lot) extra spending money!
Check out our YouTube video where we give more info on our thrifting adventures and more!
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