Reselling Tips

Shopping Online At Night

I seem to make my online purchases at night. Anyone else? Retail stores do not interest me (other than Goodwill). Small businesses on Poshmark & Mercari just have a charm that draws me in. I often find things that I am lacking in my life when I am laying in bed. Just a piece of advice… try to make your purchases in the morning after you have had breakfast. Your reasoning will probably be much better. Since I never do that though, I wanted to tell you about a $12 purchase I made tonight on Mercari.

For some reason, despite the fact that we are trying to relocate our mass amounts of decorations, I felt the need to search for “wind chimes” tonight on Mercari. Because everyone needs a wind chime before they have even gotten their couch into the house, right? -_- All I can say is that sometimes I just crave things that inspire me. When I saw an item that combined beads, drift wood, and wind chimes it was over. I was purchasing it. All of the colors drew me in. If Bella can be addicted to catnip then I am totally entitled to be addicted to colors. Her catnip leaves are cheaper though…

This late night purchasing saga does not end here though. The seller was really nice and contacted me to thank me for my purchase. I messaged her back saying that I may have to get some of her smooth stones she sells in the future. She responded, saying she would send me some with this purchase and that she may have to purchase from me. I, of course, thought she was just being nice. Turns out, she was serious. She found a poetry book & journal in my store that she liked. I gave her a good deal on the poetry book and told her I would throw in the journal. She seemed very pleased with this and purchased quickly. That never happens. I had to write about that fun scenario that played out nicely tonight.

When I shop at night I also tend to be drawn to books and jewelry. I’m not a girl that likes designer anything. Even Rae Dunn feels excessive to me. Give me vintage treasures all day long. I want to wear & represent timeless items with stories. One of my favorite necklaces is a pocket watch one. Bohemian, Moroccan, Gypsy anything is where you will find me. As far as books go, I love reading (and collecting) true crime books. I do not read them like I used to but there are still certain cases I am interested in. It is intriguing to me to figure out WHY people make the decisions that they do. And also, HOW they can sometimes get away with it. (That part can anger as much as intrigue me).

I’m going to crash again soon. I saw again because I laid down earlier for a while. There is so much movement involved in moving. It just occurred to me that it is called “moving” because your body (not just your furniture) moves a whole hell of a lot. That was definitely a light bulb moment. Anyway, off to go browse items on Poshmark & Mercari that I may try to purchase another night. Please pray that I will donate as many things as I purchase. That way, I will not end up on the TV show, Hoarders.

Liquidating Poshmark Clothing

If you had told me a year ago that I would have to stop selling clothes, I would have been extremely confused. Back then, I could go to the Goodwill outlet and find a lot of clothes for a minimal price. The outlet didn’t smell like smoke. Quality items could be found without holes or stains. This is the main reason my hustle consisted of reselling clothes. Today, everything has changed. My Goodwill outlet is now so crowded that it is nearly impossible to find a parking spot. I can’t for the life of me find a dress or skirt there anymore. The past few times I have left with hardly any, if any at all, items to sell. Basically, reselling clothes has become so competitive and saturated that it has forced my hand to switch gears.

Now you may say, why not go to a regular Goodwill store. This is what I have been doing for the past year. I’ve exhausted myself going through rack after rack of clothes. Stains and smoke smell are present on many of the items at my local stores. If you do not have an eagle eye, you are going to miss a damage somewhere. Prices at my thrift stores have gone up. The dresses are now $5.99, pants $4.99 (I think), shirts $3.99, and shoes are $4.99. Those do not sound like large numbers. However, when you are a reseller, you know that you are going to have to invest in items before they sell. I have lately been investing $70-$100 per trip on clothing that I’m not sure if it will sell or not. It’s too much money for me to be spending when there is so much risk. It has taken me a while to come to terms with this. But, I am there now.

Yesterday, I spent a while taking down all of my clothing items from the my closet, bins, and the rack. I’m currently debating about whether or not to price them extremely cheap on Mercari in hopes of a quick sell. The local Goodwills in my area have closed down, so currently I have no where to donate these items too. It will depend on if I get inspired enough. I’ve been recovering from the flu for the past 4 weeks. I’m feeling done.

Though I am not selling clothing anymore, I will be selling home decor items. Especially vintage decor that I can find. I’ve discovered that I can purchase home decor items at a much lower price than clothing. You have to search though because a lot of decor is getting priced high these days. Something to be thankful for is that I started reselling back when I could get things really affordably. My mistakes did not cost me much debt. Anyone starting reselling today, if they don’t know what to buy, is going to have a bumpy road. I’ve trained my eye to spot damages and good deals quickly. I’ve noticed more often than not people notice what I have in my buggy. I usually get a compliment or that person who looks at me with jealousy. Truth be told, I don’t feel guilty for what I find because I know how long it took me to learn about items. I continue to learn by educating myself with reseller videos on Youtube. It’s not an easy process. Though everyone and their brother seems to be reselling right now, I know two things for a fact. In order to stick with reselling you must: 1. Truly love selling. 2. Need the money direly. If you are neither of these two things, I can save you a lot of time. Don’t resell. It can be incredibly stressful, financially it is easy to go underneath, and it will burn you out. I’m #1. I love selling. If toothbrushes sold, I would sell those. This is still my hustle.

5 Reasons Reselling Strategies FAIL

Everyone is extremely motivated at first. The reality is though, that often we try to compete with everyone else in the business. AKA We burn the hell out QUICKLY. Find your rhythm & do what works for you. Everyone is different.
You may be selling the wrong items. I operated on observing other sellers, listening to Youtube videos, and selling just clothing. I’ve found clothing though to be extremely expensive to purchase (in my area), anxiety causing competitive, and all around miserable for me at this point. Start your selling strategy with what comes easy to you. I needed variety because I felt like I was suffocating under a stack of coats.
Customer service is a thing. How you treat, respond, and package items for your customers goes a long way. Your closet could be amazing but if your attitude sucks, so will any selling strategy your are trying to implement.
What you are trying to profit off each item (minus all fees and cost of goods) may be too high. You have to try & fail though to realize something does not work. Adjust what you are wanting to profit until you find an amount that works.
Organization. If you do not come up with a system to organize your inventory then I promise, you will be in a world of hurt. Even if it is just grouping similar items in the same place, it will make a difference. You will think more quickly and be able to locate your items when customers purchase them.

These things listed above are simply my opinion. Your journey may take you in a totally different direction. I write my advice based on my personal experiences and mistakes. Whatever you are doing, do what works for you. Never be afraid to think outside the box and get creative. Pinterest is a great resource for all kinds of ideas! If you would like to check out my Pinterest Boards Please Click Here.

Can You Make Money On Poshmark ? & 16 Place Matts Later

I’m currently listening to GraceV to help me relax on Youtube. For those that suffer from anxiety, check out her ASMR channel. I’m coming down from a workout that I managed to push through at 10:45 PM. I walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes while listening to loud Taylor Swift Songs on my headphones. If you are struggling with exercise, I highly recommend music. Whether it is the radio, record, Alexa, phone, etc, it really helps. I wanted to write about today, because I have another one of those thrifting stories ….

I went to my favorite Goodwill today to do a little sourcing (cough…$80+ worth). With the way I scour the shelves at the thrift store, people must think I am checking for dust. I can’t tell you how many times I find things underneath, between, or behind items. The other day, I found a Pink TI84 Silver Calculator for $2.99 that I sold in 24 hours for $46 on Ebay. If I could just sell calculators, I totally would. I’ve only ever found one though so that is kind of an issue. Anyway, back to my story. While I was on my shelf scouring mission, a woman came up to me holding a glass object and asked me what I thought it was. I told her it could be a small planter. She then replied, well I was thinking of putting a candle in it. I told her I could see that. This intro conversation lead into a long conversation about her Christmas decorations & reselling. I know better than to tell people I am a reseller. Yet, today, clearly I forgot. As soon as I mentioned I resell on Poshmark I got the very common response of “I was thinking of trying that!” You mine as well sign away the next 30 minutes of your life. Brace yourself, an avalanche of how to get rich quick questions are going to be shot at you.

I gave her some tips and told her some items I personally choose to resell. She looked at the items in my buggy like she was not that impressed. I was just getting that vibe. Anyway, it lead into the very awkward question that inspired this blog: “Can you actually make a living at reselling?” That is such an inappropriate question to ask someone that has just told you they resell full time. Like, do you actually think I am going to tell you what I make? Who even are you? Please tell me your profession so that I can broach the subject of your income in the middle of the store. Ok I had my vent…. moving on… I told her that YES it is possible to make an income on Poshmark. You can make an income selling rocks (the pet rock was a thing in past). It all just depends on the items you have to sell, time you dedicate to it, etc. She seemed to want to make money but not so much put the work into selling the items. Again, I was just getting that vibe. Don’t get me wrong, she was nice. But the kind of nice that I do not trust. Ever talk to someone that asks you so many questions you almost tell them your blood type? And yet, looking back, you know that stranger would not make time to buy you coffee. Yeah, it was that kind of thing. Don’t come for me (as Stephanie Harlow says), I’m just being real with you.

Moving past my thrift store trilogy for today, I want to explain to you my level of insanity when I become exhausted. True Story. The FIRST trip in Goodwill I loaded up my cart with a good amount of breakable items. This is never a good situation when you plan to pack your buggy full. After what I think was a few hours, and a line of about 10 customers that were ready to kill me at checkout, I escaped with $58 ish dollars less on my debit card. I methodically loaded everything into the car, tied the bags, and let the ceramics ride copilot. They did not exactly “ride” for a while though. Upon taking the buggy back inside, I went to look for a SECOND TIME quickly (right…) at the linens. This is a section that up until recently, I have not taken a lot of interest in. I’ve discovered though that you can find some really nice baby blankets, lace, pillowcases, etc, over there. However, placemats my friends, is what occurred tonight. 16 of them that is. I kid you not, I just typed pillowcases. Then I sat here thinking, did I really get 16 pillowcases. That can’t be right. Oh Lord.

The reason I got the PLACE MATS is because they looked vintage & were elegant looking. To me anyway. Tomorrow, I may have a totally different outlook. I tried to decide if I wanted just 4, 8, or all of them. I was going to leave them to walk around but I know better than to do that. People swipe things faster than you can blink off shelves around here. Even if you are the only one in the store, take your item while you ponder it. I’m never alone. I think I am and I turn around and it’s literally like a swarm of bees (shoppers) throughout the store. I told my husband I got 16 placemats. He was like SIXTEEN? WHY? I told him I didn’t know. I was tired & my car was stuffed with bags. He relaxed when I told them that they were 42 cents each. My insanity cost us about $8. We then joked about the different combinations that could happen with the placemats. Like, we could keep 4 and sell 12. (I just typed 8 – Reasons I did not go into accounting). Or we could keep 8, have backups, and sell the other 8. I swear that I am going to look back and really laugh at the craziness of the lack of judgement in these buying decisions one day. It’s a good non fiction story though right ?

If anyone needs placemats, I’m your girl. For everything else, please ask someone else (just for tonight). If I can’t math, am buying mass linens, and worked out too close to midnight, my brain is fried. My chihuahuas current state is that she is snoring in her bear pillow basket. If you need a basket for your dog or cat, look at the thrift store. I found her a nice wicker one that she loves for I believe under $2. My cat, Snuggs, has taken up residence in my lap while I am trying to work. Therefore, I of course had to get him another basket. BOTH of them are snoozing in their baskets right now. They are rotten.

Goodwill Story: Can I Be Rude?

Today, my husband and I went to Goodwill after church. I used to enjoy this particular thrift store a lot more. It is now over run with resellers that are quite aggressive. A crowd of people literally follow the bin of new items out and grab the items off the shelves as soon as the touch it. It’s definitely intense. We still go though because, clearly, I continue find things. The majority of the items in this buggy I ended up leaving the store with. When I first got there, I found this “Home Sweet Home” sign rather quickly. It was laying on the shelf with all of the frames stacked on top of each other. Though I did not know at the time, this farmhouse crochet sign was going to become a prime topic of my blog at 1:30 AM.

Long after this sign had been added to my buggy, a random customer came up to me. Her exact words were “Can I be totally rude?” How in the world am I supposed to answer a question like that? What kind of question even is that? I thought for a moment she was going to correct or criticize me in some way. The awkward thing is that competitive people are often so polite so it throws your expectations of what is about to occur off. The customer continued with this question: “Are you buying that home sweet home sign?” Once again, how do I answer this? This item is in my buggy. I didn’t put it there to give it a stroll. I told her I was considering it but that if I didn’t, I could let her know. She explained that she was leaving soon but could she take a look at the sign. I wanted to say “I have no idea who you are, you are trying to buy by items, and now you want to hold them.” I let her take a look at it though because I am not good at being mean to polite people on a mission. She continued to educate me on the kind of crochet that it was and complimented the frames that I had picked out to go with it. I told her the type of style that I was going for and she agreed it would work well. Before she left she told me that I should definitely get the sign. Looking back, I am trying to figure out if I was in fact in the twilight zone, not Goodwill. This is one of the reasons I made this blog though. I’m going to look back and have a good laugh one day.

If you are interested in the other items in my buggy, as long as you don’t want to take them, I will tell you what I purchased. (Just Kidding). The light pink shabby chic vase I picked up. It has nice weight to it and the color was appealing to me. I paid $3.99 for the vase which I think was fair. The Green Bubble Glass Murano Style Ruffled Bowl/Vase I found in the vase section as well, for $2.99. I got it originally to sell, however, the more I look at it the more I want to keep it. I’m going through a phase where I really like glass, which has not happened since I was young & collecting tiny glass animals. The white shabby chic votive candle holder I found on an end cap. I’ve found that candles bring me peace and like books, I tend to collect them. I could see this piece in our new house, so I decided to add it to my growing collection of items. Art is a category which I have no business buying right now because I already have so much of it. It’s in our attic & storage unit. However, today I felt the strong urge to get another large piece. I loved the scene of the woman and little girl with dog. The colors were beautiful and I was just drawn to it. For $2.99 I had to bring it home. If I have a little girl, I can see it going in her nursery. Just like I can see the elephant canvas and world map that is stored also going in there. The struggle with art is real.

I almost forgot to mention that I bought a barn while I was there for $2.99. Yes, you heard that right. I am now the new owner of a barn. It is actually a barn display shelf that is great need of a face lift. It was sturdy though and inspired me. I can see repainting it, adding floral, and displaying some of my breakable items on it. When there is potential, it is worth it to give it a shot. If I am being realistic, when am I going to have the chance to purchase a barn again? Especially for $2.99!

My husband found some good items too. He got a pair of jeans, collector Donkey Kong Jenga Game, and fun long sleeve top. My husband is actually incredibly patient as I look around at the thrift store. He looks for a chair & plays his phone game. I greatly appreciate him for this and for guarding the buggy when I leave it next to his chair to shop more. Nerf guns and hats are his favorite things to find. He’s very particular though about the type of hats he likes. They need to have 5 panels or are no good. I ordered him one with hot dogs for Valentine’s Day off of Poshmark that he personally picked out.

While I have been writing this entire blog, my gray cat named Snuggs has been sitting posted on one of my legs. He always wants to be next to me or on me so that he does not miss out. I’m sure he is wondering what in the heck I am typing about. He is also trying to levitate my cereal bowl over to his face. Snuggs is incredibly loyal and invested in Poshmark. He takes his percentage of the business in soft cat treats.