Thrifting For A Profit

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.

Poshmark: 8 Orders 1 NIGHT

Tonight, I feel like I should have had several cups of coffee. I’m trying to limit my caffeine intake so I survived off a few bottles of water. Fun times. I packaged up 8 Poshmark, Mercari, And Ebay Orders tonight. Currently, my Ikea bag is full to the brim with boxes & polymailers. Don’t ask me what I packaged, I’m too tired to remember. It’s a tough thing when I vent about reselling because, on the one hand, I am thankful to HAVE orders. I’ve had those days where I literally was waiting for any sign of one. Literally wanting to yell “Is anyone alive out there?” If you are a reseller, I am sure you can relate. Recently, I changed up my pricing strategy. Basically, I gave the hell up on my last strategy to profit a good amount off each item. By a good amount, I mean at least $10. Let me tell you, you could hear crickets in my closet when I tried that plan out.

I’m coming to a place where I am realizing that people want simplicity. Customers enjoy an easy to browse closet that contains a variety of items. Since Poshmark decided to hike up their prices (higher than the high rise jeans girls wear today) customers are now looking to pay bottom dollar for items. This means basically that I am screwed. Seriously. As a reseller, it cost so much money to acquire inventory when you are selling clothes. It does depend on where you live, but from what I can tell the prices are sky rocketing at all goodwills all over the country. I’m backing off from selling clothes. It’s too dam expensive to pay $4-$5 for one item that I have to hope will sell soon after. I’m now looking more into selling plush, throw pillows, home decor, coffee mugs, art, and basically anything of quality that I can get for under $3. Goodwill, I hope you are not reading this…. so help me if throw pillows go to $10 a pop.

For a while, I had categories in my closet because I thought it looked nice to split up items. I now think though that this may distract and confuse the customer because unfortunately, my category thumbnails are not always where they are supposed to be. When you share things on Poshmark, everything goes to the top. Somehow I always manage to miss a few items though, causing my closet to be a scramble of things. Tonight, the categories were deleted. I also changed my prices to nicer looking numbers. Maybe you are laughing. There are people out there though that like to see numbers like $10, $15, $20 and so on. As opposed to $6, $17, $89. The majority of items in my closet are priced between $15-$50. There are a few pieces of art that do jump higher but overall, that is the range. So far, two people have bundled a lot of items that they did not purchase. One person stated under my add that my item was from the Dollar Tree. Don’t you just love how customers love to help you advertise? -_- (That comment will go away because I flagged it.) One person on Poshmark purchased a vintage ceramic cat from me for $20. Another bought a Haagar jacket for $13 that I would never purchase again. On Mercari, my Disney Maui Plush sold for $9. His tattoos are cute but not enough for me to buy him again. I’ve had a Poshmark potential customer ask for measurements of an item. I swear, whenever that happens, people never purchase. I often wonder how people have the time to know their exact measurements. That is just me being tired and judgemental. Anyway, so far, that is what is happening. Success or no? I’m not exactly sure.

Tonight, while laying horizontally, I will make a thumbnail for this blog post. It was not a priority tonight though. Getting on the treadmill however was. In January I was SO motivated to exercise, go to the gym, and drink lots of water. What happens to people in February ? It is like I have multiple personalities when it comes to working out. This month has been very difficult and I’ve been off track daily. I’m still drinking bottled water but not as much. I need to put more energy into that because I can see how it makes me stay full. Last night I also got on the treadmill & thought I was on a roll. Tonight, a sloth looks energized compared to me. It’s 11 PM & I just don’t think walking for 30 minutes is going to happen. I will have to make sure it gets done tomorrow. I love being organized but have realized that I struggle greatly with it. When my depression gets bad, I lose track of tracking bills and keeping the office in a manageable state. My car and pocket book also start looking like I am a hoarder. I’m in a gray area right now because for a minute, I ran out of my medications. It is crazy how we can feel regular but in reality are plummeting downhill. Since getting my refill, I’m realizing that I definitely was doing that. My nightstand is stacked with unread books too. I tend to start buying lots of books when I’m feeling incredibly alone. Thankfully, the thrift store sells them cheap & will take them back as donations when I come to my senses that they are not getting read.

On that note, I am out -_- literally.

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.

Unicorn Plush Haul

Today is Valentine’s Day. I should be feeling more romantic than ever considering the amount of conversation hearts I stuffed in my mouth last night. I was having killer cramps & trying to find some form of sugar in our house at 1 AM. I’m sure my PMS greatly affected my mental stability when it came to thrifting items yesterday. I clearly had sweets on the mind when I went to Goodwill because the largest plush I found was a Peeps Candy Bunny. My friends, had he been marshmallow filled, he would have been eaten before I got to the register.

I’m assuming that the previous Peep bunny owner also donated the other plushes I found. Each stuffed animal I plopped into my buggy was unusually soft, sparkly, and multicolored. If you ever find something you like, always look for a second. I can’t tell you how often I find matching items if I take the time to look. This is what happened when I discovered both of the mini llamas. I knew immediately I wanted to sell them together, as they were basically twins. Unicorns also still seem quite desirable. I’ve learned that animals, other than horses, can be unicorns too. I found a sparkly owl and pig in this category. It’s confusing but I have learned not to try to make sense of anything in life. Sweet purple Easter egg looking hippo also had to come along with us. Just because, how often exactly do you see a pastel hippo plush?

The last two items in the buggy are Chocolate Lab Pillows. The ladies that worked at Goodwill joked with me as I considered those pillows. There was a Poo Poo pillow that one of the ladies recommended going along with the two puppies. I definitely knew that was going to be a nope. I have never understood the trend with fecal matter. Who decides what becomes popular and plastered all over every retail item possible? I mean really. The puppy pillows are very sweet though. I am selling them separately but am hoping they will be sold together. I’ve definitely sold throw pillows on Poshmark. If you take a quick trip over to Marshalls you will realize how insanely priced one single pillow is. I bought a Christmas dog pillow there last year and still cannot believe I paid what I did for it. This is why everything I own is from a thrift store. It keeps me from having a life threatening anxiety attack when I go to the register.