Buying Out a Yard Sale

It was stormy again last Friday, but there were thankfully a handful of yard sales on Saturday. One yard sale we went to had a ton of clothes that were exactly what I look for when I'm sourcing for resell. I wanted to buy everything, but each of the items were priced around $5 and up. I picked a few key pieces and paid $16 for them and asked the woman running the sale if she would be interested in doing a deal on whatever she had left at the end of the day. She told me to come back around 2 p.m. and we could work something out. I went to an ATM to reload and hit a couple more yard sales while I waited. When I went back, I was able to work out a deal to buy all of her clothing she had left for $150. There were a few really nice pieces that she didn't want to include in the deal, which was a little disappointing, but it still ended up being a great deal for me.

I brought all of the pieces home, and sorted through them. She had a lot of t-shirts that I was able to give to Mom for her projects, and I ended up with 84 great pieces for resell, including those I had purchased earlier for $16. This made each item $1.98. I also totaled up an estimated resell value for the haul based on what I thought each item would sell for. I was very conservative with this number because I wanted it to be realistic and know for sure if this had been a good move. I came to a value of $915, making this haul a $749 profit!

I'm always nervous when spending a ton of money on inventory, and yes, $150 is still a ton of money in my eyes! However, these are the moves that end up being my greatest successes. I could never have done anything like this a year ago, and it is so exciting that I've come so far in a year. I can't wait to see where my reselling journey takes me!

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"If you don't love what you do, then you shouldn't do it." - Marcus Lemonis (The Profit)

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Over and out. 

Rolling with the Punches

It has been a rough few weeks. I was rear-ended by a distracted driver at a red light when Mom and I were running errands a few weeks ago. We were both fine, but this was quite a shock to me. My car was totaled, but I was thankfully able to get a new (to me) one when I received money from my insurance company. I had a 2015 Ford Fiesta and was able to replace it with a 2017 Ford Fiesta with very low mileage. I like this car because it is compact and easy to drive. I often joke that driving my Mom's car is like driving a tank.

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In other news, my income from reselling nearly doubled in June. I've been putting a lot of effort into my Poshmark closet and I am definitely seeing results. I have also been exploring other sourcing opportunities as the weather has not allowed for many yard sales. It has been a very stormy summer! I discovered that the Salvation Army near me makes their color of the week $0.99 on Thursdays, so I have been making that my regular Thursday sourcing trip. I've been able to get about thirty more items each week this way.

One of my goals this summer was to get a routine down to amp up my productivity. This is what has been working for me lately...

Sunday = Take Photos
Monday = List
Tuesday = List
Wednesday = List
Thursday = Source Thrift Stores
Friday = Source Yard Sales (Weather permitting)
Saturday = Source Yard Sales (Weather permitting)
Sunday = It starts all over again with pictures!

My biggest hang up with reselling is taking pictures. I hate taking pictures, and I'm not ashamed to admit it! This is why I do all of my inventory for the week on Sunday. I make a day of it and get it all over with so I don't have to do again until the next week. I pick an audiobook to listen to, bring an exorbitant amount of drinks (water and tea), grab my tape measure and hide out in my room until all of the photos are finished. I include measurements in my photos because I find it easier than pulling the item to answer questions later.

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Speaking of audiobooks, I'm still enjoyed the app Scribd. As I mentioned in a previous post, the app has many bad reviews but I am still loving it. It's $8.99 a month and has unlimited books and audiobooks. The reason it has bad reviews is because it pauses your usage if it thinks you're reading too much. I have yet to hit that wall and am still very impressed with it, especially for the price. The only thing I don't like about it is the limited selection. This wouldn't even bother me that much, but it's annoying when they only have the first (or first few) books in a series and don't have the rest. Other than that it has five stars from me!

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I read a comment on my Mom's blog, Frugal Workshop, this week that really bothered me. One of her readers commented that she was told that she was stealing from the government by using the library. As someone with aspirations to be a librarian and who genuinely loves the library, I would like to share this photo I found floating around Facebook.

This shows just a few reasons why libraries are still relevant today, and I wholeheartedly agree with all of them. I think libraries are also great for building communities, aiding college students, and fostering a love of reading in children. I often attend a monthly book club that is held at my local library and I've found that they offer many free resources such as coupon classes, computer classes, Zumba, resume building, etc.

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"I'm in a tank, pal. Come and get me!" - Lorelai Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)

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Over and out.