A new week but old goals. I failed at listing seven items last week. I had identified four items to list but faltered at carrying them through. This week I will once again try to hit seven listings.
I need to work on my long-term reselling goals. I feel I’m at a crossroads where I can either do one path or go down another. Hopefully soon I will have my mind made up and keep it that way.
So, technically I have one more day to hit this goal although I’ve rethought some things and settled on starting to list in May when I get back from a trip. But I feel that just allows me to procrastinate even more. To keep me on task, I will work towards my seven listings this week and hopefully can do them this weekend.
I have decided I want to niche down into a category possibly two. But I don’t know which one. I really like the idea of selling books but not sure I can make bread and butter sales with it.
For the next three months, I will be listing at 80/20 with 80 percent of listings being books or comic books and the other 20 percent being listings in other categories. This week I will list 5 books and 2 other items.
At the end of the three months, I will evaluate and then switch niche to something else possibly gaming supplies/games.
I will post another update Sunday for my final update for the week.
I thought that typing out my weekly goals might help to achieve them. With reselling I’m in such a funk and not sure I will ever come out of it. My ‘Why’ is to get rid of the accumulation of things in our house. Now part of me says that some of this will sell and most of it won’t so why bother? Just donate and be done which I do plan to do with a lot of items. However, there is still a fair amount of items that I think could sell.
My goal for 2023 is to list 365 items. I’m way behind on this but I did this goal because I knew that if I got behind that simple goal of one listing a day, I could catch up with a good month or two.
So the goal for the next week is to list 7 items. Friday I will update my progress. Baby steps.
While I love selling cards, they make selling other things such a letdown. Cards usually sell fast so it’s great for some quick money, but they aren’t sustainable. I really need to work on selling other categories if I plan to make reselling a full-time job.
I think once I figured out a good reselling workflow I think this will be all around easier.
I have hope it will but not much. One problem I have is inventory. My inventory is sort of a mess. My first order of business is to get it organized. I think that will help me feel better about everything in general.
One thing that helps motivate me is watching resellers on YouTube. It makes me feel not alone which is one problem I have with reselling although that I know once I get going that the opportunity to make reselling friends will be there.
I have a listing goal of 365 items this year. I can miss several months and still make this goal. I hope to at least get 30 done in April. But first I need to get all this stuff organized. Baby steps.
I love doing ‘What Sold’ posts. Getting back into the reselling groove has been challenging from being really excited about it to decide just to give up altogether. My emotions are everywhere but I do plan to stick it out – at least for now.
So, I had another sale. This was for a Halloween lady Jack Skellington costume. My daughter wore it a few years ago and ever since then it’s just been taking up space. I decided to give it a try on eBay and it sold after a few weeks.
I took a best offer of $30. I had listed it for $40 but was thrilled just to get it gone.
Now that September is here, I have been trying to get more into the swing of things and listing more on eBay. I decided that what I needed was some quick sales to keep me going and to assure myself that I can make money doing this.
So, I listed a couple of nice Magic the Gathering cards. One is a card called Force of Will and the other is Volrath’s Stronghold. Force of Will I sold for $80 and Volrath’s Stronghold for $60. Not bad especially for cards that were just lying around our house as we do not play Magic the Gathering anymore. Years ago, I sold most of his valuable Magic cards but recently I found a small cache of good cards among the thousands we have. I will be listing more even if they do not sell for nearly that much. They are super easy to list and ship.
I have listing goals and earning goals until the end of the year, so I think weekly I will be listing at least one quick sale item. I have a few MTG cards left that should sell for a nice price and sell quickly. I am hoping to discover a few other things that will sell quickly and that are in our house.
I’m so glad to be able to add a “Sold” category to the blog! For those who don’t know about me, I used to sell on eBay way back in the day and haven’t been very active in the past ten years. I have saved a lot of items we have thinking, “I could sell that on eBay” but never listing anything. I have been wanting to get back into selling on eBay and inspired by all the reseller YouTubers, I have taken the plunge this month.
My goal is to really start adding listings in September and use the month of August to understand selling on eBay in 2022. I have done four listings so far and one actually sold within 24 hours! Woo hoo! This will be the item that I share telling how much I paid and how much it sold. It is a listing that I never would have done if it hadn’t been for watching The Hustle Couple on YouTube who sells plush for good money as I wouldn’t have even bothered looking at plush. Now let’s get to my one sale but it was a good one.
This is Cara the turtle who is Beanie Boo and also a Sea World exclusive. She is adorable and was tempted to keep her for me. In fact, when I bought her, I wasn’t sure if she was selling on eBay. I checked the comps, and there were a couple that had sold. One for $119 and another for around $50. There were a few listings that were right around $50 plus shipping. I decided to list her at $45 with free shipping and I accepted an offer of $38 because while she does have her tags, the tag has some wear. I thought $38 was a fair offer. Now here is the best part. How much did I pay for her? 99 cents! I was happy to find such a clean, nice plush for 99 cents. It’s sales like these that really help with motivation.
While I didn’t expect much from August as far as sales, I’m thrilled to have one, and the month isn’t even half over. I need to do more listings this coming week. It would be nice to make this type of blog post weekly.
Bakelite is an early resin that was widely used for many household items and jewelry. Bakelite is made with phenol and formaldehyde. In the jewelry space, it is highly sought after by collectors. But how can you tell if your old plastic jewelry is Bakelite? There are some proven methods.
I have a couple of bracelets that I believe to be Bakelite but am not sure and need to find out before I list them for sale. I plan to follow these methodologies for testing plastics to see if they are Bakelite.
When Bakelite is heated up, it releases a formaldehyde smell so think back to your high school biology class and dissecting labs. It will be that unforgettable chemical, lab smell that will be so familiar.
My bracelets failed this test. I rubbed the bracelets on my pant leg until the bracelet was warm and then smelled. There was no formaldehyde smell. Here is a really good video on testing your plastic jewelry to see if it is Bakelite.
From the video, you can hear the difference in sound from two Bakelite pieces clanking together and comparing that to other plastics. My two bracelets when clanked together do not have that ‘clunk’ sound and have more of the sound of Lucite.
Right now I do not have the cleaner to test for the colorization that is left behind from cleaning Bakelite with certain cleaners. I will probably just leave these bracelets unlisted until I either buy cleaner or decide just to list them as plastic bracelets as they are really cute.
I’m a little sad they aren’t Bakelite but still think they are good bracelets and work well together so when I do list, I will list them together. But before then I will do a little more research since I have never sold jewelry before but I love it and it is a reselling space that I would like to learn more about.