She Thrifts

Thrift. Flip. Repeat.

Favorite 5+ Friday, 2/17/17

by Leave a Comment

Here are some of my favorite sales of the past week.

I feel like I have to include clothing in this list because it is something I sell regularly, although it’s not my *favorite* thing to sell.  I thought this jacket was really cute though, great for spring or Easter.

Ann Taylor LOFT jacket
Paid: $2 @ VV, Sold: $24.95 (listed since Dec)

Build a Bear can still be one of my weaknesses.  I love picking up the outfits, but they’re often not worth the amount of time I put into listing them.  This is probably my best BABW sale recently.

Build-A-Bear Merida (Brave) Outfit
Paid: $3 @ ys, Sold: $24.95 (listed since June)

I was super excited about these when I picked them up!  I couldn’t believe someone was selling their P&P collection, obviously some effort was spent in collecting them and all the books looked/felt new.  I knew it wouldn’t be a super fast flip, but I hope the person who receives them loves them!

Pride & Prejudice PBK Book Lot
Paid: $3 total @ ys, Sold: $34.95 (listed since June)

Costumes sell all year long!

Suicide Squad Katana Teen Costume
Paid: $2.49 @ Walmart, Sold: $29.95 (listed since Dec)

This sale is most notable because someone from Germany purchased it.  I shipped it directly to him, not via GSP, but shipping was still pretty spendy.

NWT Puma Plush
Paid: $3.99 @ GW, Sold: $34.95 + international shipping (listed since Dec)

The last two items I listed two days ago, and both sold within hours!


Folkmanis Llama Puppet
Paid: $3.59 @ VV, Sold: $34.95 (less than 2 hours later)

And the frog below currently has a 100% sell-through rate, which is kinda crazy.  I listed it Wed night, it had sold by Thurs morning.  Check out completeds here.


Natural Wonders Big Frog Plush
Paid: $2.69 @ VV, Sold: $39.95 (morning after listed)

I’d love to hear about your favorite sale(s) of the week!

What I’ve sold via GSP.

by 9 Comments

I am always curious to hear what others have sold via GSP.  What do international buyers want so much that they are willing to paying for an item + the costly shipping charges?  Here are the items that I have sold via GSP recently:

I have actually sold multiple Ikea plush internationally in the last couple years.  I like to buy Ikea plush, but they can be really hit and miss.  I’ve come across some that are selling for less than $10.  On the other hand, I’ve sold some for $60-$75.  In my experience the more realistic-looking plush animals have the potential to be worth more, the more character-y looking plush aren’t usually worth picking up.  But there are always exceptions, so I look up every Ikea plush I come across.

Ikea Bear
Paid: $2.99 @ VV, Sold: $34.95

I went to a yard sale last summer that was the remnants of a used bookstore.  They probably had thousands of paperback books in boxes, all for a quarter each.  It was kinda overwhelming.  Most weren’t in great shape.  This was the only book I picked up there.


Doc Hollywood Paperback Book
Paid: $0.25 @ ys, Sold: $13.75 (on sale)

I paid full retail for this votive holder at a PartyLite party a friend hosted years ago, because of course I felt like I had to buy something.  It’s pretty, but years later it was still sitting unused in the box it came in.

PartyLite Tealite Holder
Paid: (retail price) @ PartyLite Party, Sold: $19.95

I SUPER DUPER loved this show!  Still feel a bit resentful that it was canceled when/how it was.  And that they have only ever released the first season on DVD.  Again I paid retail for this because I bought it as a gift for someone, then decided to give something else instead.  I lost money on this one in the whole scheme of things, since it wasn’t originally purchased with the intent to resell.

American Dreams, Season 1
Paid: ($20ish/full retail), Sold $14.95

Build A Bear Brown Bunny
Paid: $1.39 @ VV, Sold: $24.95


Assassin’s Creed Teen Costume
Paid: $2.49 @ Walmart, Sold: $44.95


Plush Creations Turtle
Paid: $0.25 @ ys, Sold: $14.95

  Kellytoy Plush Cow
Paid: $0.99 @ VV, Sold: $14.20 (on sale)

Do you sell via GSP?  If so, what kinds of things actually sell for you?

It’s been soooo long!

by 9 Comments

I am just curious if anyone in eBayland is still getting listing promotions?  I haven’t gotten one since October.  Which is strange, I used to get one at least every couple months.  Not getting promotions isn’t keeping me from listing (even though I use up all my freebies about 2/3 of the way through the month), but it is keeping me from going back through old listings and doing a big inventory of my bins.  Fingers crossed, a great listing promotion will come through soon.

Okay, back to listing!  🙂

$100,000

by 2 Comments

This has been long in coming because I first started selling on eBay sporadically about five years ago, but I noticed on my seller dashboard recently that I’ve surpassed $100,000 in sales on eBay (ever).

Ideally that number would be up to 150K by the end of this year, but so far my goals are off to a rocky start.  I hit my listing goal of 100 new listings the first week of the year, didn’t hit my listing goal the second week, and didn’t make my sales goal either week.

Luckily there are more days and weeks to come!  Gotta keep chipping away, right?

eBay Goals, 2017

by 6 Comments

New year, new goals!  I just looked to see what my goals were at the start of 2016, wondering if I had come close to hitting them, but it doesn’t look like I posted any.

I love the new year, the feeling of starting off fresh, all the possibilities.  Goals are fun, but of course they aren’t anything more than wishes unless I’m willing to put in the work to make them happen.  Here are my current goals for 2017:

List 100 new items/week

This is actually a slightly toned-down goal from the start of the school year.  I had HUGE expectations of what I should be able to accomplish with both boys being in school.  I thought I would be able to use all of the time they were in school to list.  Reality – notsomuch.  I spend most of Monday volunteering at their school, and there are some other weekdays that I work at my “real” job, so I get little to no listing done.  Also, there is shipping, photographing, and other life things that take up time I would like to be using to list.  So, I am starting 2017 with a workable, achievable listing goal, with the knowledge that how many items I am able to list each day will probably change day to day, week to week, depending on how our schedules go.  And that will be okay, as long as I am hitting 100 by the end of the week.

Sales average $150/day ~ $1000/week 

I was hitting this for awhile, notsomuch lately.  It’s totally doable if I am consistent with my listing.

Get organized, stay organized  

I need to reorganize my office, it looks like an explosion of packing materials.  And I had been letting my inventory creep back into our living areas.  No more.

Inventory all totes  

This is a long-term goal, because I usually wait for the obscene number of free listings to pop up, and then I go through totes and end listings, tweak listings, add Best Offer, sell similar, or just end them for good.

Keep blogging

I’ve neglected it.  I know it.  I enjoy blogging, and want to feel like I have the time to dedicate to it.  But it requires me getting my listing done first, so I can focus on more fun things guilt-free.

Become a morning person?

I think I’m gonna try it.  I used to be a real night owl, but I feel like I am getting very little actually accomplished in the late hours lately.  I’ve been moving my bedtime earlier and earlier, and I think when the boys start back to school I will head to be shortly after they do, and get up at 5 a.m. to get some work done before they get up.  I am usually most motivated first thing in the morning.  (We’ll see how this one goes.)

What are your goals for 2017?  I would love to hear about them!

Why I actually feel pretty prepared for tax season this year

by 2 Comments

I have had quite a few messages and e-mails recently asking about how I organize my records and prepare for tax season.

PLEASE NOTE ~ I am not a tax professional.  Take any advice I or anyone else on the internet gives you with a grain of salt.

This is just an explanation of how I try to keep myself organized, and then I hand over all my numbers to our accountant who actually files our taxes (which are complicated not only by my eBay business but also by a past job of my husband which gave us shares of a company which requires us to file taxes in multiple states – it’s nuts!)

I keep a spreadsheet in which I track all supply purchases.
I keep a spreadsheet in which I track all inventory purchases.
I have a pocket calendar in which I note all mileage (seriously, mileage adds up!!)
I also figure out my totals for electric/heating/internet/cell phone bills, and give those totals to my accountant because a portion can be written off.
(And I’m sure there is more, this is just off the top of my head.)

In the past I would also download sales records from eBay and/or Paypal to figure out my shipping costs, eBay and Paypal fees, and sales totals.

**BUT**

For the last two years I have purchased and used the spreadsheet from Easy Auction Trackers.  Holy heck, has this made things easier.  It automatically imports all of the sales/shipping/fees info for me.  All I have to input is my cost of goods sold.   I purchased the spreadsheet at the beginning of the year in 2015 and again in 2016.  You can import the last 90 days worth of listings, so as long as you are downloading at least every 2-3 months you’ll keep up with all of the info you need.

I started using it at the beginning of 2015, and it made things easier … except I was still struggling to keep track of how much I paid for items.  I had it recorded in my inventory spreadsheet, but I had thousands of things recorded in my spreadsheet, so finding the right one could be tricky and TIME CONSUMING!  Especially when I was procrastinating most of it until the end of the year.

2016 dawned, and I had a new strategy, which has worked SO well.  Now when I list an item I make a note to myself at the very bottom which includes the date I listed the item, HOW MUCH I PAID FOR IT, where I bought it, and the date I bought it.  It looks something like this:

16.12.29x200xvv121516x

Gibberish, right?  At least I hope that’s all it looks like.  But it means I listed the item today, 12/29/16, and paid $2 for it at Value Village on 12/15/16.  So when I need to update my Easy Auction Tracker‘s spreadsheet I have two screens open, the spreadsheet and my sales page on eBay.  I look at my spreadsheet and find first item I need to update.  I find that item on my eBay sales page, click into the listing to see how much I paid for it, update the spreadsheet, and then move on to my next sale.

This has made my life soooooooooo much easier.  The added benefit is that eBay only keeps our sales listed in our account for 90 days, so I can only procrastinate about that long, and then I need to get busy updating my spreadsheet.  If I waited any longer I would be losing information off the back end, which I really don’t want to do.  It makes me stay fairly up-to-date!

I started eBaying around five years ago, and it has taken me that long to finally figure out a system that works for me that makes me feel organized and really confident in the numbers I am handing over to my accountant.

The Easy Auction Trackers spreadsheet is really easy to use, and also offers a bunch of other features and reports I haven’t even taken the time to figure out.  In the two years I have used it I have only ever had an issue once where things weren’t downloading correctly.  I e-mailed them, they asked me to e-mail me a copy of my spreadsheet to them as an attachment, they did a little magic on their end, and voila!  It was working perfectly again.  Great customer service.

If you’re looking for a spreadsheet to use I’d definitely recommend this one.  They also have a trial version if you want to check it out before you commit.  And it’s nice that it is a once a year flat fee, vs an ongoing expense.  (If you break it down, the cost is approx $4/mo.)

If nothing else,  if you think it could be helpful I would recommend making a note in your listing as to your paid price.  That one thing has made all the difference in my record keeping this year!

How about you?  Have you figured out any tips or tricks to keep yourself organized?  I would love to hear about it!

 

This post includes an affiliate link.

What has sold: Toys and Games

by 2 Comments

I don’t sell as many toys as I used to, and I often skip picking up games unless they are brand new/factory sealed.  (There are plenty of games out there worth picking up, but I know myself well enough to realize that if I will need to spend any amount of time checking to see if a game is complete, it will become a chore that I will procrastinate indefinitely.  Thus, it’s best to not even buy the game in the first place.)  Below are some of the toys and games I have sold recent-ish-ly.

Super Why is a good buy!  I will buy pretty much any and everything Super Why.  I picked up this small plastic (3″) toy at a yard sale over the summer, and it sold very quickly.

101_5833Paid: $0.50-ish @ ys, Sold: $19.95 (3 days after listed)

I love picking up Richard Scarry toys too!  (Full disclosure, I borrowed the photo below because I have apparently already deleted mine.)  I found all six of the characters in cars below in a quarter box at a yard sale over the summer.  They were all used, but in very good condition.

busytownRichard Scarry diecast toy lot
Paid: $1.50 @ ys, Sold: $44.95 (5 days after listed)

I don’t know a ton about the Loving Family items, but figured the car was cheap enough to make it a good bet.

101_4986  Fisher Price Loving Family Twin Car
Paid: $0.50 @ ys, Sold: $34.95 (2.5 months after listed)

It seems like Leap Frog fridge magnets abound, but I can’t remember ever coming across this particular set before.

leap-frog-2995Leap Frog Wash & Go Vehicle Set
Paid: $2.79 @ VV, Sold: $29.95 (in a little over a month)

Perfection!  I pick this up whenever I find it complete and in good condition.  I always list it for $39.95.  It takes awhile, but they always eventually sell.  I probably sell 3 or 4 sets every year.

perfection-3995Paid: $1.00 @ ys, Sold: $39.95 (several months after listing)

I still love The Office!  I bought two Office-themed games at the same time, and the other (The Office version of Clue) sold ages ago.

office-trivia-4295NEW The Office Trivia Game
Paid: $5.00 from FB, Sold: $42.95 (around 10 months after listed)

I picked up several brand new puzzles on the half-off day at a children’s consignment sale in the spring.  I think this might have been the first to actually sell.  I don’t love that they take a long time to sell, but do like that there is a decent profit on them once they do.

ouac-4995NEW Once Upon A Time puzzle
Paid: $2.50 @ consignment sale, Sold: $49.95 (5 months after listed)

‘Tis the season to flip toys!  Have you had any fun or exciting sales recently?

What has sold: Loveys

by 5 Comments

I think of loveys as being in a separate category from plush.  And while plush may be my favorite thing to source/list/sell, loveys come in a close second!  I get the BEST e-mails/thank yous/feedback from people who are replacing lost loveys.

Something worth noting about loveys ~ often the less expensive the brand, i.e., Garanimals (Walmart), Circo (Target), Little Miracles (Costco), the better.  It means they weren’t expensive when they were originally on the market and a LOT of people bought them, which in turn means that there may be a lot of people now looking for replacements.  Other brands can sell well too, including more expensive boutique brands, but whenever I find Garanimals I do a mental happy dance!  (And then I look it up, because they aren’t all worth $$$.)

Here are some of my recent sales:

babies-r-us-sock-monkey

Babies R Us Sock Monkey Lovey
Paid: $4 @ consignment store, Sold: $34.95 (26 days after listed)

carters-dog-3995

Carter’s Dog Plush Lovey
Paid: $0.99 @ GW, Sold: $39.95 (3 days after listed)

circo-giraffe-lovey-3495
NWT Circo Giraffe Lovey
Paid: $6.50 @ OUAC, Sold: $34.95 (9 days after listed)

costco-little-mircles-cow-2995
Little Miracles Cow Lovey
Paid: $1.00 @ ys, Sold: $29.95 (25 days after listed)

garanimals-25
Garanimals Pink Polka Dot Blanket
Paid: $2.99 @ VV, Sold: $24.95 (9 days after listed)

pier-1-monkey-plush
Pier 1 Green Monkey Lovey
Paid: $2.45 @ VV, Sold: $39.95 (day after listed)

pooh-kites-3000
Winnie the Pooh Fleece Blanket
Paid: $2.00 @ JBF, Sold: $30.00 (18 days after listed)

simba-3495
Simba Fleece Blanket
Paid: $2.09 @ VV, Sold: $34.95 (12 days after listed)

absorba-pink-bowsNEW Absorba Pink Bows Blanket
Paid: $3.99 @ VV, Sold: $39.95 (14 days after listed)

I have also sold dozens of loveys in the $15-$25 range.  I noticed as I typed that all of the ones included above sold pretty quickly.  While that’s great, I definitely have some that have taken longer to sell too.  With loveys, the buyers are looking for something super specific, so you have to wait for the right buyer looking for the right lovey.

Have you had any great lovey flips?  I’d love to hear about them!