How To Get Started In Reselling/Picking Part 3

Sorry we haven't had time to post more in our "How To Get Started In Reselling/Picking" blogs but we have been extremely busy with listing and selling as well as normal daily life issues.  This is our part 3 in this blog series.  Please note that these blogs are written from our own personal experiences as a helpful guide and in no way guarantee the same results we have received.  We enjoy sharing this information with others who might not know where/how to start in reselling.  In addition, we are always learning new things every day!

What Do I Source?

 

This is probably the most popular question for anyone new to reselling.  We asked this question many times when we were first starting out.  Even though we have a few niches that work for us, we are always looking to new things/ideas for sourcing as everyone should.  Evolution in this business is a must since nothing is guaranteed and changes occur quicker than you know.  

When we first started reselling, we mostly focused on video games/toys as well as some vintage items.  As we progressed a bit more, we started looking at ceramics/mugs.  We never thought we would start selling clothing but eventually we did.  As of today, we pretty much focus on anything that we feel we can make a profit on.  We started on what we knew and enjoyed but then we branched out into other types of items and kept branching out.  Even today, we are always looking at new things that we never thought of selling before!

"Anything can sell".  This is very vast and open but so true in this business.  We have watched other videos in our community and read posts on Facebook of items that we never even imagined could sell.  

So the key here is to find things you know about and enjoy first to start selling.  Once you have established a niche of your own, then you can branch out and expand to other categories of items to resell.  The one thing we do enjoy about branching out is that we learn something new about all kinds of things.  To us, that is the most fun (other than a profit of course!)  

As an example, simply look around your house and pick up an item that you have lying around.  Open one of your apps and search the item whether it be eBay or Amazon or ETSY.  

If you are looking into retail arbitrage, check back on one of our future blogs about this one.  It's a bit different than finding items at a garage sale or thrift store.

Using Apps To Help Source

Almost everyone has a smartphone nowadays.  If you are thinking about reselling, this is a must have for your ventures in sourcing at least.  Using apps to help source is great for looking for items at garage sales, estate sales, yard sales, thrift shops etc.  When you are out sourcing for items to resell, you can always pull out your trusty cellphone and look it up on your selling platform of choice. 

There are many apps you can use.  This will be dependent on what platform you decide to sell on. 

If you are selling on eBay or Amazon, you will want to download those apps to keep track of what your selling as well as looking up items that you are sourcing to sell.

If you are selling on Amazon, you might also want to check out the Profit Bandit app- You can have Unlimited Scanning for $9.99 per month.  This is one of the most used sourcing/scanning apps for Amazon.

You can also download apps for Craigslist or OfferUp which are two sites that you can buy sell trade locally in your area.

We will have more about what online platforms you can sell on in Part 4 of this blog series.

Please check back for the next part in our "How to Get Started In Reselling/Picking" blog. We welcome any comments, questions or suggestions. Remember, we are still new to this so we are always open to learning more about this and sharing with others. Thank you for viewing our blog.

Our Monthly Finds/Hauls August 2015

Hello again!  Thanks for stopping by to check out our new blog.  This past month has been fun and educational for us.  We have mostly been visiting our local Salvation Army and our local thrift store.  We have found many nice "gems" (plenty of mugs) and we would like to share some of our favorite finds for the month of August.  

 We seem to gravitate towards mugs/cups wherever we go.  Possibly because we enjoy them so much!  This nice mug/cup was a must buy.  

Microsoft Forest Green Coffee Mug Cup (Microsoft can sell especially if it's a rare/unique type of mug/cup).

Paid: $0.25

This very small but beautiful mini lighthouse figurine called out to me (Yes, I am a bit dramatic when I write).  

2000 Harbour Lights St. Augustine Mini Lighthouse Collectible Figurine.

Paid: $1.00

If you live on the West Coast or close to it, you might have heard of the famous California Burger Joint called: In-N-Out.  I have been there on numerous occasions when I lived in Arizona.  They have awesome fries and their burgers are tasty as well.  

2015 Authentic In-N-Out California Burger White T-Shirt! 

 

 Paid: $0.50

Jennifer is big into vintage and antiques even more than me.  So when she found this next item, she was very happy! 

Vintage Porcelain Egg Cups with gold trim from Austria. 

Paid: $2.00 (for the pair)

We haven't really dabbled that much in sourcing for bags/backpacks but we found this nice vintage-looking (still not sure if it is truly vintage or not) bag.

Black Vinyl Polaroid Camera Bag

Paid: $2.00

We have bought some caps/hats in the past but haven't really sold as many as we would like to.  Still, we couldn't pass up on this very nice and clean baseball cap.  

Brooklyn Dodgers Fitted Grey Velvet American Needle Cap

Paid: $1.00

This item didn't seem like a big deal when Jennifer first showed it to me.  So, I looked it up on eBay to see what it was bringing.  I only found 1 up.  We decided to buy it.  

Favorite Things Ceramic Leaf-Shaped Dragonfly Soap/Trinket Dish

Paid: $1.50

Now lately, we have been getting into more T-Shirts than mugs/cups.  We found a nice place to source for these. 

Authentic Star Wars R2-D2/Boba Fett Quilt Pattern T-Shirt

Paid: $0.50

Yes, we had to buy another mug/cup.  But in our defense, this mug is very cool and unique.  

Authentic Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Child Raised Design Brown/Orange Ceramic Mug/Cup

Paid: $0.50

Last but not least, we found this in a box on the second to top shelf in our local Salvation Army.  It didn't really look significant but when we opened it we found a great (in our opinion) find. This item looked brand new in the box. 

Paul Cardew 2010 Novel-Tea Porcelain Teapot 

Paid: $3.50

We will probably start doing a monthly blog about our hauls/finds as well as our sales.  However, we might throw in a couple of blogs in between as time permits.  We are approaching Q4 (fourth quarter) which will probably be one of our busiest times with the holidays coming up.  We hope you enjoyed our blog.

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Take our Monthly Poll if you haven't already.  We look forward to hearing from all!  Have a wonderful month!

Items We Sold On Ebay #4

We would like to share items that we sold on eBay recently!  We got all the items listed below at thrift stores, Salvation Army and garage sales.

Topps Football Factory Set 1992 Series 1 and Series 1

Found at: Garage Sale

Paid: $2.00

Sold For: $15.00

 Starplast 32 Cupcake Carrier Storage

Found at: Given To Us

Paid: $0

Sold For: $15.25

PSVita Jak & Daxter Empty Game Case

Found at: Dumpster Dive

Paid: $0

Sold For: $4.50

Marble Stone Drink Coaster Set of 6

Found at: Given To Us

Paid: $0

Sold for: $17.99

Sega Genesis 6-Pk Game Set: Sonic/Golden Axe/Shinobi

Found at: Garage Sale

Paid: $.50

Sold For: $5.99

Loch Carron Old Course St. Andrews Plaid Golf Hat Scotland

Found at: Garage Sale

Paid: $1.00

Sold For: $10.00

We are getting more consistent sales, especially between Friday and Monday.  We are gearing up for the end of summer and the beginning of the 4th Quarter for Sales.  Thanks for stopping by to view our blog.  Please take our newest poll located on the Home page.  Check back weekly or sign up to be on our email list for future notifications of our new blogs.

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We welcome all comments, questions and suggestions!

Items We Sold On Ebay/Etsy #3

We would like to share items that we sold on eBay along with our first sales on ETSY!  We got all the items listed below at thrift stores, Salvation Army and a rummage sale.

Ebay Sales:

KOM Triangle Shaped Barcelona Mugs

Found at: Local Thrift Store
Paid: $1.00
Sold For: 19.99

Michael Jordan Black T-Shirt Dissing Lebron "The Real King"

Found at: Salvation Army
Paid: $0.75
Sold For: $19.99

California Pottery Deviled Egg Dish

Found at: Given to us
Paid: $0
Sold For: $10.00

ETSY Sales:

Frankoma C1 Thunderbird Forest Green Pottery Mugs Set of 2

Found at: Salvation Army
Paid: $1.00
Sold for: $19.99

Hawaiian Turtle Handmade Photo Album

Found at: Rummage Sale
Paid: $1.00
Sold For: $14.99



Once again we had decent profits the past couple of weeks off a small amount of money invested.  Hopefully things will pick up again for us during the next month.  We wish everyone a safe and Happy 4th of July.

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Our Monthly Finds/Haul #2

Hello again!  Thanks for stopping by to check out our new blog.  This past month has been a bit slower than usual but we haven't had a chance to do very many garage sales.  However, we have been visiting our local thrift stores and Salvation Army.  Here are a few of our highlighted finds within the last month.

Local Thrift Store Finds

We have enjoyed nice finds at our local thrift store.  

We found this nice (Ashtrays are collectibles that can bring a bit of profit too) Vintage German Ashtray for $.99

Our local thrift store usually sells magazines for $.15 and sometimes has books at 10 for $1.00.  Jennifer found these nice (these magazines have garnered interest on Ebay for us) Sewing Magazine Back Issues for $.15 each

Salvation Army Finds

Salvation Army has brought us better finds with other items.  

We found this nice (Rare) Amore Mio Ritzenhoff Porcelain Cup and Saucer for $1.50

We found this unique (really sweet looking) Spaceform London Flamingo Silhouette Glass Paperweight for $.50

We accidentally found this cool (Lebron James haters unite) Michael Jordan Zombie "The Real King" Black T-Shirt for $.75

The best find that we have found recently was another accident.  I saw this interesting Black Shirt.  It had a graphic of a pin-up lady on the front and resembled a bowling/lounge shirt.  I told Jennifer about it and she told me it was the famous Bettie Page on the shirt! Since it was 50% off day for clothing, we picked this nice and awesome (this might be a very great find and bring us a good profit) Bettie Page Bowling/Lounge Black Shirt for $3.50!

 

Hopefully, we will make good profits from these along with other items that we picked up within the last month.  Please check out our other blog posts about "What We Sold On Ebay".  We welcome any comments, questions or suggestions.

Please visit us on Facebook at Cauldron Of Collectibles

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Take our Monthly Poll if you haven't already.  We look forward to hearing from all!  Have a wonderful month!

Items We Sold On Ebay #2

Items We Sold On Ebay #2:

We would like to share items that we have sold on eBay recently.  Most of the items we got at garage sales/thrift stores, but we did find a nice gem in a dumpster dive.

Under Armour Rally Volleyball Knee Pads New in Box

Found at: Garage Sale
Paid: $1.00
Sold For: $14.99

Yugioh! Dark Magician Girl Unlimited Super Rare Card

Found at: Free via my good friend Jacob
Paid: $0
Sold For: $19.99

Tabasco McIlheny & Co. Fly Fishing Polo Shirt Size XL

Found at: Salvation Army Thrift Store
Paid: $2.00
Sold For: $12.00

 Babar 2 Book Lot French Children's Book

Found at: Local Thrift Store
Paid: $.30
Sold For: $6.00

Deery Lou Sanrio Collectible Glass

Found at: Salvation Army Thrift Store
Paid: $.50
Sold For: $9.99

Vintage Tiki Farm Orchids of Hawaii R91 Made in Japan Mug

Found at: Local Thrift Store
Paid: $.40
Sold For: $9.99

New Balance 574 Red/White/Blue Size 12 Running Shoes

Found at: Dumpster Dive
Paid: $0
Sold For: $49.99

 

We made a good profit off a small amount of money invested.  Since we do this part-time, this works for us.  You have to do what works best for your situation.  Find your niche, but be open to new horizons in reselling.

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How To Get Started In Reselling/Picking Part 2

So now that you have decided what items you might want to invest in for reselling, the next thing you need to do is find places where you can source these items.  Will you go to Garage Sales?  Estate Sales? Thrift Stores? Goodwill? 

Where To Source and How?

This will depend on what items you are looking for and how much time you want to spend on sourcing.  "Time is money" is what the old saying is.  True.  Very true.  If you are sourcing for hours upon hours and come up with a few items that will net you small/minimal profits, then you might be shortchanging yourself in the long run.  Make your time count.  If you doing this full-time, then this must be treated like a full-time job.  Put in your hours and find things worth it within those hours.  It's no surprise that most full-time resellers put in more hours than your average 40 hour work week.  The serious ones can put in up to 60-70 hours a week. 

My suggestion is to decide how much money you want to spend sourcing, where you want to go and how much time you want to spend doing this?  Once you have some goals in mind, you can set out and venture into the Big Bad World of Sourcing! 

Garage Sales/Moving Sale

Garage Sales/Moving Sales are a great place to source if there is an abundance of them in your area.  You can negotiate or make deals at Garage Sales that you can't do in Goodwill or Thrift Stores.  You can also find great treasures that people are willing to sell for good prices. 

Estate Sales

Estate Sales can also be a good place to source.  Mostly, because they usually have a larger selection of items than Garage Sales.  The best thing to do in either of these two types of sales is to go early and see what deals you can find, then find out when the last day of the sale is and go back and rummage through.  The last day of a Garage Sale or Estate Sale can be worth it.  Sometimes, people at the Garage Sales want to get rid of items and will lower the prices or even give it away.  Estate sales also can lower prices on the last day of the sale.

Thrift Stores

Thrift Stores are nice to visit as well due to the consistent incoming of items every week.  Our local thrift store usually has nice finds for what we are looking for, although lately they have been raising the prices on things.

Goodwill

Goodwill is a whole other story.  We like to go when there are Colored Tag sales since the prices have also been raised significantly at our local Goodwill.  Nevertheless, you can still find great items to resell at Goodwill.

Other Options

One place we have found some great items to resell is Salvation Army.  Our local Salvation Army has 50% off clothes every Wednesday and Saturday.  This past weekend, they had a 50% off everything sale excluding Furniture.  We stocked up on a few items which could prove to be a lucrative haul for us!


Craigslist can be a good place to find items as well.  We don't use our local Craigslist much because we don't really see as many deals.  We have heard other people in different areas/states that find many great deals on Craigslist.  Basically, find what works for you and go for it!


Sourcing is the one thing we enjoy more than anything!  I suppose it is because both Jennifer and I enjoy "Treasure Hunting".  It is like a new adventure each time we go out and source.  All you have to do is have a passion for reselling and you can create your new adventures while sourcing!

So don't be shy or afraid to unlock that large treasure chest and dig in!  You never know what you might find!

Please check back for the next part in our "How to Get Started In Reselling/Picking" blog. We welcome any comments, questions or suggestions. Remember, we are still new to this so we are always open to learning more about this and sharing with others. Thank you for viewing our blog. Please check out our poll and vote.

Items We Sold On Ebay #1

Items We Sold On Ebay:

We would like to share items that we have sold on eBay recently.  A couple of these items were given to us through a friend and the rest we picked up at Garage Sales/Thrift Stores.  

Nintendo Uno Special Edition Card Game

Paid: $2.00
Sold for: $35.00 

Whisker City Cat Dish/Bowl

Paid: $1.00
Sold for: $12.99

J. Crew Embroidered Scarf - Rare

Paid: $2.00
Sold for: $29.99


Danbury Mint North Carolina Lighthouse Figurine

Paid: $1.00
Sold for: $14.99

Mortal Kombat Gold Limited Edition 1994

Paid: 0.00
Sold for: $49.99


We made a nice little profit off a little money.  We are always looking to expand into a different variety of new items to test them out on the reselling market.

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How To Get Started In Reselling/Picking - Part 1

"Start Small and Think Big" has been our motto since we started doing this in 2014.  I always had a way of finding good deals on items and selling them for more when I was a youngster.  My niche at the time was toys and video games.  Last year, my girlfriend and I talked about doing some reselling/picking part-time.  We didn't have a large amount of money but put some aside and began to hit garage sales and our local thrift stores.  Occasionally we would visit our local Goodwill.  We had a budget for every other weekend we could go shop for items to resell.  Then we found out that we could find valuable information on YouTube with how-to videos.

Everyone has their own opinion of how to start out.  I don't believe there is an exact perfect way to start but I will share some of our tips on what worked for us.  Keep in mind, this is just our opinion and results may vary depending on the individual reseller/picker.

What To Sell?

This is probably the most asked question for anyone who wants to get into reselling.  There is only one answer to this question: anything.  What I mean by anything, is that you can sell anything and everything.  You simply have to find your "niche" of what works for you.  For us, we started out with toys and video games but found that lately, ceramics and mugs have worked for us.  We have learned lots of things about ceramics and mugs in the past two months such as, pricing, rarity, types etc.  Since our local thrift stores have good deals on ceramics and mugs, we have a consistent source of inventory for these items.  This could change at anytime so we always have to expand our options to other things to source for resell.  We don't specialize in one area, we have a variety of items for sell on eBay.  The more the variety the more different people reached and the more opportunity you have to sell items.  Sell what you enjoy selling. Do your research on items you find interesting.  Start selling items and see what works for you.

Please check back for the next part in our "How to Get Started In Reselling/Picking" blog.  We welcome any comments, questions or suggestions.  Remember, we are still new to this so we are always open to learning more about this and sharing with others.  Thank you for viewing our blog.  Please check out our poll and vote.

Our Monthly Finds/Haul #1

Good Morning All,

This is the first post of our Weekly Finds.  Jennifer and I accidentally found a church rummage sale en route to have breakfast on a Saturday morning.  This sale was not advertised online.  We got about two baskets full of items, mostly mugs, ceramics, etc.  

We found a nice Boleslawiec pie/serving dish made in Poland:

We also found a nice Ralph Lauren Polo Sports Bag at a Garage Sale that same day:

This past weekend, I went to a couple of Estate Sales with my Mom and found some more nice mugs/glasses for great deals.


I found this very nice vintage Playboy Club Black Frosted Mug/Stein:

I also found this nice Tabasco Tureen Set Salsa Dish with the original box:

Yesterday, during the heavy rain, we had to run an errand and decided to stop at our local thrift store.  Even though it wasn't a big haul, we got a nice bag deal on more mugs/cups for under $1.  

We got this nice 1994 Coca Cola Collectible Mug with a Polar Bear Skiing on it:

It seems like the mugs/cups and ceramic items are the ones we have sold more than anything else we have delved into lately.  However, anything and everything can sell.  We are still learning and each day we learn something new and informative.  

Please check back for our next post on our Weekly Finds!

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We welcome any comments, questions or suggestions!