Have you ever thought about selling thrift store finds on eBay? If you’re looking to make some extra money on the side, selling thrift store finds on eBay could be the thing for you!
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Can you actually make money selling thrift store finds on eBay?
While selling on eBay is not a get rich quick opportunity, you can still make some decent money.
Finding good items at thrift stores has become harder over the last few years because thrift stores tend to pick through their stuff more and sell it online.
There are many times when we walk into thrift stores and find nothing or find good items priced way too high.
While reselling has become more difficult, it’s not impossible to make money because thrift store employees can’t be experts on everything. Good things can still be found when thrift stores either don’t realize how much something is worth or they don’t want to take the time to try to sell it.
How much money can you expect to make?
It’s hard to make a lot of money on eBay, but selling a lot of items with small profits can really add up.
The amount of money you can make depends on several factors:
- Thrift store inventory
- The amount of time you have
- Your specialty
- Your research
Thrift Store Inventory
As you start shopping more, you’ll notice that some thrift stores have better stuff than others, and most thrift stores are known for certain types of items.
For example, there is one thrift store we visit that has a huge selection of toys and games. Another shop we visit has hardly any toys or games, but they have tons of clothes.
You have to know where to go to find the best items.
The amount of time you have
How much time do you have to devote to buying and selling?
If you’re short on time, you’ll have to stick to shopping at only the stores near you, and you won’t be able to go as often.
We go to our local stores once a week. About once or twice a month we’ll go to stores about 45 minutes away.
Besides the shopping, you also have to think about how much time you have to get your items ready to sell and to ship them. The process of researching, taking pictures, listing items, and shipping can be quite time-consuming.
Your Specialty
While you may be tempted to buy and sell everything, you need to narrow down your focus.
Choose items you know about and can find somewhat regularly.
We mainly sell: toys, games, puzzles, and books.
Although there are lots of other things you can sell, you need to pick things that you know well enough to describe and answer customers’ questions.
For example, if you decided to sell old books, you would have to know how to tell editions apart. You would also have to know how to answer questions about them. If you don’t know anything about old books, then these things will be hard for you to do.
Some items will be worth a lot more than others, but you also have to consider how much money you have to put into it.
If you choose to sell kids’ books, you would likely only be investing a couple dollars at most each time you buy, but if you wanted to sell electronics, you would be paying a bigger initial investment.
Your Research
Doing your research before and after you buy is so important!
When we’re out shopping, we use the eBay app to look up items we’re not sure about. Not doing your research can cause you to buy things that aren’t worth anything.
Make sure you aren’t just looking at what people are asking for items because that doesn’t mean that’s what an item is worth.
Tip: Add in “sold items” in your advanced search to see what people actually got for their items.
Also, after you decide to buy something, you should learn more about the item so that you can describe it well and answer questions.
Selling Our Thrift Store Finds
To give you an idea of what to expect when reselling your items, we are sharing with you some of our thrift store resells from the last few months.
None of them sold for a lot, but they add up pretty quickly.
Mickey Mouse Yahtzee
Paid: $1.00
Sold for: $8.49
Profit after fees: $5.64
This game is from the 1990s, which is probably why it is selling right now. People who were born in the 1990s are starting to have children and are wanting to buy toys they played with as a child.
Walking Dead Monopoly Game
Paid: $4.00
Sold for: $12.99
Profit after fees: $6.88
This game most likely sold because the TV show The Walking Dead is semi-popular right now. Also, even though the game had been open, the pieces were still sealed in their packages.
Classic Disney VHS Tapes
Paid: $0 (found the whole box for free!)
Sold for: $30.48 (combination of 4 auctions)
Profit after fees: $24.80
Although most VHS tapes do not sell, these specific movies were very old (50s-70s). Also, several of these movies have not been reproduced on DVDs, so it is difficult to watch them otherwise.
Betty Spaghetty Dolls
Paid: $0.75
Sold for: $10.01
Profit after fees: $7.10
This is another 90s toy that was popular. Even though they have been reproduced, people tend to still want the original toy they played with as a child.
Hercules Plates
Paid: $1.00
Sold for: $7.99
Profit after fees: $5.39
Many people had these Hercules plates as kids, so we believe that is why they are selling again.
Charles Wysocki Puzzles (Lot of 4 complete)
Paid: $7.00
Sold for: $22.50
Profit after fees: $12.31
All of these Charles Wysocki puzzles were “blue box puzzles,” which are the most popular of the Wysocki puzzles. Also, they were made better than some of the other Charles Wysocki puzzles. We made all four puzzles to prove that they were complete.
Note: it is best to make the puzzles before selling them so that you know for sure that the puzzles are complete. Some people just count pieces, but this is NOT a good practice. We have found many puzzles that had pieces from another puzzle, so this would not be noticeable if you are just counting pieces.
Masterpiece Board Game
Paid: $2.00
Sold for: $19.50
Profit after fees: $13.77
They no longer make this game, but it is a unique and fun game to play. We believe that is why this game still sells.
Candy Land Board Game
Paid: $1.00
Sold for: $12.00
Profit after fees: $8.87
This is the version that a lot of people had and want again. Other versions of Candy Land do not necessarily sell as well.
Highlights Top Secret Adventures (activity packets w/ books)
Paid: $0.80
Sold for: $20.00
Profit after fees: $16.21
These activity packets are still relevant to kids, and they were originally quite expensive to buy.
Cat’s Meow Village
Paid: $2.00
Sold for: $11.99
Profit after fees: $7.86
All of these were retired pieces, so you can no longer buy them new.
Tales of the Crystals Board Game
Paid: $3.00
Sold for: $35.00
Profit after fees: $26.77
This game is uncommon and from the 1990s. We had never seen it before and were surprised that it was selling because it includes a cassette tape (which typically people don’t care about).
Poppy Penguin
Paid: $3.00
Sold for: $15.99
Profit after fees: $9.37
This is a very uncommon toy box/carrier. It took us a little while to figure out exactly what this item was called and used for, but this research was important for selling it.
Cashflow for Kids Board Game
Paid: $3.00
Sold for: $43.00
Profit after fees: $34.83
Even though this game is not that old, it is a great finance game for learning.
Super Scrabble Board Game
Paid: $3.00
Sold for: $14.99
Profit after fees: $9.67
This game has twice as many letters as a normal Scrabble game, and it has a turntable.
Fisher Price Garage Pieces w/ box
Paid: $1.00 for box (already had pieces)
Sold for: $22.50
Profit after fees: $18.47
Most people did not keep the box for these pieces. We believe this item sold well because of the box. It was surprising that we found just the box for sale at a thrift store considering that we already had the pieces for it.
Charles Wysocki “Friendly Good Day” Puzzle (complete)
Paid: $1.55
Sold for: $31.00
Profit after fees: $25.29
This is a rare Charles Wysocki puzzle. That is why it sold for this amount. Not all Charles Wysocki puzzles are worth that much. We also made this puzzle to prove that it was complete.
For these 16 auctions, we spent a total of $34.10 and made a profit of $233.23 after fees.
So even though none of these items had a huge profit, we still made money. If we sold even more things, we could make even more money.
How to Get Started Selling Thrift Store Finds on eBay
We have written multiple posts about selling on eBay.
Get started selling on eBay with this post: Beginner’s Guide to Start Selling on Ebay
You can also check out some of our other eBay posts here.
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