budgeting

[nichey]

I just claim my profit (and profit only--not $$ coming in) under "other income" on our taxes. Last year it was only $300 because I had only been selling for a few months. I'm still building inventory and sinking $$ back in, so this year won't be too much either.

[peaceloveowls]

I hit up the farmers market this morning. I was a vendor there so I did not get to yard sale.
However I did meet some great people!!
bonus!
hehehe.
I did however last week while shopping with my friend pick up 2 of those "bags" of clothes from GW . $2 per bag.
I weeded out some great name brands (childrens place, Polo, and such) to resell
I have everything piled up in my kitchen and I plan to get pictures tomorrow and get started on this adventure!

[sasra_nu]

Originally Posted by whitneywalters This is something I have been thinking about doing but I am leery. I don't know if I have the time or space. The extra money would be really nice though!! One question, do you sell clothes out of season?

Would be curious about this too! I definitely have some back to school items to list in the next month or so, and I have TONS of fall/winter/holiday stuff I just haven't even bothered with yet.

Originally Posted by Leanbh Yikes ladies!!!!I think I went to the worlds most expensive yard sale yesterday!!! I should say that I wasn't really in the mood to begin with, but a local neighbourhood was having a ton of sales so DH and I set out with some of the kids for a afternoon browse. Total awash...... first one was really crappy old clothes, no fun toys etc second one was sooooooo expensive......for example.....I saw a cute gymbo outfit for my DS and she had it for $18!!!!!! All the outfits were $15/$16/$12 etc. I wouldn't mind but it was so full of washwear too....Some of her girl clothes were adorable, but I was so put off by her prices that I left after a minute. Oh ....and a jersey type pair of shorts for $2 from carters.......seriously everyone was just walking away. third one was more accurate, but had the stickers to say how much. Just got a little confusing to keep checking...what does red mean again? All the clothes were $2/$4/$5/$10, toy car for $5? Had some cute stuff but I think by then I was just not interested at all. I should have just stayed at home as I wasn't "feeling it" Whitney - I'm not sure about the whole off season thing. I'm currently going through some of my nieces items and a few are off season(patagonia fleece, clarks boots, adorable gymboree sweater type dress). I don't mind putting some of these items up here as obviously it's free, but also I know when I browse the fsot here I think ahead if I spot something cute for off season. However, on ebay I feel it's more specific to what people need NOW.

What suburb are you in? I would definitely NOT pay that much for yard sale clothes. Unless it's NWT, my limit is $1, but I prefer .50. I'll pay $1 for nice jeans, EEEUC Gymbo or other name brands.

Garage sales are hit and miss. Some people think their used kids' clothes are gold, while others just want to get rid of it. You want the latter.

Oh, again not sure where you are, but Peotone (far s burbs) citywide garage sales are next weekend. I often do well there. But if you have to spend $10 in gas to get there, probably not worth it.

Originally Posted by nichey Just got back from garage sales. Poor DH sat in the car while I went through BOXES of clothes at the last sale. She only wanted 50 cents a piece and had lots of name brand stuff with the tags still on!

Those are the best - I definitely take my time when I run across those and go through every box!


We hit another sale on the way out of town yesterday, at which point I was down to .25 in my wallet so I had to stop Lots of name brand items - women's gap jeans for $1, girls TCP jeans for $1, Columbia fleece that looked brand new for .50, lots of Gymbo and TCP for .50, Crocs for .50.

[3BoysMamma]

Of course we found stuff for ourselves but we also found some cool resellable stuff.....I found 2 NIB Chick Life Cycle sets from Learning Resources. I looked and they're selling for $35ish with free shipping. I paid $1 each (and dh though I was crazy til I showed him!! lol). I also picked up some old stoneware dishes that I need to research and some NWT clothes for .50-$1.....and a pack of men's boxers that are too small for dh but still NIP.
I for a nice children's trilogy by Nimmo with only 1 scuff on it for .60 each, so $1.80.....they're selling for $10 for the trilogy

I was able to get all of the boy's stocking stuffers and DS1's birthday stuff knocked out for about $30 total.....one place had just closed down a discount store and had everything NIP for REALLY cheap! Nothing that would go well on Ebay I don't think, but my kids love things like the wild west characters, hot wheels, etc -stocking stuffer sized things! And, I got 2 rotating photo cubes for Father's Day for $1 each from the same yard sale.

Some things we were going to have to buy from the store anyway, like Father's Day stuff, and a shower curtain rod for .50, and a pumice stone (got a whole NIB bath set for $1!), and swim goggles for the boy's swim lessons next week (NIP for $1 each so definitely cheaper than Wal-Mart!).


With child's clothing, I found 1 Baby Gap piece.....do these sell well individually or should I hold onto it and build up a lot of them to sell later?

[peaceloveowls]

I just listed my first few auctions on ebay. I have a monthly limit of 10 auctions /$500.
Does anyone know when this will raise ?

Thanks!

[Bumstoppers]

Do you guys do lots of research or how do you know what is selling?

[Leanbh]

Sassra - that was in Naperville, so a very affluent neighborhood. It can go either way as I have been to an awesome one another time and often pick up good items on our local yard sale site. It was really more like consignment store prices or maybe a bit more I totally get that her items were really nice, but I just think it wasn't the best place to get what she wanted. I probably would have consigned/ebayed the nice stuff if I were her and then garage saled the rest. It just kinda put people off.....


I do think people have a hard time letting go of some baby clothes. We all tend to be biased about our items due to special memories. I try not too when I list, but it's hard. I have the cutest(IMO, he-he) tea collection outfit I had from my first DS and so on, cute blanket and everything to match. To me it's like gold, but to someone else it's not of course!

Originally Posted by peaceloveowls I just listed my first few auctions on ebay. I have a monthly limit of 10 auctions /$500. Does anyone know when this will raise ? Thanks!

I'm not sure? I know I have 50 free listings a month and no limit as far as I know. I know they have some new procedures/rules coming this month and have already started some things. Maybe it's got to do with that. Go into the selling part(help with selling and all that) and you might be able to figure it out.

Originally Posted by Bumstoppers Do you guys do lots of research or how do you know what is selling?

I figure things out by stuff I buy sometimes. Like I know victoria secret pink sells because I also buy items now and then and it's a bidding war.

Then if I'm listing something I will always research what it goes for, scan a few listings and decide from there.


For the first few items to sell just for experience, I would list something that you know would sell, just to get the idea of how it all works. That's what I did and then went from there.


Another thing that helps is to check out some listings you like. Then if you find a sucessful seller(high sales/ratings), then check out what else they sell or what they have sold(click on the feedback to see items). You might be suprised to see what really sells!!

[sasra_nu]

Originally Posted by peaceloveowls I just listed my first few auctions on ebay. I have a monthly limit of 10 auctions /$500. Does anyone know when this will raise ? Thanks!

I remember reading something about this on ebay's discussion forums. I think they just want to be sure you're not a scammer if you're new to selling there, KWIM? I think after 1 month you can call them to increase your limits maybe? I'm not sure how it works though. If you check in the ebay discussion forums you might find the answer.

Originally Posted by Bumstoppers Do you guys do lots of research or how do you know what is selling?

I've researched a little, but a lot of what I've found are just brands that I know sell well and are in demand. Anything boutique, the usual name brands for kids' clothes, etc. Some of it is trial and error. I went on the ebay forum for children's clothes and looked at the listings/stores for a lot of the frequent posters to see what they were selling and had previously sold. It's a learning process. I definitely still have a LOT more to learn, but I LOVE kids clothes and I'm having fun learning more.

Originally Posted by Leanbh Sassra - that was in Naperville, so a very affluent neighborhood. It can go either way as I have been to an awesome one another time and often pick up good items on our local yard sale site. It was really more like consignment store prices or maybe a bit more I totally get that her items were really nice, but I just think it wasn't the best place to get what she wanted. I probably would have consigned/ebayed the nice stuff if I were her and then garage saled the rest. It just kinda put people off.....

Yeah, the nicer area garage sales can go either way. Some people want insane prices, others are just giving really awesome brands away. Those are the ones where I do a little happy dance!! I still remember running across a garage sale last year in my former town (Monee) where there were TONS of like new Hannas for .50. I didn't buy any because I wasn't reselling at the time, and they were bigger girls sizes - way too big to save for my DD. But boy, I could have made a lot if I'd just picked them up and listed em on ebay.

[Leanbh]

eeekkkk.....my toms are selling ladies.....I honestly have never seen so many watchers and views on ANYTHING I have ever listed like this. Unless it's all you ladies/viewers One has 69 views/11 watchers.....other has 61 views/10 watchers.....and they both have about 4 more days to go So keep TOMS on your list to get. I think it's because there is not so many of them listed etc.

[peaceloveowls]

oh yeah toms are an awesome buy to resell imo if you find them for a great deal.
There were 3 pages of toms when I searched last week.
thats it!!