My name is Sharron and Id like to share my passion for ownership and selling second hand and new items online. For me, it’s like having an online antique/speciality shop, where I am worldly-wise to find items that people often have hunted upper and low for and connect them to new happy owners. I am moreover sought out as an wage-earner for finding hard-to-find things for people with specialised requests, considering I know where to look. Now we have the topics to do trading online, it really has opened up this avenue, so items aren’t just limited to endangerment and location and if you are lucky unbearable to pop into a second hand or reversion shop and find what you need.
For example, I was selling an reversion doll online. I had an enquiry from a potential buyer. She explained to me that she had this word-for-word doll when she was a child, and it was something precious she kept into into adulthood. However, due to a house fire, unfortunately the doll was lost. So she was thrilled to find the word-for-word doll to replace the one she had lost, and plane though she lived in Western Australia (I am located in in Queensland), I was worldly-wise to connect her with this doll.
Over the past 8 years, I’ve been worldly-wise to build a successful businesses through ownership and selling. It can be so rewarding, but there is a bit of an art to finding just the right thing to sell or finding treasures for yourself. I started this process slowly, well-nigh 12 years ago, due to chronic health reasons and stuff unable to work typical jobs. I needed to find work that would work virtually my unpredictable health and mobility challenges. Initially, I sold everything I sourced via my eBay shop. This made me uneaten money that helped go towards daily bills and moreover helped me learn the dos and don’ts withal the way.
Harry Potter Polly Pocket Ron Weasley House
You don’t unchangingly find wondrous things, but here’s an example of some of the things you can find. I sourced this Harry Potter Polly Pocket Ron Weasley House for $0.50, and it sold for $80.
Antique Theatre Binoculars
These trappy surf reversion theatre binoculars are just stunning. I sourced them for $25 and sold them for $500.
R.M. Williams Baby Boots (RPP $149)
These winsome R.M. Williams Boots were $3, and they sold for $90 on eBay.
Note that these wondrous finds are not common, and there are a lot of regular kind of items that are still worth selling, such as snow gear, toys and other regular household items.
After a few years, eBay fees became too high. So, I was really excited when Facebook started up ownership & selling sites (pre Marketplace) in my local area. This unliable me to reach a lot of people and list larger items as buyers could come and pick items directly from me. I joined 28 variegated selling sites within a 20km radius. It’s important to note that although this is a unconfined way to connect with buyers, it can be very time-consuming as each item has to be listed separately in each site and every few days, you have to tumor up the post which puts it when up to the top of the list so it receives increasingly views and has a higher endangerment of selling. And each selling group has variegated rules, so you need to stay on top of that too.
I then started selling on Gumtree slantingly the Facebook pages. Again, this was time consuming considering without each week, the ad expires and Id have to repost it. Without flipside few years, Facebook decided to make it easier to connect with people who want to buy and sell goods, and opened Marketplace. It’s so much easier to manage and where I list most of my items, withal with Gumtree. Currently, I have approximately 300 items now listed on Marketplace and Gumtree.
The unconfined thing well-nigh running this online merchantry is I can work virtually my health appointments and families daily commitments. If anyone else is wanting to do something similar, and create your own type of online shop using sourced good (from second hand shops, garage sales etc.), theres a few things Ive learnt withal the way, that helps me work out what to buy and what not to buy, and how to sell it. Here are my tips:
- Just considering you dont like it, doesnt midpoint somebody else wont. So don’t limit what you’re looking for by your own personal taste or stye.
- Always trammels the condition of the item, looking thoughtfully over the item for rips, chips, scratches or missing parts.
- Check out the item on Google, and see whats trending so you can alimony an eye out for those particular things, youd be surprised what youll find!
- Do your research! Almost everything Ive sold, I have been worldly-wise to find out increasingly information on Google. For example, what it is and what is it used for, what it is worth, how rare it is, or is there a need for this particular item (e.g. squint for snow gear upcoming to winter). The increasingly information you can learn well-nigh an item, the better.
- Dont rush! Its easy to just see something that may squint great, but then without you get home, you realise its a reprinting or fake. Marketplace are strict in regards to selling unverified items and you don’t want to add to these unethical practices.
- Offer postage options and find out well-nigh variegated carrier options. For example, learn stereotype postage financing (e.g. Australia Post) in specimen people need this servie. But moreover be unshut to other services. I have recently converted to Sendle. You do everything at home (no need to go to the post office), just print the label and leave it outside to be placid (no need to be at home). So it’s easier and cheaper. For example, currently a satchel for Australia Post is approximately $9.80 and with Sendle it is $6.95.
- Research where your local Op Shops/Secondhand shops are and either spend the day going from shop to shop or you can pop in on your way home from school waif off, or on your way to sport / work etc. They have new things coming in all the time. If I am travelling, I will moreover trammels out Op Shops if I have an opportunity.
- Check out your local garage sales for plane cheaper options, youd be surprised what you can find.
- Its handy to have wipes and hand sanitiser in your bag for when youre finished in each store.
- Dont be wrung to trammels out your local dump or refuse shop too — people throw out perfectly good items, expressly for the garden and sporting goods.
- Take the kids! I sometimes indulge them a small value of money to find something they would like, makes it a fun day out.
- Sometimes I buy things I can fix, paint, sew or clean. I make sure I spend less money on these types of items due to the time it takes to modernize them.
- When we travel anywhere, I stop in at local op shops and often you find things that you wouldnt find in op shops closer to your home.
- Make sure when you add a listing, include as much detail as possible so the proprietrix is fully enlightened of what they are ownership including condition, measurements and other descriptive elements. Tip: sometimes it can be helpful to use a worldwide object to help people gauge size. Good examples are a Coke can or a coin. Also, research and add any preliminaries information well-nigh the object. This can help items sell quicker, and minimise the need for uneaten liaison when and forth.
- When taking photos of your items, it’s good to have a white background. This is easy to do, just photograph with a simple background, and then use an app to remove the preliminaries so it’s on a white backdrop. (I use the Photo Room Studio Photos app). Ensure to not have anything in the photo that is not included in what you are selling (unless it is a reference object).
- Always track and be enlightened of your income for tax purposes.
- Anticipate that people will most likely offer less than is advertised.
- If you add the option to post, you’ll get increasingly interest. Be mindful though, that larger items are really difficult to post, so these are usually weightier to alimony for local pick up.
- Use keywords in your descriptions to help people find what you’re selling.
I just want to end with a few other notes on the realities of doing this kind of work, and tips for making the process as streamlined as possible.
It’s a lot of work
I think there is this misconception, expressly if you have some wondrous finds, that it’s an easy informal way to make a bit of cash. If you want to do this seriously, it takes a lot of time and effort — like any job really. I really enjoy this work, and I can do it virtually my limitations. However, it takes time to source items for your shop, research, categorise, write descriptions, fix items, take images, upload them to respective sites, post items, and then one of the most time consuming elements, communications when and withal with prospective buyers. For me, it’s been a mythological way for me to turn a hobby into a business, but unless you really enjoy scouring garage sales and second shops and communicating with a lot of variegated people, it may not be a viable or enjoyable work.
I lot of people won’t understand your work
People get reversion stores, but if you’re an individual offering a similar service online, I have found that a lot of people don’t really understand what you do, why you do it, how you do it, or that it can be a legitimate and successful side hustle or job. It’s moreover can be challenging, like most jobs via the home, that people may not realise that plane though you are home, you need to dedicate a significant time to your work. In my experience, it can so rewarding connecting people with objects they need or superintendency about.
Developing good liaison skills & liaison challenges
I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people through what I do. But there are some tips I would mention.
- People may just not turn up, plane without organising a time.
- It is not uncommon for people may waddle up to your door (after like-minded to a price) and put you on the spot and ask for remoter discount. So have a think well-nigh if you are you willing to be flexible on price or not.
- Don’t be surprised if people don’t message when without making enquiring. Often if they have made the visualization not to purchase the item, they won’t communicate that to you.
- If someone has organised to collect, I unchangingly message them the night surpassing to personize they still want the items, and personize time, and make sure they have the address. Sometimes I may ask for their mobile.
- On the rare occasion, you may get negative feedback but don’t stress too much: if you are a good, diligent seller, overall one negative scuttlebutt doesn’t really stupefy anything.
It’s a lot of work if youre doing this full time, or plane part-time, but for me, it’s a lot of fun — I get to learn the history of interesting objects, I LOVE garage sales, it’s like going on a treasure hunt, and I love chatting with people withal the way.
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