2025 | Fat Wallet Refugee

I was checking the dates on another series, WordAds quarterly, and realized I had spaced out the eBay reports.

My last report for eBay was Q4 of 2024.

Early Difficulties

It had been a decidedly slow year for me with my sales prior to the start of the fourth quarter. I also made a $280 blunder along the way, that didn’t help my bottom line by any measure.

I had given some though to looking for other employment after considering my auto insurance bills. I’m keeping that on the table for the time being.

I of course did try to get work after graduating, but found I couldn’t pass the background checks, which led me to self employment.

June and September were my worst months, bringing in under 100 dollars. March through May were excellent by comparison averaging 433 dollars per month.

Estate Sale

In January, I attended my first estate sale. I bought a biker jacket that turned out to be not what I was expecting, but it was actually worth quite a bit. I managed to sell all the items I got there and made a nice profit.

Resourcing

I continued to purchase new inventory at the Treasure Hunt store and Goodwill for a time, but eventually gave up on the Goodwill. Earlier in the year they had stopped accepting American Express at my local Goodwill store and so I stopped going.

I think I went back a couple of times and used my Altitude Go card, but for the most part I got hooked on dollar day at the bin store.

I lost my head at one point and ransacked the bins for all of these swimsuits.

In all I bought 67 swimsuits that I will likely never be able to sell.

Treasures Found

But I have picked up some good items.

I have a large collection of Target brands including Wild Fable, Shade & Shore, and Future Collective now listed on LaFemme1st. I have received deposits of $379 from sales on LaFemme1st so far this year.

The majority of items from the mentioned brands have been swim wear, so these sales are mostly seasonal. But I have had some holiday sales, so I remain hopeful. All of the items are new with tags attached.

I am keeping a list of my Target brand sales included in the eBay Style Code Catalog post. I hope this post will become a resource for other sellers.

Bin Purchases and Pricing Legend (Jan-Oct)

After the recent trip to Washington, I decided to halt purchasing new stock for my shops. I have been good so far and have not visited either the Goodwill or the Treasure Hunt bin store this month.

Wednesday makes up the vast majority of purchases for me at the bin store. I did decide to stop buying air and water filters. There is just too much competition for them on eBay.

Filters also take up a large amount of space and they are heavy. The bag I have them in is a real killer to move about the room.

I’ll see about returning to the store next year in January to see if all the swimwear is gone. I hope to find more dresses and tops. Maybe some jeans if I am lucky.

Personal Health

I’ve also made some changes in my life beyond reselling. I have removed milk, candy, and coffee, from my diet. I am making this change now rather than wait for further bad news from my doctor.

I remain on medication for cholesterol, but I expect my numbers will improve soon. Cutting out candy will reduce my chances of developing type 2 diabetes and eliminating coffee will improve my sleeping habits.

I’ll be turning 40 in nine days. I’m not where I had planned to be, but I am still alive, so I will count that as a boon.

Now that the holidays are over I have seen a big drop in the number of weekly sales on eBay.

I had gotten used to the idea of getting 3 or more orders in a day or having an arm load of packages to take to the post office each week.

Since December 30th, I have had only 2 sales. I sold a Columbia women’s vented fishing jacket and some O’Neil men’s red board shorts.

I did miss a few days of listing new items. We got a kitten for Christmas and I have been devoting a lot of time to playing with and filming the kitty. We are once more a cat family.

We named her Mei Mei. It means little sister or plum blossom 🌸. We hear it used a lot in the Chinese dramas my mother likes to watch.

I almost finished the year with a positive balance on my spreadsheet, but I visited a Goodwill on the same day we got the kitten. I spent $62, on some Foundry and LL Bean button up shirts. I also nabbed a Carhartt Force quarter zip sweatshirt and tee shirt.

My goal for January is to not buy any new stock for my eBay store. I’ll continue to list 1 item a day from my currently available supply of goods. I have also started listing non-apparel items from my closet including computer parts. I’ve sold 2 graphics cards from back when I was mining crypto.

I still have those Apollo Lunar mining units in my closet, but I don’t know if anyone would be interested in outdated crypto mining machines. I also have 5 sets of silver coins from the US and Canadian mints. I was never able to beat the prices of Apmex so those haven’t sold.

I did manage to sell some vintage electronics from the 60’s and 70’s that I inherited from my grandfather and uncle.

So, I still have more to list If I can just stay away from the Goodwill this month. I just need to readjust to normal sales behavior going into Q1 of 2025.