How I Made Twenty-Thousand Selling on eBay

I have been building a small empire these past months on eBay (smile)… After getting laid off, I decided to try my luck in what a friend of mine likes to call my E-Commerce (laugh).  Though, this little venture has earned me more than twenty-thousand-dollars- it’s hard for me to take it serious because it just feels too silly to qualify as self-employment.  Employment sounds so serious and what I have done has simply turned a disability and hobby into a mad money-making machine (more laughter).  As I have often shared, I am bipolar and sometimes in the manic phases nothing sounds more divine than shopping.  If you’re a faithful reader you also know that I have dealt with this symptom by going to thrift stores and wearing my shopping self out while only blowing a couple tens at most. In my shopping sprees I started finding really high-end merchandise that was not my style and I thought it would be fun to reunite the item with a person who would appreciate it.  That’s really how this all began.

I have been an avid secondhand shopper for quite a few years now.  While to me buying used is a way of life and my small way of decreasing my carbon footprint, I have discovered that buying used is becoming more and more common among people.  Thus, I supply to a growing demand.  Yet, to me this business is enjoyable because:

First, I like to score good deals.  I am cheap, I will search and wait until I find what I want at a price that I want to pay.  To me there’s nothing like the high of finding a pair of Jimmy Choo’s in my size for one dollar or an eighties Louis Vuitton Speedy for thirteen dollars- yes, those stories are real.  I like things with history and things that can grow old and not disintegrate as quickly as fast fashion does.  Usually designer pieces are made to last and that’s why I find things that are still quite wearable and at a price that I can afford and not feel guilty at thrift stores. 

Second, I love to restore, fix or reinvent a purpose for things.  I think I started selling on eBay leather purses that I found and gave a facelift.  While at first, I just wanted to keep things from arriving at the dump too soon eventually the accumulation was too much for me so I also started to share with other deal shoppers like me online.  Soon, I started to see what a nice profit I was making and before I knew it my hobby was paying for my vacations and now, my living as I find suitable employment.    

Finally, I like to take pictures and write descriptions and list my items on eBay.  I do it all with my phone and the process though time consuming is quite user friendly.  My nerdiness helps, because I like to do research on items and learn the history and the creative process of each of the items I list.  This, knowledge has been extremely helpful in helping me list and price things fairly.  It’s also introduced me to other designer brands, taught me how to authenticate and just learn how to tell if it’s a quality item when I am out shopping.  In addition to giving me a greater appreciation for the craft of how things are made.   

Shop, restore, and product knowledge have been what have made my business successful.  Three things that I really enjoy doing; thus, for me to think of the money I have earned doing a lot of silliness seems weird to call it self-employment.  It’s a hobby and my way of saying, “I will not go gentle into the good night” – no bipolar symptom is going to keep me down (smile).  While it’s a lucrative hobby, I have learned that I do not want to do this as more than that.  Right now, I am devoting more time than usual, but once I find a job it will go back to my little hobby and I am ok with that.