How I Turned $700 into $73: My First Week of Re-selling Junk

Yes, you read the title right. No, it isn’t click bait.

It’s been 7 days since I fell into a full-fledged hyper-fixated rabbit hole of re-selling as a side hustle.

And I’m currently in the red by several hundred dollars.

It all started with a telescope. 5ft tall, a foot wide tunnel, a big, fancy lens — this thing was the real deal. Like able-to-see-Saturn’s-rings real. I’ve never had a telescope before and I’m not particularly into astronomy, but a local high school was auctioning it off and I was intrigued.

I looked up the specific telescope model on my phone. New, they go for $1,000. Starting bid was $50.

On that fateful Friday afternoon I ended up winning it for $250. Instantly, I was hooked.

I started bingeing YouTube re-seller videos to learn what to buy. I made a profile on Ebay, Mercari, Poshmark, and OfferUp. I spent Saturday morning at garage sales, went to every thrift store within 30 minutes of my house, and even scoured my own closet for items to sell.

And here lies the crux of the problem: I was hooked immediately by the thought of a good deal. By the idea that I could sell this thing for more than I paid.

If I got hooked when I SOLD it, there wouldn’t be any issue. But getting hooked right at the time of purchase? Well… suffice it to say I’ve spent about $500 more on “good deals” in the last 7 days.

So far, it isn’t all a loss.

Two days in, I got my first sale.

A Vintage ‘70’s 8-track deck that I bought for $10 at a garage sale and sold on Ebay for $55 plus shipping.

The notification came in when I was laying in bed, about 10:30pm. Ecstatic (and panicked), I scoured my house for a box to ship it in. 45 minutes later I found the perfect fit — a Rosarita’s Enchilada sauce box that used to hold 6 #10-size cans.

Realizing I was not only unprepared without a box, but also that I didn’t have any bubble wrap, I double boxed the 8-track player with an old Amazon box and stuffed any empty space with newspaper and crumpled magazine pages. Relieved, I sent the package on its way the next morning.

Since then, I’ve made three more sales: a rotary tool on Ebay (bought for $5, sold for $25), a VCR/DVD combo on OfferUp (bought for $15, sold for $30 because only the VCR side worked), and a Hawaiian shirt with toucans printed all over it on Mercari (bought at the thrift store for $3.60 and sold for $15).

I’m excited about the sales, but I also have a lot of learning to do. I won an auction in a town two hours away (I thought it was local, oops), I bought several items that probably won’t ever sell (hello cassette tape karaoke machine), and every time I made a sale I was caught once again unprepared without shipping materials.

Still, I am hopeful. I’m making mistakes and spending way more time than I “should” be for the profit so far, but I’ve a good feeling about this.

For March, I’m banning myself from auctions and thrift stores until I profit enough to cover the inventory I’ve already purchased. I made a goal to list at least 5 items per day on Ebay, with certain items cross-posted on other platforms. And I am tracking everything to report back here.

It might just be my own naïveté, but I feel something good is coming my way.

Will I end up losing the money I foolishly dumped in all upfront? Is reselling dead? Or is this a legitimate side hustle that will end up more profitable than I can even imagine?

Follow me to find out.