Side Hustles

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make about $20k/yr profit reselling on postmark for about 3 hours per week of work.

Where do you source inventory to sell?

Primarily thrift stores. It's crazy what people donate around here. Just this morning I sold two pairs of jeans for $85 and $99 each that I paid $4.99 each for.

So you are spending more than 3 hours a week I am guessing. Going to thrift stores and hunting for items is very time consuming. Let’s be honest.

It really doesn't. Once you know what you're doing, it's fairly simple. I know al the thrift stores discount days, colors of the week, etc. I can skim all the jeans in about 3 minutes. All the tags I'm looking for (FRAME, Good American, Reformation, Anthro brands, AG, Rag and Bone) are burned into my brain. Shoes, you just have to walk by and then check the brands on pairs that are on trend. Same with the purses. Athleisure takes a bit of digging, but I do find Lululemon, gym shark, vuori, Patagonia regularly which are usually $3 each. Kids clothes I just walk down the aisle and can pretty much pull out Hana Andersson and Mini Boden items just by their patterns. I pick those up if they are $1-2 and can usually profit $25 on them. I don't really do shirts because I hate digging through them for a low ROI, but some resellers only do vintage t-shirts (concerts, characters, sports, pop culture) and kill it. I can easily go down the home aisle and pick out any vintage pyrex, fire king, or le ceuset. Those I just sell on Facebook marketplace to avoid shipping. I'm in a lot of resellers Facebook groups and subreddits and have learned a ton. For example, I read a post from someone that strictly resells vintage blow molds like the holiday light up decorations. It stuck in my brain and then a few months later, I was driving on garbage night and someone had a whole easter bunny blow mold family (mom bunny, dad bunny, and two little bunnies) out in the garbage. Must to my husband and kids dismay I made him pull over and I loaded them up. I sold them 12 hours later on Facebook marketplace for $300. There's crazy markets for some older or rare Lily Pulitzer prints which are easy to spot at the thrift store (the holy grail pattern being dark and stormy), vintage St. John items sell like hot cakes to people in the dog show world, vintage and rare buttons, rare and vintage stuffed animals, "boom boxes"/older electronics. It's actually been really interesting to learn about and even though most of it is women wanting a deal on clothes, it's really rewarding to find the rarer things and connect them with people who have been searching for them. Last year, I picked up a pretty vintage tea box on a whim and it sold to an elderly lady in Alaska whose mom had the same box and had used it to store her sewing supplies. The lady wrote me a letter about how much joy having that box gave her, she said I gave her the warmest piece of her mom's memory!

I takes me 4 minutes on average to photograph and list each item.

Anyway, poshmark emails you the shipping label, USPS has free boxes. I literally go on their website, add 100 boxes to my cart, and "check out" for $0 and then the boxes are delivered by my mail person with my regular mail. The boxes have self seal adhesive. I buy a 250 sheet pack of tissue paper from Costco and a 250 roll of "thank you" stickers from amazon. When I sell something, I wrap it in a piece of tissue paper, use a sticker to close the paper, put it in a box, and slap the label on. If I have 3 or less sales in a day, I leave them on my porch and my mail person takes them, if I have 4 or more, I can schedule a free pick up through the USPS website or just go drop them in the bin. I'm pretty much a well oiled machine at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make about $20k/yr profit reselling on postmark for about 3 hours per week of work.

Profit from buy low and sell high? Or recovery from stuff you bought and would otherwise throw/give away?

Buying low to sell high. Not going to lie I definitely benefit from this as well. Sometimes I have to "try something out" a time or two before selling

[Anonymous]

When I was in my 20s, lots of my friends had side hustles. They worked at a retail store on the weekends, did people's hair from their homes, made crafts or pottery and sold them at markets or on Etsy, made websites for small business, helped small non profits with writing for grants, sold stuff on Ebay/Poshmark (I did this one!). Now we're in our late 30s, make more money, and most of us have young kids that take up all of our time. The only friends I have who still do that have much more lucrative side hustles now, like rehabbing homes and turning them into rental properties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make about $20k/yr profit reselling on postmark for about 3 hours per week of work.

Where do you source inventory to sell?

Primarily thrift stores. It's crazy what people donate around here. Just this morning I sold two pairs of jeans for $85 and $99 each that I paid $4.99 each for.

Going thru thrift store inventory, photographing and posting, packaging and shipping only takes 3 hrs?

No way takes much longer than that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I make about $20k/yr profit reselling on postmark for about 3 hours per week of work.

BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make about $20k/yr profit reselling on postmark for about 3 hours per week of work.

Where do you source inventory to sell?

Primarily thrift stores. It's crazy what people donate around here. Just this morning I sold two pairs of jeans for $85 and $99 each that I paid $4.99 each for.

So you are spending more than 3 hours a week I am guessing. Going to thrift stores and hunting for items is very time consuming. Let’s be honest.

It really doesn't. Once you know what you're doing, it's fairly simple. I know al the thrift stores discount days, colors of the week, etc. I can skim all the jeans in about 3 minutes. All the tags I'm looking for (FRAME, Good American, Reformation, Anthro brands, AG, Rag and Bone) are burned into my brain. Shoes, you just have to walk by and then check the brands on pairs that are on trend. Same with the purses. Athleisure takes a bit of digging, but I do find Lululemon, gym shark, vuori, Patagonia regularly which are usually $3 each. Kids clothes I just walk down the aisle and can pretty much pull out Hana Andersson and Mini Boden items just by their patterns. I pick those up if they are $1-2 and can usually profit $25 on them. I don't really do shirts because I hate digging through them for a low ROI, but some resellers only do vintage t-shirts (concerts, characters, sports, pop culture) and kill it. I can easily go down the home aisle and pick out any vintage pyrex, fire king, or le ceuset. Those I just sell on Facebook marketplace to avoid shipping. I'm in a lot of resellers Facebook groups and subreddits and have learned a ton. For example, I read a post from someone that strictly resells vintage blow molds like the holiday light up decorations. It stuck in my brain and then a few months later, I was driving on garbage night and someone had a whole easter bunny blow mold family (mom bunny, dad bunny, and two little bunnies) out in the garbage. Must to my husband and kids dismay I made him pull over and I loaded them up. I sold them 12 hours later on Facebook marketplace for $300. There's crazy markets for some older or rare Lily Pulitzer prints which are easy to spot at the thrift store (the holy grail pattern being dark and stormy), vintage St. John items sell like hot cakes to people in the dog show world, vintage and rare buttons, rare and vintage stuffed animals, "boom boxes"/older electronics. It's actually been really interesting to learn about and even though most of it is women wanting a deal on clothes, it's really rewarding to find the rarer things and connect them with people who have been searching for them. Last year, I picked up a pretty vintage tea box on a whim and it sold to an elderly lady in Alaska whose mom had the same box and had used it to store her sewing supplies. The lady wrote me a letter about how much joy having that box gave her, she said I gave her the warmest piece of her mom's memory!

I takes me 4 minutes on average to photograph and list each item.

Anyway, poshmark emails you the shipping label, USPS has free boxes. I literally go on their website, add 100 boxes to my cart, and "check out" for $0 and then the boxes are delivered by my mail person with my regular mail. The boxes have self seal adhesive. I buy a 250 sheet pack of tissue paper from Costco and a 250 roll of "thank you" stickers from amazon. When I sell something, I wrap it in a piece of tissue paper, use a sticker to close the paper, put it in a box, and slap the label on. If I have 3 or less sales in a day, I leave them on my porch and my mail person takes them, if I have 4 or more, I can schedule a free pick up through the USPS website or just go drop them in the bin. I'm pretty much a well oiled machine at this point.

I believe that you are making money, but I think you are underestimating your time and overestimating your profits.
Most of those clothing brands you mention sell for $15-$25 on ThredUp (usually free shipping), so a $25 profit per item is hard to believe if you pay $1-3 per item, you have Poshmark's commission, you have to price competitively with other sellers, and some items just don't sell so it's a loss.
Also, pulling the brands from the thrift store is the least time consuming part. It's inspecting each item for stains/tears/pilling. It's travel time back and forth to the store. It's storing the item while it's posted and then packaging it. Or if you use FB Marketplace, back and forth messaging until you finally meet up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make about $20k/yr profit reselling on postmark for about 3 hours per week of work.

Where do you source inventory to sell?

Primarily thrift stores. It's crazy what people donate around here. Just this morning I sold two pairs of jeans for $85 and $99 each that I paid $4.99 each for.

Going thru thrift store inventory, photographing and posting, packaging and shipping only takes 3 hrs?

No way takes much longer than that!

Why do you all care!? PP says she make $20k for 3 hours per week... okay she make $15k for 6 hours per week? Does that sound better to you? That's @$50/hour vs her estimation.. Either way, OP is satisfied with how she's making out.

[Anonymous]

I don't think anyone is questioning whether PP is satisfied with the money, but the original post was what do you do and how much do you make, and PP's response was simply not believable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make about $20k/yr profit reselling on postmark for about 3 hours per week of work.

Where do you source inventory to sell?

Primarily thrift stores. It's crazy what people donate around here. Just this morning I sold two pairs of jeans for $85 and $99 each that I paid $4.99 each for.

So you are spending more than 3 hours a week I am guessing. Going to thrift stores and hunting for items is very time consuming. Let’s be honest.

It really doesn't. Once you know what you're doing, it's fairly simple. I know al the thrift stores discount days, colors of the week, etc. I can skim all the jeans in about 3 minutes. All the tags I'm looking for (FRAME, Good American, Reformation, Anthro brands, AG, Rag and Bone) are burned into my brain. Shoes, you just have to walk by and then check the brands on pairs that are on trend. Same with the purses. Athleisure takes a bit of digging, but I do find Lululemon, gym shark, vuori, Patagonia regularly which are usually $3 each. Kids clothes I just walk down the aisle and can pretty much pull out Hana Andersson and Mini Boden items just by their patterns. I pick those up if they are $1-2 and can usually profit $25 on them. I don't really do shirts because I hate digging through them for a low ROI, but some resellers only do vintage t-shirts (concerts, characters, sports, pop culture) and kill it. I can easily go down the home aisle and pick out any vintage pyrex, fire king, or le ceuset. Those I just sell on Facebook marketplace to avoid shipping. I'm in a lot of resellers Facebook groups and subreddits and have learned a ton. For example, I read a post from someone that strictly resells vintage blow molds like the holiday light up decorations. It stuck in my brain and then a few months later, I was driving on garbage night and someone had a whole easter bunny blow mold family (mom bunny, dad bunny, and two little bunnies) out in the garbage. Must to my husband and kids dismay I made him pull over and I loaded them up. I sold them 12 hours later on Facebook marketplace for $300. There's crazy markets for some older or rare Lily Pulitzer prints which are easy to spot at the thrift store (the holy grail pattern being dark and stormy), vintage St. John items sell like hot cakes to people in the dog show world, vintage and rare buttons, rare and vintage stuffed animals, "boom boxes"/older electronics. It's actually been really interesting to learn about and even though most of it is women wanting a deal on clothes, it's really rewarding to find the rarer things and connect them with people who have been searching for them. Last year, I picked up a pretty vintage tea box on a whim and it sold to an elderly lady in Alaska whose mom had the same box and had used it to store her sewing supplies. The lady wrote me a letter about how much joy having that box gave her, she said I gave her the warmest piece of her mom's memory!

I takes me 4 minutes on average to photograph and list each item.

Anyway, poshmark emails you the shipping label, USPS has free boxes. I literally go on their website, add 100 boxes to my cart, and "check out" for $0 and then the boxes are delivered by my mail person with my regular mail. The boxes have self seal adhesive. I buy a 250 sheet pack of tissue paper from Costco and a 250 roll of "thank you" stickers from amazon. When I sell something, I wrap it in a piece of tissue paper, use a sticker to close the paper, put it in a box, and slap the label on. If I have 3 or less sales in a day, I leave them on my porch and my mail person takes them, if I have 4 or more, I can schedule a free pick up through the USPS website or just go drop them in the bin. I'm pretty much a well oiled machine at this point.

Oh you are stealing priority mail boxes (I’m guessing the postmark prepaid labels are UPS or similar).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make about $20k/yr profit reselling on postmark for about 3 hours per week of work.

Where do you source inventory to sell?

Primarily thrift stores. It's crazy what people donate around here. Just this morning I sold two pairs of jeans for $85 and $99 each that I paid $4.99 each for.

So you are spending more than 3 hours a week I am guessing. Going to thrift stores and hunting for items is very time consuming. Let’s be honest.

It really doesn't. Once you know what you're doing, it's fairly simple. I know al the thrift stores discount days, colors of the week, etc. I can skim all the jeans in about 3 minutes. All the tags I'm looking for (FRAME, Good American, Reformation, Anthro brands, AG, Rag and Bone) are burned into my brain. Shoes, you just have to walk by and then check the brands on pairs that are on trend. Same with the purses. Athleisure takes a bit of digging, but I do find Lululemon, gym shark, vuori, Patagonia regularly which are usually $3 each. Kids clothes I just walk down the aisle and can pretty much pull out Hana Andersson and Mini Boden items just by their patterns. I pick those up if they are $1-2 and can usually profit $25 on them. I don't really do shirts because I hate digging through them for a low ROI, but some resellers only do vintage t-shirts (concerts, characters, sports, pop culture) and kill it. I can easily go down the home aisle and pick out any vintage pyrex, fire king, or le ceuset. Those I just sell on Facebook marketplace to avoid shipping. I'm in a lot of resellers Facebook groups and subreddits and have learned a ton. For example, I read a post from someone that strictly resells vintage blow molds like the holiday light up decorations. It stuck in my brain and then a few months later, I was driving on garbage night and someone had a whole easter bunny blow mold family (mom bunny, dad bunny, and two little bunnies) out in the garbage. Must to my husband and kids dismay I made him pull over and I loaded them up. I sold them 12 hours later on Facebook marketplace for $300. There's crazy markets for some older or rare Lily Pulitzer prints which are easy to spot at the thrift store (the holy grail pattern being dark and stormy), vintage St. John items sell like hot cakes to people in the dog show world, vintage and rare buttons, rare and vintage stuffed animals, "boom boxes"/older electronics. It's actually been really interesting to learn about and even though most of it is women wanting a deal on clothes, it's really rewarding to find the rarer things and connect them with people who have been searching for them. Last year, I picked up a pretty vintage tea box on a whim and it sold to an elderly lady in Alaska whose mom had the same box and had used it to store her sewing supplies. The lady wrote me a letter about how much joy having that box gave her, she said I gave her the warmest piece of her mom's memory!

I takes me 4 minutes on average to photograph and list each item.

Anyway, poshmark emails you the shipping label, USPS has free boxes. I literally go on their website, add 100 boxes to my cart, and "check out" for $0 and then the boxes are delivered by my mail person with my regular mail. The boxes have self seal adhesive. I buy a 250 sheet pack of tissue paper from Costco and a 250 roll of "thank you" stickers from amazon. When I sell something, I wrap it in a piece of tissue paper, use a sticker to close the paper, put it in a box, and slap the label on. If I have 3 or less sales in a day, I leave them on my porch and my mail person takes them, if I have 4 or more, I can schedule a free pick up through the USPS website or just go drop them in the bin. I'm pretty much a well oiled machine at this point.

Who is buying used clothes with “brands” when you can get new clothes for less from h&m or old navy etc? Most of it is all mass manufactured textiles. Very little vintage I’m sure.

[Anonymous]

I have to hand it to the media, they have made having to work a second or third side job because you don't make enough money to pay your bills look glamorous by calling it a "side hustle".

A side hustle is a sign that you don't make enough money to survive in a high COL area. So you have to cobble together whatever second job you can to pay the electric bill, etc.

Past generations just called it "working two or three jobs". "Side hustle" makes it sound better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to hand it to the media, they have made having to work a second or third side job because you don't make enough money to pay your bills look glamorous by calling it a "side hustle".

A side hustle is a sign that you don't make enough money to survive in a high COL area. So you have to cobble together whatever second job you can to pay the electric bill, etc.

Past generations just called it "working two or three jobs". "Side hustle" makes it sound better.

No, I think the point is have an income stream that’s not dependent on having a job. That’s attractive when you don’t have a ton of savings and could be laid off. I know several people who were laid off in their 50s and had trouble finding something else. Having some way to make money that’s more lucrative than Uber would be nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make about $20k/yr profit reselling on postmark for about 3 hours per week of work.

Where do you source inventory to sell?

Primarily thrift stores. It's crazy what people donate around here. Just this morning I sold two pairs of jeans for $85 and $99 each that I paid $4.99 each for.

So you are spending more than 3 hours a week I am guessing. Going to thrift stores and hunting for items is very time consuming. Let’s be honest.

It really doesn't. Once you know what you're doing, it's fairly simple. I know al the thrift stores discount days, colors of the week, etc. I can skim all the jeans in about 3 minutes. All the tags I'm looking for (FRAME, Good American, Reformation, Anthro brands, AG, Rag and Bone) are burned into my brain. Shoes, you just have to walk by and then check the brands on pairs that are on trend. Same with the purses. Athleisure takes a bit of digging, but I do find Lululemon, gym shark, vuori, Patagonia regularly which are usually $3 each. Kids clothes I just walk down the aisle and can pretty much pull out Hana Andersson and Mini Boden items just by their patterns. I pick those up if they are $1-2 and can usually profit $25 on them. I don't really do shirts because I hate digging through them for a low ROI, but some resellers only do vintage t-shirts (concerts, characters, sports, pop culture) and kill it. I can easily go down the home aisle and pick out any vintage pyrex, fire king, or le ceuset. Those I just sell on Facebook marketplace to avoid shipping. I'm in a lot of resellers Facebook groups and subreddits and have learned a ton. For example, I read a post from someone that strictly resells vintage blow molds like the holiday light up decorations. It stuck in my brain and then a few months later, I was driving on garbage night and someone had a whole easter bunny blow mold family (mom bunny, dad bunny, and two little bunnies) out in the garbage. Must to my husband and kids dismay I made him pull over and I loaded them up. I sold them 12 hours later on Facebook marketplace for $300. There's crazy markets for some older or rare Lily Pulitzer prints which are easy to spot at the thrift store (the holy grail pattern being dark and stormy), vintage St. John items sell like hot cakes to people in the dog show world, vintage and rare buttons, rare and vintage stuffed animals, "boom boxes"/older electronics. It's actually been really interesting to learn about and even though most of it is women wanting a deal on clothes, it's really rewarding to find the rarer things and connect them with people who have been searching for them. Last year, I picked up a pretty vintage tea box on a whim and it sold to an elderly lady in Alaska whose mom had the same box and had used it to store her sewing supplies. The lady wrote me a letter about how much joy having that box gave her, she said I gave her the warmest piece of her mom's memory!

I takes me 4 minutes on average to photograph and list each item.

Anyway, poshmark emails you the shipping label, USPS has free boxes. I literally go on their website, add 100 boxes to my cart, and "check out" for $0 and then the boxes are delivered by my mail person with my regular mail. The boxes have self seal adhesive. I buy a 250 sheet pack of tissue paper from Costco and a 250 roll of "thank you" stickers from amazon. When I sell something, I wrap it in a piece of tissue paper, use a sticker to close the paper, put it in a box, and slap the label on. If I have 3 or less sales in a day, I leave them on my porch and my mail person takes them, if I have 4 or more, I can schedule a free pick up through the USPS website or just go drop them in the bin. I'm pretty much a well oiled machine at this point.

I believe that you are making money, but I think you are underestimating your time and overestimating your profits.
Most of those clothing brands you mention sell for $15-$25 on ThredUp (usually free shipping), so a $25 profit per item is hard to believe if you pay $1-3 per item, you have Poshmark's commission, you have to price competitively with other sellers, and some items just don't sell so it's a loss.
Also, pulling the brands from the thrift store is the least time consuming part. It's inspecting each item for stains/tears/pilling. It's travel time back and forth to the store. It's storing the item while it's posted and then packaging it. Or if you use FB Marketplace, back and forth messaging until you finally meet up.

Agree. This poster is exaggerating. Jeans for $99 on Poshmark is unlikely, even for brand new with tags, and it doesn’t sound like she sources that way. Poshmark is a fun side hustle, but $20K profit is difficult and very time consuming (and as pp pointed out, there are always items that don’t sell for losses).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make about $20k/yr profit reselling on postmark for about 3 hours per week of work.

Where do you source inventory to sell?

Primarily thrift stores. It's crazy what people donate around here. Just this morning I sold two pairs of jeans for $85 and $99 each that I paid $4.99 each for.

So you are spending more than 3 hours a week I am guessing. Going to thrift stores and hunting for items is very time consuming. Let’s be honest.

It really doesn't. Once you know what you're doing, it's fairly simple. I know al the thrift stores discount days, colors of the week, etc. I can skim all the jeans in about 3 minutes. All the tags I'm looking for (FRAME, Good American, Reformation, Anthro brands, AG, Rag and Bone) are burned into my brain. Shoes, you just have to walk by and then check the brands on pairs that are on trend. Same with the purses. Athleisure takes a bit of digging, but I do find Lululemon, gym shark, vuori, Patagonia regularly which are usually $3 each. Kids clothes I just walk down the aisle and can pretty much pull out Hana Andersson and Mini Boden items just by their patterns. I pick those up if they are $1-2 and can usually profit $25 on them. I don't really do shirts because I hate digging through them for a low ROI, but some resellers only do vintage t-shirts (concerts, characters, sports, pop culture) and kill it. I can easily go down the home aisle and pick out any vintage pyrex, fire king, or le ceuset. Those I just sell on Facebook marketplace to avoid shipping. I'm in a lot of resellers Facebook groups and subreddits and have learned a ton. For example, I read a post from someone that strictly resells vintage blow molds like the holiday light up decorations. It stuck in my brain and then a few months later, I was driving on garbage night and someone had a whole easter bunny blow mold family (mom bunny, dad bunny, and two little bunnies) out in the garbage. Must to my husband and kids dismay I made him pull over and I loaded them up. I sold them 12 hours later on Facebook marketplace for $300. There's crazy markets for some older or rare Lily Pulitzer prints which are easy to spot at the thrift store (the holy grail pattern being dark and stormy), vintage St. John items sell like hot cakes to people in the dog show world, vintage and rare buttons, rare and vintage stuffed animals, "boom boxes"/older electronics. It's actually been really interesting to learn about and even though most of it is women wanting a deal on clothes, it's really rewarding to find the rarer things and connect them with people who have been searching for them. Last year, I picked up a pretty vintage tea box on a whim and it sold to an elderly lady in Alaska whose mom had the same box and had used it to store her sewing supplies. The lady wrote me a letter about how much joy having that box gave her, she said I gave her the warmest piece of her mom's memory!

I takes me 4 minutes on average to photograph and list each item.

Anyway, poshmark emails you the shipping label, USPS has free boxes. I literally go on their website, add 100 boxes to my cart, and "check out" for $0 and then the boxes are delivered by my mail person with my regular mail. The boxes have self seal adhesive. I buy a 250 sheet pack of tissue paper from Costco and a 250 roll of "thank you" stickers from amazon. When I sell something, I wrap it in a piece of tissue paper, use a sticker to close the paper, put it in a box, and slap the label on. If I have 3 or less sales in a day, I leave them on my porch and my mail person takes them, if I have 4 or more, I can schedule a free pick up through the USPS website or just go drop them in the bin. I'm pretty much a well oiled machine at this point.

Oh you are stealing priority mail boxes (I’m guessing the postmark prepaid labels are UPS or similar).

I’m not a PP, but you are totally off-base here. No “stealing” involved here.