It has been a while since I wrote one of these Adventures in Reselling. Over 10 months ago according to the time stamp on my last entry. That is far too long. A lot has changed in that ten months, in my reselling business and in my life. Let’s sit down and discuss it a while, shall we?
A refresher of sorts
My last entry was based around people online giving bad advice and how to improve your own sales. This entry is, as you can tell by the title, going a slightly new direction.
Previous entries in this series have covered areas such as sourcing, both where and what, being prepared by reading and understanding the rules of the platform you are selling on, and many more topics.
The point of these entries
I try to be different than people on other platforms that are trying to sell you something. Usually this is a “course” they have “developed” (i.e., paid someone like me to write for them) or paid access to a private Facebook group (seriously) or paid private chats with them so they can brag to you even more about the stuff they “cannot mention in their videos” (of course not, if they did, why would you pay for a ‘private’ chat with them?).
No, here I am just giving away information to anyone that is willing to read it and put it to work. Some of the information that has been shared in these entries so far was the catalyst of me being banned from many reseller groups on eBay (they don’t like people giving away better information than they are charging for).
There are links in these articles, and they are affiliate links. All that means is, I get money if you buy something you find value in and legitimately want to own. I get a few pennies for referring you via that link. That is the only “selling” going on here.
I have made a promise with a few close friends that I met through reselling that if I ever sell something like a book or whatever, there will always be a free version available for anyone to access. That is the long-term goal of these entries – once I have enough of them to form a book, I will have the content prepared and compiled. These entries will forever remain free to anyone that wishes to read them. For those that prefer a book, either eBook or physical, there will be a paid option made available later.
On with this entry
Recently, two days ago as of this writing, my car broke down. The ignition switch broke and the vehicle would not start. This is bad because I only have one vehicle now. I had to call in to my day job (yes, I still have one of those) and have lost a day of pay (I do have one vacation day left, or did as I will probably use it here) so it is not a total loss there. That left me able to focus on getting my vehicle fixed.
Now, I had a father that did his best to get me interested in repairing vehicles and such at a young age. That chance under the learning tree did not take hold like my father probably wished it had and in August 1998 that opportunity was gone forever. Now even if I had paid attention and learned what I could at a younger age, odds are fixing an ignition switch probably would not be something I remembered how to do over three decades later.
This meant calling around and getting quotes on getting it fixed. We all know that going to a dealership is going to be a financial headache but after about thirty minutes of calling around, I realized if I wanted my car back within the next thirty days I would have to go with a dealership. It is that time of year where most of the independent repair shops are busy working on lift kits, installing tow packages, and other niceties for people planning to enjoy the summer months we have creeping up on us.
I arranged for towing and got the Jeep to a local dealer and now I wait for the call I dread – the phone call that it is done and how much I owe. It is a variable cost because of awesome things Jeep did in the early 2000’s with alarm systems and other anti-theft procedures (my luck says it will probably be costly).
That is great but what about the lesson
I mentioned all that to help set the mood I was in at this point. I am a reseller. I must have stuff coming in and going out to make money – that is a large portion of my cash flow each week. Sometimes it dwarfs my day job income, other weeks it barely covers buying lunch. No matter what though, when a customer makes a purchase from me on one of the 10+ selling platforms I use, we have entered a contract stating I will provide them such and such item within X amount of time for their money. I cannot go back on that agreement just because my vehicle broke down.
I am fortunate in many areas of life. One being where I currently live. I am about three miles one way from my day job (I can walk if I need to) and just over three miles round trip from the post office I ship from. Next door to that post office is a Dollar General (which I have sourced from many times). The same distance from my home but going the opposite direction I have another Dollar General store, a little farther than that I have a McDonald’s, the third gas station within 3 miles of my home, and a grocery store. All well within walking distance if need be.
If I need to go farther, or don’t want to walk, I can always call Uber or Lyft for a paid ride. I try to not do that as I am trying to get in better shape than I currently am.
I walked to the post office with my items that had to be mailed that day and dropped them off. I then visited the Dollar General and saw a few items I can turn around and make a killing on when reselling. The only problem is, these are about one pound each and two sells for about $26 shipped ($3.25 cost of acquisition).
I could not buy these and carry them home, only to turn around and carry them back if they sold before I get my car fixed. Calling a paid ride to the post office for a few sales like this would eat my profits too much. That means falling back on a previous entry in these Adventures in Reselling. I call it cash flow selling even though that term is not exactly right.
One of my "cash flow items"
I have the items listed for sale but have them set to three-day handling time. I have already racked up a couple of sales profiting about $10 per sale. These are items that are not in my possession and will not be in my possession till moments before I ship them.
Believe it or not but there is a concrete company on the other side of those trees.
Now this is a dangerous method of reselling because you run the risk of not being able to obtain the items to ship them. Considering I have a total of six Dollar General stores within five miles of my home and they all stock this item, I don’t foresee a problem. When I start noticing their stock is not refilling as quickly as it probably should then I will purchase units to hold in my possession.
I simply turned a negative in life, my car breaking down, into a positive – me getting a bit of exercise in and sourcing while out. That is the lesson here.
Don’t get frustrated instead improve your life
I could have easily sat at home and sulked over my situation. Instead I used knowledge I already had – Dollar General locations, best one to visit based on my needs (by a post office) and combined that with two interests I have (exercising and sourcing).
My Google Fit results from my impromptu workout
In life we spend too much time having a personal pity party when things go wrong for us. We need to stop that. We need to focus on improving our lives rather than sitting around and complaining.
Life swerved on me and I was left to cover my a$$
It is not easy; I still don’t have my car back. The dealership will not be able to get to it till Monday morning (I am writing this on a Saturday night). This is horrible for me and could be detrimental if I was to sit and focus on the bad things. I am not going to do that. I don’t have time. I have a life to improve and that takes effort.
I sat down, looked at what I could do online and decided to put some feelers out to some advertisers I work with on a regular basis. I contacted them and offered special deals, 25% off today only, and see how many would bite on a monthly ad placement or writing work for their clients. I was able to pick up four advertisers and eight articles I have till Sunday evening to write (all but one is written now). That is a major influx of cash that will help alleviate the financial pain I have coming with the car repairs.
While covering my butt with reselling was easy to figure out, I simply moved all listings to a three-day handling time. I did this hoping I have my Jeep back before that deadline hits me. If not, I will have to make other arrangements, maybe Uber or Lyft – at which time it would be financially viable to use those services as I will have about 10 to 30 times the profit in the items that would be shipped on that one trip.
I still faced a problem. Food. I need to eat too.
Sure, I could walk to the supermarket nearby, or the McDonald’s that is about a quarter of a mile closer (when walking, a quarter mile is a lot). The problem is, what do I buy that would be easy to carry back while not killing my back and legs during the hour or two round trip?
Frankly, not much and it would require many trips to get food for a day or two.
That is why I used Instacart earlier today. I was able to have about a week’s worth of food delivered for less than $10 including a $5 tip to the driver. I also saved $10 on the order because I was given a referral code from a friend (they got $10 off their next order as well).
This saved me from having to call an Uber or Lyft which would have been about $10 each way to get groceries. Instacart only works with a couple of stores near me (Target and Kroger) but was a life saver today. I got food for me and I got pet food and treats for my four-legged children.
If you are more interested in prepared foods then services such as Door Dash will deliver fine dining and fast food right to your door (or your job).
Where I am now with this situation
It is almost like my car breaking down has made me realize just how well I have life right now. Again, I could have easily sat and sulked about the situation – instead I chose to look at the better side of things. I decided to do something about my situation, no matter how small that improvement was (it started with simply fulfilling my agreement to ship those packages).
I went from a really low in life, no car usually means dead in the water, to a full fridge (I shop on the weekends), snacks and junk food aplenty (well, enough for me), treats for my babies, and even made some money along the way. I am now in a much happier and better place, I think, than I was when I realized my car wouldn’t start. It all starts with one positive step forward.
I discovered on my walking trip that I like taking pictures of nature to, some of the pics are here in this article.
If you take nothing away from this entry in my Adventures in Reselling but for this one thing, I hope it is that even the smallest improvement in our lives can have a snowball effect and lead to more good things. We cannot wait for others to fix our lives for us, we must get the ball rolling.
