The key to making $50 an hour thrifting is by training your eye to find profitable items that are cheap to buy but will resell for a lot of money on platforms like eBay. Once you really get good at training your eyes to find profitable items, you’ll start to see more profit rolling in than just $50 an hour.
I constantly find myself preaching about how you can turn trash into cash and how profitable reselling can be.
So at this point, it’s no secret when I say everyday items sitting around your home can be sold for quick cash on eBay.
But what do you do once you run out of items to sell at your home? You’re out of luck if you’re a college student with no car.
If not, you turn to your local thrift stores to source more products to resell. Or you turn to the reseller central to find out how to continue selling, either option works.
That’s precisely what I did last week and I’m here to report my sales. I spent a total of 30 minutes in my local Goodwill and paid a whopping $15 for 3 different items.
Here are specific details about those three items (with pictures) and exactly how much I profited from each of them.
In this article, we’re going to discuss how you can make $50 an hour thrifting three different items.
Make money thrifting these items
- Watches
- Purses and wallets
- Bibles
Make money thrifting watches
You can make money by thrifting a variety of different kinds of watches. Many watch brands hold value and can be resold for a nice profit if bought at a Goodwill or thrift store. You don’t have to just try to thrift Rolex watches to make money online selling used watches.
The first item up is a Sean John watch. Don’t let that cubic zirconia fool you, by no means is this a high-end watch or anything close to it.
The retail for this watch at Macy’s during the time it was in production sat somewhere between $65 and $100 based on my research.
But for a mere $7, I scooped up this watch — and the box it came in — from my local Goodwill.
I then took it to a nearby jeweler to have him check if it worked or not. The jeweler I went to did it for free because I didn’t have him install a new battery, but I’m not sure if that’s standard protocol everywhere.
After the jeweler gave me the green light that it worked, I went home and listed it on eBay for $35 with free shipping. The listing included that the watch needed a new battery.
A few days later, it sold and I made a profit of $18.81 after fees and shipping were deducted.
Some people say $18.81 isn’t enough money to spend 30 minutes in a Goodwill and 10 minutes at a jeweler, but making $18.81 an hour is fine by me.
Make money thrifting bags and wallets
Handbags and wallets hold a lot of value, especially if they are certain brands. You don’t have to thrift a Gucci bag to make money thrifting handbag. You can thrift much cheaper brands, like Kate Spade, and still make great money. Here’s how.
During my 25 minutes at Goodwill, I also found a Kate Spade wallet in perfect condition. It was hanging from a rack with some other wallets and still had one of the tags on it.
Unfortunately, the price tag was drawn on with a marker — I’m assuming in an attempt to prevent people like me from reselling the item? Nice try.
The rest of the wallet was in perfect condition. I bought it for $6 and took the tag off when I went home. My plan was to sell it “New without tags.”
And I did just that. I put it up for auction and started the bidding at $19.99 plus $4 shipping. Five days later, the auction ended and the highest bid of $26 was the winner.
After fees from eBay, I profited $19 from the Kate Spade wallet.
Remember, I bought the wallet during the same Goodwill trip as the watch. For the 30 minutes I spent at the store thrifting, I’ve already profited $37.81.
Make money thrifting Bibles
One thing about thrifting is for certain: Bibles hold value and sell for good money. If you ever see a Bible just sitting around on a shelf for $.99, scan it on your Amazon or eBay app to see if it’s worth anything. You’d be surprised how much money these books are worth.
The last item was a Bible. Before anyone says “How could you sell a Bible?” just know that I took it from sitting on a bookshelf and basically got paid a commission to help get it to a good home.
But in all honesty, I’m not a huge fan of selling books in general.
Additionally, since I was trying to get it in and out of my home quickly, I sold it for the cheapest amount of money eBay’s ever recorded for this specific Bible.
The Bible ran me $2.
I listed it for auction and only one person bid on it. It sold after five days for $15 plus $6 expedited shipping.
After fees, I profited about $11 from the Bible.
Total profit from thrifting
Time spent: I spent 30 minutes thrifting at my local Goodwill and 10 minutes talking to a jeweler up the street from my local Goodwill.
Money spent: I spent $15 on three items.
After shipping costs and eBay fees, I profited about $49 from my effort.
If I round up the time it took me to drive to the thrift store/jeweler and list/package and ship the items, it comes out to about an hour of work in total.
When all was said and done, I made about $50 for around 1 hour of work from thrifting and selling items on eBay.
Reselling is a side hustle anyone can do
Anyone can do what I just explained as a side hustle and even make a full-blown business out of it. Honestly, all it takes is a little research about products and a little luck with finding them. Reselling is completely different from a side hustle like writing an e-book because it requires less skill and more persistence.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to do this only at thrift stores. You can find great deals on items at bargain outlets and even clearance sections at Walmarts.
Your wallet could be collecting dollars instead of these items collecting dust sitting around at retailers.
