A stay at home mom just laid out her reselling books for the month of July, line by line, and the bottom number is $6,191.04. That is her net profit after fees, shipping and the cost of the goods she sold.
@jennyflipsforfun says she makes it by finding items at garage sales, estate sales and the Goodwill bins, then selling them online. She also says she did not do it alone that month: part of the total came from a storage locker she and her husband won at auction.
@jennyflipsforfun
$8,403.25 In Sales, But The Fees Took A Bite Before She Saw A Dime
Her total sales for the month were $8,403.25. She had a refund amount of $19.04.
Then came the platform fees, which are what the selling sites take. She names eBay, Depop, Poshmark and Mercari, and says all of those fees together came to $788.63.
That one line alone is more than many people spend on a month of groceries for two.
Shipping Cost $355.86, And She Says It Is “A Complete Wash”
Her shipping costs were $355.86. But she says that number should wash out, because she does not offer free shipping to anybody.
She makes the buyer pay the shipping. So whatever she collects for it goes right back out when she mails the package.
Her cost of goods, meaning what she paid for the items she sold, was $1,006.68. She also had business expenses of $42, which she says went toward more poly mailers.
“Before Anybody Starts Coming For Me In The Comments” She Answers The Obvious Question
Run the numbers and you land on her grand total of $6,191.04. Then she gets ahead of the criticism she expects.
She knows critics will say the profit figure ignores her working hours. But she argues that her time is better spent here than anywhere else.
She is home with her kids and makes her own hours. She says she can drop anything she is doing to have family time, or pick the kids up from school and take them to sports.
The Eight Hour Office Day She Left Behind
If she were not doing this, she says, she would be spending eight hours a day in an office, which is what she was doing before she started staying home with her kids.
So if you want to count her time, she says, sure. But whether she spends her time on reselling or working for someone else in a corporate job, “it’s all uneven washed” to her. In her words, “this is the perfect job for me.”
Almost Three Years In, And It Was Not Always Like This
She has been doing this full time for almost three years. Her early months looked nothing like July.
When she first started out, she says, she was making a couple hundred dollars a month. After that it grew to a thousand a month, then to a couple thousand.
She also wants viewers to know July was a high month. She says she usually sticks in about the $3,000 to $4,000 range, because she is not a huge reseller and is “definitely on the smaller side.” Even so, she says it is enough to get by and bring extra income into the house.
Her closing line is the one that stuck: being part of her kids’ daily lives is a bonus, and “there is no price you can put on that.”
What Her Numbers Teach Anyone Thinking About Reselling
Look at the math again. Out of $8,403.25 in sales, she kept $6,191.04. The platform fees, shipping and cost of goods took the rest, which is why she insists on tracking every line instead of bragging about sales.
That is the most useful habit in her breakdown. Sales are not profit. Fees, postage, what you paid for the goods and small supplies like mailers all come out before you can say you made money.
Her shipping approach is also worth noting. By having the buyer cover postage, she keeps shipping from eating into her earnings, and she treats the shipping line as money in and money out.
Before You Quit Your Day Job, Remember The Slow Start
Her own timeline is the best reality check. A couple hundred dollars a month in the beginning is a long way from $6,000, and she says it took years of full time work to get her typical month into the $3,000 to $4,000 range.
If you are curious about trying this, here are a few simple steps that follow from what she describes.
- Track every sale, every fee, every shipping charge and every purchase in a spreadsheet from day one.
- Count what you pay for supplies, even small ones like mailers.
- Decide whether you will charge buyers for shipping, and price your items with that in mind.
- Source from places where prices are low: garage sales, estate sales and thrift bins, as she does.
- Give yourself time. Her first months were a fraction of what she earns now.
Whether reselling is right for you depends on your own family and your own hours. For this mom, the trade is clear: fewer office hours, more school pickups, and a monthly number that makes the choice easy to defend.
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