Be Sure to Look All Around You

I get asked a lot of questions about eBay from friends who know I sell online.

One of the questions that comes up a lot is: “Where do you find your inventory?”

The more I eBay, the more I find inventory all around me.  It’s rare that I make a trip out of the house on purpose to “treasure hunt.”  I end up finding things as I’m out running errands or doing my regular shopping.  Of course I stop in at the thrift stores while I’m out, but this last year, I’ve added quite a bit of inventory items that didn’t come from thrift stores or yard sales.

There are people who would be interested in selling on eBay, but they hate, loathe, and despise thrift stores (I don’t get that, but I’m OK with it that there are people like that, it just leaves more for me to find )

This summer, I was out teaching piano lessons one day, and had to stop at the dollar store to pick up some items for the VBS treasure chest at church.

My mission was to spend $75 on prizes for the kids.  It was tons of fun shopping and filling up my cart.  I had my cart almost full when I spotted one of my BEST finds to date: PIXOS Refills…….at the DOLLAR STORE!!!  You can bet that I filled TWO carts that day.  The next week, I went to the dollar store across town and sure enough, they had some too!  I wiped out both dollar stores and have already made back the money I spent on inventory.

A friend of mine, who loves Gymboree almost as much as I do, but doesn’t sell on eBay,  told me one day this summer that she was getting ready to have a yard sale.  I asked her if she was going to have any Gymbo items for sale, and sure enough, she said she’d hold out the Gymbo items for me as she put her yard sale together.  I went to her house the day before the yard sale, took out anything with stains and anything that came from the outlet and purchased the rest of it for $150.  I paid less than $2.00 a piece for the items I got!  A lot of it was still brand new WITH the tags on it, and the rest of it was in MINT condition.

Another place I love shopping for inventory is the Gymboree store.  I like to purchase clearance items to sell as inventory to help me accumulate and spend my gymbucks.

So, whether you just don’t like thrift stores, or you’re trying to diversify your inventory, keep your eyes open, and be sure to look all around you…..you never know when you’ll come across a new source for inventory.