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2023 ebay/marketplace wrap up

January 1st, 2024 at 03:40 pm

2023 Totals

$13,325.29 gross
$9,455.82 net

$1,608.44 Cost of goods sold for the year

My average monthly profit was $787.99 with my lowest month being $610 and my best month being $1,033.

For 2024, my goal is a monthly profit of at least $600 and to get my average daily sales up to 2 items. My 90-day running total right now is 142 so about 1.58 items/day.

Happy holidays!

December 26th, 2023 at 01:06 am

 

I wrote a long post earlier today and when I hit submit it disappeared so I'll try to recreate it (and I'm doing it in my word processor this time just in case).

 

It's not quite time for the year-end wrap up post but figured I'd give some updates.

 

All is going pretty well. I'm finishing up my first full year of “semi-retirement”. I'm really not sure what else to call it. I went per diem in August 2022 meaning I no longer have a set schedule or required hours. Technically I am required to work 24 hours every 12 weeks but unless I consistently miss that mark, nobody will say anything. I've mostly worked 8 hrs/wk this year, some weeks 4, a couple of weeks 12, and several weeks zero. My plan for 2024 is to cut back to 4 hrs/wk. I just chose my January shifts yesterday so 16 hours scheduled for the month.

 

My wife is doing well and finally back in good health. Not 100% and never will be after 2 back surgeries and a lung surgery but her most recent labs had her inflammatory marker (C-reactive protein) normal for the first time since this began in early 2021. She has been crocheting up a storm, did quite well at a local craft fair in October, and has made numerous other sales, especially to our daughter's co-workers who keep ordering stuff from her.

 

Our daughter is enjoying her job and they love her. She's gradually taken on more responsibilities and helped them streamline workflow and improve processes.

 

My mom turned 93 in August. She's having more trouble with her back and an MRI in October showed a new herniated disc. She's had a couple more epidural injections since then but those really don't help. The only thing that helps a herniated disc, other than surgery, is time. It can take 4-6 months or more for those to heal. It's made it harder for her to manage and we finally increased her aide to 3 days a week and we are going over there more frequently to help out.

 

My ebay business is cruising along well. I have a running thread on the forums where I give monthly totals and periodic updates if anyone wants details. I enjoy going to the estate sales and finding treasures that I can flip for good profits. This year I had several of my all-time best sales so I must be on the right track.

 

Between my wife's health and my mom's, we didn't do any major traveling this year. We did try to do a number of day trips and earlier in the year a few overnight getaways. We have a trip planned to Riviera Maya in late February. I'm hoping things are stable here and that we are able to go as scheduled. It's a group of us going to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday.

 

Speaking of birthdays, my wife turned 60 last Sunday and we had a party for her the day before at a local distillery that we really like. The 3 of us along with 14 friends had a good time celebrating her.

 

The other thing we did this past week was sign up for new health insurance through the ACA. The premium will be about $1,000 less than we've been paying on COBRA though the out of pocket costs will be higher so that will be offset somewhat.

 

I'm looking forward to tallying up the year-end numbers for our portfolio, our spending, my ebay business, and everything else. At this point, I've got a pretty firm grasp on it all already but want to see the final numbers.

 

I guess that's all for now. I'll post again in January with a full 2023 wrap up.

YTD income update 9/30/23

October 4th, 2023 at 01:28 am

I reviewed our 9/30 Vanguard statements. Year to date our Vanguard accounts generated a combined $44,318.96 in investment income (interest, dividends, capital gains). Our Ally account paid another $1,488.71 for a total of $45,807.67.

About 70% of our total portfolio is with Vanguard. I haven't looked at the other 30%, and a lot of that is taxable mutual funds that will pay out most of their income in December.

That means we're on track for our portfolio to generate $75-80,000 this year. I'll make about $70,000 at work plus $8,000+ from ebay for a total of $155-160,000 which will exceed our expenses which is perfect.

 

YTD income update 8/31/23

September 4th, 2023 at 08:09 pm

I reviewed our 8/31 Vanguard statements this morning. Year to date as of 8/31/23, our Vanguard accounts generated a combined $37,135.13 in investment income (interest, dividends, capital gains). If I extrapolate that out (which isn't quite how it works), that would mean about $55,700 for the year.

About 68% of our total portfolio is with Vanguard. I haven't looked at the other 32%, and a lot of that is taxable mutual funds that will pay out most of their income in December, but let's say another 20K comes from there.

That would mean around $75,000 total portfolio income for the year. I'm on track to make about $72,000 at work, though that might come in lower as I'm thinking about working even less than I already do. Add another $8,000 from ebay. That brings us to $155,000 for the year approximately. That should exceed our spending, which is partly why I'm considering working fewer hours. I think more like $130-140,000 would cover everything.

 

Since this is the first full year that I'm per diem, I'm really trying to see where everything falls. I won't know fully until after we do our 2023 taxes next spring, though.

New washer and dryer, water cooler, general updates

June 20th, 2023 at 10:00 pm

I'm not very good at this blogging thing.

 

Life is cruising along okay. Since my last post in February, my wife was in the hospital again in March for a flare up of the infection around her spine. She had surgery to remove the hardware put it last year in case that was the source of lingering infection. She then did 9 weeks of IV antibiotics (as well as having a drain in the abscess for 6 weeks) and is now on daily oral antibiotics for at least a year. She has been seen by her spine surgeon, 2 different cardiothoracic surgeons, a neurosurgeon, and her infectious disease doctor. Everyone agrees that surgery to get to the abscess isn't indicated. With the hardware out, they feel her body will resolve what remains. She's getting labs every couple of weeks and has a CT scheduled for August. The really good news is she feels terrific, the best she has since the whole back issue started in fall of 2021. She's not 100% yet but she's doing PT and getting back to the gym and overall feels pretty normal.

 

I continue to work per diem, mostly doing 8 hours a week in the form of 2 four-hour shifts, usually Saturday and Sunday mornings but occassionally a weekday shift. I like the weekends best because the pay is much higher.

 

I'm still actively selling on ebay. Year to date I've had sales of about $6,000 gross/$4,000 net which is ahead of my goal of $500/month net. I logged my 4th highest sale ever a couple of weeks ago selling an item for $477.77 that I bought a week earlier for $8. Back in March I had my 3rd highest sale at $499. I go to one or two estate sales nearly every week and really enjoy that.

 

We had a big household expense this week. Our dryer started making a weird noise a few days ago. I opened it up yesterday to see if it was a DIY project I wanted to tackle. I didn't definitely identify the issue but I think it is a problem with the drum rollers. Fixing those means fully disassembling the unit, taking off the belts, removing the drum, etc. I just don't want to work that hard on a 10-year-old dryer so I agreed it was time for a new one. Of course, DW figured we should buy a new washer while we're at it. That's just as old, or maybe older, has rust around the top of the tub, and sometimes doesn't drain right after a cycle. I've DIY'ed that one before to fix something else (door switch assembly) so it's about time. We headed to Lowe's today and bought a new set. All in with delivery and removal and hoses and such, it came to about $1,500. We went with the pretty basic ones, not the ones with all the fancy electronics and stuff. Those are supposed to come on Thursday. While we were there, we also bought a new water cooler. Ours is pretty old and the great feature of the new one is that it is bottom-loading. I don't have to carry and flip the bottle onto it anymore, which occasionally results in some water spilling around it. That was another $200.

 

Otherwise things are doing pretty well. My mom is still plugging along at almost 93. Slowly declining which is hard to watch and deal with but such is life. Our daughter just celebrated 1 year at her job. She's stressed a lot which has been aggravated by her therapist being on maternity leave the past few months. Thankfully she starts back in therapy in 2 weeks. I'm hoping that gets her back on track fairly quickly.

 

That's enough for now. I'll try and update more regularly. I just forget about doing it.

February 2023 update

February 26th, 2023 at 01:52 am

Wow. My last post was in November. So much has happened since then, both good and bad.

I mentioned in my last post that my wife was having surgery on December 7. That happened and went relatively smoothly. The surgeon took skin and muscle from her left leg to graft onto her face. The face has been healing up nicely and really didn't give her any trouble at all. The harvest site on the leg, however, was/is much more challenging. That was very painful. It's slowly gotten better but is still not pain-free. Also, the skin continues to get irritated and blister so she still needs to cover it with a bandage when she puts most pants on, but it's ever so gradually getting better.

Since we lost 2020 and 2021 to COVID and 2022 to DW's illness, we decided that starting last month we were going to do at least a short trip somewhere every month. In January, we went to Delaware. We stayed close to the big mall there so plenty of shopping and dining around. There is also a casino nearby and we stopped there for a bit. DW's sister and brother-in-law also live not far from there in Maryland and we met up with them for dinner one night. This month we went into Pennsylvania. Again just shopping and dining and relaxing plus we had show tickets at a regional theater that we enjoy.

For March, we were going to go to Hershey, PA, but I think we're changing our plans. We have good friends in Maryland who run the high school theater program at their school and they have a show that weekend. We've always said we needed to go see one of their shows and I think we're finally doing it. Another couple (mutual friends) from PA is going to come also.

My mom ended up in the hospital for a few days a week ago Sunday. Turned out that her blood pressure was just running high so they adjusted her medicines. Everything else checked out okay thankfully.

Then 2 days after my mom came home, DW got a call that her sister had a stroke. We didn't have any details at first but not long after her husband called back to say that she wasn't going to make it and to come to the hospital. We got right over there as we were only 15-20 minutes away. Her mother came also. Once we were all there, we all agreed that her sister wouldn't want to have her life prolonged artificially and life support was withdrawn about 8 pm and she died just after 11:30 pm. She was 64. Funeral was on Monday and despite the circumstances, it was nice to see some friends and family we haven't seen for a while. So we're dealing with that right now.

I'm still working urgent care generally 8 hrs/wk. I'm still selling on ebay regularly. For 2022, my total sales came to nearly $14,000. My profit was well over my goal of $6,000. I've kept the same goal of $ 500/mo profit for 2023 and so far I'm on track having made $610 in January and $564 in February with a few days to go.

I think that's all the major stuff to report.

4 month update

November 24th, 2022 at 01:21 am

I realized the other day that I haven't posted for quite a while. Apparently it's been 4 months. Oops. Life has been rather crazy, both good and bad.

At the beginning of August, I switched to per diem status at work. That means I no longer have scheduled shifts (or guaranteed hours). I am able to look at the schedule, see open shifts, and pick them up when and where I want to. I've basically been working two 4-hour shifts a week since then. It's very nice. Four hours is easy even when the place is crazy. I only take 9-1 any day or 1-5 on weekdays. I don't take 1-5 on weekends or 5-9 on weekdays so I'm not there for closing. One of the things I really hated about the job was the stress and pressure to get done on time when we were swamped with patients so I just decided I'd never take those shifts again if possible.

Open shifts are predominantly on the weekends, which is fine with me. Saturday and Sunday don't hold any magic for us. I'm just as happy being off during the week when everyone else is working. The added benefit to taking weekend shifts is that the hourly rate is 10% higher and there is a incentive bonus on top of that since they have so much trouble filling those shifts. I end up making about 37% more per hour from weekend shifts.

My wife is doing fairly well with her recovery from her back surgery and lung surgery. Still not 100% but much better. However, she developed another problem that is probably related. I'm not sure how much I've talked about this in the past but my wife is a childhood cancer survivor. She had a tumor behind her left eye when she was four that was successfully treated with then-experimental radiation. It cured the cancer but damaged the surrounding tissue as well as her left eye, which eventually got removed when she was 20 (there's more to the story but not relevant here). Anyway, she developed an infection of the skin of the eye socket. It didn't fully respond to 2 or 3 rounds of oral antibiotics. Then she did 2 weeks of IV antibiotics which finally took care of the infection but the whole episode with the skin swelling and irritation resulted in a tear in the skin that can't heal. So on 12/7 she's having surgery to get a skin graft to fix that. The surgeon expects her to be in the hospital for about a week. I'm super worried about that going well so lots of stress here lately.

On the happy side, both DW and DD got new cars recently. My wife's 2011 Sienna was not aging well. The pain on the roof was very worn, some rust had started in a few spots, and the moulding around the windshield and a couple of other places was rotting away. She bought a 2019 Subaru Forester from Carmax 2 weeks ago and is very happy with it. DD had a 2010 Hyundai Accent. Not a ton of miles but also starting to have a series of issues - broken hood release, dying power window motor, issues with the stereo, etc. All fixable things but we didn't feel it was worth puttting $1-2,000 into a 13-year-old car. Plus we really liked the idea of her having some of the newer safety features. So she got herself a 2018 Hyundai Elantra from Carvana. It was pretty neat doing everything online and having them deliver the car to the house.

I'm still hard at work with ebay and have been doing very well. I'm enjoying going to the estate sales pretty much every week, the yard sales during the season, and getting stuff for free online that people are giving away. Year to date, I've grossed just over $12,000 with profit of just under $9,000 which I'm very happy with. My goal was to earn at least $500/month profit and I've actually averaged over $800.

I think that's the big stuff that's been going on lately.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and wonderful holidays.

General updates - work, wife, ebay...

July 24th, 2022 at 03:42 pm

Things have been cruising along pretty well.

 

Thankfully my wife is feeling much better. Not 100% pain-free but able to do just about everything pretty normally. She's downstairs sewing as I type this.

 

We were able to go away for a few days earlier this month for our 30th anniversary. It wasn't the 2-week land/sea Alaska trip we had planned, but we had a really nice time just getting away and spending quality time together.

 

My last day of part time work is rapidly approaching. August 4 is my last shift and I officially become per diem on August 7. I've scheduled myself for 8 or 12 hours a week for the 5 weeks after that, either two 4 hour shifts or one 8 and one 4. One thing I'm planning to avoid is closing shifts as I find those the most stressful. So I'll be dropping from 3 days a week to 2 days a week which will be nice.

 

I've been getting more and more active with ebay, which has been the plan all along. This past week was very good as I sold 21 items this past week which I'm sure is the most I've ever done. My rolling 90-day sales jumped to 104 items. Averaging 1 item/day had been one of my goals and I hit it and blew right past it last week.

 

I continue to shop at estate sales and have gotten pickier about what I buy while also being open to buying more at one time. I've been working to increase the average sale price of my items which has been going pretty well. I'm not totally avoiding lower priced things as they can help provide steady cash flow but I have been moving into more items in the $30-50 and up range and less in the $15 and lower range.

 

Not too much else going on. All the usual stuff dealing with family, helping my mom (who will be 92 next week), and such. We have finally been getting back to some sort of social life after 2+ years of doing very little due to COVID. We had dinner with friends the other night, we're going out tonight with 2 other couples, and we have plans to meet other friends for dinner this week. It's nice to be seeing people again.

 

Ebay update

July 1st, 2022 at 10:57 pm

Somehow I've forgotten to blog for a while so here's an update on my ebay progress this year.

The 2nd quarter is over. It's almost comical to look at my results vs what my goal was at the start of the year.

Goal: $200/month average profit
Actual as of 6/30: $5,562 or $927/month average profit
Gross sales of $6,877

If you frequent the boards, you may have seen this story, but if not, I hit the jackpot a few weeks ago. I bought a crate of vintage bottle caps at an estate sale for $10. They turned out to be quite rare. I sold a single cap (there were about 1,650 caps in the crate) for $610! I won't get anywhere near that much for the rest but I have sold a few others for over $100 each. So far, I've made about $3,500 from the caps. I actually decided to sell off a lot of them to a collector/dealer. I could have made a lot more keeping them and selling them individually myself but I got a little overwhelmed and figured $3,500 profit on a $10 purchase was amazing and I didn't want to be greedy. If he can make some money too, I'm okay with that. And I didn't sell him everything so I still have a bunch to sell.

I'm trying to back off on buying a bit and focus on getting the stuff I already have listed. I want to keep hitting the estate sales from one company I've been dealing with a lot as they've gotten to know me and give me pretty good deals. Yard sale season is pretty much over as it's getting too hot. I'll work on selling stuff in the basement and garage (when it's cool enough to work out there for at least a few weeks and try to keep myself out of the other estate sales and thrift shops until I get some other stuff listed and hopefully get some more items sold.

Major health update on DW and Ebay update

May 21st, 2022 at 01:50 am

I haven't blogged for a few weeks with good reason. My wife ended up in the hospital on 4/23 and was there for 19 days. To keep it short, she developed a serious infection in and around her spine and related fluid in her left lung. She had major surgery on her back to clean it out and rebuild and stabilize her spine. She had a total of 3 procedures, 1 minor, 1 intermediate, and finally 1 more extensive to fix the lung issue. Spent 4 days in ICU post-op. Got 3 transfusions. Came home last week with a PICC line and IV antibiotics for a few more weeks.

As you can imagine, it was a major ordeal for all of us. On top of that whole mess, my mom got admitted during that same period for mild heart failure. Same hospital fortunately, so I was constantly going back and forth between their rooms. DW came home on Wednesday. Mom came home on Thursday. So I've been busy coordinating their home care needs since.

Anyway, both are now recovering and doing okay. Both have a visiting nurse and physical therapy at home. In a couple more weeks, DW will likly start outpatient PT for her back rehab.

Incidentally, as of now, the billing for DW's hospitalization stands at around $730,000. Insurance has already taken care of most of that but there is still some stuff that hasn't settled. It's only been a week, though, so I'm hopeful that the remainder will work its way through the system and get paid as well. We may end up owing something but we're hoping it won't be a major amount.

I put my ebay sales on vacation mode for a week when DW was first admitted. Once it became clear that she would be there quite a while, I restarted sales but only listed an item here and there so I was making and shipping sales but wasn't doing much to keep it going until after she got home. There just weren't enough hours in the day.

For the 2nd quarter so far, I have done $1,042.36 in sales and $679.42 in profit. That brings my YTD numbers to $2,657.35 in sales and $1,795.94 in profit. Considering my goal back in January was to average $200/month profit, I certainly can't complain as I'm actually averaging $359/month even with pausing for a few weeks with my wife's illness.

I haven't gotten an official end date for my part time contract at work so I'm still assuming it will be August 6. That means I've got 31 shifts left to work before I change to per diem. With the latest COVID surge hitting full force, I can't wait to cut back to 4-hour shifts. My site saw 69 patients yesterday which is a lot for us. I'm hoping this wave dies down quickly but right now there's no sign of that happening so we're all working our butts off again thanks to elimination of mask mandates and so many people just not caring anymore.

Ebay update 4/17/22

April 17th, 2022 at 02:14 pm

I realized I didn't post last week. Happy Passover and Easter to all.

My year to date sales total is $2,034.12.


YTD profit is $1,366.56.

I went to several estate and yard sales this weekend but the results were disappointing. I only picked up 3 items on Friday but nothing major.

I did spend a good amount of time in the garage Friday and Saturday and put together 2 boxes of stuff to list for sale. I listed 5 items yesterday and will do more today. Hopefully some of those will generate some sales. The past week was pretty slow, though other sellers in my Facebook groups have said the same. Probably due to the holidays and people doing their taxes.

Ebay update 4/3/22

April 3rd, 2022 at 08:24 pm
Time for my weekly ebay update.
 
My year to date sales total is currently $1,627.97.
 
YTD profit is $1,136.25.
 
I had some good estate and yard sale purchases this week. Saturday was the first time I got out to yard sales this season and there was a huge estate sale on Thursday that I actually went back to today for the final day and bought more stuff (at greatly reduced prices). I've barely begun to list this weekend's purchases but 2 things I did list on Friday sold within an hour so that was nice.
 
I've been off from work the past 6 days but I go back tomorrow. I did spend time yesterday cleaning up our computer room as that's where I'm now doing a lot of the ebay stuff and the room was a mess. I also ordered a new postal scale. Mine is good but has a 6 pound limit and a number of times I've had to ship something heavier than that. That will arrive tomorrow and I need to clear a space for it to go tonight.
 
I think my goal for the coming week will be to catch up on listing the things I bought as well as some other things already in stock. I work next weekend so no yard sales for me, which is fine, as I've got plenty to list already.

 

Ebay update 3/27/22

March 28th, 2022 at 01:09 am
Time for my weekly ebay update.
 
My 90-day running sales total is currently $2,095.08 and $1,544.04 YTD.
 
YTD profit is $1,079.35.
 
Very happy with these numbers. I've sold several items that were in our garage and basement, along with a couple more estate sale purchases.
 
I'm now in the black with the estate sale stuff. Since 2/19/22, I've spent $92 at sales to purchase 12 items. I've now sold 6 of those items for $109.90 so I've made about $18 profit (before expenses) and still have 6 items left to sell.
 
I went to one sale on Friday but didn't get anything. I had to work this weekend so wasn't able to hit any estate or yard sales. I was bummed about that as it was the first weekend there were many yard sales around here and the weather was beautiful. I had to live vicariously reading all of the posts in the ebay Facebook group seeing all the great stuff others scored this weekend. Oh well, I'll be out there next Saturday for sure.

Ebay update 3/20/22

March 20th, 2022 at 07:35 pm
I had a good week. My GI Joe auction ended on Tuesday for $305! One of my best sales ever. And several other things sold too.
 
My 90-day running sales total is currently $1,852.54 and $1,397.20 YTD.
 
YTD profit is $960.56, so way above my goal of $200/month.
 
I went to estate sales on Thursday and Friday and picked up a few things. The Thursday sale was an extra day added to a sale from the previous weekend. Everything was 50% off, which was perfect for me. Unfortunately, two things I bought turned out to have damage that I didn't notice until I got them home. I need to check more carefully from now on. I should still be fine though. The other items should sell for enough to make up for it. I adjusted my costs to zero out the cost of those two items.
 
I only started hitting the estate sales last month. So far, I've spent $92 on 12 items (not counting the 2 damaged things). I've already made back $91 selling 5 of them so whatever I get for the other 7 is all profit.
 
I didn't bother with any sales yesterday. I went to two today but didn't get anything. The professionally-run sales seem to have sky high prices, at least when they first start. Later in the sale they're more willing to negotiate. I think I need stop going when they open and start going toward the end of the day, or on the last day if it's a multi-day sale.
 
Overall, I'm very happy with the numbers I've racked up. Definitely more than I expected. Now that it's spring, the yard sales should start popping up soon. I'm looking forward to checking those out as prices tend to be a lot more reasonable than they are at the estate sales, though finding quality items can be more challenging.

Ebay update 3/13/22

March 13th, 2022 at 11:59 pm

I've been a collectibles dealer since 1986 and an ebay seller since 1997 but was relatively dormant for many years as work and life kept me busy with other things. It's been my plan all along for my retirement "job" to be getting back to my collectibles business. I started selling again toward the end of the summer with a lot of the stuff I got when I cleaned out my cousin's house, and I've moved on to a lot of the stuff we already had that needed to be sold.

My 90-day running sales total is currently $1,364.61 and $958.30 YTD.

My goal for now, while I'm still working, is to earn at least $200/mo. after expenses. Right now I'm at $687.89 YTD so already ahead of my goal.

Something I didn't really think I would do quite yet was to start buying items to resell again, but I've gone down that road, too. In the past 3 weeks, I've gone to several estate sales. I struck out at some but did buy several items at others. So far, I've bought 7 items and already sold 4 of them, so not a bad track record in a short time. I'm hoping that once yard sale season gets going, I'll find more merchandise at better prices as the estate sales tend to be more costly. I think some of those organizers price the stuff based on  the highest prices they see on ebay. Great if they can get it, but I certainly can't pay full retail price if I want to resell the stuff.

That's all for now. I'll update periodically with my progress. If you're an ebay seller too, I'd love to hear how you're making out.

New bed, Chili, and ebay update

March 5th, 2022 at 09:07 pm

We did something today that we haven't done for 25 years - bought a new bed. DW has been wanting a new mattress for ages but I've put it off because I'm cheap and sleep just fine on the one we have. However since she hurt her back in October, she hasn't been able to sleep in bed. She just can't get comfortable and it doesn't give her enough support. She's been sleeping downstairs on the loveseat propped up with pillows. Not a good long term solution. We were hoping she'd be better by now but since she's not, it was time to go another route.

She did a bunch of research and decided on a hybrid memory foam/spring mattress. The main thing would be an adjustable base so she could raise the head of the bed rather than propping up on pillows. Honestly, I'll like that too as watching TV in bed or even doing stuff on my phone means propping up awkwardly which tends to hurt my neck.

We headed off to a local shop today. They were still running their Presidents Day sale. We tried several options and agreed on one and placed the order. It should be delivered on Tuesday. We got split twin XLs since we have a king bed but need to be able to adjust them independently so she can sleep propped up and I can sleep flat. Of course, that raised the price, but it's the only workable solution.

After lunch, I made a pot of chili as we were out. That will be dinner tonight and 5 containers went into the freezer.

Ebay has been busy. I'm up to 82 active listings. My 90-day sales total is $1,039. My current goal is to make at least $200/mo after expenses and YTD I'm already at $505 so I should have no trouble passing $600 before the end of March. I already have $21 in bids right now.

Although the primary goal is to clear out the basement and garage, I've also started going to estate sales, being very selective in what I buy to resell. Two weeks ago, I went to my first one and bought 6 items for $14. I've already sold 2 for $40. Thursday I went to one and spent $3 for one item which I sold last night for $25. Not a bad track record so far.

 

February updates

February 20th, 2022 at 12:42 am

Things are cruising along reasonably well. I've adjusted well to working part time. At first it didn't seem much different. It took me a few weeks to adjust my schedule and stop feeling like I had to cram things into the 3 days I was off since I now have a whole 4th day free. Plus 2 days a week I don't go in until 1pm so I've got those mornings free now too.

Still, I'm constantly running the numbers to see when it is reasonable for me to drop to per diem and just work when I want to. I'm thinking that if I can pick up at least enough shifts to earn what we will be spending on health insurance, that would be perfect.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in my blog (I know I've talked about it on the forums) but my wife developed back trouble at the end of October so we've been dealing with that. She's had 3 epidural injections and is having facet joint injections on Friday. She's better than she was but still nowhere near normal. Because of that, I don't really want to switch insurance plans now, which we'd need to do if I stopped working part time. We could do COBRA but that's super expensive so not really a good option. Hopefully, things will turn around over the next few months and she'll be better so switching coverage won't be a big concern anymore.

I've been much more active on ebay, which was my intent when I started working less. I currently have 72 items listed (plus 10-20 on Marketplace). Just this morning, for the first time in a long time, I bought some stuff to resell from an estate sale. While we still have plenty of stuff in the house for me to sell, I also know that if I want ebay to become a meaningful source of retirement income, I'm going to need to buy stock. I spent $14 today on 6 items that should bring in $100 or more. We shall see.

We have a cruise booked for August so we're hoping both that COVID is under control and that DW is physically able to do it.

I'm taking our tax stuff to the CPA on Tuesday. This year is complicated as it's our normal personal return, a final return for my cousin, and an estate return. I have no idea what that will all look like, if we'll owe, if we'll get money back, or what. So I kind of feel like I'm in limbo at the moment as far as making any big financial decisions until that's all done and I know where we stand.

Plenty of other things happening, but that's enough for now.

Updates: estate, job, etc.

August 8th, 2021 at 12:34 am

It's been over a month since my last entry. Time for an update.

I did return to Florida where I spent about 2 more weeks finishing up. Donated a bunch more stuff. Got the house ready to sell. Met with the realtor. A guy who lives in the neighborhood and knew my cousin had a sister in NY interested in the house. I had her and a couple of others excluded from the realtor contract. She flew down to see the house while we were there (my wife joined me partway through) and made a cash offer for just over our asking price. We're on track to close on Tuesday as far as I know.

We rented a truck and packed up a bunch of stuff that we wanted to bring home and drove back 7/14-7/15. I returned to work on 7/17.

Work has been nuts thanks to COVID and the fact that they closed one of our 8 sites at the end of May. At my primary site, we've had several days where we've seen over 70 patients which is a lot. 50s to 60ish had been the norm. We all can't wait for COVID to settle down but this particular location is also in an area with high anti-vax sentiment and "free-dumb" folks. Even a number of the staff members are anti-vax which just drives me nuts. How can you be on the front line of the pandemic seeing COVID patients every single day and still not see the value in the vaccine? Thankfully, our job has made the vaccine mandatory. We must be fully vaccinated by September 15. A bunch of people have quit as a result, though I'm not sure where they're planning to go since most other health systems are doing the same thing, but at least I won't be stuck with them anymore.

Big news on the job front is that I officially gave notice to drop to part time. I don't have an effective date yet. My contract requires 120 days notice so it could be as late as December 1. They handle that on a case by case basis so it could be before that. I know they have per diem providers waiting for hours to open up so if they can fill my spot easily, they might let me out of the contract early.

I'll go from 36 hours to 24. I'll still have medical benefits but at a slightly higher rate (about $70/month). And I'll still have the option of picking up extra hours whenever I'd like based on availability. I'll definitely do that for a while because I owe them about 80 hours. My leave of absence used up all of my PTO but we have a couple of trips planned in the fall that I'm still taking so I have to make up that time. Also, if I pick up 4 hours a week, I'd make some extra money and still be doing 8 hours less than I had been. One nice thing, hopefully, is that I won't be working 12-hour days anymore. I requested three 8-hour shifts for my 24 hour week.

Hopefully, the house closes as scheduled on Tuesday. That will be the last big piece of the estate. Then I just have to wait for the probate process to end in early October before the funds can be distributed to me.

I've been staying active listing stuff on ebay since a lot of what came home from Florida is items I wanted to sell. I've got about a dozen listings going and have already sold several. Little by little, I'll work through it all. Once I go part time, I plan to devote more time to the sales.

I think that's about it for now.

December update

December 9th, 2019 at 01:38 am

Not much new going on. Everything is cruising along nicely which is good.

I've sold a couple of items on Facebook Marketplace recently. It definitely has advantages over Ebay and I've used it to get rid of some things that have been sitting around or a while, including things that I tried unsuccessfully to sell on Ebay. The fact that there's no shipping cost helps a lot. That's what makes it hard to sell lower priced items online.

I maxed out my 401k a month or so ago so for the last couple of paychecks, I took the money that would have gone to that and put it into our Vanguard account instead. I did the full amount even though I was doing it with after-tax dollars. We have one more paycheck in December and then the 401k funding will resume, plus they upped the limit $1,000 for 2020 so it'll take a bit longer to max it.

We took advantage of the Target gift card sale today and bought $600 worth at 10% off. Last week we bought gift cards for one of our favorite restaurants. If you bought $75 they gave you an extra $20. We go there about once a month so that'll save us a bit. And yesterday I paid our auto insurance bill through PayPal with our Chase Freedom Visa which has 5% cashback on PayPal purchases this quarter. That saved me $63. $60 from Target, $20 from the restaurant, and $63 from the insurance. All of those things can really add up over time. Oh, and we bought $300 of the Target cards with our Discover card that has 5% back at Target this quarter though we're not sure if that includes gift card purchases. I'll have to wait and see.

My wife and I are going to NYC this week overnight and seeing a show. It's for her birthday. I booked the hotel on reward points so that's free. Of course the parking, dinner, and show aren't. Unfortunately, it looks like it will be very cold so we probably won't do much in the city. That's okay because I like wandering in the city much more than she does anyway.

I guess that's all the main stuff for now.

I think I'm done with ebay

March 3rd, 2019 at 01:57 am

I've been selling collectibles since 1986 and selling on ebay since 1997, not long after it started. There was even a brief time in 2000 when I sold collectibles full time when I was between jobs. In recent years, I've gone through spurts where I would list things for a few weeks and then get tired of it all and stop.

Lately, I've just felt more and more like it isn't worth my time. I got a new job 2 years ago and I'm making a whole lot more money than I used to. Not only that, but there are always opportunities for me to pick up extra hours and earn even more. It's that part that has really made me think it's time to pack in the sales thing.

Selling on ebay isn't difficult but it does take time. I have to photograph and list the items and then pack and ship them which sometimes involves a trip to the post office. I sell mostly low priced items, like under $40, so after fees it's not like I'm making a ton. But my job pays really well. I can make more in a 4 hour shift as I would make selling on ebay in a month.

As much as I actually enjoy the sales thing, there are only so many hours in a day and do I really want to spend them doing all that work just to make a few dollars? Years ago, I did it for the money. Now, I just don't need it.

I still have a lot of stuff in stock that was bought to sell. I've donated a bunch of it over the past couple of years. I'm going to start seeing what else I can donate and work on clearing it all out.

March and April 2010 Survey Income

May 3rd, 2010 at 08:06 pm

I realized that I never posted my survey income for March. Now April is over, too, so I'll update the last 2 months.

March was good and I earned $514 on surveys.

April I slacked off a bit again, partly because I was really busy all month between work, Passover and business at my synagogue and honestly partly due to laziness yet again. Still, for April, I earned $396 but I know it could have been a lot better than that.

Thanks to some increased expenses currently and upcoming including a costly car repair, some home repairs, an unplanned vacation (the cruise I posted about) and our usual summer vacation, I am more committeed than ever to maximize my survey income. The past couple of weeks, I have been really good about doing every possible survey program I can. I don't track money until it is received but I know I've done a few hundred dollars worth of surveys that I haven't gotten paid for yet (there is usually a lag of 3-4 weeks) so May should be a pretty good month.

I've also sold 6 books gotten by doing surveys since April 1 and I've gotten back on ebay. I had 2 items sell yesterday and listed 3 more last night. I will update my Ebay Challenge numbers as soon as I get a chance.

Back on ebay yet again thanks to the flood

March 14th, 2010 at 01:33 am

We got hit by a major Nor'easter storm today that dumped a couple of inches of rain on our area, some of which ended up in our basement which has been known to happen during particularly bad storms. As a result, I spent a good part of the day down there running the shop vac to suck up the water as it came in. Since most of it was leaking in around one window, I was able to position the vacuum just right so that I could let it run without having to hold it.

While that was happening, I spent time cleaning the disaster area we call our basement. Every time I'm down there, I tell myself I have got to start selling on ebay again since so much of what is there is my sales stock. Just looking at the table where I do my ebay work made me tired. The table was a mess, strewn with merchandise, papers, tools, craft stuff and more. There was no way I could do anything without cleaning that up, so I did. I put away a number of things that don't belong there, put some sale items on the shelves to clear table space and finally, I reset the cloth backdrop I use to take pictures of items I'm selling. There, that actually looked nice and made me want to start using the space again for its intended purpose - selling on ebay.

I photographed and wrote descriptions for 3 auctions and just finished posting them online. These are my first auctions since December. I have tons and tons of stuff to list. Now that I cleaned up my work space, I'm going to keep it that way and make ebay a regular part of my routine again.

Mid-month update, odds and ends

January 17th, 2010 at 02:15 am

I realized I haven't posted since the 2nd of January. I've been extremely busy at work. Not much time for anything else.

I have started getting things organized to do our taxes. Today, I worked on my ebay and half.com sales to start putting those numbers together.

I also scheduled the February mortgage payment online today. Last year, I was paying an extra $100/month to principal. I've now upped that to $200/month starting this month.

I added $215 to my wife's Roth last week and will add to mine with this next week's paycheck.

I'm continuing to do almost all of the surveys that come my way, at least the ones I qualify for. I did a $95 one today and got 2 or 3 checks this past week.

We've actually been to the casino 3 times since the first of the month which is extremely unusual. The first trip on the 1st, I won $310. The 2nd trip I went with a friend while my wife, daughter and his wife went shopping. That was more to hang out and talk than to gamble, but I did win $30. The last time, a week ago, I did extremely well. I won $800 playing three card poker though I did lose $93 of it at other games before leaving. Still, that gave me a $707 profit for the day. That puts me up over $1,300 for my last 4 casino visits. My wife and I will be going to Atlantic City probably the first or second weekend of February so hopefully, the good luck will continue.

I've sold 2 books so far this month on half.com but still haven't listed anything on ebay. I've just been too tired after work or had meetings at night. I do need to do that sometime soon.

Guess that's all for now.

Need money - Clean your house

November 29th, 2009 at 11:28 pm

All 3 of us got on a cleaning binge this weekend. As has happened before, that has resulted in me listing some items on ebay. Yesterday, my wife came across a book/CD set from a work seminar. An identical set sold last week for $22.50 so I listed her set.

Today, my daughter unearthed her Game Boy Advance. I searched and they have been selling for $20-$30 for the player alone and DD also has a lighted grip thing that should add a few dollars to the value, so I listed that.

In the process, I also listed 5 other items that I didn't find due to cleaning but it put me in the mood to unload some things.

So I've listed 7 items in 2 days. Three items already have bids and I know from experience that most bids happen on the final day so I'm sure some of the others will sell, too. So cleaning the house may bring in $50-$100 in sales if we're lucky.

Back on ebay

November 28th, 2009 at 04:23 pm

I haven't listed anything on ebay for months, despite my own ebay challenge for the year. As the sidebar shows, I made nothing in July or August. September was great with book sale on Half.com and a little came in in October and November.

My wife actually spurred me to get back on ebay. We've been doing some housecleaning this weekend and she handed me a book/CD set she got at a work seminar last year and asked if I could sell it on ebay. I just listed it and found that an identical set sold last week for $22.50. I've be happy to get even my starting bid of $14.99.

Now I'm going to go down to my stock area and prepare some listings for Christmas collectible items. This week is prime time for selling that stuff.

Right now, my monthly average is only just over $70, not nearly the $100 goal I set for myself, but it's my own fault. Without this self-imposed challenge, though, I doubt I would have done anywhere near that much in sales so it certainly wasn't a failure.

I'll post a year-end summary at the end of next month. If anyone else took on this challenge, make sure you post your final numbers, too.

Another ebay update

September 18th, 2009 at 08:46 pm

I had a big half.com sale today, a medical text for $29.95. My price was well below the next lowest price. I did that on purpose. I got the book for free and figured if I could get $30 for it, I'd be very happy. That brings me to 16 sales and $158.86 for the month. I'm quite happy with that.

Ebay Challenge Update 9/17/09

September 18th, 2009 at 12:02 am

As I've reported before, and as my sidebar shows, I got off track with my Ebay Challenge for a while in late spring and summer, earning absolutely nothing for July and August.

This month, I listed a bunch of books on half.com. I love that site. It is simple to use and stuff sells very well. The best thing is that almost all of the books that I sell are things that I get for free by doing surveys and online pharmaceutical details, so it is is pure profit.

I have sold 15 books so far this month for a total of $128.91. That puts me over my $100/month goal, though I have to exceed that to make the average for the year $100 since I didn't do much for 4 months. RIght now, my average over 9 months is only $78.18/month.

I still haven't gotten back on ebay. That is more time consuming and I just haven't had the get up and go to do it. Maybe after the Jewish holidays are over.

Loving Half.com

September 8th, 2009 at 08:05 pm

I posted about this on the forums, but wanted to elaborate here. I have sold books on half.com for some time and it really seems to go in waves. I'll sell nothing for weeks and weeks and then all of a sudden, I'll have a slew of sales.

Last Sunday night, I listed 9 copies of a medical book I had gotten doing surveys online. By Friday, all 9 copies had sold. Not only that, but since then, 2 other books that I had listed weeks ago also sold. So that's 11 sales in 8 days.

For those who have books lying around that you don't need, this is a simple place to try and sell them. There is no cost unless the item sells. Half.com handles all the details and collects from the buyer and sends you a payment on your account twice each month automatically. It is much simpler than ebay.

Back to the ebay challenge

August 10th, 2009 at 02:12 am

I admit it. I've failed at my own challenge. At the beginning of the year, I posted the ebay challenge, to have average monthly sales of $100. I got off to a strong start as you can see on my sidebar. Then I just dropped off to nothing.

So now I'm determined to get back on track. We leave for vacation on Friday and when I get back, I'm getting back to business. I just figured out that I need to earn $625.27 by the end of the year to have my monthly average be $100. I've got 4 months so that's $156.32/month. That's a challenge, for sure, but I'll do my best. Before, I was usually listing 5 items per week. I'll have to do more than that to reach my goal.

Edited to correct "5 items per month" to "5 items per week".

More Decluttering and Ebay Stuff

April 18th, 2009 at 07:51 pm

Today is a beautiful spring day, the first we've really had this year. I spent a couple of hours attacking the disaster area we call our garage. I managed to make some progress, get rid of some trash, put some stuff in the recycling bin and condense some of what remains. I also made a trip to the Goodwill donation center with 3 boxes containing 3 sets of dishes, 1 box of children's books and 1 old computer monitor. That cleared some space in the garage.

I also located a number of items that I will list on ebay, hopefully starting tomorrow. So my decluttering may yield some cash, too, and help my ebay challenge numbers. We'll see.


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