1 Year Full Time Reselling Review

Wow, I honestly can not believe a whole year has flown by since Bjorn and I came back from our month long trip to the Netherlands and I started on the path of reselling and blogging full time! I'm really proud of this business I grew out of nothing, and it's amazing to look back on where I started and thought I knew then, and what I am doing now (some the same but a lot different!) I thought I would take this time to publicly reflect on this past year and my experiences to hopefully help any other resellers or business owners on their own journey!

What I love!

(Ok this one is super easy!)

- I have always LOVED bargain shopping, and I'm so grateful to have found an outlet where I can do what I love doing and support myself at the same time. 

- When I make a sale and simultaneously help someone also find a great deal on an item they love!

- Making a difference for our environment by promoting the reuse of clothing, shoes, and accessories.

- I am so proud that such a large portion of my business expenses are going to charity via the thrift stores I source at.

- The reselling community is very helpful and supportive!

- Unlike a traditional job with stagnant pay, when I put in extra hard work in my business I see a difference in my paycheck.

What I Didn't Expect

- I did not know as much as about the demand of brands as I thought ( I picked up WAYYY too much Lauren Ralph Lauren just because I personally thought it was nice...)

- The more professional, put together, and cohesive you make your brand, the more customers will treat you like a big business (which is not as nice, fyi)

- You just can't meet everyone's expectations.

​- I will be working way more than 40 hours a week, and even when I try to disconnect I can't stop thinking about working!

- Social media is such an important tool for promoting a business.

- eBay may sound like the cheapest place to sell, but after shipping, subscription fees, PayPal fees, promoted listings, etc, (as recommended by eBay) you are paying well over 20% sellers fees on your items!

What I Don't Love So Much...

- In order to get a free return, people will resort to damaging your items in order to open an "item not as described" case.

​- People will harass you via messages to get a partial/full refund.

​- Working for yourself can be very isolating!

The Changes I'm Making

- As time has passed, I've found I'm not a huge fan of eBay. This is actually the first site I resold on, and for a time this was where I was making my most money. But eBay buyers can be very mean & harassing, and eBay can be harsh when it comes to hiding your listings when you do something they don't like. Plus they have the "buyer is always right" mentality, which has cost me quite a bit of money over time. I've found for me, the stress of receiving an eBay message from an unhappy buyer or possibly not meeting my shipping deadline is just not worth it to me anymore. Since the beginning of 2019 I've started sourcing items geared more towards Poshmark, and hope by this summer when my eBay store subscription expires that I will be able to transition solely to Poshmark. #poshmarkisbae

- At the beginning of reselling full time, I was all about spending the bare minimum for my inventory. If it was more than $1 I would not even think about picking it up, even if it was a great brand I could make money off of! I was just really paranoid about spending money. It is just so much harder to find great inventory at that type of price. Possible, but difficult. My ASP was low and I was having to list and move so much inventory to reach my goals. It was SO much work! Once I got over the thought that spending money was bad, I was making better inventory purchases, had to sell less to make more, and the quality of items I was listing was much more on brand with Fancy Free <3

My Recommendations For New Resellers

- Do you research! Other resellers are so open to share information. Follow them on Instagram , subscribe to their YouTube channels and look out for what they are picking up, what they are selling and at what prices, etc. It is amazing how many brands I look out for at the thrift store that I knew nothing about this time a year ago! (Like, a lot)

- Keep an Excel spreadsheet of your inventory and what you paid for the items so you can keep track of the money you are actually making, how long items have sat around, etc.

- As well, keep track of your expenses and sales NOW so you aren't scrambling come tax time (yes you have to pay taxes on the money you make reselling)

- Make sure to log what you are driving. It is a tax write off!

- EVERYONE has a $0 sales day. It is inevitable. When I get down on a low sales day, I like to look at my numbers and remind myself my reselling business came completely from my own hustle! You got this!

- Don't take returns/unhappy customers/bad review personally. This one took me a long time to learn, but you just can't please everyone, and many people become very confident/mean behind a keyboard. Just do your best. Sometimes you make mistakes. It's ok. Life goes on. There are more important things. Try to do better moving forward. :)