I started selling on eBay around 2013 when I wanted to sell an ex's piece of jewelry. It sold overnight so I thought that was pretty cool. I then tried to sell a few more things around my apartment before running out of stuff. Once I sold about 25 pieces of my old electronic drum set, I knew I was able to do this easily.

I then bought some BestBuy clearance items with gift cards and sold them at retail, then discovered thrift stores. I hustled around my city (usually 10-15 stores a day) and started selling like wildfire. I got better and smarter about it in my spare time, while being in a band, playing baseball, and working full-time at a global bank.

Eventually the part-time thrifting income started covering my rent and bills, so I saved up a good amount of money and challenged myself to quit my job to pursue it. This was over 4 years ago and I'm not going back. It worked out very well until my Dad had a 2+ year ordeal with brain cancer and my Mom was in the hospital for 6 months for being crushed by a tree in her car during a tornado. If I was working full-time, I wouldn't have been able to support that.

After things got back to normal, I'd sort of discovered recycling for profit by accident in my city. I don't really need to thrift much anymore as I walk outside my neighborhood's curbs at night on weekdays and go thrifting for free with lots of wealthy people putting valuable stuff on the curbs in boxes or clear plastic bags (or loose). Thrift store prices are also getting out of hand here, so it's harder to find their mistakes, and my time is much more profitable on the curbs. Only 1-2 hours a few times a week are all I need to find enough inventory with my eye.

I mainly do recycling for my sourcing for resale these days because it's free, more fun, and helps the environment a lot. I usually find a few hundred dollars worth of stuff every time I go out and they're really good household products, electronics, books or collectibles. While I've thrifted thousands of items, I've also recycled thousands, and it's growing. I post on it a few times a month if you ever want to see what I mean.

I mainly sell on eBay and Craigslist. I sometimes sell on Etsy. I haven't used Facebook marketplace yet, but may try it out for the high-end baby strollers and vacuums I find, although I make far more by parting them out in pieces to sell online.

This is a lot of info, so feel free to ask away or scout out my future posts to see what I mean and get ideas.