Based on the response to two recent reader polls The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge will begin on May 1, 2008. This year’s Challenge will be similar to The $10.000 eBay Garage Sale Challenge from last summer, but will include a few twists including the opportunity for you to take part if you choose.
What’s Different This Year?
1. Amazon is being added as an additional sales venue. While I talked some last year about books I’d purchased at garage sales being put on Amazon, my sales from Amazon were not included in the actual Challenge. This year they will be. I’m doing for two reasons. One, Amazon can provide a viable income source for many of you and there are no real additional acquisition costs. Two, quite a few readers wrote saying they would like to see them included.
2. The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge will include inventory purchased at thrift stores. This change is being made primarily based on the number of poll responses requesting a thrift shop challenge.
3. Interested readers will have the opportunity to actively take part in The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge on weekly basis by challenging themselves, setting their own goals, and sharing their results with other readers.
My primary reason for doing last year’s Challenge was to show that anyone can start with a small amount of money and build a successful part-time, or full-time, eBay business. My goal for this year’s Challenge remains the same. The changes to this year’s Challenge fit right into that goal.
The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge Rules
1. The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge will run from May 1 to September 30, 2008. Only inventory purchased between those dates will may be included in the Challenge. Inventory must be sold by October 12, 2008 to be included in your final results.
2. All inventory must be purchased at either garage sales or thrift shops. Purchases can be made garage sales or thrift stores in your area or from sales or stores you visit when traveling.
3. All sales must be made on eBay or Amazon. No other sales venues qualify. If you choose to use only Amazon or only eBay that is fine.
4. Whether you choose to use only eBay, only Amazon, or both, you may only use one seller ID under each venue for qualifying inventory.
5. You must set a personal goal of an exact dollar amount of NET profits they want to achieve by the end of the Challenge. Don’t just pull a figure out of thin air. Take some time and come up with a figure that you feel is achievable but will require you to stretch a little to attain it.
6. At a minimum, you must factor in the following expenses when determining your net profit:
- Actual Sales price
- Inventory cost
- Listing fees for eBay
- Final value fees for eBay or all associated fees for Amazon
- PayPal fees if applicable
- Mileage expenses calculated at $.505 per mile
- Any incidental expense associated with a sale, i.e. repair costs, refurbishment costs, etc.
7. To participate you have to register with me by leaving a comment on this blog post or, if you have blog posts delivered to you by email, you may choose to register by responding to the email containing this post. Since I realize not everyone reads the blog, or their email, on a daily basis, registrations will be accepted until May 11, 2008. Your registration must include:
- Your net profit goal
- The eBay and/or Amazon seller ID you will be using
If you don’t want your seller ID’s made public, you can mail them to me separately and they will not be shared with anyone else.
8. Prior to May 1, I will provide a way for each participant to share their goals and their progress with other participants and readers. This will probably be either a forum or a community blog. You must post your net profit goal there, along with your weekly purchases and a breakdown of your weekly sales, expenses, and net profits similar to what I did last year - see example here. Your portion of this information sharing portal must be updated at least every other week.
If you are interested in participating, but have additional questions you can ask them in the comment section below or email me and I’ll answer them.
I encourage everyone to participate. This can be a learning experience for everyone, no matter what their eBay experience, if enough people take part and share their experiences.
Photograph by emdot.
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April 6th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Gary,
Since we don’t have many viable thrift shops in my general area (only 4 in 1hr. drive), I attend auctions to supplement my garage sale finds.
If I’m going to participate I’ll need to include auctions purchases as well or I won’t have enough weekly items.
Here in rural upstate NY auctions are king, with garage sales being much less fruitful.
Please advise.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Stephen,
I sent you an email about including auctions in the Challenge, but let me think about it for a couple days and I’ll let you know.
I’d originally thought about including them, but decided no to for a couple of reasons.
Gary H.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Hi Gary, I’ve been following this since the last one and happy to hear about a new one for this year. Since I’ve been concentrating more on new and wholesale items, I’m almost completely out of 2nd hand inventory!
So this is good timing for me. Seems that it is a full five months so my goal for PROFIT from Garage Sale/Thrift Store items is $5,000.
My user name on eBay is Katskloset and I list on Amazon as CountlessPages
Thanks for providing this forum and I’m ready to start saling - nothing can count till May 1st though, correct?
kat
April 7th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Kat,
Congratulations on being the first person to sign on.
I realize that it’s not something I can really control, but I would prefer if participants only counted things purchased on May 1st or later, since the idea is to see what we can generated in the five month period of May to September.
Thanks for deciding to take part and I hope you enjoy it.
Gary H.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Hi, Gary, I’d like to join in also. Working on coming up with my net profit goal. I’ll let you know.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Hi Gary,
I’d like to participate, sounds like great fun! My area is more rural, so my goal is low, $3000.00. Will we be able to post pics of our finds?
Rita
April 12th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Rita,
Welcome to the Challenge. I hadn’t thought about setting things up so participants could share pics of their finds, but that’s a great idea. I’ll set it up so you can. Thanks for the idea.
Gary H.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
That’s great Gary! I think it will be fun to share, can’t wait to start.
Rita
April 15th, 2008 at 9:20 am
hi Gary,
Forgot to add that my e-bay seller id is; desertsunglass. I don’t sell on Amazon.
I don’t know how the rest of the group will choose to keep track of their sales ect, but I have set up a chart in my Microsoft excel program to keep track of mine.
Rita
April 17th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Good morning Gary,
What can you tell me about old(60’s and up) super hero comic books? They are in protective plastic covers and appear to be in very good condition. I have about 34 of them, (one is a #1 Superman) Doing research on e-bay brought mixed results, so knowing nothing about them, I though I’d ask you.
Thanks much for any help,
Rita
April 17th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Rita,
I’m afraid comic books are something I have never gotten into. You might see what you came up with by doing a search on Google for “comic prices” or “comic price guide”.
Sorry,
Gary H
April 18th, 2008 at 1:06 am
No problem, thanks for replying!
Rita
April 18th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Hi Gary,
As I reside in Canada, I can only sell on Amazon.ca and will not bother as it seems a waste of time; so all my sales are on ebay. My ID on ebay is rgilbert15.
My goal is to generate at least $5000 profit (net of purchases, fees, expenses to get to garage sales, auctions, etc.) between now and the end of September. My wife is a bookkeeper and track all our purchases, expenses, etc. so I should be able to keep track pretty closely.
… Ron
April 18th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Hi Gary,
Please remove me from the Challenge (and you can delete my former post if you like). I have just been informed I am having knee replacement surgery June 11, so will be out of commission for at least a couple of months.
I don’t understand my duplicate posts, other than th efact that I was getting a webserver error and clicked again.
Thanks … Ron
April 18th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
what about pawn shops? sort of like thrift stores.
this workable? you ever visit pawn shops? they have just about everything these days from tools, to collectibles, etc.
dean
April 19th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
dean.e
If you’d like to include purchases from pawn shops go right ahead. People have been asking about plenty of other inventory sources so we might as well include pawn shops too.
Gary H.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:50 pm
We’d like in too. Our goal is $5000 as well. We’re looking forward to seeing just how well we can do from yard sales this summer. We started selling last August and have done most of our buying at auctions and estate sales. Since Gary added auctions to the challenge we’ll include our auction purchases over the summer too.
Our userid is orangecatcollectibles.
Ken (and Deb) McKinney
April 26th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Gary,
We want to join the challenge and will come up with our figure this coming weekend while sitting in the infield of the Kentucky Derby. I hesitated in signing up for the challenge because the entire month of may I will have limited time, but with the length of the challenge we want to get in participate and share with everyone the great results.
Thanks,
Scot
April 26th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Scot,
We’ll be happy to have you aboard. Just one thing, there will be no talking about sitting at the Kentucky Derby drinking mint juleps when right now I’m looking out the window at 2″ of fresh snow from last night.
Gary
April 28th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Any problem with roadside finds?
It is almost shocking what some people take out to the road for trash collection day.
I do not dig through trash cans, but if something nice is just sitting at the curb and I like it I snag it.
Recently I dragged home a like-new farmhouse table. All that was wrong with it was one leg slightly wobbly as one bolt was missing. I’ve been wanting one of those tables.
I also found an antique sewing box on legs. It was used to sit by your chair. The people who live there have a senile relative they care for. I think they threw her sewing things out. It contained some patterns and a new quilting book. I still have it.
My goal is to replace my paycheck. This job will be ending but I don’t have a precise date yet. So, I am going to give this a go.
My goal is to give myself a $60 a week raise and go for a net amount of $6300.00.
I am working nights 12 hour shifts, so this will not be easy. But I will give it a good go. I get off work at 8am and can stop at sales on my 34 mile drive home through several towns. I will be that dreaded Early Bird people warn not to come too early! I’ll be waiting for ‘em to open!
Thank you for the challenge, Gary. Bless you.
Celise in Darke County Ohio
April 29th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Celise-e,
If you want to include roadside treasures, go for it.
Gary H.
May 6th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Post for Rita,
Reader of this site for about 2 months (love it Gary and thanks for your insights!)
Rita, about the comics you bought: Depending on what condition and what issues you have, you could make a pretty good return on your investment. It just depends. Condition is everything for a comic plus key issues are highly sought after buy collectors. Be glad to provide more info if you’d like.
Best of luck to all in this year’s challenge. (I’m having my own little private one. Just wasn’t ready to publically accept the gauntlet thrown down by Gary!)
Also, ran across about eight Myers Rum Spirit of ‘76 glasses the other day…didn’t purchase, but was wondering is these are worth much to collectors (one of those should I or shouldn’t I)…thanks for any insight.