I earn £9.8k a MONTH reselling charity shop buys on eBay & Depop – I cleared my student loan & quit my job thanks to it
A woman makes $12k a month on average by buying and reselling clothes on eBay and Poshmark.
Kelsey Mikula, 27, started buying and reselling clothes in 2020 while she was studying zoology at Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia, US.
She buys clothes from charity shops like Salvation Army, Goodwill and local thrift stores and sells them on sites like eBay, Mercari and Poshmark.
Kelsey will also collect unwanted clothes from people’s homes and sell them at auction on Whatnot.
In March 2023, Kelsey was able to successfully pay off her $80k student loan and now runs her business full-time.
On average, Kelsey sells $15k of clothes a month – but spends $2.8k a month on the items she resells – making $12k a month.
Kelsey, a reseller and content creator, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said: “It has been crazy how much things have grown since I went full-time.
“Working for myself I have a lot more free time, it is good for my mental health doing something that I really want to do.
“That being said, you need to be productive if you want to see the money coming in.
“Reselling is a performance-based job, if I work my butt off for the whole month my numbers go up.
“I have also streamlined my business in a way that some weeks when I am not working full time I am still earning a full-time income.”
Kelsey started reselling items while she was studying zoology at University to get some extra cash.
After graduating, she would then resell on the side of her full-time job as a unit secretary in a hospital – before taking the plunge and going full-time.
She said: “I didn’t start taking it seriously until 2020 when I finished university and couldn’t get a job in my major.
“I have now surpassed my hospital income.
“I have really taken a dive into content creation which was a hobby for me but is now earning me money.
KELSEY'S TOP TIPS FOR RESELLING:
1 – Check history of what items have sold for
2 – Find out how fast the items are selling
3 – Don’t go straight to the thrift store, start off with your own items.
“My main form of income is still reselling but content creating and teaching people how to resell is bringing in money.”
Since she started reselling, Kelsey has been able to pay off her student debt and buy her dream car, a Ford Explorer.
On average, Kelsey will earn around $12k a month and spend $2.8k a month on items to resell.
Kelsey still gets clothes from places like charity shops and thrift stores and has started collecting people’s unwanted clothes.
She said: “I still source at charity shops and thrift stores, just the other day I found a 36inch poo bear teddy that sold for $160.
“I started doing bulk buyouts where I go into people’s homes and bulk buy the things they don’t want.”
Kelsey primarily sells her items on eBay, Poshmark, Mercari and Whatnot and will host live auctions for her items.
She said: “It is a never-ending circle of people selling, people buying and then people buying to sell.
“I sometimes auction on Whatnot, I will auction off live.
“Whoever gets the last bid or swipe will get the item and I will ship the next day.
“Items can sometimes sell for my starting price of $3 or they can get bid up to $40.
“It’s quite a risk as you don’t know who will be watching and what they are willing to pay.”