Thank goodness my friend Gwen's phone call asking for help with her website woke me up... because Monday is 50 cent day at the Bill Fraley Resale Shop in Crossnore... and I needed to get there as soon as possible to find some more goodies to add to the "fashion wardrobes" I'm putting together for my ebay auctions.  I have been going to these Monday sales as often as I can for the past several months as it's a great place to find shoes and clothing for myself, my family and my friends ... and for my growing ebay business. 

I had built up quite an inventory of items that were suitable for a small resale shop I had for just a few months (until the building was sold and I had to move out) but were very hard to ebay for any appreciable amount of money.  I had specialized in selling really good designer clothing in natural wool, silk, linen and cotton.  Many of these were "wardrobe basics" like really good black skirts, slacks, sweaters and tops, for example. Good stuff, but not the sort of thing that most people buying on ebay would pay a lot of money for by themselves.

But Sunday I had a brainstorm about putting together "wardrobes" of coordinated clothing for a specific size and lifestyle... and selling them as "Lots" of clothing.  This would let me include the many "basic" things I had purchased for my shop in a way that was unique and appealing.... without it costing me an arm and a leg to put up dozens of individual auctions.  In fact, with the money that I save on lots of individual auctions I can afford to spring for a "featured listing" which will make it easier to market my auctions.

Shopping sale days at select thrift stores in areas which have wealthy donors is a great way to make it possible to offer a HUGE LOT of clothing at a very reasonable opening bid.  I had started one "test auction" on Sunday, but now I had to scramble to locate more items to make it really interesting.  I wound up buying 23 pieces of clothing and shoes at the Crossnore shop for 50 cents apiece  -- clothing and shoes which had originally been asking anywhere from $2.99 up to $9.99 -- and which would have cost me 100's of dollars had I bought them new.  Then I drove over to the Avery country thrift store... where a found a few more pieces to add to my collection... for $1.25 for designer silk blouses... and $1.50 for wool and silk slacks... and $1.50 for a pair of shoes.  Granted, this was a bit more than I paid last Friday when EVERYTHING in the store was $1.00... and I wound up with a great Bill Blass man's wool suit for $2 to resell on ebay ... and some neat clothing for Christmas presents for family and friends.... and lots of goodies to put into my "coordinated wardrobe lots".  Because I'm breaking things down by size, I need to accumulate at least 30... 40... or ideally 50 items in a size before I put them up for auction.  These items can include all sorts of clothing including really great underwear... designer shoes... designer handbags.... designer scarves...  and costume jewelry.  The various items should, ideally, mix and match with one another so that dozens of great outfits can be made from a single coordinated lot.

I figure the per item costs average out.  If I can keep my AVERAGE price per item that comprises these "lots"... and I keep my quality REALLY HIGH... then there's a good chance that I can turn an investment of say $50 into $200... or possibly even $400 or $500.  I've seen it done!

In fact, you really have to, at bare minimum, at LEAST quadruple your investment in order to make traveling all over the place break even.