Reselling Thrift Store Items, A Profitable Hobby

[Eric]

Don't you have to package and then ship out the materials yourselves? That's a lot of work, plus paid postage, time, boxes and stamps etc. How does this work?

I'm willing to give it a try because it's a good business strategy.....I've never thought of it.

[Will N. Dowd]

The Salvation Army thrift stores have a permanent promotion that gives you a $10 discount off $25 or more if you donate something to the store. I assumed you had to donate a lot, but it turns out they will give the $10 off coupons for almost any item donated. I have done some experiments and have never been turned down for a $10 coupon.

Recently I donated an item I had bought there for $2, and got a $10 off coupon, so I essentially made $8. I have to spend $25 or more at the store to use the $10 coupon, but it's better than paying $25 with no discount. I assume it's essentially possible to buy a couple of items for $1 each at the store, then go around to the back where they accept donations, donate them, get a coupon, and then go and spend $25 in store, use the $10 coupon and pay only $15 for the $25 worth of items, which is 40% off. You spend $2 to get the coupon, but saved $8 using it.

I'm now doing this with cheap items I bought there that didn't sell. If anything I have doesn't sell after a while, I'll just donate it and keep a stash of $10 off coupons. It's really only worth doing for items worth less than $10 of course. Whenever I run out of $10 coupons, I just find a cheap thing to donate, and get another coupon.

It's a strange loop hole that I'm sure they allow just to keep people spending more money in store. I'll be using it as yet another way to get rid of things that don't sell and save money on buying more items that hopefully will sell. I'm learning more and more every month what sells, and what doesn't.

[Mr Natural]

AmericaninBangkok was doing something similar when he first moved to Thailand. He made a huge profit by buying fake sports jerseys in tourist areas and reselling them on eBay. Eventually, the Thai police got suspicious about his frequent visits to the post office. They busted him for working on a tourist visa.

Where and when did you hear this? I know he has a blog but don't keep up with it. Reason I ask is because 1. I wasn't aware they pursued such minor cases and 2. I know he sells t-shirts on a website and I recall thinking that he uses Shopify for it. IE they don't come from Thailand. 3. It seems odd he would get jerseys from tourist areas, because much cheaper wholesale supplies for such things are easy to find in Bangkok.

Years ago I met a guy when I was on a visa run, he would go over near the Cambodian border and buy pallets full of used and new shirts. Then would ship an entire container of them back to the states where he (or maybe his family) sold them in his resale shop. The ones that weren't saleable he sold to painters as rags.