The Young Money Club

This month I challenged myself to make a little extra money. My goal for the month was to side-hustle my way to $1,000 in any way possible. My main strategy to do this was to flip items for profit because it can be used to generate a good return in a short period of time.

The month has come to an end and it’s now time to reflect on the past few weeks. What went well, what went wrong, and my plans moving forward.

Looking back over the past month there were definitely things I could’ve done differently. I could’ve diversified what I was flipping instead of going all-in on shoes, I could’ve spent more money, buying a wider variety of shoes, I could’ve tried other alternatives to flipping for earning money. There are plenty of things I could’ve changed to alter the outcome of this challenge but those will just have to come with the next challenge I try.

If you’ve been keeping up with my other posts you already know some of the struggles I’ve faced. Many of which could’ve been avoided with some research or common sense beforehand.

After 4 weeks of trying to flip shoes I’ve come to realize that the process isn’t nearly as fast as I originally believed it to be. While I know flipping locally can be much faster, Ebay has been my primary sales platform.

The way Ebay works is it prioritizes listings that have been up longer so most sales will come near the end of the 30 day listing. I didn’t know this going in so a my 1 month goal would have most likely been better served being a 2 month goal.

I never tried using the auction option on Ebay which may have created faster sales but would most likely lower sale prices. I may try this in the future with a reserve amount just to see if the items can still make a profit, but didn’t feel like risking the loss.

All in all I’m happy I tried this challenge, it gave me a new way to earn some extra money and I had some fun doing it. Here are my totals for the last 4 weeks. (I will try to update these when more shoes sell so you guys can see how long it takes as well)

Results

Earnings

$370- Working

$53.45-Quora Partner Program

$150- Shoe Sales

Total Earnings=$573.45

Expenses

$401.88- Shoe Purchases

Total Expenses=$401.88

Net Total

$171.57

Comments

Okay, let me preface this by saying that although in total I ended up with less than $200, my estimated total earnings when all the shoes sell is over $800. If everything had gone how I imagined, with all my shoes selling within a week or two of me buying them, I would’ve easily achieved my goal and then some.

This whole process has given me a lot of insight into what it takes to sell stuff online and flip shoes for profit. There’s far more to it than just buying discounted shoes and flipping them within a week. In fact without high-end, hyped up shoes, it can be difficult to make sales at all.

In total I bought 14 pairs of shoes, 3 of which sold over the course of the month. I plan on giving the remainder of the shoes about 2 months to sell before moving them to auction where I can at least make my money back.

I’ll be sure to post updates if anything major happens or once all my shoes sell. I look forward to doing more challenges like this and sharing everything that I learn from them with you guys.

If you want to check out my last post you can do so here.

George Carrington

I’m a 23 year old founder/blogger at The Young Money Club – A blog that provides young, motivated individuals with personal finance tip on earning, saving, and investing.