Money Matters
Money Matters
Turn Dusty Treasures into Steady Income: The Art of Reselling Thrift Finds
Thrifting isn't just about stretching your budget – it's a legitimate way to generate extra income with minimal time investment. We explore how to turn other people's castoffs into your cash flow with experts Betty and Johnny Manella from the Fellowship Center.
• Developing an eye for valuable items – look for quality materials, weight, and craftsmanship
• Starting with items already in your home – if you bought it once, someone else probably wants it
• Using Google Lens to quickly identify potential treasures and determine market values
• Finding niche markets like vintage clothing or specialty collectibles
• Creating effective eBay listings with detailed photos and descriptions
• Recognizing authentic designer items versus counterfeits
• Moving inventory quickly by setting competitive prices rather than holding out for maximum profit
• Success stories including a $2 teapot that sold for over $250
• Unexpected sources for resellable items – from grandparents' attics to neighborhood curbsides
If you're ready to make income from thrifting, start small and experiment. Begin with items around your house, research prices first, and use tools like Google Lens to help set the right price. You can definitely make income from doing it – drop us a line if this episode helps you get into the market!
Have an idea for a show or a question for Kim? Send us a text message
Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money you want – brought to you by Neighbors Federal Credit Union.
The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk. This Podcast should not be considered professional advice.
Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money you want. Now here is your host, ms Kim Chapman.
Kim Chapman:We're going to be talking about how to generate some income from thrifting.
Kim Chapman:So this is part two. We already did one episode where, hey, you can thrift to stretch your budget. Instead of going and buying the name brand items for $50, $100 in the. Hey, you can thrift to stretch your budget. Instead of going and buy the name brand items for $50, $100 in a store, you can get them gently used or sometimes brand new at a thrift store. So if you just need to stretch the budget that was another episode Today sometimes you need extra income.
Kim Chapman:When I see clients they're like how can I make extra income? I don't have time for extra job, but that's okay, you can sell stuff. People do this all the time. Coming back or joining us again is Betty. Basically, when she's not at neighbors, she's thrifting. Right, she is thrifting and she has turned me on to the ideal in the world of thrifting, showing how you can stretch your dollar, but also how you can buy something for pennies on the dollar and then turn around and sell it and make income. But we also have another expert with us, mr Johnny Manella, and he's with the Fellowship Center out in Gonzales. It's a thrift store and so he's that expert that gets those things in that you know people donate anything. That's trash but it really is a treasure. So welcome guys hey.
Betty Mujica-Milano:Kate Good morning.
Kim Chapman:This is going to be fun, because Betty dragged me all over the city. We went to all types of thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales to find some really good stuff at a really, really cheap price. And then she turned around and put it on. Was it eBay, betty? Yep, ebay On eBay. And she's going to tell you throughout this episode how much it cost her when she bought it and then how much money she made. So I mean, who doesn't need extra income? And it didn't really seem like a lot of work. I mean, you go shopping, hey, I like to shop, you like to shop, right, you go shopping, pick up a couple of things for pennies and then stick it online and then somebody wants to buy it. So we're going to go ahead and get started. So, johnny, tell us about what you do at the Fellowship Center.
Betty Mujica-Milano:So I am the manager of the Fellowship Center here in Gonzales and we accept donations of all types, mostly clothing types, mostly clothing, but you name it, we pretty much get it, and so we basically sell it, obviously, and all of the proceeds that are from our sales go back into our community in the form of financial assistance in addition to our food pantry.
Kim Chapman:So tell us a little bit about what you actually do in terms of your role, taking in that merchandise and being able to price it and put it out on the shelves.
Betty Mujica-Milano:Okay. So we do have two people that work in our warehouse and they take in all of the goods that we get, again mostly clothing. So for clothing we have sorters that sort it by gender, by sizes, by types, by seasons and so forth, and then we price it. We started using pricing methods where we tag at certain colors to make it a little bit easier. So things may be $3, $4, and $5, and that tag is a certain color, and so we've gotten where we're using that more to be a little bit more efficient. For your knickknacks and more decorative home decor things, which I kind of focus more of my attention on, I just sort of go through them. If I think they are of value, or if others see them and think they're of value, we put them to the side and then I do research through Google, Lens, eBay, and then we go pricing from there and we set things up from there.
Kim Chapman:Cool. So, benny, as you said the previous episode, you've been thrifting for quite a minute, but tell us how long have you been thrifting for income? Did you start off just doing it to stretch your dollar or did you start off doing it for the income?
Johnny Manela:I started thrifting for fun when I was a teenager like I said in the last episode that you should go watch when I was a teenager like I said in the last episode that you should go watch but only in the last couple of years have I actually started thrifting, or thrifting to sell the items. And actually really during the pandemic, I couldn't go thrifting, so I started going on eBay and I started purchasing things on eBay during during the pandemic and then, probably after my daughter was born in 2021, 2022, I started realizing that I had too much stuff and that I had thrifted and I needed to figure out a way to get rid of it.
Kim Chapman:And I thought so I'm going to stop you right there because I know if you're listening everybody listening. We have stuff that we bought that seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's over in the corner. Maybe it never even made it out of the box. So you may think why am I even listening to this? Because it's you. You have some stuff that maybe you can actually turn around and sell. You may not even need to go to the thrift store. You may just need to listen to Betty and figure out how you can turn that stuff, that wasted space, into income.
Johnny Manela:Okay, Betty, let's roll Absolutely Well, and I'm glad you mentioned that, because I didn't start by going to thrift stores and finding things to resell. I actually started by looking through my own house and reselling things in my own house, and usually when people find out that I will sell stuff on eBay or whatever, that's the first thing I tell them. I say don't go spend any more money on doing it Like, learn how to do it via selling stuff that you have in your house that you're not using and you know. I like to say like if you bought it at some point, somebody would probably buy it from you, you know, and you kind of never know. You really kind of never know what's going to actually sell quickly and what's going to actually make you a decent amount of money. So definitely shop your house first if you're interested in getting into reselling online.
Kim Chapman:So, johnny, tell us a little bit more about what goes into the process of actually pricing an item, because I imagine we've both been to the Fellowship Center. You get there's a warehouse with tons of stuff. I mean my eyes are just like, oh my God, I'd be overwhelmed. So what is that process like being able to look at something? I mean, is it just something you can look at and say, ok, this is valuable, put it over here. This is, you know, not that valuable, let's put it over there. Or do you have to really kind of go through each and every item? Do you have an eye for it?
Betty Mujica-Milano:Well, great question. So I do sort of have an eye for things. My wife and I are avid collectors, have an art collection, personal art collection, and then I do watch a lot of YouTube videos and of course everybody has seen American Pickers, which probably everybody started looking at that, and so I was able to begin assessing values through that. So when I initially was hired to the store that was, my job was to do a lot of the home decor. As I mentioned, the clothing is kind of set priced, you know, and so that's easy, you know, we just kind of sort it by there. But for things like home decor I just get a sense of, hey, that looks valuable, or, and then my staff has begun to kind of notice that too, and so we'll put that to the side, and things surprise me all the time.
Betty Mujica-Milano:So, like the other day, we got this mirror and I call it the monkey mirror, and I knew it had some value to it. It was heavy, it just looked very well made. I have an interior design degree, so I sort of have an eye for all of that as well, and so I cleaned it all up and so forth and it's on eBay for $395. And we're selling it for $50. Wow. So it's amazing the things that you find.
Betty Mujica-Milano:But typically if it's heavy it's very intricate and of course there are certain brands that you know, like Lennox and Wedgwood and Waterford, those type of brands you automatically know. Oh, those typically have a little bit higher value, but higher value. And so I kind of learned from there, just from practice and going to estate sales and watching a lot of YouTube videos of pickers and so forth who do kind of like Betty does, who do it more full time, and so I've learned about different things and so it's interesting. I mean, who would have thought that monkey mirror that I put on to a text message to our group? I said, look at this monkey mirror. Everybody said, oh, I hate it, and I'm like, oh, it's $3.95 on eBay.
Kim Chapman:Wow, wow. And it really is an eye, because when Betty and I started this journey, I was like a little kid in a candy store and I was like, hey, is this worth something? She'd be like, nope, what about this? Nope, you tiny, definitely not, because it was heavy. If it just looked pretty and a lot of those things that I showed her, it was like thumbs down, oh, maybe four, five, six, eight, I don't know. Weeks in, I finally started bringing stuff in or bringing it to her and she's like, yeah, you're kind of catching it. So, betty, what is your strategy? You know, what tips can you give to somebody if they are going to go out thrifting, or if they're actually looking at stuff in their house, or maybe even grandma's house? Right, what should they be looking for?
Johnny Manela:So I completely agree with you. I think it's really about materials, it's about the weight of something you know, and it is hard because it's like you develop an eye over time. I've been thrifting since I was like 14, 15 years old. You know, at a certain point it just becomes like second nature, like an instinct of like oh, this fabric is good, this fabric's cheap. You know, you get a sense. But you know, a lot of times I think even moving away from like, the idea of like something that's worth a lot of money, is really looking at something that's niche. So thinking about a customer, that is niche.
Johnny Manela:So I actually find that my things that sell best for me on eBay is when I sell my husband's old clothes, the clothes he doesn't fit anymore. I can sell a pair of JCrucinos on eBay. Lickety split because that is the type of person who's just buying their pants on eBay is some random 30 to 40 year old man who's like I don't want to go to the store and I don't want to pay full price. Oh, this is my size of Jake Cruchino's, I'll buy it. So I find that if I'm at the thrift store and I find a pair of like golf shorts or athletic shorts for men right, those go off the shelves quickly. So I think thinking about who is actually shopping on eBay and what are they looking for.
Johnny Manela:Another thing that I really like to look for is vintage dresses. Vintage dresses always go well on eBay because, much like me, during the pandemic, I was buying a bunch of vintage clothing on eBay. So now, in turn, I go to thrift stores. I can buy a long vintage gown for like $5 and I can go ahead and sell it on eBay for $35 to $40. So it's really thinking about like who's actually online shopping for this stuff and really finding items that cater to those people.
Kim Chapman:So I got a question. Clearly, if I brought in a painting of the Mona Lisa, you'd look and laugh because you know I didn't have that, I didn't own that. But how do you develop an eye to detect if something is authentic, if it's real or not? Especially, you know there's a billion dollar industry in terms of tennis shoes, especially things like Air Jordans not Nike's, whatever they may be and so you see all the time in the news sometimes somebody buys something they thought it was worth $500 and really it's just a $3 pair tennis shoe. So how can you determine if it's something that's authentic or not?
Betty Mujica-Milano:Well, I know one of the things that we get a lot of and I'm definitely not an expert in is coach bags and other designer handbags. We get coach bags like crazy which I have staff members that go through those and 99.99% of them are not real. We had a Jimmy Choo handbag I have staff members that go through those and 99.99% of them are not real. We had a Jimmy Choo handbag and I could tell, not knowing anything, but it was wrapped in plastic.
Betty Mujica-Milano:Well, I would assume that somebody of that designer brand I know that that's more of a shoemaker, at least that's what I know that would never be a $1,000 bag or whatever. It would be a, you know, a thousand dollar bag or whatever it would be. We do get a lot of Jordans and we are, again, not experts on those as far as that but I do have somebody that kind of looks at them and says, yeah, that's real and that kind of thing. But I have Jordans that that they're in the showcase for two hundred dollars but they're worth seven, eight, nine hundred bucks based on eBay prices.
Kim Chapman:So, betty, what do you find? You know, what are the clues? If you're looking for something and, like you say, you might use Google Lens, and if this is authentic, then hey, it's worth, worth a lot of money, how can you ensure that, if you're going to put something online and you're selling it as something authentic, that it is? I mean, can you look at the stitching? I know, like with scams, we look for misspelled letters and things. What are the type, what are the red flags that you can look for that says this is not authentic?
Johnny Manela:Yeah.
Johnny Manela:So I think a lot of you know, obviously the internet has a wealth of resources. So you know, one of the great things is, if it's a clothing piece, a clothing item, you can actually go online and compare tags. So there'll be like websites where you can look at all of the tags, like, let's say, you find a Chanel dress at the thrift store. Never happened to me, still praying for it to happen Anytime, it would be great, god throwing that one up to you but you can actually go online and say Chanel clothing tags and there will be, like there's a gosh, I wish I could remember the name of it but there's a website that has every tag that a designer has ever used in their clothing. So you can basically go through and compare and see if any of those tags match up to what you have. Most likely, you it's like again, though you can kind of tell. It's like you can tell and I think people you know don't often follow their instinct With anything, but it's like you can tell, you can feel it and just know it's of quality.
Johnny Manela:Stitching is a huge thing. If, like it's a logo bag let's say it's a Louis Vuitton bag they, they painstakingly match up like logos. So if it's an entire logo bag and there's kind of like a mismatch of the logos, a big designer brand would never do that because they're selling quality. And then another great thing is there are authentic authentication services so you can actually bring your stuff to an authentic authenticator to get authenticated, and then eBay actually offers authentication as well. So if you do have a designer bag that's worth a lot of money that you want to sell, you can actually send it into eBay and they will authenticate it for you.
Johnny Manela:And then when you're selling it on eBay, it'll say there's an authenticity guarantee. And then there's also websites like the real real, which I do a little bit of selling on there too, and that's exclusively designer items. So if you have something that you purchased has the dust bag still all that stuff. I have a friend who actually had a Prada bag that she purchased. She was in Italy, she purchased it for a couple thousand dollars and she resold it on the real world because she was like you know what? I don't really have a use for this, I need the cash instead, and so you can send it in. But those typically have a higher fee.
Kim Chapman:All right. So we know, in this day and age, scammers rule. They're out there everywhere. So, whether you're the buyer or the seller, how can you protect yourself online?
Betty Mujica-Milano:Well, I think, as Betty said, you've got to be educated. With the Internet out there, you can find out so much more than you ever could years and years ago. I can't imagine doing my job Ten years ago when you sort of had to guess what things were like. We get a lot of crystalline and things that just feel much heavier. For instance, I found a decanter that we had come to be. It was a Waterford decanter, and so without and I had to really really look for the Waterford logo, and I finally did find it, but without having eBay and be able to match up things or Google Lens, the job would be much more challenging.
Kim Chapman:And so I know, of course you know this is a brick and mortar facility, a fellowship center, but do you do things online? Can I shop online to find your merchandise?
Betty Mujica-Milano:Unfortunately not. We're just not set up for that due to the number of staff members and volunteers that we have. Now we do put a lot of things on Facebook. I run our social media page. Our membership, since I've been there for many half years, has grown from 250 to over 1,800. So we are steadily busy. Y'all have been in the store. You know how busy we can get, but we have faithful Facebook followers and, for instance, last night before I left I put a bunch of Christmas stuff out. That was sort of a Candyland theme with lollipops and all that kind of thing. Two ladies came in just before we closed and bought everything that we had. They were watching.
Kim Chapman:You know what? And that leads me to my next question. So when you're putting things out there for sale right, you mentioned, you found something for $300 and you put it for $50. How long will you let it sit at $50 before you'll drop it to $40 or $30 or $20?
Betty Mujica-Milano:I will if I notice it's been there a while. One thing that I have learned is if I move it around the store, it looks brand new somewhere else Get that little Walmart grocery aisle strategy going.
Betty Mujica-Milano:And I can move it around. For instance, one of the first more valuable things I found was a signed Robert Rucker print, framed, beautifully done, and, for those of you who don't know, he's a fairly famous Louisiana artist. So I had it on an easel right as you walked in and I had marked it at the time, if I remember correctly, about $100, which is probably a third of what it was really worth. And that was one of the first more valuable pieces that the store had ever received. And it didn't sell when people like that's never going to sell and I'm like it'll sell when the right person comes in. And so it didn't sell. So I moved it to the left side of the store on the wall and a lady walked in and saw it from across and she said is that what I think it is? And it sold.
Betty Mujica-Milano:So I found moving things around. But now if somebody is watching something and say, hey, johnny, would you take a little bit less for that? And we'll work with them, because my job is to move stuff, because the more money I make, the more money I can give back to the community. So it's all about getting it out of the store. So, yes, we do bargain some.
Kim Chapman:But, betty, you're doing it for money, you're doing it for income. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about some of the things that we purchased while we were doing this little project and, you know, tell us about how much you paid for it, what was the process like, trying to sell it, and then how much profit did you make? Absolutely.
Johnny Manela:So actually the first item is an item that we purchased at the fellowship center. So Kim and I went on, uh, on our little excursion over to the fellowship center, you know, and and I had Kim tailing me around the store, I was kind of doing quick work, um, you know, looking all around the store and for me it really is kind of that instinctual, just kind of like all like flip through and you know, and I say some days are are hitters and some days are not, some days are gonna like hit and some days aren't.
Johnny Manela:Um, and we found actually a cocktail shaker, um and this again speaks to kind of like knowing what people are kind of interested out there, because I could tell immediately it was a mid-century cocktail shaker glass with a metal top. It had kind of a golf theme to it, um. So again it's like that's that item where it's like if people are into mid-century modern, if they're in the 50s and 60s style things and they have a husband who's in a golf, there's a lady who's buying that for her husband and I have to admit it was just a dusty piece of stuff.
Kim Chapman:Yeah, yeah it was?
Johnny Manela:you looked at me crazy and it was only 225.
Kim Chapman:Right, it was this and it was dollars and $2 and 25 cents.
Johnny Manela:But I, when I picked it up, it was solid, um, you know, and I just I just had a feeling right. So I I pulled out google lens, I I scanned it and I was like, okay, like people are selling this online for 20 bucks, 30 bucks, whatever, um, so I listed it and it actually sold really quickly. I think it sold within like two days of me listing it. This was probably our quickest sale that we did. Sold for $17. They paid $11.35 in shipping plus sales tax, and so, total, they paid $30.99 for an item that I paid $2.25 for. So after eBay does charge transaction fees so you have to take that into account and those have gone up as of late and then everything else, the order earnings were $12.49. And then, after we subtract what the original price that we paid, $2.25, our total profit for that item was $10.24. So that's pure profit in your pocket, or, in this case, all of the profits of this are going back to our neighbor's capital area foundation.
Kim Chapman:All right. So tell us about a couple of the items and then I want you to go through the process of. You know, after you found the shaker because, again, it looked kind of dusty, I wouldn't have even wanted to touch it, but she made a $10 profit. So tell us about a couple of other things and then walk us through the process of putting it online. You know who does the shipping, who pays for shipping, all of those good little details, Absolutely so.
Johnny Manela:Another item we found at the Purple Cow was a Taylor Swift concert t-shirt. Obviously, Taylor Swift is the name on everyone's mouth right now, so again, you have a pretty high likelihood there's a lot of Swifties out here in the world who are looking for concert merch and things like that. The shirt was $3.99 and I listed it. It ended up selling for $15. So whenever I get the shirt, if I get clothing items, I'll be honest unless it's really really bad off, I'm not washing it. Respectfully, that's your job when you buy it. Get it home, wash your clothes, hey, but you're telling the process.
Emcee:I'm just telling the process.
Johnny Manela:So unless it's like really bad off, if there's stains and I feel like I can get you know more money if I can get stains out or things like that, I'll try. But for the most part with clothing it's as is and if there's any defects or any items, when I'm doing the listing I make note of those in the listing. So basically the eBay app makes it super easy. You just say start a new listing and you can actually search for a similar item. So you can say Taylor Swift concert shirts and it'll pull up other listings and you can just say sell one like this and a lot of those details will be the same. So you don't have to go through filling out like all the different details, just change it for what it is. So if the shirt that you saw sold was white, obviously you need to change our shirt here was red, change the color to red, make sure the size is correct, all of that stuff. But it makes it really quick. Like you can probably list an item within five minutes. Realistically, you can take all the pictures from within the app, which actually Chad our helpful podcast producer here. He actually took all the pictures for us here in the studio, but you just upload those and then you know you can actually find comparable prices for what things sold for.
Johnny Manela:And I am not like Johnny, I'm not necessarily trying to fetch top dollar, I'm just trying to move inventory. If I can make a couple dollars pretty quickly, I'd rather do that, except for when there's like a really like a good mind find what you were saying. But otherwise it's like I'm going to sell it for what it typically sold for. So I'm going to list it at a price that's going to move it quickly. So if everything's selling for 20, I might list it for 17, just so we can get it out the door and then yeah, and then you just kind of leave it there. You post the listing and I usually leave it for a couple days and then after a couple days if it's not moving, if there's not a lot of interest on it, then I will create a promotion. So on eBay you're able to create promoted listings and that basically just pushes you to top the search.
Johnny Manela:It does cost extra money. If you do sell it you do pay a fee, and in this case with this t-shirt it's sold for $15. They pay the shipping $4.43. So once they buy it. Then eBay offers discounted shipping if you purchase your shipping label through them. So you just package it with a t-shirt. It's super easy. You just get like a little Dollar Tree envelope with bubbles. Dollar Tree envelope with bubbles or with a T-shirt.
Kim Chapman:It's super easy.
Johnny Manela:You just get like a little Dollar Tree envelope with bubbles, or with a T-shirt not even with bubbles, just a plastic little sleeve and you fold the shirt, put it in there, go to the post office and scan your little QR code after you've purchased your shipping label on eBay and print it out, stick it on there and send it out and they've paid for the shipping and you just print that shipping label and you send it out. In this case I did have an ad fee because I did have to promote it. A lot of the items that we did purchase didn't necessarily move as quickly as one would hope, so I did end up having to do ads on these. So it was a $2.41 ad. So order earnings after everything, after the cost of the shirt, we made $5.45 on this. Taylor Swift t-shirt.
Kim Chapman:All right. So some of our listeners may be saying that's great, but I don't want to go through all that work for $10 and $5. So tell us about some of your bigger sales, because this idea actually came because Betty was in a staff meeting. She was like guys, for this weekend I sold XYZ and made $200. Tell our listeners about those types of mindfuckers.
Johnny Manela:Yeah, okay, so this is the. This is the boring stuff, but it's still good, hey, and every dollar counts. Don't act like every dollar doesn't count.
Kim Chapman:$5.45 that's like a block of cheese and a pound of butter or money in your savings account if you're struggling to find that extra income to save and build that emergency fund had to plug that in.
Johnny Manela:Absolutely so. So you know, don't sleep. You know, on the smaller items, but I did have what my best one, the one that I just I hold dear in my heart, was. I was out of Goodwill and I was in the glassware section and I saw this black teapot with like a gold spout and like gold detailing on it and it had like this kind of ornate design on it and it was for a restaurant. It was like a restaurant. I guess that had been in New York and I just saw it and I caught my eye.
Johnny Manela:You know, and I think you've probably had this experience many times where you're like that's so different, it seems special, I don't know what about it. And so I took out Google Lens, which, google Lens, is your friend. If you are trying to resell stuff, all you have to do is pull up Google, take a picture of the item and it'll pull up anything that looks similar that's already online. So, especially with items like this, you'll sometimes find them listed as sales. So if there's another similar item that's being sold online from what you just scanned like, you can actually find out a lot more information on it.
Johnny Manela:So I did that and pulled up and found out it was a teapot that was used at this famous restaurant in New York City that, like famous people, went to JFK, like Marilyn Monroe, all this stuff in the 50s and 60s and it had closed, I think sometime in the 2010s or early. And it had closed, I think, sometime in the 2010s or early, maybe late 2010s, and I found it on a very fancy antique resale website for $800. It was $2. It was $2. I found it on this resale website for $800. And then I found one on eBay for $500. So really, I only found two being sold online, found one on eBay for $500.
Johnny Manela:So really, I only found two being sold online, one for $800, one for $500. But they hadn't sold right. It's like I saw that the one on eBay had been there for a while for $500. So I said, you know what, in true Betty style, I said I'm not trying to hold on to this teapot for the rest of my life waiting for someone to pay me $800 for it. I was like, let me list it for like $350. And I went in a back and forth with this man, the people trying to really get the deals, but then, after everything was said and done, I ended up selling it to him, and I made $250 off of that Awesome.
Kim Chapman:So, Jannie, in your many years with the Fellowship Center, what do you think has been like your biggest mind? Find that you turned around and was able to sell for the fellowship center and bring in that money.
Betty Mujica-Milano:Sure. So one day I was in the back, going through my treasure pile, as I call it, I found several boxes of these glass figures cars, planes, cannons, boat ships and so forth and some had what looked like to be little candies. And I'm like, well, what are these? And I'm like, oh my gosh, there's tons of them. And so I'm like these will never sell, I'm never gonna make. There's just too many of them. And so I went, let me load up the car and I will. If there's a lot of things that I need to do a little bit more research, I'll put them in the car, I'll take them home. So I did. I loaded all these things up in the car and, um, looking at them and trying to ebay them so forth, well, come to find out they were from the early 20s.
Betty Mujica-Milano:They were antique candy containers that they were for kids, made of glass, and, like I said, they were cars and trains and planes and figures and all kind of different things. So there was just so many of them and so I'm thinking, am I going to sell these? So I went. It's got to be a Facebook group of these people. So I went on Facebook and put in antique candy container collectors or whatever. Lo and behold, there's one Of course there is, with about 85 people in it.
Betty Mujica-Milano:And so I set up a card table that we had at the house and I lined them up by category and I shot a video saying, hey, my name is Johnny and I'm from the Fellowship Center and I have these. What do I have, can you help me? And so I sent that out, posted it on that Facebook group, joined the group and put it on there and people went crazy. They're emailing me and they're Facebooking me and that kind of thing. And so it got to where I was like here's my number, call me. So I sold these things in to California, florida, illinois, north Dakota. In the end we made about $3,000 from these antique candy containers.
Kim Chapman:Oh, my God, Wow, that's awesome. And while, of course, the premise of this show is making income, but of course it's money that you're putting back in the community, so tell us a little bit about where that $3,000 goes.
Betty Mujica-Milano:So all of the proceeds that we make from the Fellowship Center. Of course we have utility bills like anybody else electric, water and so forth and then the few employees that we have. We pay them as well. And then somebody goes into reserve for repairs and so forth and things that we may need in the future. But then a lot of it goes back to our financial assistance office where people can come on typically Monday, wednesday, friday, and they meet with Ms Brenda and she assess their needs and it could be help with utility bills, car repairs and so forth.
Betty Mujica-Milano:So we basically give all that money back to the community. None of it is done with anything else other than the few items that I mentioned, and so you know the building's been repainted, we've put new ceiling tiles in, led lighting, security you know different things like that. So some of it goes to that. You know that. But the bulk of it is to go back into the community, and that doesn't even include what we provide to families through the food pantry, and so that's where all of our funding goes.
Kim Chapman:That's awesome. Question can this stuff be returned On eBay? Yes, have you sold something that somebody said? You know what I don't like this? Can I give my money back, or do you have a return policy at the folks?
Betty Mujica-Milano:So our policy is basically no exchanges, no returns. Now there have been instances where there's been an unusual situation and we've done that, or maybe there's been a slight overcharge and so we just make it good. So in general, no, because you are at a thrift store, it's sort of as is kind of thing. So I typically don't put out torn or ripped or stained things. Now, do those slip by? Of course they do, and so our customers, thankfully and we have daily customers that come every single day they'll say, hey, this is ripped, oh, thank you for showing love it. Or hey, this is broken. Now, if I find something that has a chip in it but it still has a lot of value to it, I put a sticker with an arrow so that people can say, hey, I'm just letting you know this has got a chip in it, and then I reduce the price from there and go from there. But again, in general we don't. It's no returns.
Johnny Manela:Yeah, so eBay is kind of the same way. Since I'm the store owner of my eBay store, I get to set the policies in my store Since, like I said, I'm trying to move inventory out.
Johnny Manela:I'm not trying to move inventory in, and I'm usually selling things for a really good price. And I accept offers, which is another feature of eBay. Somebody can send you an offer and I always leave all my items open to get an offer. Um, I'm so sorry, um, but I don't accept returns. Um, I will again in certain scenarios. If someone's really unsatisfied or somebody's really upset, I'll deal with that on a case-by-case basis, but for the most part I put pictures up of every single part of the item. Like, I will go through and truly like, do close-ups. If there's a pit stain, you're getting a close-up of that. If there's a little hole in the back, you're getting a picture of that In the description. I make note, like please view all the photos before you purchase. There should be no reason that they feel surprised by what they got once they got it, because in my pictures I try to include everything that's going on with that.
Kim Chapman:So you're not trying to make Motel 6 look like the Taj Mahal.
Johnny Manela:No, ma'am, I'm not. I'm not trying, I'm not putting lipstick on a pig. You're getting what you're getting. Look at the pictures.
Kim Chapman:All right, a couple of final questions before we wrap up. Johnny, what is your advice for somebody that wants to get started and they want to be able to come to places like the Fellowship? Is there a certain day of the week that's better than other season of the year? How can we find the really good finds? Is it Sunday night, right before closing that? Hey, you're going to mark everything down. What's your tip?
Betty Mujica-Milano:So at the Fellowship Center we are on a daily basis renewing our stock. So new clothing goes out every morning, knickknacks and so forth, maybe not necessarily every day, but frequently. I think, as Betty has mentioned in some of her comments, you've got to become educated. Look up things Google Lens, eBay, watch YouTube videos. Find out if you have a niche. I mean, I have certain and we call it the Johnny Club, where we have certain people that collect certain things, and so I have their names and numbers in my phone.
Betty Mujica-Milano:So if, let's say, Betty's looking for a crystal bowl, I may find this fabulous crystal bowl and I'll text her and say, hey, I have this, it's Waterford and it's 50 bucks, Are you interested? And she may come in to buy it. So there's not a particular day, but I do post quite a few times during the day. Our Facebook followers, as I mentioned, our Facebook followers are over 1,800. So they're watching and they're looking for things. I have collectors that have stores in New Orleans, Lafayette, and they will come periodically and load up and then they resell it, and so for those some of those, we do make deals on, because again, I'm trying to move it and get rid of it so I can put new stuff out. I have a unlimited supply of things that are ready to go out at any given time.
Kim Chapman:And I tell you it's a really big market because when Betty and I were out shopping, immediately she identified another you know person that was thrifting for income and it was like they were having this big conversation.
Emcee:So you know, it's kind of like what are you doing here?
Kim Chapman:You know, nobody's in there shopping to buy stuff to take home. So, betty, what is your advice for somebody that's just getting started, like I heard you mention earlier? Maybe start with some of the stuff at your house, because I tell you, if there's a name for this episode, it is one man's trash is another man's treasure there is something out there that somebody that you don't want but somebody else is willing to pay for. Out there that somebody that you don't want.
Johnny Manela:But somebody else is willing to pay for. Yeah. So I would say definitely, look in your own house and take your Google lens out. Like I said, just download the Google app and when you pull it up, instead of typing in the search bar, there's actually a picture button. So you just press that picture button. It pulls up a camera and go around your house and just be like. I haven't worn this shirt for a year.
Kim Chapman:I'm not going to fit it again. Yeah, it's been 10 years.
Johnny Manela:Take a picture with your Google Lens and see, you know, see how much it might be worth. You'll find whether the item is even being listed online, or you know, or if it is like and it's being sold for $20, might as well give it a shot. Also, another great thing people have a lot of junk in their houses and you might find somebody's just doing some spring cleaning. Go to your parents' house, Be like you, trying to get rid of any of this stuff. Let me help you out.
Betty Mujica-Milano:And then grandma's house is a great place. Grandma's house is a great. Grandma's house is a great place.
Johnny Manela:Yeah, um, and it's also great because it's like your parents and grandparents need help cleaning out their houses, you know anyways. So maybe you can strike up a deal with them and say, hey, why don't we list some of this stuff online and we can split the profits? Um, another thing, and this is gonna sound crazy, but I've sold things from the side of the road. If your neighborhood is a type of neighborhood where people put random stuff on the side of the road, you better stop. I found a hat. I found a Stetson cowboy hat side of the road free. It had stains on it and everything. I sold that thing for $300. I paid $0.99 for that hat. I paid $0.99 for that hat. So really it's like deals and steals and things that mean something to somebody are kind of everywhere. So never discount something because there's somebody out there looking for that toy candy holder from the 20s. There's somebody out there looking for that Taylor Swift concert T-shirt. So it really is. One man's trash is another man's treasure.
Kim Chapman:And the bottom line is, if you want to thrive financially thrive in 2025, this is how you can do it. It doesn't matter Do you need to start an emergency fund? Build your savings, pay off that debt a little bit at a time, fund that vacation. It doesn't matter. This is an opportunity that you can do on the side. It's not going to take from your main job. It's an excellent opportunity. So I'm going to thank our experts our resident expert, betty here she's going to help me get a better eye on that thrifting and Johnny, thank you so much for joining us.
Kim Chapman:My pleasure.
Emcee:It's time for Blueprint Building Blocks Small changes that lead to big financial wins. Let's stack up for success.
Kim Chapman:If you're ready to make income from thrifting, start small and experiment. Start with the little things that you have around your house. Put those up for sale and see how you do. If you're not certain where to start, be sure to research prices first. Use tools like Google Lens to help you set the price and then make those profits. You can definitely make income from doing it, and be sure to watch our YouTube page and our Facebook page, and if this episode helped you get into the market and make some income from thrifting, drop us a line and let us know.
Emcee:That's a wrap on today's Blueprint Building Blocks. Stay on track with your financial journey. Subscribe to the Money Matters podcast and visit neighborsfcuorg slash financial wellness for more tools to help you build a strong financial future.
