Whether I find items through treasure hunting or receive items from outside sources, I have a great process I take myself through every week to list these items for sale.

I begin with locating the item. Many people go to thrifts to peruse the shelves for items to sell. I go to the thrifts 3 x a week. I go different days and different times. Each time taking at least one hour to make sure I have at  looked through everything in the store. Initially I allowed myself only 20 minutes and 1x a week. This really limited me to finding very few treasures as thrifts generally put out new items several times a day all throughout the week. Use a cart, not a basket. This helps you navigate through aisles, people get out of the way much faster for a cart then a person.

When I locate something I know I can resell I make sure I can resell for a minimum of 3x the price of this item.  One part goes to listing and selling fees, two parts to me. Most times I do not go over my set limit of $2.00 for thrift items found. I also purchase items from other sources and I also sell items from my private collections. When I started out selling I wasn't always sure of the item, its history, its value. I would list and often the item would not get hits and would not sell.  Now I only purchase items I am sure of and before I list them I check completed items through Ebay search. This gives you an idea of what a like item sold for and helps you decide for sure whether to list and for what price.

When I am home from thrifting I collect all the items purchased. If they are clothing and can be washed gently in the machine, I wash. Otherwise I hand wash. If collectible glass or pottery, I clean item gently. If book I prepare the book for resale by wiping down covers with a damp cloth and checking the book front to back for wear. I then place items in a box and store in my spare room for photographs when the lighting is good. Lighting is good in the morning hours 10-2pm. I research each item I have picked up that day by 10 pm that night. Those items that have sold and are sellers are moved to my office and will be photographed in the morning.

Morning I photograph. I edit photos. Early afternoon I start to describe and I save my work in notepad. When I have a few minutes here or there I add to or edit my descriptions. I review photos again. I look for like items in the search to review keywords and to review category item is in. I then begin listing my items.

I then move listed items to my spare room to a shelf for current listed items. As each item gets a bid I pre-package item for shipment. I place item in the box it will ship in and protect item with 2 sheets of bubblewrap along with tissue paper initially, most more before shipping. Once item is sold I invoice the buyer immediately for item. I find I usually get paid for my auctions or store items right away. I have very friendly terms of service. I then run a label off through Paypal shipping labels , secure the box for shipping. Box gets moved to an area of my office where packages wait to ship out.  I email buyer package will ship in the morning by 9am and the transaction is almost complete. In the morning I will ship and within 3-4 business days I will check the item dc # to insure it has arrived at destination.

I hope my order of operations from thrifting to shipping has helped provide a bit of organization to your selling experience.