Goodwill Resell for Profit - Did I Make My Money Back?

    On May 5th I went to Goodwill and purchased books to resell in my secondhand bookshop. I spent a total of $24.67 at Goodwill, but $2 was for personal use. I have already made my money back on these books! 

      I want to take a look at the sales that came through so far, now everything else in my Goodwill haul that sells will be 100% profit. I also wrote in my previous blog post that I hoped to make my money by the 20th, and it's the 22nd. 

The first sale was this Rainbow Brite, like new, book. I listed it for $13 and someone made an offer for $10 within 24 hours of listing. My COG was .99, the selling fee was 1.00 and the processing fee was .91. $8.09 was deposited into my Mercari account. After COG, my profit was $7.10.

I am trying to make my money back as fast as possible with this Goodwill experiment. I sent offers to likers and gave a whopping $5 off for this fantasy book lot, the buyer accepted for $17 and paid for shipping.  I forgot that my COG was .99 cents and not a quarter like it usually is. The selling fee was 1.70 and the processing fee was 1.16. I made $14.14, after my COG which was $3.96, my profit was $10.18.

Both of those sales were on Mercari.

I realized on Sunday that I didn't have any of my Goodwill haul listed. I listed everything on Sunday and the books that I told myself I'd keep if I made my money back sold. It was my dark academia book bundle. 

This sold right away, within hours of listing just like the Rainbow Brite book. I did good didn't I? Love it even though I wanted these books so bad. My earnings were $14.30, my COG was 2.23, my profit was $12.07. 

With these three orders, my profit is $29.35 after fees and COG. My initial investment was $24.67. My profit so far is $4.68. I hope that by the end of the month more books have sold from that haul. 

I still have 11 books from that haul, see that the bundles did so well, I think I will bundle 3 or 4 cottagecore books together. 

Will I be able to double, triple my money?

Should I relist my items?

Edit 6/10/2023:

Another book from this haul sold! It sold in a bundle of other books I got for free. It was the Detective Arthur on the Scent for $7, I was asking for $10 but I put a sale on Depop to generate sales and Free Shipping. That's $7 profit!

Add $7 plus the $4.68 from what I've profited so far, and my total amount of profit is $11.68. I've made my money back, and made an additional $11.68. That really is not enough for all the work I put in, BUT I have so much fun selling books.  

Should I take the $11.68 and reinvest it to buy items with a higher sale price? 

Can I double my money with this Goodwill haul?

Did I Spend Too Much on These Books To Resell?

Edit: 6/24/2023

Sold for $4.80. Total profit so far: $16.48. 

Edit: 6/25/2023

I spent $24.67 at Goodwill, made my money back, and so far, I have a profit of $16.48. I was hoping to double my money, BUT

books take a long time to flip

&

not a high ASP 

there are still 10 more books from the Goodwill haul that I can profit from. But, I think I will take my initial investment of $24.67 and spend it on better items to resell. 

Edit: 6/29/2023

The Frog and Toad book finally sold!! I will never not pick up these books, it takes me 30 seconds to list. My profit was $2.60. 

Let's see... that means... I made my money back, and profited $19.08. 

Here is a list of the remaining books:

Best Loved Short Stories

Cajun Night Before Christmas 

Clifford the Big Red Dog

The Foolish Tortoise

Once There Was A Cat

Cat Stories

and I never listed the Beatrix Potter book, or listed the other two Beatrix Potter books. Hmm. I'm going to see what I can bundle. I got these books May 5th, around that time, had them listed within that week. It's been two months. I think 90 day turn around time is not bad, HOWEVER, this is a small investment back. 

I will be able to double my money.