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An office manager has revealed how she can make an extra £500 a month selling second-hand items she nabs at car boots and charity shops – with her best find being a £3 Furby that she sold for £120.
Kirsty Quinn,from Bicester, Oxfordshire, first started the thrifty habit when she was at university but began taking it more seriously eight years ago after discovering other people onYouTube were doing the same thing.
Now the 35-year-old attends three car boot sales a week, and spends up to 40 hours a month on the side hustle, listing items oneBay.
Some of Kirsty’s previous sales include a Vivienne Westwood cabin crew coat for £174.99 that she had bought for £57.49 on Vinted and a Starbucks Disney’s Hollywood Studios mug for £100 she got for just £13.49.
According to Kirsty, she has used the extra cash to put towards treats like holidays – and has made £25k in total so far.
Kirsty said she started the side hustle when she was at university.
‘I had a part-time job at M&S and wanted to earn a little extra money for my car insurance and things like that,’ she said.
‘I started going round the charity shops then just looking for things to sell on eBay. I [now] earn about £500 per month.
Kirsty Quinn (pictured), 35, makes an extra £500 a month selling secondhand finds from charity shops and car boot sales
Some of her previous sales include a Vivienne Westwood coat for £174.99 that she had bought for £57.49 and a Starbucks Disney’s Hollywood Studios mug for £100 she bought for £13.49
‘The money I earn from work is money for bills and my money from reselling is for guilt-free treats like holidays.
‘We try and do at least one big holiday a year and then a couple of longer weekends and stuff.
‘I spend a minimum of half an hour a day packaging up and things. It’s between five to 10 hours a week depending on if its busier.
‘In the Summer it can be attending up to three car boots a week – one on a Saturday and two on a Sunday.’
Kirsty posts new items for sale every day on eBay and makes huge profits on vintage toys.
‘I paid £1 for a particular Care Bear toy and it sold for £50. Another good buy was a vintage Furby I found in a charity shop for £3,’ she said.
‘Somebody bought it in Thailand and it ended up going for £120.’
At a recent car boot sale, Kirsty bought a Tamagotchi for just 50p and sold it for £236.
She first started the thrifty habit when she was at university but began taking it more seriously eight years ago after discovering other people on YouTube were doing the same thing
Kirsty uses her extra cash to put towards treats like holidays and has made £25k in total so far
An entire collection of 62 Goosebumps children’s books were sold for £303 after she paid between just 10p and £1 per book.
Kirsty has ‘no set budget’ to spend on her second-hand finds, but advises other people do their research if they want to get started.
‘eBay makes it easy to research what sells,’ she said.
‘I might be sitting on the sofa wondering what an item sells for and if you look at the sold prices, it tells you.
‘Follow other resellers on socials. Everyone puts tips on what they sell and gives you an idea of what you can sell.’
She says her most popular items include retro toys and discontinued beauty products like perfume and makeup.
Hitting the clearance section of health stores like Boots and Superdrug, Kirsty finds cosmetics like discontinued body sprays sell for huge margins, like a peach flavoured exclusive limited edition Vaseline that sold for £17.
‘I used [the extra money] to help pay off my student loans and my house deposit, it helps massively towards that,’ she said.
‘I wouldn’t do it full-time, I know people that do and I find it too stressful.
‘For me as it is now it’s more a hobby and I get enjoyment from it. I don’t have to do it’.
