Big numbers scare me.
They especially scare me when I’m being pitched the side-hustle de-jour with a promise of making millions from home. The bigger the promise, the more daunting it feels and the more likely I’m going to give up too soon and forget about pursuing some kind of side hustle.
While I am sure you can figure out how to drop-ship on Amazon and make large sums of money, most of us want a smaller, more manageable side-hustles that we won’t give up on, will help us boost our confidence, and allow us to try a few things before we dive fully into a particular project.
What I wish I knew in my twenties, I now know: forget about the millions of dollars. Start small and practical and build up to something bigger. The following list is the three current side hustles I focus on and exactly how much I’ve made doing them. The best part is that these are all side hustles you can start today.
Resell items on eBay, Mercari, Poshmark and Facebook Marketplace
The amount made in 2019: $4,462
In 2019, working some nights and some weekends mostly in the summer and fall, I made nearly $4,500 (after expenses, pre-tax) selling items on platforms like eBay and Mercari.
Some of that came from items I sourced at garage sales, Facebook marketplace, and retail stores like TJ Maxx, but another chunk came from selling items in my apartment and items for my friends.
What you need to get started:
- Access to a printer
- Packing supplies (bubble wrap, old Amazon boxes, packing tape)
- Items to sell
- An eBay, Mercari, Facebook or Poshmark account
- A smartphone with internet access
If you want to become a reseller today, the simplest thing you can do is sift through items at your house or apartment that you no longer use and list it on Facebook marketplace. Chances are, you have something of value that you no longer use and could sell pretty quickly online.
This process should take no more than 5 minutes. It could be an old video game, DVDs you no longer watch, an old iPad, Pokemon cards from your childhood, a jacket you never wear, or sunglasses that have been replaced.
All you need is one sale to help build your confidence and start to some momentum to take the next step. If you start to make some sales and want to step it up a little, you can do four things:
(1) Try listing an item on eBay
(2) Tell your friends you’ll re-sell things they don’t use and split the profits 50/50
(3) Start looking at eBay and Mercari sold listing data to understand what items are selling and how much they’re selling for
(4) Download the YardSale Treasure map app and start going to garage sales to source inventory. My two best flips from garage sales were a pair of Tumi luggage bags I flipped for a $220 profit, and a comic I bought for $1 and sold for $79.
Reselling items online is a practical way to start building your side-hustle and requires no up-front cost. Doing this for a little while will help you gain confidence and make your larger goals seem much more achievable while earning a decent income on the side.
Flip Sports Cards
Amount made in 2019: $2,500 | Amount Made in 2020: $2,570.90 | Projected 2020 Total Profit: $15,000
While this is technically a version of re-selling, sports cards are an industry of its own. And I say industry intentionally because investing and flipping sports cards has grown exponentially in popularity over the past few years. If you have started selling on eBay and Mercari, you already have the skills to sell sports cards.
And if you haven’t, not to worry because you don’t need much to start up with this side hustle, either.
What you need to get started:
- Access to a printer
- Packing supplies (bubble mailers, packing tape, cardboard)
- Card inventory
- An eBay, Mercari, Facebook or Poshmark account
- A smartphone with internet access
The only real roadblock to getting started with sports card flipping is learning the teams, players, card sets, and understanding the market. I recommend at least 40 hours of research to get started, but the best part is that those resources are free and accessible:
(1) Sports card investor has a podcast and video library that will teach you everything you need to know about sports cards to get started, including recommended “buy” cards
(2) Slabstox is a great Twitter account to follow for beginner’s as they tweet almost daily with valuable tips and cards to consider purchasing
(3) eBay sold listings — there is no better library of data than looking at the sold listings of a particular card. Here’s an example of an eBay sold listings page.
All three of the above resources are free. You don’t need to pay for a course from a guru, you can use one of those resources starting today to educate yourself and start flipping cards.
You also don’t need a lot of money to get started. For as little as $17.50, you could have bought a card like this one in February:
Which sold for over $325 in April:
It takes a little bit of time to become savvy, but it pays off if you do and the barrier to entry is low. After putting in 40 hours of research, I bought my very first sports card last May: a rookie card of rising basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo for $500.
Today, that same card sells for around $2,000:
That $1,500 profit off of 40 hours of research netted me over $37 per hour. I later bought a second one for $490, and am holding them both because I think they will increase in value.
This is the most lucrative of my side hustles and where I’ve spent most of my energy. Even in an economic downturn, sports cards are selling for record prices.
Write on Medium
Amount Made in April: $46.21 | Amount Made to Date: $267.94| Projected 2020 Total Profit: $1,000
In less than 2 months, I’ve written 24 articles and have been published in 7 publications, including The Startup, one of Medium’s top publications. The good news is that I’ve never considered myself a writer. I’ve always enjoyed it, but if I can publish that number of articles and get into top publications, then you can too.
However, it is difficult to make eye-popping money on Medium. Research has shown that just 7% of writers earn more than $100 in a given month. And while the ceiling is high, with one writer earning over $11,000 in April of 2019, it is really hard to achieve.
Don’t let this discourage you.
Side hustles are about exploring interests and seeing what you’re good at. You might discover that you have a knack for writing on Medium and may one day be that author who earns thousands of dollars in a single month and turn it into a full-time career.
If you don’t try, you’ll never find out, and starting up is really easy:
What you need to get started:
- Stripe account
- Medium account (you can sign up for free)
- Stuff to write about
- This comprehensive Medium formatting article
- This comprehensive guide to submitting to a publication
- A computer with an internet connection
Finding stuff to write about will be up to you, but there’s plenty of inspiration on this site already. And if you’re still stuck, you can always write about your experience trying one of the above-listed side hustles.
While this is the least profitable of my ventures, I’m only two-months in and am starting to get the hang of things. Already in my second month, my earnings have increased five-fold. If I am consistent, I expect these earnings to accelerate faster and become a more material source of income.
Final Thoughts
During my twenties, I chased the million-dollar trends and always quit, earning nothing in the process. I don’t have much experience to show for it either because I never made it out of the research and set-up phase. For some of you, that may not be the case and you know exactly what you want to pursue and are ready to overcome any hurdle. For that, I applaud you.
For the rest of us who have so many threads of interests we want to pursue, practicality stands to benefit us by letting us quickly try things and either commit or move on.
When I finally put my ego aside and started going to garage sales, my world opened up. It taught me how to find and quickly execute against ideas, earning me nearly $7,000 in the process. This year, I expect to more than double those earnings.
If you take away one thing from this article, I hope it’s this:
My earnings from practical side hustles in 2019: $7,000My earnings from aspirational / “get rich from home” hustles 2011–2018: $0
You don’t need to do one of the three side hustles I listed, but you do need to find something that is practical so you can get started, earn and learn, then work on the next, bigger thing.
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