Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper interview reseller Donna Kemp about flipping clothes on Poshmark.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - Interview With Reseller Donna Kemp
Rob: What's up, guys? On today's podcast, we are so excited to talk to Donna Kemp, a reseller who is killing it, and we're super excited to talk to her and get some insight on her business today.
Melissa: Thank you Donna for being here.
Donna: Thanks for having me, you guys.
Melissa: We're excited to learn more about your business.
We have a lot of fun, on this podcast, getting to know other resellers and learning how they're running their reselling business. And it's really cool how there are so many different ways that you can do this thing. So it's really fun to be able to dive into all the different ways.
Rob: Absolutely. And we love seeing other ways that people are running their business and yeah, it's just amazing to watch and inspire other people.
Exactly. So it's so cool. So Donna, thank you again for jumping on here. Let's jump into it.
Melissa: Yeah. So where, how did you get started in this whole reselling? Give us a little background.
Donna: So I technically started in 2019 when we planned like a Disney World trip and I'm like, oh my God, like, we need more money.
You know, we need, we need to pay for this trip. So I started just like flipping stuff that I would find on Facebook Marketplace, kid strollers or wagons I'd find for free or like for $5 that I could flip for like $30. So I started doing that and I kind of got like some momentum going and it was kinda almost like, like a joke, cuz I would see something like in someone's trash and I'd stop and take it up.
Like it almost seemed ridiculous, but you know, I started making money doing this and then when, the winter time season came, cuz I'm in Michigan, obviously I couldn't flip wagons and strollers anymore. I needed like another way to make some money. I had gotten laid off from my part-time job. So I saw like an ad for Poshmark, actually with this like Henri Bendel mug that there was like an ad for it.
And it was like being sold for like a hundred dollars. And I had the same one. I was like, oh my God, like I have that mug. I can sell that and make money. And I did. And it was like one of those moments in life that was like, oh my God, like, it almost like changed my life. Like, I'm like, this is what I'm going to do.
Like I can do this and be like a stay at home mom. So that's kind of how I got started and it just kind of snowballed.
Rob: That's awesome. Cool. Well, I have a question for you too. So you were finding stuff free, like on the side of the road and marketplace, where were you reselling it, once you found those items?
Donna: Like back on Facebook Marketplace, I almost felt like weird or wrong for doing it, but I started making money.
Rob: That's awesome.
Melissa: I love strollers is something that I actually started with too, as once we started having kids and I'm like, man, strollers are expensive. Like that's crazy what people are asking some of these, so yeah, they're, they're a fun thing to resell for sure.
So, and so are you doing this part-time full-time right now?
Donna: Yeah, I would say probably part-time cuz I'm not able to put in like a ton of hours during each day cuz .Like I homeschool my kids and I have three kids, so I'm kind of busy during the day. So I just kinda do things as I can, as I can throughout the day, whether I spend maybe 20 minutes doing like pictures and then like at night I'll put in a couple hours when everyone's asleep.
So I'd probably say it's more part-time.
Melissa: Okay. And are what platform are you currently the majority, selling on for the most part?
Donna: Poshmark, Mercari, eBay and Facebook. Okay. But Poshmark's probably like my, my, my breadwinner.
Melissa: Okay. So, and so is it mostly clothes then?
Donna: Yeah, mostly clothes.
Rob: Okay, cool. How did it escalate into clothes from where you started with, from your mug?
Donna: Yeah, I just started, well, I obviously I had my own clothes and then my sister she's very like bougie, so she's very expensive clothes. She gave me stuff to sell to kind of help me get going. And I just like, I like selling clothes. Like I have fun with clothes. Like obviously, like, you know, I'm a woman, so I love clothes.
Like, it's just something that I like. And I just kind of gravitate towards it more, even though like, I know like there's obviously money to be made and like other departments like home goods and stuff. Yeah. So I just have the most fun with clothes.
Rob: That's such a great point and I'm gonna emphasize it because that's what we like to tell people, too, something that you love and you enjoy just like you said, you love clothes, you that that really like energizes you.
That's where the best place is to start in this reselling world is definitely something that you enjoy doing, cuz it is just so much fun to be able to do more of it. So, yeah, I definitely wanted to emphasize that. That's that's amazing. That's how you got into clothes for sure.
Melissa: And back to the mug, I was just thinking that you said that kind of got you started, like it sold for a hundred dollars.
Do you ever ha have a hard time, like maybe with clothes even too, like, you know, oh, this is really cute. It's my size. I wanna keep it, but it's gonna make me $50 to a hundred dollars. So I can, I gotta sell it. Like, do you ever run into that?
Donna: Yeah. All the time. Yes, yes.
Melissa: Yeah. That's hard cuz you wanna it's like, oh, but it can make me money.
I did that for it strollers for a long time, we sold a lot of Bob strollers, the jogging one jogging ones and I'm like, oh, I really wanna keep one. They're so nice. But I'm like, it can make $300 though. Ugh. What do we do? I finally.
Donna: Exactly. Yes. It's a struggle. It's a struggle. Sometimes I do keep things, but then I just like, you know, okay.
I gotta give it up cuz I'd rather go on vacation or maybe I could like get something else with this money. Like I try to look at it from like that perspective to like, let the item go.
Melissa: Yeah. The one cool thing about clothes though. You could, you know, get a couple wears and then sell 'em again. Cuz they're, that's pretty cool reselling.
So, I mean, yeah, that's pretty cool. A cool.
Donna: Exactly. Yeah.
Melissa: So you, do you cross post, like do you post your stuff on posh, post your stuff on Poshmark and then cross post to all the different platforms or how do you do that part?
Donna: Yep. That's, that's exactly what I do. Like I put it on Poshmark first and then, I'll use like a tool, like Vendoo.
I'm sure you guys have heard of that and I'll just cross, post everywhere else.
Melissa: Okay.
Rob: Cool.
Melissa: Yeah. That does make it. Do you find that it makes a difference in your sales? Like it does increase your sales to do that?
Donna: Yeah, it definitely, because I feel like each platform kind of has maybe like a different audience.
It's kind of, it's kind of funny. Like I feel like, I don't know. I feel like Facebook does better maybe with certain things versus like Poshmark so I do try to cross posts sometimes like Poshmark will surprise me and I'll sell something like totally random. Like I sold like Keurig K cups a couple weeks ago. That was kind of shocking on Poshmark.
Melissa: That's cool. It's so much fun though. They do do home goods on Poshmark too right now? Or they?
Donna: Yeah, they do. Yes.
Melissa: Okay. So you can do some of those. They're just not as well known for those as they are the clothes. Yeah. For the most part.
Donna: Right. Right.
Melissa: When you're selling on Facebook Marketplace, are you selling with offering shipping?
Donna: Yes.
Melissa: Okay. And have you had good success with that?
Donna: Yes. I mean, that's all I try to basically aim for anymore. I don't really try to aim for like a local audience. I feel like I almost feel like that part of the Facebook Marketplace is dead. Cause I think now since you can ship all over the country for a really like reasonable price, I think that's like where everyone can make their money now.
Melissa: Yeah. That's the hard part when like we love to source on Facebook Marketplace. But, now, because the shipping's are, that's all the whole feed is all just everything that's shipping. It's really hard.
Rob: And our model's a little different, it's larger. Yeah. It's larger items. So we find them locally and then we'll ship them, but most people won't ship 'em so, yeah, but Facebook is always hounding us with jumping in and showing us stuff from all over the country. And it's like, we just want the big stuff in our local area. Please let us have that. So.
Melissa: One question about the Facebook Marketplace too. So we don't, we do larger stuff, so we don't really do shipping through them because it's the bigger stuff.
But, have you ran into any issues trying to get ahold of customer service with Facebook? Cuz they're so hard to get hold of. So have you had to deal with that or no?
Donna: Not so much unless it was like somebody just like randomly making a return. The really bad part about Facebook Marketplace is like, if, if someone makes a return, I feel like that you're not notified.
And money is just kind of like taken from your account. And I kind of wanted to dispute something one time and it was just, that's like a nightmare. It was just a nightmare. So because of that, I try to just, I'm kind of careful of also what I put on Facebook. Like I'm not gonna put like Christian Louboutin shoes on Facebook, for example, like right.
Something that I, that, you know, cause there's no buyer protection really on Facebook. It seems like, you know, if it's something that like, I, I spend like a couple dollars on them. I'm totally fine with that, but I'm not gonna put like a expensive items on there that I, that, you know, someone might make a case against and try to get their money back easily since it seems just like Facebook will just give it back, right?
Rob: Yeah. Such a great point. Yeah. Without a case, for sure. That's such a great point.
Melissa: Cause if we have cases on eBay, you can get ahold of somebody at some point, but Facebook is so tough. Yeah. They need to, they wanna up their marketplace, but like, you gotta up your customer service a little bit.
If you wanna up your marketplace. Yeah. Are there fees still low compared to everybody else?
Donna: Yeah.
Oh yeah. They're like what? Like 5%. Yeah. They're very low. Okay.
Melissa: And that is enticing to be able to sell. You just have to know it's a little bit riskier and maybe not sell the yeah. Higher, higher profit.
Yeah. The higher end items that you might get a return for. Yeah, for sure.
Donna: Exactly.
Melissa: I thought I saw in your profile that have you sold on whatnot too?
Donna: You know what, I just like got approved for whatnot. And I was actually on vacation about like a week and a half ago. So I haven't like even done a show yet.
Like I like I'm working at it. I gotta get like my stuff uploaded, but I really wanna do whatnot because I've seen so many people have success on it, so.
Melissa: Okay, cool. Can you, we've never done it or really even looking at have any idea about it. So could you tell us like what, how that, how it works? I know you haven't done one yet, but I'm sure you've attended some of 'em.
How, how do they work?
Donna: Well, so, it's a live show. So basically, you're gonna schedule a time say you're gonna go on like at 6:00 PM and you're just gonna like, turn, use your phone. You're gonna turn on your camera. And you're basically doing like a live like video and people are just gonna tune in and you're gonna be like, yeah, this is, you know, American Eagle jeans size two, you know, they're $20.
You just kind of talk about the product rather than just you know, letting someone browse and look at a listing, right. So you're gonna kind of sell it a little bit. I've done a live show with, a platform called galaxy live. I did this back in April, so it was kinda like the same concept. It was terrifying at first, cuz I feel like it's just scary on camera sometimes, but it went really well.
People like were interested and like I sold like two things, which was, I was happy with, but people were interested. They wanted to learn about your product. Like whatnot is the same way. I think they do like collectibles and now they're starting to do clothing and things like that.
Melissa: It is a cool component.
Like people feel invested, they're watching and it's like a kind of a fun, thanks. We, we know a couple people who do on Facebook Marketplace or not market Facebook, they'll do a live selling show. And then we interviewed Sammy Davis. She did, does that too in her group and she goes live and, it's a, just a fun way I think to sell.
Rob: It is, and eBay's just recently allowed.
Yeah, eBay's allowed you to do videos recently for our stuff is, is kind of cool that you can do that, but it's the other not lie, but it's another, video portion of being able to sell stuff and people getting to look at it instead of doctored up pictures and stuff like that. So I think that's really where the market is going is definitely videos and, live streams for sure.
So, which is really cool.
Melissa: Yeah. It's fun. Yeah. And you can do those kind of, kind of things. Yeah. What, how many hours basically, I mean, you're doing homeschooling, you're doing all this other stuff. So how many hours do you think you are putting into your reselling business on a weekly basis on average?
Donna: Let's see. I would say maybe about like 20 to 30 hours, just depending on what we got going on and how tired I am at night. Cause I maybe spent about three hours a day, I guess if I add it all.
Melissa: Awesome.
Donna: So three to four hours a day, depending just depends.
Melissa: Right. Do you have a set schedule or do you kind of, you know, go with the flow on how your day's going?
Donna: I kind of do have like a schedule, like, if, if I'm gonna do pictures, it's usually like in the afternoon because of the sunlight in my house and like the area that I take pictures. So it's usually in the afternoon when I'm taking pictures. And then I'll just kinda list items throughout like the evening.
You know, if I have like 10 minutes to sit on the couch, then I'll just like list stuff real quick. And then usually at night is when like I'll pack orders. Cause I just have, you know, just time to myself and sometimes I even pack orders in the morning. So it just really depends. And then I try to squeeze in like sourcing maybe in the afternoon or in the morning if like I have my mom to watch my kids.
So just just day to day and usually on Saturdays, I go sourcing too, cuz you know, my husband can watch the kids.
Rob: So cool. On average, how many items do you get listed maybe a day or per week? How many items are you striving to do? Maybe like three or five items a day. Do you, what, what's your routine for that?
Donna: Three to five items a day. Okay. Minimum three.
Melissa: Okay. Awesome.
Donna: So I just you're right on that, you know, it's just, that's just a real, it's a realistic number. Yeah. You know, if I try to do more, I'm not gonna get to it all in one day. So three to five is my is what I do each day, you know, and, and it does add up that's, you know, that's about like 20 to 30 items a week.
That's a lot.
Melissa: Yeah.
Rob: For sure.
Melissa: And if you look at it too, like I'm gonna do three to five items a day, but it, if you try to make the goal, sometimes if it's like, you're making it 20 items a day and you don't do it and then overwhelmed, overwhelmed. So if you do the smaller chunks, but you do it consistently.
Yeah. That could be a huge, a huge thing.
Rob: So, yeah. And what about your. I'm sorry, what about your income? Are you comfortable? Can you give us like a rough average, maybe either on a month or a weekly or whatever it is, that you're you're with your part-time hours?
Donna: Yeah, well, for, I would probably say monthly that's probably easier for me to capture is just, I make about it.
It really depends about $1,800 to like, $2,500 a month. Awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, that's a great, yeah. I mean, I mean, yeah, that's just, that's just, I think that's great. Cuz like I said, I'm a stay at home mom and I mean, I've got, I have like a baby, like my life is sometimes crazy so if I can pull in, you know, at least, even if like I can do like $1,500, like I'm happy, you know, pressure's off.
Like I made my goal, you know, some months are better than others. I'm sure you guys have heard that Poshmark like changed their algorithm. Yeah, I don't know. There's just, it just really depends, I guess.
Melissa: Has it come back a little bit on Poshmark?
Donna: I think it has. I mean, I didn't think for me personally, like, I don't think it really destroyed my sales as bad as it's done to other people.
Some people were like, just really upset about it. I didn't think it did. I didn't think it was. I mean, I didn't really notice like a bad effect on. Like, I'm not sure, so, okay. But I, I know like a lot of people have like, complained about that, but I've been consistent. So that makes me happy.
Rob: I think that's really the key.
Melissa: I was gonna say.
I think there's two things that you have going for you is that you're consistently, still listing instead of, you know, people got mad about the algorithm, so then they probably stop. And then also that you're crossposting so that helps too, cuz all these yeah platforms are all like people get mad, we sell mostly on eBay.
There's always something else to get mad at eBay about, you know, every platform's gonna have its thing that you don't like, but yeah, cross posting helps a ton too, and being for, and being consistent for sure.
Rob: I was gonna rewind real quick too. You talked about sourcing a little bit, that you're kind of your routine of it.
Where is the majority of the places that you are sourcing, for your items?
Donna: Thrift stores. Okay. I I'll go to the thrift stores. Like some of 'em around me. They have like really good sales. We have a lot of like privately ran thrift stores. You know, they're not like a, I mean, we have Goodwill and Salvation Army, but we have smaller stores that do a lot of charity work in our area.
So they make money off thrift store or make off donations. So they, they have stuff like super cheap, you know? One to $5 and then they'll have sales. And I think they've got better brands than like the Goodwills around me or Salvation Armies. So I try to keep my cost a good, super low. So that's where I stick to.
Rob: Cool. So maybe if you're listening to this, check out those privately owned thrift stores or those other ones, other than the big, the big brands, Goodwill, Salvation Army, how you might find some really cool things.
Melissa: We find those to be better too.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: We like our, the little ones that have a, something they're a charity or something that they stand for.
Yeah. And yeah, they tend to be a little for, for us too, a little bit lower price. And I did love how you're doing this as a busy mom and I, I would love to be able to homeschool, but I just don't think I have it. Like, it's a lot of work. I can't like that's a lot right there it is. But this is such a great side hustle that you can fit, you know, where it works and you enjoy it. And you're, you know, $1,500 to $2,500 a month extra a month is that's legit. Yeah. That's awesome. So, I mean, yeah. Well, imagine what it could do for sure for you. So do you have, yeah. Do you have, what would you give somebody like a, a success tip that you would give somebody maybe just starting or kind of feeling like they're stuck somewhere?
Rob: Yeah. Piece of advice for sure.
Donna: I mean, I would say just stay consistent list every day. And then if like you're new, my 17:00] biggest advice is to get on Instagram and start networking and following other resellers because that's, that's when I really stepped up. My game is when I got onto Instagram and I started following all these people.
Like there's so much advice everyone's willing to share advice brands and there's just so much knowledge out there and that's what really helped me just develop and step up my game and become better at this. That's awesome.
Melissa: Yeah. Great advice for sure. I, I like connecting with a lot of people on Instagram lately, too.
So it's been a lot of fun to, to follow everybody. I did have one other question that just came to my mind. Oh, do you have a most memorable, flip that you can think about?
Donna: Yeah. There's like a few. I mean, I sold, I found a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes on Facebook Marketplace for $50.
They were like an excellent condition. Like, I don't think this woman realized what she was doing, selling them for $50, but, and I was able to flip them for about $350. So that was one of my favorite flips. 18:00]
Rob: That's awesome.
Melissa: That's fun.
Donna: Yeah. And just, I think I even sold the toilet seat one time, a brand new toilet seat.
And I was just like, why would anyone want this? But someone bought it. So that was just kind of weird, but memorable.
Melissa: What platform did they buy that on?
Donna: Mercari.
Melissa: Mercari.
Rob: Wow. that's cool.
Melissa: That's fun.
Rob: That sparked a question for me. So are you ever worried about, because you're into fashion, you're in a close you're into the higher brand stuff.
Are you ever worried about getting something that might be a knockoff, and then selling it? How do you go about, you know, off, off, what's it called off, off authentic authenticating. Thank you often. I can't even say it, but how do you go about making sure that you're not selling a knock?
Donna: Yeah, no, I mean, I'm very scared of that too.
Okay. So I'm obviously very careful. I think I, I saw like a Louis Vuitton purse one time, or it was a fake one obviously, but I was like, checking it out. Like, I, I know like people on Instagram have sh like they shared tips on like how to look for a knockoff. So I was 19:00] like, checking out the purse. It was obviously a knockoff, even like a couple of coach purses.
You can tell when a knock off. So I just try to carefully inspect them and you know, I, I don't give these things the benefit of the doubt. I just try to assume that they're knock off obviously until proven otherwise. But I'm very careful about that. And if I have like any doubts, I don't even, I just won't pick it up because I'm not about to get myself into trouble.
You can get into a lot of trouble.
Rob: Cool.
Great advice for sure.
Melissa: That's hard to sometimes to know.
Rob: We don't, we don't do a lot of brand-name stuff.
Donna: So I think once you do learn, like some of the things to look for, it gets a lot easier too. Right. Easier. Like, you know? Okay. Well, I know these are traits of a knockoff and these are traits of the actual brand.
So once you learn 'em like any other topic or a category that it's easier, I would think so. Exactly.
Yeah. Like a Coach purse is easy. Like I think if they're fake, it just says like made in China. Doesn't have that like Coach tag with the ID or whatever.
Rob: Okay. Yeah.
Melissa: So where do you see yourself, like in your reselling business, in the future?
Like the 20:00] next year, couple years you wanna keep doing this? What are your kind of your goals for the coming years?
Donna: My biggest goal, obviously, cuz I'm gonna have more time as the years go on. Like I really wanna get into Amazon. I, I see like there's just so much money to be made and I really wanna like, just like, I wanna go that direction.
I think that's. I think that's a really great way to make money, but I think there's a lot of, you know, information I'm gonna still have to read up on and figure out, but I would really love to get an Amazon where I could just be making more money in my sleep, so to speak.
Melissa: Yeah. So FBA is what you're looking at?
Donna: Yeah, FBA.
Melissa: Cool. Awesome. That's great for diversifying your income streams. Yeah. Like do both eBay and Amazon. Absolutely. Yeah. How, yeah, so you have a couple year. Oh, you, no, you homeschool. I was gonna say you have a couple years, so your kids are in school, but no you're homeschooling. So that's still on your plate for sure.
Our kids finally are just now all in school, so we got a couple extra hours in a day to work. Yep. To work. So that does help. But, but yeah, so you have to be very, conscious of your time for sure.
Donna: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Melissa: Yeah, absolutely.
So where can everybody who's listening find you where's the best place to connect with you?
Donna: Best place is just on Instagram. My handle is @mels_trading_times.
Melissa: Okay.
Rob: Cool. And we'll put a link below. Definitely. You guys the link. Yeah. Go check her out. Follow her. That's awesome, Donna, thank you so much for jumping on and doing this with us.
We greatly appreciate your time and your great tips that you've given everybody. So thank you so much.
Donna: Of course. Thank you so much for having me. This is awesome.