Shoutout to hitting $500 in resale profit this month from just garage sales

I've been hitting up garage sales every Saturday for the last year, mostly out of boredom. This month I finally tracked everything I sold on Marketplace and it came to $502. I was shocked because I only spent like $60 total on the stuff I picked up. Most of the money came from selling a vintage lamp I got for $3 and a set of old cookbooks someone practically gave away. It's not life-changing cash, but it feels good to know my weekend hobby actually pays for itself. Has anyone else here ever added up their flip earnings and been surprised?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_wren1d agoMost Upvoted

The real win is the IRS never taxing garage sale finds unless you itemize, so that $500 is all yours.

keithbutler23h ago

The IRS part isn't quite right. You still owe taxes on money you make from selling stuff, even if it's from garage sales. The rule is you report it as income on your tax return. The $500 might not trigger a big tax bill, but it's not automatically tax-free just because you didn't itemize. That said, if you're selling things for less than you paid for them, that's a loss, not profit, so you wouldn't owe anything. But flips where you buy low and sell high count as taxable income. Most people just never report it and hope nobody asks, which is a different thing than it being legal.