This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
The ski lodge, lost and found hustle. Welcome friends, welcome community. Today's story drops us into the steamy back room of a mountain top lodge where goggles, gloves and puffy jackets pile up in cardboard bins. This guy comes up with an idea, this side hustler, he has figured out that resort policy dictates that they hold onto lost and found items for 60 days. But after that, it's kind of like nobody's coming back for this.
So some of the lodges donate the stuff, but this guy, the seasoned pass holder, he goes and asks them, can I buy it? Can I just buy it all in bulk? So operations managers like make me an offer and like he does this and figures out how to sell it. He'll talk about it in his story. And within a couple of weeks, he had made more than $1,000.
This is a segment we call first $1,000. How does somebody actually make $1,000 or more? They often end up making much more. The self-described ski bum in this story bought two trash bags of unclaimed gear for 50 bucks each and turn that into more than $1,000. Grab your lift pass.
We're gonna go to the lost and found, gonna pass the mic to Cody. I'll be back at the end with a quick wrap up. [Music]
Hey, this is Cody. I've been a weekend warrior at Silver Peak Resort for years. Every trip I pass the lost and found closet.
He has an overstuffed nook behind the rental counter. One March afternoon, I asked the guy on duty, "What happens to the forgotten gear?" He said, "We donated or trashed it after 60 days." And he shrugged. I joked about buying it and he shrugged again, talked to Jen in ops. It turned out that Jen was thrilled to clear the space. Law policy didn't prohibit selling, it just required a receipt.
So she let me cherry pick anything dated past the 60 day window for like $50 per contractor bag. It's not bad. I grabbed two bags the first run, paid on the spot and signed a little waiver that the items were sold as is. Back home, I dumped everything onto a tarp and now it was time for triage. Keepers for resale included a name brand gloves, goggles, helmets, and three Patagonia jackets.
A donation pile was mostly generic beanies and like single socks. Finally, some of the trash, cracked lenses, one boot standard stuff. But I washed the clothes with a scent free detergent, buffed the goggles with toothpaste. It's an old photographer's trick. And then I used a fabric shaver on the fleece.
Total rehab costs $18 for detergent, lens wipes, and two rolls of poly mailers. That's it. Next came photography. I shot flat lays on a white poster board by a sunny window. Editing was nothing more than tapping auto on the iPhone photos app.
Then came the listings. Poshmark for anything Patagonia, North Face, Smith, Oakley. Facebook marketplace for the Rocky Mountain ski swap for mid tier brands. And then lastly, the Craigslist local for helmets. Because buyers usually want to inspect the foam in person.
But my pricing rule was 45 to 55% of like the current retail price rounded to the nearest $5. My first sale came in like 20 minutes for the Oakley flight goggles around 60 bucks. And the single sale recouped most of my overall initial investment, like $50 for the bag and that 18 for the supplies and then six for the Poshmark fee. Momentum kind of snowballed. And then by day 10, I had sold two Patagonia nano puff kid jackets for 160, four pairs of Hestra gloves, Canadian total, six gloves of mixed brands kind of all over the place, 255.
And then assorted mittens, bundle, 30 bucks. The gross revenue was $685. Net profit after fees and shipping about 580. And this was all just from the first bag. My second bag highlights were including an REI women's shell, a salmon helmet and about a dozen branded lodge hoodies.
I priced the hoodies about 15 each and then sold forward to a single college skier who loved the retro vibe. Three weeks after the initial purchase, my deposits crossed the $1,080 in net profit line. Woo. The only downside is that the inventory is unsurprisingly, not unlimited. Now I check in every spring and autumn when the lodge is clean house.
One thing I've learned is that the managers hate clutter more than they love pennies. So as long as the skis and the boots stay out of the deal, those would be shipping nightmares. The margins hold strong. It's a cool project I enjoy doing and I'm running a good amount for a small number of hours. [Music]
Hey, Cody, thanks so much for sharing the story.
I think the only bad news is you can't just do this over and over, right? 'Cause ultimately inventory is limited. So you're probably not going to retire off these profits, but the profits are pretty good. If you're paying $50 per bag of bulk items, and then some of that stuff can actually sell for more than $50. Some single items can sell for more than $50, especially from those big brands, Patagonia, Oakley, et cetera.
Listeners, remember ideas are everywhere. There's something you can do as well. If you have a question and update about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com. You can also access resources and notes and also the actual episodes for all 3,200 plus episodes in our catalog. Everything is free.
New episodes out wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for tuning in. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
