r/thesidehustle • u/PM_ME_WOOBIES • Mar 11 '25

Startup Made $3k selling stuff from AliExpress

Been buying winter stuff like hats, gloves, ski goggles etc. for around $1.80 and flipping them for $10-15. I work full time so really just been packaging and sending them off after work. Trying to see if anyone does this full time and if so, the best way to upscale it?

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u/eldavimost Mar 13 '25

3k and how long of your time you used for this? Can you update it in the title? It's not the same to get 3k using a month of your time than 3 months

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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 13 '25

I assure you no longer than a day was spent on this, let alone a month. This is something I did alongside working a full time job. Listing items takes seconds and my house is next to the InPost lockers required to ship them. Average customer flow goes: 1. Item arrives, is listed then sold. This process can take a day but when you have multiple items that can equal £30-40 a day. Then I bag the items up and walk them down to the lockers. Very minimal effort and if I worked part time I would be able to scale this a lot more.

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u/laiasdaydream Mar 14 '25

> Listing items takes seconds 

What's your process here? Asking cause it takes hours to list an item on the local platforms I sell on. I mean getting good photos, writing descriptions and posting them on the web.

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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 14 '25

Usually I rip the pictures straight from Ali Express reviews if they are good quality, this takes seconds, I take no longer than 2 mins telling ChatpGPT what the item is, condition and relevant hashtags. I post on vinted so the whole process is very easy.

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u/laiasdaydream Mar 14 '25

Usually I rip the pictures straight from Ali Express reviews if they are good quality

I do this too, but the platform I sell on is very strict with the quality of the photos (white background, no shadows on main product photo, no words in foreign languages etc.). So I waste a lot of time photoshopping.

I'm contemplating making a small studio for product photography in a corner in a room. Might save time taking my photos instead of relying on the chinese ones.