A retirement hobby that makes money

Hobbies keep your mind active, give you purpose, and make retirement enjoyable.

But most hobbies end up costing you money, and some hobbies cost you a lot of money.

Reselling is a fun hobby that can make you money

Here are some reasons this is a great hobby for retired people.

• It gives you something to do that's interesting.

• It keeps your mind active. You're constantly learning new things and meeting interesting people.

• When you go to sales, it gets you out of the house, and you get some exercise

• Best of all, you get a feeling of accomplishment when you find an item at a bargain price, sell it, and make a profit.

You can start by selling some things in your garage or attic that you need to get rid of anyway. You can also go to garage sales, estate sales, and auctions to find things to sell.

The key to finding things at sales is that you have to know the value of items. You can check eBay's sold items to see what things actually sold for.

For example, at many garage sales, you'll find cast-iron skillets. But cast-iron skillets can be worth anywhere from $10 to over $400. Can you tell the difference? I'll give you a clue. If the brand is Griswold or Wagner, it could easily be worth $100 to $200 or more, depending on the model and condition. Other brands could be worth $10 or less.

Two quick ways to sell items are to sell them on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.

Here are some examples of profitable finds at garage sales

• My mother bought a vase at a garage sale for $0.75 and sold it on eBay for $72. She could do this because she knew the value of an antique Hull vase.

• She bought a hand-painted dinner plate for $0.10 at a church sale and sold it for $114 on eBay. She bought the plate because it was pretty, but she made such a huge profit because the person who had painted the plate was from France and had died years ago. His two children saw the signed plate on eBay and started bidding against each other. My mother got lucky. Sometimes you get lucky. That's one of the things that makes this hobby so much fun.

• I had a pair of western boots that no longer fit me. I put them in a friend's garage sale and priced them at $10. They didn't sell, so the next week I put them in another garage sale and priced them at $5. They still didn't sell. I listed them on eBay and sold them for $50.

Sometimes you can find bargain prices at the end of the day, when the seller is just trying to get rid of the items that didn't sell. Many times, I find items this way at bargain prices, and the interesting thing is that other people had looked at these items all day and didn't recognize how valuable they were. ul>

Here's the secret sauce

Most people at garage sales, estate sales, and auctions look at items and think about whether they need the item or could use it. They're not thinking about what the item is worth or what they could sell it for. That's why you can find bargains if you know the value of items.

You can't know the value of everything, but you can specialize in the things you're interested in. That makes your hobby interesting.

My mother was still going to garage sales, estate sales, and auctions, buying things and reselling them when she was well into her 90s. This kept her active and mentally sharp. She had a lot of fun, and she made money doing it.

This hobby was the perfect hobby for her because it kept her active, and it worked for her because she loved antiques, knew the value of many antique items, and could recognize a bargain when she saw one.

After my father retired, he bought used cars, cleaned them up, and sold them. This worked for him because he knew what a used car would sell for, so he could recognize a bargain when he found one.

Bottom line: The key to making money buying and reselling things is that you have to know the value of the items you're buying and be able to recognize a bargain when you find it.

You make your money when you buy something, not when you sell it. You can expect to sell things for about what they're worth, but with some effort and knowledge (and maybe a little bit of luck), you can often buy things for way less than they're worth.