Picture this: a young mom pushing a stroller through aisles of mismatched furniture and dusty glassware, spotting a $5 lamp that looks like every other forgotten piece in the store. Most people would walk right past it. She didn’t. That single moment quietly kicked off one of the wildest entrepreneurial glow-ups I’ve ever come across.
Fast-forward more than a decade and that same woman now runs a seven-figure online empire built almost entirely on secondhand treasures. And honestly? The story is so good it almost feels made up—except the numbers are right there in black and white.
The Spark That Changed Everything
Back in 2011 she was working a part-time marketing gig that paid $14 an hour. Life was fine, but nothing extraordinary. Then her dad brought home a beat-up lamp he snagged for five bucks at a church yard sale. He cleaned it up, looked it up online, and realized the exact same model was selling for seventy dollars. That was it—the lightbulb moment (pun absolutely intended).
The very next weekend she was out with her baby in tow, combing thrift stores and yard sales, hunting for anything that could be flipped for profit. What started as a curious experiment quickly became an obsession. She traveled the country hitting antique shows, studying price guides, and training her eye to spot hidden value in what everyone else overlooked.
In my experience, most million-dollar businesses begin exactly like this: one tiny “what if” moment nobody else notices.
From Side Hustle to “I’m Outta Here”
By 2016 she was tired of writing marketing emails nobody read. So she did what a lot of us only dream about—she started a YouTube channel documenting her thrifting adventures. No fancy equipment, no script, just pure passion and a phone camera.
The channel grew steadily, but the real wake-up call came the day she checked her ad revenue and saw six hundred dollars… earned in a single day. She literally had to pull her car over.
“I sat there staring at the screen thinking—what in the world is happening right now?”
By late 2018 the channel was consistently out-earning her day job. In December of that year she walked away from corporate life for good. Scary? Absolutely. Regrets? Zero.
Building the Machine Behind the Magic
Quitting the job was just step one. What came next was pure hustle. Within six months her house was overflowing with inventory and she had five employees—two listing on eBay, three packing and shipping. The pandemic actually accelerated growth; when ad revenue dipped temporarily, she leaned harder into direct sales.
But the more she sold on traditional platforms, the more frustrated she became with high fees eating into margins. She knew there had to be a better way.
Enter 2023. After being approached by a newer marketplace platform, she decided to launch her own niche corner of the internet dedicated exclusively to the kind of eclectic, high-value resale items her audience loved. She called it NikNax.
Today NikNax hosts thousands of sellers offering everything from vintage Pyrex and mid-century lamps to rare trading cards and local snacks you can’t find anywhere else. As of late October 2025 the site has already cleared $5.2 million in gross sales this year alone. She keeps 5%, the platform takes 5%, and sellers keep the rest. Do the math—that’s well over a quarter-million dollars in her pocket from the marketplace cut in ten months, and that’s before her personal sales or YouTube income.
The Real Numbers (Because People Always Ask)
Let’s be transparent—here’s roughly what the empire looks like in 2025:
- NikNax marketplace revenue (YTD Oct 31): $5.2 million+
- Her 5% marketplace cut: ~$260,000 minimum
- YouTube ad revenue (YTD Oct 15): ~$298,000
- Her personal store on NikNax: another ~5% of total platform sales
- Two full-time employees for listing & shipping her own inventory
- Commercial warehouse + office space: $2-3K/month
And yes—both the channel and the marketplace are solidly profitable.
What Most People Get Wrong About This Business
Everyone sees the glamour—the travel, the treasure hunts, the big checks—but very few talk about the grind. She still puts in 50-100 hours some weeks. There are livestream sales that run late into the night, inventory that piles up if you blink, and the constant need to stay ahead of trends.
Running your own marketplace also means playing referee. Banning rude buyers, handling fraudulent refund claims, keeping the community vibe positive—it’s a job most resellers never have to think about.
But here’s what I love: she’s brutally honest that it’s not all passive. “Even when I’m not ‘working,’ I’m usually watching other sellers’ lives, chatting with the community, or listing new items. It just feels like part of daily life now.”
The Investments That Come After the Win
Smart entrepreneurs don’t let money sit in checking accounts. With the extra cash flow she’s been snapping up real estate—two three-bedroom homes in Pennsylvania (one traditional rental, one Airbnb pulling around $300/night). Classic move: turn active income into assets that keep paying whether you’re hunting thrift stores or not.
Can Literally Anyone Do This?
Her answer is an unqualified yes—if you’re willing to put in the work. You don’t need a big starting budget. You need curiosity, persistence, and the willingness to learn what’s valuable.
“Anyone could walk into a Goodwill with ten dollars, buy something random, look it up, and discover it’s worth fifty. The knowledge is free. The hustle is up to you.”
She still travels at least once a month hunting inventory, films and edits content several days a week, and hosts multiple livestream sales. It’s a lot. But it’s also proof that ordinary people with ordinary starting points can build something extraordinary.
I’ve watched hundreds of side-hustle stories over the years, and this one stands out because it’s replicable on some level by almost anyone. You might not build the next multi-million-dollar marketplace, but turning $20 into $200 happens every single day in thrift stores across the country.
The real question is: what’s your $5 lamp?
If one random yard-sale find can snowball into financial freedom, imagine what intentional effort could do. Maybe it’s time to take a second look at that dusty shelf nobody else is paying attention to.
