Thrift haul buy ceiling

Replay last trip and get the most you could have paid at the register and still earned your hourly floor.

Items bought (items)

Keepers after the home check (items)Items you'll actually list

Expected net per keeper (dollars)After fees and shipping

Round-trip miles (mi)

Cost per mile (dollars)Example rate. Use the current IRS rate

Hours, trip plus listing (hr)

Your hourly floor (dollars /hr)

Paid. You beat your $15/hr floor by $2.60. Next time the same haul is still worth buying up to $83.

Buy ceiling for this haul: $82.60most you could pay and still earn $15/hr
Ceiling per item bought: $5.90average tag you can afford across 14 items
Surplus over your floor: $2.60
Spent on rejects (est.): $22.864 of 14 items failed the home check, at the average tag

Show the math

Keepers' value: 10 × $18.00 = $180.00
Driving: 32 mi × $0.700 = $22.40
Your time: 5 hr × $15.00 = $75.00
Buy ceiling: $180.00 − $22.40 − $75.00 = $82.60
Surplus: ceiling − $80.00 spent = $2.60
Rejects (est.): $80.00 × (1 − 10 ÷ 14) = $22.86

Your entries stay on this device

A different question than the trip calculator

The trip calculator asks whether the trip paid. This asks how much the trip could have cost. The answer is a ceiling you can carry into the next store that looks like this one.

The math

Output	Formula
Keepers' value	keepers × expected net per keeper
Buy ceiling	keepers' value − (miles × cost per mile) − (hours × hourly floor)
Ceiling per item	buy ceiling ÷ items bought
Surplus	buy ceiling − register total
Spent on rejects (estimate)	register total × (1 − keepers ÷ items bought), assuming rejects cost the average tag

Inputs people get wrong

Use keepers, not items bought. Rejects cost money and time but return nothing. Count listing hours with the trip; the haul isn't worth anything until it's listed.

The cost per mile box holds an example. Check the IRS standard mileage rates for the current figure.

Questions

What is a buy ceiling?

The most you can spend on a haul and still earn your hourly floor after driving and time. Spend under it and the trip pays your rate. Spend over it and you're working for less.

Why can the ceiling be zero?

If the keepers' net doesn't cover the driving and your time at your floor, no register total makes the trip pay. Change the route or the floor, not the haul.

Should I use expected or actual sale prices?

Use what sold comps support after fees and shipping. Replace them with actual sales once the items sell, and run it again.

Is this a tax calculation?

No. Mileage here is a cost of running the car. Whether you can deduct it is a separate question for your records and tax preparer.

Sources: IRS standard mileage rates.

Disclosure Thrift Routes is published by the team behind FlowLister. FlowLister is AI eBay listing software that turns item photos into complete eBay listings. It writes the title, description, category, item specifics, price and shipping for an eBay listing in about 30 seconds, and it prices each item from recent eBay sold comps and shows the sold listings behind the number. It is AI, so it misses things. We built it, so treat this as a disclosure, not a review. The guides and calculator work the same if you never open it.