Reselling is a great way of making quick & easy money online. The best thing about it in my opinion is that it’s really fun to do and you learn a hell of a lot about business along the way. You really never know what you’re going to come accross, what gems you’ll find hidden in a charity shop or what the next day will bring.
What Is Reselling?
Reselling is as simple as buying something for less than you sell it for. It’s one of the worlds oldest types of business and takes on many forms. For the sake of this guide, I’ll cover some basic reselling models that allow you to turn a profit with very little experience or funds.
A trolley full of Ebay orders, ready for the postman!
Most people use popular platforms such as Ebay and Amazon to sell their stock that is often sourced from supermarkets, charity shops, Facebook Marketplace and family/friends.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling second hand products or brand new, there’s profit to be made in either.
Online Arbitrage vs Retail Arbitrage vs Charity Shops Vs Other Sourcing Methods
There are a variety of ways to source your stock and these generally fall into 3 categories. I’ll explain them in brief below:
Online Arbitrage involves sourcing stock online, having it delivered to your door and selling it on platforms such as Ebay and Amazon. The main and obvious benefit of online arbitrage is that you can run the business for the most part, without leaving your home.
As this involves little physical effort, it can be difficult to find items online that you can sell elsewhere for a profit as so many people are doing the same thing. If a major retailer has an online sale for example, stock often sells out very quickly. Your best bet is to find relatively unknown online shops that aren’t closely monitored by the world and his dog.
I bought this off Facebook Marketplace for roughly half of what I sold it for on Ebay.
Retail Arbitrage is fairly similar to online arbitrage, although this involves physically visiting a shop to buy their reduced stock. After visiting a few shops on almost any high street, you’ll start to notice certain shops that reduce products down to extremely low levels just to clear the shelves.
Obviously this requires more effort than online arbitrage, but the margins can be much higher as you’re not having to pay for shipping and can sometimes negotiate further reductions in store if you are friendly enough with the staff.
Charity Shops are an incredibly fun way of sourcing stock for resale. By nature, you will mostly find second-hand items here but there can be some real gems amongst the tat. Unfortunately some charity shops have started to increase their prices to silly levels and many sell their good stock on ebay themselves, but there are still plenty around that offer great value products for reselling.
Besides the above, there are countless more options of sourcing reselling stock. Check your local Facebook Marketplace, visit car-boot sales, ask friends and family and even advertise in your local newspaper. Think outside the box and look where nobody else is looking to find the high-profit margin items!
What Products To Buy For Reselling
There’s no right or product to buy for reselling. So long as it turns a profit in a reasonable amount of time and is legal, you’re good to go.
It does help to know what you’re selling as it is easier to respond to customer questions and more importantly, you’ll be able to spot a bargain when you see one. For example, I’m a big fan of computer games. I know roughly what most games are worth without having to do any research. You’ll most likely have a category of products that you’re knowledgable about too, even if it’s not immediately obvious.
If you are unsure or just want to double check, there are ways of finding out what an item is likely to sell for. My favourite is checking sold listings on Ebay. This will tell you exactly how much an item has sold for and when. You can find this information by doing a regular search on Ebay for an item that you are looking to resell and selecting “show sold listings” in the filter section.
Still short on ideas? Here’s a list of a few things that I’ve sold in the past for profit:
- Computer games
- Stationary
- Mugs
- Childrens toys
- Blank media (DVD’s etc)
- Shampoo
- Pet products
Where To Sell Your Reselling Inventory
When you’re selling anything online, you’re always trying to strike a balance between finding a platform that is safe, full of trigger-happy shoppers and not too hard on fees.
Books and video games ready for Amazon FBA. I prefer to sell on FBA as it saves me needing to ship items individually.
With this in mind, I use a mixture of Ebay, Amazon FBA & FBM and Facebook Marketplace. All of these options are perfectly viable but each have their own ups and downs. For example, Facebook Marketplace has zero fees, but you are often let down by timewasters and if things go wrong, there’s nothing to fall back on. Ebay brings a nice balance of reasonable fees and reasonable sale security. Amazon has millions of customers who are generally happy to spend a little bit more than the other platforms (mostly Prime members), but their fees are considerably higher, especially if you’re going down the Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) route.
Reselling Blogs & More Information
You can find more information about my adventures in reselling here. I’ll continue to add guides and resources for selling on platforms such as Ebay and Amazon as and when I get round to writing them! In the meantime, leave a comment below and let us know if you’ve had any success reselling before and what worked well for you.