How To Make Money Reselling Thrift Store Items (2024)

Wondering How You Can Get Started Making Money From Home Through Reselling?

Are you looking for a fun and easy way to make extra money or start a new side hustle that is worth it? Are you wondering how to make money reselling thrift store items on eBay, Mercari, and/or Poshmark?

Then you’ve come to the right place!

What I Know About You

You have dreams. You have big goals for your life. You want to be financially free. Maybe you want to stay home with your kids.

I’ve been there too. I’ve clipped coupons, cut back on spending, stuck to a budget. That’s great defense. But sometimes that’s not enough.

Play Great Offense

You need to start playing great offense too. You need to find a way to make money.

I know. I’ve tried it all. From surveys to sweepstakes, from contract work to direct marketing. I’ve played all the games, even signing up for bank accounts to get the bonus money.

Then I stumbled upon reselling thanks to a friend that was kind enough to tell me that you can make good money doing it.

But Where To Start?

I didn’t know the first thing about how to get started!

Didn’t know where to find stuff to sell. What items to look for. What brands. What styles. How to list. Where to list.

Then what if it sells? How do I ship?

I was overwhelmed.

Any maybe you are too.

And that’s why I’m here. Here to:

Walk you through getting started.
Help you make a steady income.
See you reach your financial goals
Help you find FREEDOM

You Can Do This Thing!

Through trial and error, I grew my reselling business from ZERO. And just last year I made almost $20,000 (net)!

As a naptime side hustle! And I want to teach you how to make money reselling thrift store items online too!

I know you can do it! Let’s jump in!

Your First Step To Start Making Money From Home Through Reselling

If you’re new here and haven’t signed up for my FREE 5-Day Reseller Bootcamp, you are going to want to do that now!

The course is conveniently delivered straight to your inbox.

In it you’ll learn:

What kinds of items you can flip.
The best places to sell to maximize your profits.
6 keys to taking professional looking photos.
The 5 components to get your items sold.
How to turn flipping into a steady and reliable income.

FREE 5-Day Reseller Bootcamp!

If you’re ready to start making money from home by reselling today, then this valuable email course is for you! Just enter your info here to get started!

If You’re Ready To Start Making Money By Reselling….

Here are some posts that are geared towards beginners:

How To Sell On eBay (8 easy steps that will take you from account setup through making your first sale)

The One Item You Need To Get Started Making Money From Reselling
10 Reasons To Open An eBay Store

5 Ways To Increase Your eBay Sales
9 Ways To Get Your Items Seen And Sold On eBay

What Can You Sell/Resell (aka Flip) For Profit?

The options of what you can sell are endless. New, used, and even damaged or for parts can have a market.

Here are some things you can sell online:

clothing
vintage clothing
bras
shoes
handbags
luggage
totes/duffel bags
car parts
phones (this is something you can sell for parts)
graphing calculators
perfume/cologne (even partially used!)
skin care (partially used as well)
makeup
laptops/computers/tablets and accessories
specialty keyboards
outdoor gear
sporting gear
sports fan apparel
books
collectibles
art
craft kits and supplies

Some Examples Of What You Can Sell Online

The best way to learn what kinds of things you can sell online is to look at “sold” items.

Because I believe this is the best way to learn, I have several articles showing you what I’ve sold and what you can sell.

You will find them here:

50+ Best Things To Sell On eBay
100 Best Brands To Sell On Poshmark

See my Top Sales for each month

See my Top Sales of 2019 (top 20 out of 2000+ items sold – ranges up to $250!)

Making Money Selling Clothes That Are Unique, Modest, or Just Plain Ugly (plus see 17 of my recent sales in these categories)

6 Kid Things To Declutter Today For Money

3 Things Around Your House You Can Sell For Money Today

27 Non-Clothing Items To Sell (27 of my recent hardgoods sales)

Where Can I Sell Things Online?

There are many options to sell things online. Some popular places for reselling/flipping items are:

eBay
Poshmark
Mercari
Kidizen (follow link to sign up and get $5 off your first purchase!)
Depop
Etsy (vintage clothes and collectibles)

You can even easily post on on eBay/Poshmark/Mercari/Etsy (or whatever combination you choose) all at once using a cross-listing tool like Vendoo.

This is a great way to get a lot of eyes on your items and make money quicker.

You can go here to get 25% off your first month (affiliate link):

Get 25% Off Vendoo Now!

How Do I Ship Things When Selling Online?

This is probably one of the scariest parts for new sellers – figuring out shipping. It really is pretty easy though!

Each platform has made it super easy.

When you make a sale, you don’t even have to go to the post office/fedex/ups to ship!

You will purchase (or be given) a label online that you can print off right from the convenience of your home.

The process is a little bit different for each platform. But here is a quick breakdown:

How To Ship On Poshmark

Poshmark is one of the easiest platforms when it comes to shipping. You don’t really even half to worry about anything!

When your item sells, Poshmark will send you a label. All you have to do is print it off and attach it to a FREE USPS Shipping Box .

Boxes are free for pickup at your local post office. Or better yet, you can get them delivered to you free of charge.

Once you’re item is packed up, you can then either schedule a FREE pickup from USPS. Or put it in a dropbox at your local post office.

You can read more about how to ship on Poshmark here.

How To Ship On eBay

Shipping on eBay is a little bit trickier.You will need to know the weight and size of the package you will be shipping in order to choose the correct shipping method.Fortunately, eBay has a handy Shipping Calculator to compare the cost among FedEx, UPS, and FedEx.A simple rule is small things (such as clothing) go USPS:

Under one pound is cheapest to go USPS First Class.

Over one pound will be Priority. Flat rate envelopes or boxes are usually cheapest.

Much more is covered in How To Sell On eBay.With eBay, you can greatly expand your audience by selling internationally.eBay has made it actually pretty simple to ship internationally. You can read here how to ship internationally on eBay.

How To Save Money On Shipping

Do you want to save money on shipping? I mean, who doesn’t?

I’ve written this article explaining how you can save drastically with little-known methods. You can learn what methods/FREE USPS supplies to use to save money.

I also show you what kinds of items can be shipped with each method. You can find the article here:

Four Little-Known Shipping Methods To Save Money
9 Places To Get Free Or Cheap Shipping

How Much Can You Make From Reselling Online?

The sky really is the limit when it comes to how much you can make from reselling online.

Some sellers work very part time and may make a few hundred a month.

Other resellers have very large businesses with many employees, warehouses, etc. And there are many ranges in between.

Personally, I work about 10-15 hours a week, mostly during naptime. Looking at net profit, it works out to about $30/hour.

If you want the complete breakdown of gross income plus all my expenses related to reselling, I publish monthly income reports. You can find them here:

See Monthly Income Reports

What Supplies Do I Need To Sell Online?

The supplies (and hence start up costs) for reselling are pretty minimal. All it really takes is your phone to take pictures with (and to list from).

You will need to have shipping supplies on hand for when you make your first sale. And that is about it!

Some Supplies You Need For Reselling

Here are a few articles related to reseller supplies:

- Affordable Lighting Kits for under $100

- Trendy (And Affordable) Poly Mailers

I have also put together a list of the exact reseller supplies I use. You can find that here:

Reseller Supplies I Use

There’s no better time to get started than now. So get out there and get Listing To Freedom!

-Lee

FAQs

How To Make Money Reselling Thrift Store Items? ›

Thrift store flipping, a process of buying items from a thrift store at a low cost and re-selling them for a profit, can be a viable option for generating additional income.

Read On ›

Can you make money reselling thrifted items? ›

Thrift store flipping, a process of buying items from a thrift store at a low cost and re-selling them for a profit, can be a viable option for generating additional income.

Discover More Details ›

How much do thrift store resellers make? ›

While it varies how much money you can make from selling secondhand goods, an informal poll of resellers on Reddit revealed an earning range from about $1,000 a month to as much as $5,000 a month. (Some users reported as much as $100,000 to $300,000 annual revenue, but those numbers are likely outliers.)

Is it worth thrifting and reselling? ›

By confirming that an item is actually worth more than the thrift store price and that you can easily sell it at its higher value, you have a pretty good chance at scoring a profit. Just remember that shipping and listing fees should be factored into the final cost of each item you purchase with the intent to sell.

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Is thrifting a good way to make money? ›

Reselling from thrift stores is a great way to learn the ropes of selling products online. The cost of inventory is low and the chance to find products that can be sold for a nice profit is high.

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How much profit should you make reselling items? ›

Typically, most resellers aim for a 50% margin, which means that they want to make a 50% profit on each item they sell. For example, suppose you find a product that you can buy for $10. If you want to make a 50% profit on that product, you would add your costs and then multiply the total by 1.5.

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Is thrift flipping sustainable? ›

Sometimes this involves repurposing or improving the original garment, creating unique, upcycled clothing. On the one hand, thrift flipping can be seen as an ethical alternative to fast fashion. It promotes a more sustainable wardrobe, benefits the environment, and reduces carbon emissions and textile waste.

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Is owning a thrift store profitable? ›

Is it profitable to own a thrift store? Opening a thrift store can be profitable, particularly if you're sourcing inventory from donations. There's no cost to buy goods. You'll just need to price the item to cover operating costs like marketing, store rent, and business insurance.

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How to price items for a thrift store? ›

To estimate the price of a used item, consider the item's condition and use the 50%, 25-30%, or 10% rule as a guideline. Starting at 50% of the original retail price is a solid benchmark for items in top-notch condition. 25-30% of the original retail price should work well for items in decent condition.

What is the difference between a thrift store and a resale store? ›

A consignment or thrift shop can also be called a resale shop, but only a store that actually consigns their inventory can be called a consignment store, and only a store run by a not-for-profit organization is considered a thrift store.

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How to become a thrift reseller? ›

Here are the skills that you should work on if you want to get into thrift store flipping:

How to spot items at a reasonable price. You want to study prices so that you know what a good deal looks like.
Measuring comparables on eBay and Google. ...
Proper packaging of your items. ...
How to negotiate.

Apr 7, 2024

Read The Full Story ›

How to flip items for profit? ›

You can start by checking thrift stores and garage sales for items like drills, lawnmowers, circular saws, power washers and the like. After purchasing them, you can sell them online using a site like eBay or locally using a site like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.

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What are the disadvantages of thrift shopping? ›

10 downsides of buying second hand (or how to make thrift shopping a success)

You are more likely to buy stuff you don't need. ...
Buying second hand takes patience. ...
Many second hand items need some work. ...
You don't always know if it's still working. ...
You don't always know the previous owner.

More items...

Get More Info Here ›

Can you make a living flipping thrift store items? ›

It's not uncommon to find thrift store flippers making close to $100k every year from thrift store flipping. It, however, still depends on how much you put in.

Do rich people buy from thrift stores? ›

Wealthier people have begun to frequent thrift stores, shopping for the same items as low-income people who were the original customers of the secondhand shops. In addition to wearing the clothes themselves, many thrifters in recent years have also started reselling the clothing on websites like Depop at a higher rate.

Do online thrift stores make money? ›

FAQs: The Thrift Store Business

Yes, it is possible to make money by opening a thrift store. Some online thrift store companies make a high-profit margin of 80%.

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How profitable is owning a thrift store? ›

FAQs: Running a Thrift Store Business

The average profit for thrift stores is quite low because of all the costs associated with having a physical location. Figures show that the general retail industry makes about 5% profit on sales, which means just $5,000 in revenue for every $100,000 in sales.

Can you make a living reselling items? ›

It's pretty safe to say that the average person could make an extra $1,000 per month reselling items part-time, but there are resellers out there who are making six figures per year doing it. So it all depends on how much you want to put into it, if you can find profitable inventory, etc.

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Is it legal to resell items for more money? ›

If you legally own the item, you can legally resell. A rule of thumb to use is that if the item is unrestricted to buy, it's probably unrestricted to sell. You're also free to sell your items at whatever price you want. You can list them low or ludicrously high, it's your right as a seller.

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Is reselling a good hustle? ›

You could make thousands of dollars per month as a reseller, in fact. It's one of the best side hustles out there, and a great idea for how to make money in your spare time.

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