Reselling on eBay | The Ultimate Beginners Guide

Are you familiar with reselling? Maybe you have heard of some crazy stories of sellers buying an old item for $5 at a garage sale and reselling it on eBay for $500. Well here you are going to find out how you can do exactly that! Buying and selling has been my business for the last five years and I absolutely love doing it. Reselling is easy and you will get the hang of it easily. Here is the ultimate beginner’s guide to reselling on eBay!

• Where you can find items to resell
• How to make the most amount of profit
• How much to invest
• Find out how to get organized

If you have not started selling on eBay, read this post first: How to Start Selling on eBay in 12 Easy Steps

Start with your own items

If you have never sold anything on eBay, start with listing your own items. This way you have nothing invested in your inventory, even though you do you need to invest in your eBay business by buying a few essential things. Read the 5 must-have tools for your eBay selling. I avoided buying anything for my eBay business for years and it definitely hindered my sales. The number one advice I tell every eBay seller is to invest in these few essential items that will boost your sales.

Grab a laundry basket and walk around your house finding things you want to sell. Time to recycle your closet! Have you worn it in the past year? If not, sell it.

Finding cheap items to sell

Once you have listed everything in your house, you can start buying to resell. There are many places you can find things to resell. Most of the time it depends on where you live. There are garage sales, thrift stores, Facebook Marketplace, estate sales, flea markets, even eBay.

One day a week is my investment day (Friday’s). I’ll leave early in the morning and go to every garage sale around and if I’m not completely worn out, I’ll go to my local thrift store. Then I go home, add everything to my spreadsheet, and list like crazy!

A few places you can find things to sell

Garage sales | Garage sales are my favorite place to find things to resell because I can usually find cheap items. If I can invest $1 in an item, I know I can always make a profit. If you aren’t familiar with garage sales, make sure you have plenty of cash because you never know what you will come across. I like to have $1’s and $5’s so when I negotiate down, I have exactly what I offered.

Thrift stores | Thrift stores are also a great place to find things to resell. Many new resellers buy expensive brands they recognize at Goodwill for $5, then they get it home and realize that it’s only selling for $12.99. The key to buying things at thrift stores is to 1) have sold many of the same items and know exactly what it will sell for or 2) do a quick research on your eBay app at the thrift store. The only negative to thrift stores is that most of the time you can’t negotiate. So the price you see is the price you pay unless you go on a half-off sale day.

eBay | Believe it or not you can find high-margin profitable items on eBay to sell right back on eBay. Many people that list on eBay have no idea what they have or accidentally list it for too cheap. You can also find huge bulk items for a good price by typing in “lot”, “bulk”, or “wholesale”. You have to be aware of what you are buying and what exactly you are going to be able to list it for.

CraigsList | If you aren’t familiar with CraigsList, it’s an online selling website that has no fees, but you meet your buyer instead of shipping your item. This is a great place to find free items to resell on eBay. There’s a “free” section that you can scroll through and see if anything would be worth picking up to resell on eBay. You can also look to buy and resell on CraigsList. People sell everything on there- not just large items. Maybe you’ll find a Michael Kors purse for $25 and sell it on eBay for $80.

Estate sales | Similar to garage sales, just a little different. Estate sales are where (normally) the family of someone who just passed away is selling everything in the house. Some families pay an estate sale company to sell everything. I recently went to an estate sale that was a gold mine. I spent hundreds of dollars there, but easily tripled my investment. There were so many name brand vintage and non-vintage clothes and accessories. One item I bought was a vintage Ralph Lauren umbrella for $1 and sold it for $90.

How much to invest

A good max price to buy things at is about $6 if you are going to sell it for $40. I invest $1 in all of these name brands to sell for even $12.99. If you sell an 8-ounce item for $12.99 with free shipping, you make almost $7 profit. So the more you invest in that item, the more your profit goes down.

There’s a cool website that calculates your fees for you and tells you what your sale price needs to be to break even. Although this is really neat, to calculate my monthly profits I like to do it the old school way and look at my eBay invoice because you never know when you’ll get a random promo with fewer fees.

INVESTED: $5.77 at Goodwill

SOLD: (Best Offer Accepted) $46.20

EBAY FEES: $4.22

PAYPAL FEES: $1.64

SHIPPING COST: $11.80

TOTAL PROFIT: $22.77

INVESTED: $1 at garage sale

SOLD: $51.19

EBAY FEES: $4.68

PAYPAL FEES: $1.78

SHIPPING COST: $11.80

TOTAL PROFIT: $31.93

INVESTED: $0.50 at garage sale

SOLD: $12.77

EBAY FEES: $1.17

PAYPAL FEES: $0.67

SHIPPING COST: $2.76

TOTAL PROFIT: $7.67

INVESTED: $1 at garage sale

SOLD: (Best Offer Accepted) $25.70

EBAY FEES: $2.35

PAYPAL FEES: $1.05

SHIPPING COST: $5.24

TOTAL PROFIT: $16.06

By looking at these few items I sold this month, you can get an idea of how much you can invest and sell an item for a profit. Less expensive sold items may not excite you, but spending a total of 15 minutes (listing and shipping) to make $6 is worth it to me because that equals $25 an hour.

Get organized

Organization is key to selling on eBay. I add everything I list on a spreadsheet on Google Sheets then put it in a labeled bin after I list it. No matter how many items you have- you will want to start a spreadsheet now. It is not fun to go back through and try to remember how much you bought what for.

Using Google Sheets to organize your inventory

Right when you buy an item to resell, you need to put it on your spreadsheet. I add a description of the item, the size, and how much I bought it for. When you are selling things for other people, start them their own spreadsheet. (Copy yours then delete the items) Add all their items when you get them, then when you list the item add how much you listed it for.

Using bins to organize your inventory

Having a good system is key to staying organized. One way you can have a system is by getting a couple of laundry baskets or bins and label them. Your labels could be “Add to Spreadsheet”, “Need to List”, “Listed- Put Away“. Each week have a goal of emptying your need to list basket. This will keep you from getting too many items you need to list but don’t really want to. It will also keep you motivated to keep searching for more inventory. Having a system is important because it’s easy to find a bunch of stuff and toss in a corner for months. Or get home and list the exciting stuff and leave the not-so-fun items in the sack. For months.

I keep my inventory in bins (BUY THEM ON AMAZON HERE). I have it organized by item and people. So all the coats are in the bin labeled “Coats”. I sell things for other people, so each person gets their own bin. (So if they have a coat for sale, it would be in the bin labeled with their name, not the coat bin.) Other eBay sellers organize their inventory by item number or by alphabetical order. (Also, if you decide to go by item number: the item number changes each time you relist the item unless you go with Good Til Cancelled.) It’s easier for me to go by item, that way when I see a short-sleeve shirt sells, I look in the short sleeve shirt bin.

Fit eBay into your schedule

Having a schedule is what will help you succeed at eBay. If you work full time, then have a certain night you want to list. You can have a goal of listing 10 items a night or your goal can be to list for 2 hours. If you want to make money on eBay, it needs to be in your daily schedule. I ship everything that sells throughout the day right before I go to sleep, then I bring my packages with me when I leave in the morning to drop them off at the Post Office.

What is the best item to start reselling?

Clothes are probably the best thing to start reselling. But not all brands! Many new eBay sellers buy all the brands they recognize at the thrift store. That is why so many people fail at eBay reselling. The brands that you know are expensive retail are selling for only a couple of dollars on eBay. You have to do research on all items before you buy them until you get familiar with a few brands. I’m constantly finding new brands to keep a lookout for. For example, I recently sold a Vera Neumann silk shirt on commission for $50 that I would have normally skipped over at the thrift store.

Final Encouragement

Selling full time on eBay isn’t for everyone. But I definitely recommend you try it out. There’s nothing more exciting than making $50 off something you bought for $1. It is work, and you have to have lots of self-discipline to be a good eBay seller. 

Don’t give up. Sometimes you will get upset because an angry buyer wants to return an item, or you may not make as much as you wanted on an item that sold. The more you sell, the more you figure out what works for you.

When you do buy to resell: Don’t invest too much on each item, because you make money at the buy. List items just a little more than what they have been selling for. Keep your inventory organized as you list. Ship items that sell every night. Keep your shipping cost low, this is how you make more. Retake your pictures if your items are not selling. One thing to remember: if you don’t list, you don’t last. The more you list on eBay = the more you sell = the more you make. So don’t give up! Keep listing because eBay works.

Why do you love selling on eBay?

Where do you like to find items to resell?

What is your best flip so far?

I was not sponsored or gifted any of these products. Some of the links are affiliated, which means that by purchasing I make a small amount at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting me!