How to Resell Online: The Trials and Tribulations of Reselling Stuff Online

I am someone who is always on the lookout for a way to make a little extra cash. One time tested way to make money is to buy (something for one price and sell it for another. The emergence of centralized online platforms (Ebay and Amazon) as well as peer-to-peer marketplaces (Facebook Marketplace, Nextdoor and Craigslis) have made it so anyone can make money reselling. However, like virtually everything else in life, there are no free lunches. Reselling takes time, there are many pitfalls, sites are filled with scammers and fraudsters and margins tend to be really thin. In this article I will go through the lessons I have learned reselling so that you can maximize your return on time with as few headaches as is possible.

Note: I will not be focused on repurchasing new items and reselling them via buying groups. Although there are plenty of people that make money via this route, it is not something I am very familiar with and it has a unique set of challenges that are best addressed elsewhere.

Where to get items

Sourcing items to resell is largely a function of how much time you want to put into it. If your objective is to make a few hundred or a few thousand dollars then you will largely focus on episodic sources of goods, whereas if you want to make reselling into a side hustle you need more permanent sources of goods.

Episodic

• Your closet, garage, attic etc. Marie Kondo is right, stuff overwhelms your life, sell it instead. You probably have things that you never use, never will, and that just take up space. Instead of throwing them out, try to sell them.
• Garage sales. Garage sales often have outrageously good deals, but it is a lottery where most of the time you will find nothing or mediocre items. Look for items that are unique, old, in good condition, or massively mispriced.
• Estate sales. Estate sales are run by professionals who do a better job of pricing items and based on my experience, they often over price items relative to what they sell for online. Always negotiate for a lower price. Towards the end of estate sales you can usually get much lower pricing, but the better items will usually be picked over by then. Estatesales.net and Estatesales.org both have great lists/maps of estate sales in your area.  
• Garbage. This is definitely my wife’s least favorite source of resold goods and its not for everyone, but has been hands down the most lucrative source of goods on a percentage basis. Your cost is inherently zero and you are repurposing something that would otherwise be taking up space in a landfill. I have literally made thousands of dollars selling items I have found in my neighborhood that vary from a marble table ($300), a Wolf hood vent ($375), and Adirondack chairs ($45). The marble table was next to a $4,000 fountain but there were already people taking it. If something is on the curb or next to garbage cans it is likely up for grabs. I never go into anyone’s garbage cans for obvious reasons. Some people will dumpster dive and if that is something you are interested more power to you, but it has a much higher risk of injury and may expose you to nasty chemicals/residues.
• Store closing/liquidation. When stores close you can get excellent deals. Smaller stores that have less sophisticated liquidators usually offer better deals than chains.

Permanent

• Thrift stores. In prior decades thrift stores were a lot less sophisticated and you could find more deals. Now thrift stores are more sophisticated about sorting items and extracting the maximum value possible. There are still deals to be had but they are increasingly difficult to come by.
• Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, Next Door, Offerup. Items on these platforms are often wildly mispriced or free. If you systematically look for items that are mispriced, you can make a decent margin, but it will take time and a lot of effort.
• Buying pallets and returns. I don’t have any experience doing this, but some people have a side hustle or make a living buying pallets of returned items and reselling them. From what I have read, the margins are thin and many pallets are money losers.

How to gauge value

The internet has made ascertaining the value of almost everything easy. The three apps below will cover 99% of the items in the world.

• Ebay. The best app for used items. The Ebay app allows you to take a picture of an item and immediately see similar items for sale. Click home, then the little camera button to the right of “Search for anything” in the top right. Sometimes people will post prices that are outrageously far from reality. In order to understand what items actually sell for, click filter in the upper right, then scroll down and select “sold items”. This will show you recent sales of the item which will give you the best sense of its actual value.
• Amazon. The best app for new items or books. The Amazon app works the same way as the Ebay app, but it also allows you to scan barcodes/ISBNs which will immediately bring up an item’s price on Amazon. Simply click the camera icon in the upper right on the home screen then take a picture of the item or barcode. For books you can also take a picture of the cover, which will work for older books without barcodes.
• Google. The best app for everything else. If you cannot find an item on Ebay or Amazon, then the Google app is your next best shot. Simply click the camera icon on the right hand side of the search bar and then look for the item in the search results. Unlike the other apps this may not give you the item’s value, but it may give you a serial number or other identifying information that you can use to get more information about the item.

When the apps fail

For the 1% of items that cannot be identified and roughly priced using the apps above, you need to do more detective work. In a world full of apps, anything that can’t be found immediately using the methods above could potentially be extremely valuable. For example, an obscure artist that nonetheless has expensive works or low run/rare books that have not been put up for sale.

1. Gather info. Start your search by gathering as much identifying information about the item as possible.
2. Google/AI it. Next search it on Google and ask AI about the item with the facts you have.
3. Crowd source it. If you still can’t determine a rough price range, then join groups on Reddit or Facebook that are dedicated to the category, post pictures of it, and ask the group if they know anything about it.
4. Engage an expert. In the event the item is potentially worth more than a thousand dollars, consider engaging an appraiser or expert in the item’s category. For lower value items it will almost never be worth paying a few hundred dollars for an appraisal, but for higher value items, getting an expert’s opinion could result in a much higher sale price.

Where to sell

For virtually everything other than books, items less than $5,000 are best sold on Facebook Marketplace or Ebay.

• Heavy items. If an item is more than 50 pounds shipping becomes cost prohibitive. In that case you likely have to sell on a peer-to-peer network with Facebook Marketplace being your best option 95%+ of the time.
• Books. Amazon is usually the best place to sell a book, but Amazon has minimum commissions of $1.80 per book +15% commissions that eat up most of your profit on lower priced books. I always list on both Amazon and Ebay to maximize the chances that a book sells. If you list on both just make sure you take down the listing on the platform where the item didn’t sell.
• High value items. At some threshold an item is worth selling at an auction house. Auction fees can be 25%+ of the value of the item and you may have to transport the item to the auction house or purchase insurance.

Major Considerations

• Commissions are real. Although it can vary by item, Amazon/Ebay charge roughly 15% (Amazon considerably more for books). On a large item this adds up a lot.
• High dollar margin single items beat low margin, high quantity. If you are trying to maximize your hourly rate then you want to focus on high dollar margin items that will make hundreds or thousands of dollars upon sale. Although a lot of smaller items can add up, the time it takes to market, ship, and sell a small item can be similar to or greater than a higher value item.
• Time is everything. Facebook marketplace and other peer to peer networks will inherently have higher net prices all things considered, but they require a lot more back and forth with buyers to complete a transaction. Conversely, Ebay/Amazon require no additional time on the seller’s part once an item is listed.
• Storage. The larger an item the more space it will take up. If you have a house with a large storage space this may not be an issue, but if you live in a city or dense area you may have limited storage.

Shipping costs

Shipping is usually the most important consideration when reselling.

• Print your shipping label at home. Why would you ever wait in a long tedious line at the post office when you can print shipping yourself at home. Ebay/Amazon both allow you to print your own shipping after selling an item. USPS (Click and Ship), Fedex, and UPS allow you to print postage online. Shipstation and other online portals allow you to print your own postage. 
• Accurately measure and weigh. Always round up to the nearest higher measurement. For example if a box is 11.2×12.3×13.4 you actually have to buy shipping for 12x13x14. If you have the wrong measurements or weights you will be charged more or in the worst case, have your package rejected.
• Use the right box/package. Using an oversized box can potentially cost you significantly more than a smaller box. Some shippers have maximum sizes. If you exceed these maximums the shipping cost goes up significantly. If an item is small and not particularly fragile, use a padded mailer. Amazon sends tons of its items in bubble wrapped plastic mailers that are great to reuse.
• Protect the item. I have had ceramic items break twice, resulting in me having to issue a refund, and ultimately losing money on the items. Make sure you use plenty of bubble wrap, paper, Styrofoam, and cardboard to protect your items. The more fragile the item, the more you should
• Recycle boxes and materials. Boxes and packing materials can be expensive. If you are anything like the typical American household, you have a lot of packages sent to your house. Save some of these boxes and reuse them to ship. Not only will it save you money, but it’s also good for the environment.
• When possible use flat rate shipping. USPS has flat rate shipping boxes. If you have a small but really heavy item, for example one made of solid metal, it may be considerably cheaper to ship using a flat rate box.  
• Media mail. Books, sounds recordings (CDs, DVDs, Vinyl, VHS), sheet music, educational materials, film, and medical information all qualify for media mail. Media mail rates are usually considerably cheaper than other forms of shipping. DO NOT try to ship other items media mail because if you are found out the item will be sent back and you will lose the amount you spent on shipping. Also note video games, comics, and computer drives do not qualify for media mail pricing.
• Alaska has subsidized shipping. The Alaska Bypass mail system is heavily subsidized and makes it fairly economical to ship to Alaska. I once shipped a fairly heavy wool cleaner for about $40 to Fairbanks, Alaska which was more than 3k miles away.

Tips for Facebook Marketplace

• Take good photos. Take a clear photo of the item in a well-lit location. Good photos will dramatically increase the likelihood that your item will sell
• Expect and plan for no shows. Buyers on Facebook marketplace are extremely flaky. Don’t rearrange your schedule to meet a buyer. Find a two hour block that works for you and give the buyer the beginning of that block as the meeting time. If they are late it isn’t sweat off your back. If they don’t show period, cut off contact. There have been instances where someone didn’t show for legitimate reasons and then I met up with them later, but by and large if someone doesn’t show once, they won’t ever show.
• Refresh you listings. Although the algorithm’s exact timing isn’t known, usually after 7 days Facebook marketplace listings reduce their visibility. To ensure you maximize the chances of your item selling, renew your listing every 6 days.
• Make sure the buyer has the right tools/cars. Your back is a valuable thing. If something is really heavy, make sure the buyer comes with someone to help them lift, a dolly, and a proper car. I once sold a concrete pedestal that came with my house. I am guessing it was 150 pounds. Despite telling the buyer multiple times it was really heavy and they needed a dolly and a big car, they showed up with nothing and a Prius. Luckily I had a dolly which helped, but it was a slog to get it to his car. Then with ridiculous strength he lifted the pedestal into his car and scratched the bottom of the car. He said it was his work car and didn’t really care. My back hurt afterward even though I had only helped get the pedestal off the dolly.

Avoiding fraud/scams

• Offering to pay before seeing the item. If someone offers to pay immediately without seeing the item and wants you to send your payment credentials, it’s a scam. No reasonable person would pay for a used item before seeing it.
• Pay in person. Don’t take remote payments. A scammer will almost never scam you in person.
• Always meet in a public place and never at your house. People can be crazy. To the extent it’s possible, try to meet in a public place. Even if you are ultimately meeting at your house or garage, meet somewhere nearby and walk to your house. This makes it less likely they will know your address.  Also, if someone hurts themselves somewhere else it’s not your problem, if they tweak your back at your house, it may become your problem. To maximize your security, meet in a grocery store, pharmacy or other parking lot that has cameras. That way the individual and their plates are on camera.
• Bait and switch. If a buyer immediately tries to move off the price you agreed to based on spurious reasons like minimal damage that was known beforehand, then immediately walk. They will likely retreat from their position immediately. If they don’t, then sell to someone else. In the event there is real undisclosed damage to the item, then accept that you may have to sell for a lower price.
• Something feels off. If anything feels off just stop dealing with the buyer. It’s not worth getting scammed or the headache of dealing with a crazy person.