When it comes to deciding what to buy to resell on eBay, the charity shops and the car boot sales are your oyster. You might want to channel your inner Del Boy Trotter and flog absolutely anything you can get your hands on. You might have a mad passion for a particular niche category that you want to dive into, like teapots or vintage toys or football memorabilia. Or maybe you’re eager to have a go at selling your old smelly shoes to people with a penchant for sniffing them (seriously, that’s a thing).
Once you’ve thought about where to source items to resell, the next thing that you’ll want to think about is WHAT exactly you’re going to buy. As soon as you head out sourcing, you’re going to be faced with hundreds and hundreds of items. Instead of just winging it and hoping for the best, it makes sense to think about the criteria that you’ll use to decide what you’re going to spend your cash on, in the hope of creating a good profit margin.
Here are six things that I use when I need to decide what to buy to resell on eBay…
WATCH UK EBAY RESELLER VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE
There are tons of resellers out there who share their journeys on YouTube. You can get a feel for the kind of things they look out, the purchases they regularly make, and other tricks of the trade. These are just a few of my favourites…
FAKE RACHEL
Rachel is one of the first resellers that I stumbled across online, and watching her videos has taught me a ton about selling clothing and the kind of brands to watch out for.
THE MINI MILLIONAIRE
Cora and Helen pick up a lot of Lego and Disney and bits of all sorts, and their videos are full of inspiration for what to look out for. The vast majority of the stuff that they share is stuff that I’d waltz straight past, not realising the value. So it just goes to show how much opportunity there is out there.
BEN FITZPATRICK
Ben’s a fountain of knowledge on all things toys, and his videos are packed with value if you’re interested in sourcing things like Sylvanian Families, PlayMobil, and Disney. He also pulls in some seriously impressive figures with his eBay business whilst still working a ‘normal job’.
FOLLOW UK EBAY RESELLERS ON INSTAGRAM
Instagram’s another social platform where you’ll find a thriving reseller community. You’ll find lots of hauls, sales updates, and lessons learned, and you’ll quickly start to get a feel for what sells well on eBay. Here are a few of the resellers I love to follow…
MY OWN KNOWLEDGE AND INTERESTS
I’m over six months into my reselling journey now, and I’ve sold all kinds of stuff. Some things just bore me senseless though. Listing men’s clothing always seems like a big chore. Sorting out toys isn’t my idea of fun. So now, I stick with women’s clothing and footwear 99% of the time. Selling something that you have an interest in, and you already have a decent knowledge of – or at least are happy to do some learning and research about – just makes everything much easier.
Because I’ve niched down, I’ve developed a much better understanding of what sells within that specific market than if I were trying to do everything all at once. I’ve learned the brands that sell, the best sizes to pick up, the fabrics that demand a higher price, and a load of other stuff that gives me a head start when I’m out sourcing.
RESEARCH USING COMPLETED AND SOLD LISTINGS
This is probably the most important one of all. Download the eBay app on your phone, and get in the habit of searching through completed and sold listings for anything that you’re interested in selling. You’ll be able to see how often that item is sold, and how much it’s sold for. That means that you can make a pretty accurate assessment of whether it’s a worthy investment for reselling.
So if you see a dress in a charity shop priced at £10 and you check the app and find that it sells for an average of £13, you know it’s not worth buying. But if it’s a £5 dress that typically sells for £35? That’s a good return right there. Another factor is how many are available for sale at the current time. If there are loads, you should expect to wait longer for the sale, and visa versa.
Having all this data right at your fingertips means that sourcing never has to be a complete guessing game. If you want to start reselling but haven’t bitten the bullet yet, make it your mission to head to some local charity shops and research at least ten items that catch your eye.
CALCULATIONS BASED ON THE PROFIT MARGINS I WANT TO HIT
What’s the minimum amount of profit you want to make per item? The answer to this is going to be different for everyone, and you’ll get a better idea of your own personal figure once you’re into the swing of selling. This, coupled with researching completed and sold listings, will help you to decide if something is a good buy.
In my first few weeks of reselling, I picked up some items that left me with about a fiver, after fees and associated costs. That might sound fine at first, but I quickly realised there was too much work involved to make that worthwhile. There’s sourcing, and photographing, and measuring, and listing, and packing, and shipping, and a fiver won’t cut it. These days, I look for bare minimum profit of a tenner per item – of course, preferably higher.
Think about the time you’ve got available to dedicate to reselling, how much cash you want to generate, and most importantly, remember that you learn as you go. I wouldn’t now pick up half the stuff that I did in my earliest days, and I’ll probably change and tweak my approach dozens more times. My strategy for what to buy to resell on eBay has mainly come from just doing and trying different stuff.
ITEMS THAT ARE EASY TO STORE AND SHIP
I’m lucky enough to have a small spare room that I can use as my ‘eBay room’ for storage, but in the grand scheme of things, space is still limited, and I’m careful to not let reselling take over my entire house. To keep things under control, I stick with items that can be easily hung on a rack or stored in a big plastic tub. So clothing and shoes fit the bill here.
The good thing with smaller items too is that they’re easier and cheaper to ship out to the buyer once they’ve sold. Again, this really comes down to your own circumstances and how you want to source. If you’ve got just 20 items listed and they’re all high value, then you might be happy for them to take up a little more room.
These six things are the criteria that I use when it comes to deciding what to buy to resell on eBay, and they keep me focused and on track when I hit the charity shops and car boot sales. Do you have any other considerations or sources of inspiration that help you to decide what to buy to resell?
Want to read more about buying to resell on eBay? Check out these posts:
- Four Reasons Why Your Stuff Isn’t Selling On eBay (And How To Fix It)
- Why Reselling Clothes On eBay Is One Of My Favourite Ways To Make Money Online
- Nine Expensive Mistakes To Avoid In Your eBay Reselling Business
Great post! i found you on Instagram and you have inspried me to think about reselling. I’ve had a couple of bad expierences in the past on eBay selling a couple of myown things so it put me off for a long time but I think I’m up for another try!
Hey Melissa, thank you! Great to hear you’re thinking about getting started. You do come across the occasional bump in the road – like a parcel that goes walkabout, or an awkward buyer – but in my experience those things are definitely in the minority… Probably less than 1% of sales! Will be interested to see how you get on! 🙂