How To Get Started as a Reseller: What and Where To Sell

As with many things, the internet has fundamentally changed the resale market, making it more widely accessible than ever before. Whether you’re looking to offload grandma’s curio cabinet or those Pokemon cards you’ve had since high school, there’s a website (and maybe still a store) where you can likely turn a neat profit.

According to a report from online resale site ThredUp, clothing resale grew at a rate 15 times faster than the broader retail clothing sector in 2023, with the U.S. secondhand apparel market projected to reach $73 billion by 2028. Globally, it is set to hit $350 billion.

Personally, I buy all my clothing (with the exception of exercise gear) from vintage or thrift stores. I’m old-fashioned, though. Shopping online just doesn’t work for me. But plenty — and I mean plenty — of people scour DePop and similar sites daily, willing to pay a markup for that perfect piece. Perhaps they could find it in your closet?

Clothing resale is a particularly active and easy-to-enter market, but a variety of goods can be sold on the secondhand market, online or in-person, for a surprising amount of cash.

What is reselling?

Reselling is precisely what it sounds like: Selling something again. The resale business model involves purchasing goods and then selling them at a markup to customers through an online resale platform like eBay, an online storefront like Etsy, or by selling directly to a brick-and-mortar thrift store. Many resellers also sell their own used items they no longer need.

If you don’t have the means to produce your own merchandise but have an eye for value and what other people might want, we suggest giving reselling a shot. It can be a great business model thanks to its relatively low overhead and bar for entry.

How much can you make reselling?

The amount you can earn as a reseller depends on how you resell, what you resell, and how much time and effort you put into your business.

If you upcycle old clothing, giving it a more fashionable flair, you can probably set a much higher markup than if you were just hawking old shoes you found at Goodwill. If you spend your days at estate sales, digging for rare pieces from whatever era of furniture happens to be on trend, your potential earnings are higher than if you’re just clearing out stuff that’s been cluttering up your basement for years.

For individuals using an online platform such as eBay, Poshmark, or TheRealReal, earnings vary greatly. We talked to one reseller who makes a couple grand a month selling used clothing and other items though eBay.

Maximizing your earnings begins with choosing the right items to resell. For example, ThredUp estimated you could earn only about $4.45 for a casual dress from Zara, but a used cocktail dress from Free People would fetch $60.44 when we checked on Dec. 12, 2024.

The good news is that reselling is an extremely flexible side hustle for earning extra income, so you can determine how much time, effort, and money you devote to growing your business.

How to start reselling

1. Choose what you’ll sell and where you’ll get your items

You might visit yard sales or estate sales, browse Craigslist, or find hot items at thrift stores like GoodWill. You could also shop sample sales, surprise sales, and other limited-time discount events, or find discounted items at retailers like Nordstrom Rack and TJMaxx.

Another option is to dropship items from cheap, overseas retailers like AliExpress. Dropshipping is a business model where the seller promotes items through an online storefront but orders the item for delivery to the buyer through a third party once the purchase is made. We’ve heard of earning as much as an extra $1,000 a month with this side hustle when done right.

If you want to get started without investing money, you could simply source items from your closet, basement, or storage locker.

2. Choose where you’re going to resell your items

The platform you choose to use and the items you sell will go hand in hand. For example, if you want to sell high-end designer handbags, TheRealReal could be a great option. If you’re flipping used furniture from Craigslist, a real live antique store might be your best bet.

Different approaches will come with different perks and drawbacks. Many online platforms take a significant cut of your sales, for example, eating into potential profits. Driving around to yard sales and storage unit auctions looking for high-ticket items to resell to antique shops can feel like a fun treasure hunt, but it also carries the overhead of gas money and time.

3. Research resale platforms to learn which items sell best

For example, if you’re using Poshmark to resell brand-name clothing, follow some of the top sellers and keep an eye out for which brands are selling the fastest and at the highest prices. You should also research selling price points to decide how to price your items. That will help you decide what to buy for resale based on what will net you the highest profit.

Where do I resell my items?

The best place for reselling will depend on the items you’ve chosen to resell. But even then, your options will run from the virtual to the traditional storefront.

Different stores and sites are better suited for different types of merchandise. For example, reselling niche fashion items will likely be easier and more profitable on a site like Depop than a platform focused on new items like Amazon, while you’ll probably have more success reselling electronics on eBay than through an antique store. Always make sure to compare resale sites carefully before listing anything, looking at fees and transaction cuts to make sure you’re optimizing profit on your sales.

Where to resell clothing

There is no shortage of options for selling clothing online. While you can sell clothing through more general marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, there are many platforms that are specifically tailored to the apparel resale market. Including Poshmark, Depop, Grailed, and TheRealReal.

Brick-and-mortar options for reselling clothes can also be fairly abundant, depending on where you live. Buffalo Exchange, for example, has about 40 different locations in the U.S. and is open for reselling all day without an appointment. Your town likely has a consignment shop looking to stock its shelves, and vintage clothing stores open to working with resellers have proliferated in recent years.

Where to resell books, electronics, and other household items

For more general reselling — think that old Playstation you don’t use anymore or the box of retro Barbies your mom held onto — a marketplace like Amazon, eBay, or Mercari is likely best. These sites have a massive user base looking for all sorts of items.

Some sites for reselling household goods are geared toward narrower markets, like Swappa, for example, which we named one of the best places to sell electronics online.

Used books are a perennial resale favorite. Many brick-and-mortar bookstores carry used stock and are open to acquiring more, but there are plenty of online options, including AbeBooks, WorldofBooks, and ThriftBooks.

And, of course, you could start up an Etsy shop selling basically anything, from refurbished furniture to curated vintage home decor.

Personal e-commerce sites

If you want to cut out the middleman and act as your own shopkeeper, there are many options out there for starting up your own online storefront.

Services like Shopify and BigCartel let sellers build a customized, branded site and user experience. Rather than selling as a store on a marketplace à la Etsy, you can use a personal e-commerce service to get your own domain name and deliver a more independent, direct feel for your customers.

These platforms come with fees of their own (Shopify charges $29 a month for its basic plan) but might not take as much of a cut of sales or charge piecemeal for things like listing new items.

Managing your reselling business expenses

Getting your business off the ground will require you to purchase items to sell. You may also need to cover fees for different platforms, purchase accounting software, and other expenses. To get something extra out of all that spending, we recommend opening a business credit card that earns cash back on purchases, like this one:

Bottom line

Whether you’re looking to turn a profit or just clean out your closet, reselling can be a fun side hustle that’s flexible enough to accommodate anyone’s capacity and goals. Get started reselling something you’re passionate about, or just sell things you need to get rid of. If you put in the time, effort, research, and strategy, it could be possible to turn your reselling side hustle into a full-time job someday.

The abundance of digital marketplaces makes reselling a great way to earn money online from the comfort of your home. Once you start to grow your business, you could expand your product offerings, or you might have to modify the products you sell to meet a changing market. Remember that good customer service is key to operating a successful reselling business.

While how much profit you generate will depend on what you’re selling and how, reselling remains one of the best side hustles and a great way to make money in your spare time.