How to resell items online as an online reseller

How do you resell items online as an online reseller?

Online resellers must first find products to resell by shopping for deals, dropshipping, or finding a wholesale distributor. Next, take the product and list it for sale on another Marketplace for a higher price. Resellers make their money buying products at a low price and selling higher.

Imagine, waking up and seeing notifications that your eBay item sold. You made a lot of money last night and all you have to do is ship out items.

Everyday individuals like you are making it happen.

Luckily for you, I’m going to show you how to make money as an online reseller. I will even show you the best places to resell products. If you put enough energy into this business, it can pay dividends!

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What is an online reseller?

An online reseller is a person who shops for deals and resells products online for money. Resellers shop in store and online to find products they can flip for a profit. 

Chances are, you may have even seen an online reseller while shopping at your local store. Have you ever seen anyone scanning barcodes like crazy? Have you ever gotten to a store and all the 50% off items are gone?

If you have, it was probably an online reseller looking for a good deal. Online resellers are constantly going from store to store to find items that are profitable. If the item has profit potential and looks like it can sell, online resellers will buy it.

Next, the online reseller will list the item online at a higher price than they paid for it. When the item sells, the reseller sends the item to the customer and profits.

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Can you resell items online?

It is perfectly legal to resell items that you have purchased online. However, certain companies have limitations as to what you can resell on their platform.Therefore, as an online reseller you need to be cautious and follow the marketplaces rules.

Just because you are able to buy an item and resell it, doesn’t mean the brand is happy about it. A lot of Major Brands will play dirty to squash your reselling business in order to protect their brand image.

For example, I used to do a lot of reselling on Amazon. Amazon does allow people to resell items on their platform, but with a caveat.

You could be reselling a perfectly good item that you bought from a major store like Walmart or Target. Every now and then, brands will see that someone else is reselling their product. 

Instead of being logical, brands will file an intellectual property or counterfeit claim with Amazon against you. 

An intellectual property claim says you are infringing upon the company’s rights, such as violating a patent. Counterfeit claims are suggesting that you are making your own version of their product.

Obviously, you are selling legitimate items. You have the complete right to purchase an item and then resell it or give it away if you want to. 

However, Amazon requires proof in the form of a purchase order to prove the item is legit. Amazon will not accept a store receipt. 

Without a purchase order, Amazon will remove your item and put a strike against your account. Too many strikes and you could be banned from selling on Amazon. 

What are the best places to resell online?

The best places to resell products online are online marketplaces with active customers, like Amazon or Ebay. Customers visit these websites in order to shop and each website gets millions of visitors each day. Therefore, the chances of your item selling are much higher than creating your own website.

Remember, you still have to play by the marketplaces rules. Failure to do so could result in your selling privileges being revoked.

Amazon

Amazon, by far, is one of my favorite places to resell products online. As we previously discussed, you have to be careful to avoid intellectual property and counterfeit complaints. However, finding the right products to sell on Amazon results in enormous sales volume.

One of the best features about selling on Amazon is Amazon FBA. You can send all of your product into Amazon and they will ship it out to your customer when it sells. There are no daily trips to the post office.

Personally, I have seen the amazing power of selling on Amazon. I once was able to find dog treats that I could not keep in stock. I would buy as much as I could at the grocery store, ship them to Amazon, and watch as they kept selling.

There is a lot of money to be had selling on Amazon!

Ebay

Ebay is probably one of Amazon’s biggest competitors when it comes to reselling online. The biggest downside to selling on eBay is having to go to the Post Office whenever an item sells. However, finding the right items to sell on eBay can be very profitable.

Mercari

Mercari is a newer company, founded in 2013. Just like Ebay, you can sell almost anything. However, there isn’t as much competition for selling products.

Offerup

Offerup is another free marketplace available for most cities. You can use Offerup as another potential listing website to sell your products. However, most of the reviews for Offerup are negative and it doesn’t have the popularity that Craigslist has.

Craigslist

I’m sure most of you are familiar with Craigslist. Craigslist is perfect if you don’t want to ship your items. However, selling individual items over Craigslist can be very time-consuming.

Most online resellers don’t want to have to deal with the customer directly. It is much more time efficient to sell multiple items, package them up, and drop them off at the post office.

Facebook Marketplace

Similar to Craigslist, you can use Facebook Marketplace. A lot of online resellers  will buy products on Craigslist and resell on Marketplace. As previously mentioned, selling on a Marketplace like Facebook isn’t the most time efficient.

Instead, use Facebook Marketplace if you’re okay selling a few items luckily. Some people have had really good success flipping items between Craigslist and Facebook.

Your Own Dropshipping Store

Creating your own dropshipping store is another option. You can use Shopify to easily set up your own e-commerce website. Dropshippers will list items for sale at a higher price knowing they can buy it elsewhere cheaper.

The benefit of dropshipping is that you don’t have to have the physical inventory. Someone buys a product and all you have to do is place the order somewhere else. The item gift sent directly to your customer.

Where can I find items to resell online?

You can find items for resale and thrift stores, yard sales, clearance sections, and browsing online retailers. Should you go the dropshipping route, you can use a dropshipping app like Spocket to find inventory.

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Summary: How to resell items online

As you can see, it is possible to resell items online as an online reseller. Your job is to find products at a low price and sell them online for a higher price. It is completely legal to resell items online, but you need to follow the marketplaces rules.

Some of the best places to sell your items include Amazon and eBay. Amazon and eBay have the most customers visiting their website on a daily basis. Alternatively, you can use Mercari, Offerup, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or start your own dropshipping store.

The best places to find items for resale are thrift stores, yard sales, clearance sections, and browsing online retailers. If you are starting your own e-commerce website, consider a dropshipping app likes Spocket.