The ULTIMATE Thrift Store Guide for eBay Resellers (2024)

the vast majority of what you see in a thrift store is worthless for resellers but if you know what to look out for almost all thrift stores can be a gold mine for finding valuable inventory because thrift stores are not dead you just need to expand your knowledge of what has value and if you do you will find that they are in fact very alive with profitable items to resell today I'm going to break down every section of your local thrift stores for you and give you everything you need to know to come away with profitable items nearly every time we'll talk through the ideal time of day to go best sections to start your hunt in and how to find hidden gems that other resellers Miss across categories like Electronics housewares office supplies toys and games bags clothes and more this is a big one so let's dig in first you want to be strategic about timing should you wait in line to be one of the first ones in at opening or is it better to wait until later in the day our weekends better than weekdays the best strategy here depends heavily on the individual thrift store and no two are alike some stores stock their inventory after closing each night while some drip it out throughout the day some stock up heavily for the weekends where they see an influx of customers While others keep it steady throughout the week other stores like the Goodwill bins deliver new inventory to the floor at preset times but no two stores are alike even if they operate under the same brand this is why it's important to get to know your individual thrift stores study them to understand the differences and build a strategy that works for each for example I have one thrift store that constantly delivers great inventory but they don't start putting new things out on the floor until about an hour after opening so I don't bother getting there when the door's open I have another where they rarely restock during the day and do most of their stocking overnight so getting there at open is more important when you visit your local thrift stores don't just hunt for inventory pay attention to their operations reverse engineer how they work and be friendly with the staff and ask questions you may be worried that they'll find out you're a reseller but you shouldn't chances are they know already you're easier to spot than you think and they probably don't care your money is green like everyone else's so which section should you go to first most stores roll out carts filled with new inventory and stock the shelves directly from them and usually you don't need to wait until they are finish stocking before you can start shopping this is by far the best place to begin your daily hunt because the stuff on these carts are effectively Untouched by customers and other resellers and some of the best things I have found have been from these carts where they never even made it to the shelves so don't be shy here shop directly from the carts as long as the store allows it but don't be rude I've witnessed other resellers run push shove and fight their way through carts of new inventory don't be that person remember thrift stores are not your personal inventory supplier respect others and be a good human unless you're at the bins almost anything goes there keep in mind that many thrift stores use carts exclusively for fresh hard goods and use separate rolling racks for clothing making its way out to the floor so don't forget to check those there are few things better than browsing through an untouched rack of clothing waiting to be dispersed throughout the store once you've gone through the carts and racks of new inventory I recommend you then check out what's sitting behind the glass this is where most thrift stores put the more valuable and breakable items and you can find some really great inventory despite the prices being higher and on that Point don't be afraid of high prices at a thrift store it's easy to get discouraged but high prices are a good signal that the item is worth more money and just because it's priced High doesn't mean there isn't enough margin to still make it a worthwhile purchase for reselling sometimes you have to spend money to make money and that is especially true when shopping from behind the glass where to next a lot of resellers ask me what is the best thing to buy to resell and my answer always is focus on what you know the most about I sell across all categories but if you have knowledge about some specific Niche I typically recommend that you focus on that Niche first as you get your bearings in the reselling world so if this is true for you if there's a category where you have more expertise than others that is where you should head to Next in the thrift store after checking the carts and behind the glass for me that's the electronics section Electronics can be an intimidating category to shop and sell in but it's also one of the most lucrative and even if you don't know much about the items in this category I recommend you make an effort to learn because there is so much money to be made it's rare that I walk out of this section without finding at least one or two things because there is such a wide variety of electronics Goods that are valuable and you have to look beyond the obvious most thrift stores got smart long ago and siphon they're highly valuable and quick selling Electronics like video game consoles to sell online themselves if this is what you're looking for I'm sorry but thrift stores are not great places to find that kind of inventory with any sort of regularity but let's take a look at a few items that I found in the electronic section recently to show you the wide variety of things that you can find so this is a vintage 1998 it's called a rtica stealth assault electronic handheld game so rtica is a good brand to look out for in the electronic section they are a manufacturer of these little handheld games this is a pretty unique one it's it's like shaped like a fighter jet but they also make a lot of handheld video games like poker games and solitire and you know all these little handheld games usually thrift stores are only going to charge like a dollar for them and they end up selling for good money I paid $4 for this one and it sold for $31.98 in about 12 days so DVD VHS players or just VHS players are another great thing to look out for uh at thft stores they're a little dangerous to buy because they can you don't know if they're taken care of like they you know who knows if they're throwing them around in the back and they can be beat up and so if you buy a VCR or a DVD VCR combo like this from a thrift store see if they have a return policy because I bought a lot of them from thrift stores and they end up being broken this one was not I you paid $5 for it it sold in about 8 hours for $75 that's $60 plus $15 in shipping so another great thing to look out for these DVD VCR Combos and the reason they're they go for so much money is that they make them anymore they don't manufacture new VCRs and eBay is the best Market to sell them on remotes can be excellent money makers as well again they're not going to be priced more than a dollar or two at most thrift stores and they can sell for a lot of money like for example this one sold for $29.49 that's $22 plus $6.99 it only took less than a day to sell here's another remote that wasn't even in working condition and it still sold for $46.98 and it only took two days so again remotes are a great thing to look out for especially if they have like a big screen like this even if they're old I think this one was over 10 years old and it's not just TV or home theater remotes you can also find these uh you know old remote control car remotes like this this one uh sold for $24 in about 11 hours a thrift store is not going to price these things up maybe you're going to be looking through the toy section or the electronic section you're only going to see a remote you don't know where the car is pick up the remote sell sell just the remote you're going to make a little bit of money doing that another great thing they'll keep an eye out for are cameras point and shoot cameras even film cameras old cameras new cameras these these things do incredibly well this is a Canon shot film camera it sold for $19.98 and it only took 4 days to sell anytime I see vintage film cameras as long as it's from a major brand I almost always buy it thrift stores don't think that they're worth much money they end up being worth a lot of money if you can test it though make sure you can test it calculators are a great example of something to keep an eye out for in the electronic section the vast majority of them are going to be worthless to be honest but every once in a while you're going to find a really good one this is an HP it's sold for $259.99 I bought it for $10 if you can believe that so this is a great thing to keep an eye out for at a thrift store make you know easy to test pop some fresh batteries in there make sure that they work computer keyboards are another example of something that you feel like every thrift store has a million of them and again most of them are going to be worthless but every once in a while you're going to find some that are worth a lot of money this one for example sold for $56.90 it only took 5 days to sell especially if you're selling these Logitech ones and they're Wireless you see this one's wired but those Wireless ones have the little dongle or very tiny make sure it has that because it'll sell for a lot more if you have the dongle also keep an eye out for speakers this is a Sonos Sonos is a great brand this one I got for $7 at a thrift store and it sold within two days for $16.98 and also chargers chargers on their own do really well so again maybe you'll even find a camera that is worthless but the charger actually sells for something this one you know it only sold for $9.99 but it's very cheap to ship quick sale 5 days people are looking for old chargers they lose their old one and most thrift stores are not going to charge anything more than 50 cents to a dollar for something like this the next stop for me is usually the kitchen and housewear section this includes everything from small appliances kitchen gadgets and dishes typically you will find a mix of both modern and vintage items in this section and both can be equally valuable if you know what you look for and this is an excellent selection to shop for things that are broken and thus cheaper because they can easily be parted out and sold as replacement parts I have often purchased broken kitchen gadgets that would part it out and sold as replacement parts made me more money than if the unit would have been sold in working condition here's a few of my most recent finds from the kitchen and houseware section to give you an idea of what to look out for check out this brevel teamaker that I found at a thrift store I think what did I pay I paid yeah I found at a Salvation Army for $8 and it sold for $179 incredible just incredible this brevel team maker I've actually sold one of these in the past clean them up make sure they work even if they don't work part them out you know you can you can sell these things for parts and make a lot of money too this one I made $132 net return on this team maker that I bought for $8 and speaking of parting things out this is one that I parted out this is you know I didn't even have the whole mixer it was missing pieces but these slicers these the shredder cones I think they're called for a vintage Kitchen Aid sold for $36.98 in less than 3 weeks again if even if you don't have all the pieces or even if the motor doesn't work it's an excellent way to make money on eBay New Wave is another great brand to look out for I feel like every time I go to a thrift store I find a new wave like this I don't always find them in new condition like this so I don't always buy them but even in used condition you can sell them for parts for pretty good money this one was new I sold it in one day for $99 I ended up making $27 on the deal cuz it was kind of expensive it was $20 but you know making $27 in a day not too bad new waves are a great brand to look out for aside from these infrared ovens they also have hot plates and all sorts of other things and and the brand does really well and it sells really quick kitchen timers also a great thing like you wouldn't think this this thing has value but it does and I probably didn't know either but I looked it up and found it did and now I do so next time I go and I see one I'll pick it up without having to look it up this one sold for $44.98 took a little while took 3 months but hey not bad vintage kitchen pieces like this ge uh waffle maker does really well people just want these old pieces of equipment that they don't make them new like this anymore they're like big tanks you know you pour your waffle batter in there I mean this thing will last forever this thing's probably been used to make millions of waffles over the years and still cranking it out I turned it on I tested it it still got hot you know this thing took only 3 days to sell I got made $25 net on the on the deal just a really easy thing to buy and resell also in the Vintage kitchen category these wherever super shooter electric cookie like especially around Christmas time you usually don't pay more than a couple dollars for these things and they sell for a lot this one sold for 40 bucks only took 3 hours I made 20 bucks on the deal that's the easiest way to make $20 right there another vintage kitchen example here West bin this is a uh popcorn popper this was brand new in the box had never been opened I sold it for $65 it took 6 months so I you I sat on it for a little while but still I made $46.75 on it mugs are one of my favorite categories to buy and resell not because it makes me a ton of money typically I only make a few dollars on them I just like collecting mugs and so I'm always on the lookout for good cool weird mugs this one in particular though I did make a ton of money on it's a Starbucks FBI J Edgar Hoover building it sold for $159 if you can believe that it took 13 days to sell I have a net return of $132.8 Starbucks mugs can do really well not all of them but if it's a unique one like this one it can do really well just a crazy crazy mug find I love finding good mugs like this almost almost hate to sell it but I can't justify hanging on to $160 Starbucks mug so this one went out the door water bottles too I mean the water bottle crazy I feel like my kids have like 800 water bottles a piece and this is a great thing to look out for at a thrift store as well this one was a special one I'd never heard of it the brand was hitch I looked it up though it's kind of like two water bottles in one uh it sold for 82 $2 if you can believe that for a water bottle I ended up making $642 on the deal just incredible for a water bottle you know so you got to find the right brand if you look at the water bottle section at a thrift store 99.9% of them are going to be worthless but every once in a while you're going to find one like this and this was a great one and dishes I am not an expert on dishes but you go to a thrift store there's billions of dishes there and usually they're pric pretty low this one I think I paid like $2 yeah $2.50 it's sold in 7 Days vill royne Bach is the brand people are looking at these for Replacements usually they might break one so they go on eBay trying to find it the exact one that they broke this one sold for $44.98 I made $29.75 on the deal the miscellaneous area of a thrift store can be great because items that workers can't identify often end up here and that can mean they are priced well under the resale market value in my thrift stores I have found everything from pet supplies to Plumbing equipment to knee braces in the miscellaneous section and it's one of my favorite parts of the thrift store because you never really know what you're going to get let's look at a few things I found in this section recently so medical things can be kind of dicey on eBay you got to be careful about what you can sell and not sell on eBay when it comes to medical devices but these sorts of like shoulder slings or uh knee braces those types of things are okay to sell and you see them a lot at thrift stores this one what did I pay I paid $6 for this one and it sold for $29 free shipping I made only $845 on the deal but it's very easy to ship as long as it's not a medical device banned by eBay you're good to sell it from medical devices to car parts You' never know what you're really going to find this one sold for 2250 would never think that this little you know this is just a switch a switch that goes on the door of a car to lock it unlock it and roll the windows up and down only made 10 bucks on it but sold in 2 months and I mean why not sometimes you might find vintage beauty products like this I'd never even heard of this thing before it just looked interesting it's called a champ bees it's some sort of tray that you you know use it to to shampoo your somebody's hair at home I don't even know but I bought it for $3.50 and it sold for $329 95 I made $14.6 on the deal so these weird little things you just never know you just never know who's going to want them and somebody wanted this one this is a weird one I don't know what this was doing in the miscellaneous section but it's a Disney park uh popcorn bucket so these like you know collectible popcorn buckets that I paid a few dollars for it and it sold for $30 you know it only took three months so again miscellaneous section is just filled with all sorts of stuff that you never know what you're going to find popcorn buckets to ankle weights these are Nike branded ankle weights didn't even know that they existed before I saw them but they sold for 20 bucks sitting right next to some ankle weights might be the you know an American Standard faucet that you buy for 20 bucks and end up selling for $87 so you really just don't know what you're going to find and you end up with finding some really great stuff in that miscellaneous section every thrift store has an aisle like this filled with small little knickknacks this aisle is like a mirage for resellers especially new ones who see aorus Board of precious moments and Hallmark or Lennox or Willow Tree figurines and think they struck gold my advice is to not spend too much time in this section sure there's the occasional knickknack or or figurine that may be worth reselling but they are few and far between and unless you really know what to look out for you'll spend way too much time Google lensing everything on the Shelf only to find that they are all pretty much worthless your time is better spent elsewhere like bags bags are one of my favorite commonly overlooked sections of the thrift store again almost all bags backpacks suitcases satchels and whatevers you may find in this section are going to be relatively worthless and not worth reselling but I have found plenty that brought in really good money yeah so this is a camera bag I bought this at a savers for $4 it's called sin bags i' never heard of it but it is for uh camera gear it's for lenses and and dslrs things like that it sold for $150 only took a month to sell I made $112.8 I only spent $4 at a thrift store so this is just hiding out in the bag section you know definitely a great place to go and look I find that a lot of resellers just skip right over the bag section entirely this one took 2 months to sell and only made $20 this one sold for 30 and I netted 19 but again these camera bags can do really well and what I like about selling bags like this even though they're on the large side they're easy to pack and they're not going to break and shipment right Vineyard Vines custom collection tote bag sold in four months for $41 and I netted $298 pack safe day safe crossbody bag here this thing I bought a savers for $6 brand new with the tags although it did get returned and refunded I resold it and still made what I still made you know $27.9 on the deal so or take this Universal Studios Harry Potter backpack here this thing ended up having a little bit of a rip in it and so I couldn't sell it for full price I had to disclose it it had a rip in it but a really cool little bag I only paid a couple dollars for it it sold for $278 and I made $944 on it so Harry Potter stuff obviously does very well look for that Universal Studios Wizarding World of Harry Potter tag on it all those things are going to do really well the toy section can also be a gold mine if you know what to look out for but this is also one of the most junk filled sections of the the thrift store so be careful and don't waste too much time it can also be in a constant state of complete disarray when parents drop their kids off in the toy section to act as a babysitter which is annoying but let's take a look at some of the profitable items I found in the toy section recently this is an example of a modern board game here called Terror in meeple City it sold for $614 I made $36.63 it's kind of a pain with board games that are already open CU you do need to open them up you need to count and make sure all the pieces are there which adds a little bit of extra time but even if the pieces aren't there you can just sell the pieces individually I bought a Pokemon master trainer board game from 1999 it didn't have all the pieces but I ended up parting it out into like look at all these 15 different listings here that total up to at least $100 worth of inventory for a couple dollar investment vintage board games are also really good this is a heroquest board game that was complete I ended up selling it for $84.98 I sold it in one day I made $ 5441 so it's not all the new stuff doesn't have to be brand new in the packaging it could be an old board game like this and still very desirable also in the toy section are plush stuffed animals and again the vast majority of them are going to be worthless uh but every once in a while you're going to find some really good ones Build-A-Bear is a good brand to look out for again even in the Build-A-Bear category though you're going to find that most of them are not worth it but this one was this was a donkey I don't know why it was worth what it was I I found that for Build-A-Bear that the more unique the animal the more valuable it is and so this one went for $614 it took 2 days to sell I ended up paying you know only $4 at thrift store for that vintage plush does really well this is a Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny from 1991 it took 6 months to sell I bought it for a dollar though you know and it sold for $20 free shipping and I made 10 bucks and this stuff you know just adds up and this is this one isn't even a stuffed animal this was in the stuffed animal section but it was a golf head cover sold for $30 I bought it for a dollar at a thrift store and made $20.38 only took a month to sell you can also find modern things in the toy section of course like this is a magic the Gathering commander deck this thing I was I found at a thrift store for only $7 and it sold for $80 uh the net return was $55.19 it only took a day to sell so you know don't look for just vintage stuff but look for modern things as well or even these educational games I find that educational toys do really well this is a turbo twist spelling educational you know I only made 10 bucks on the deal but there's a whole category of toys in the educational space especially through covid when homeschooling was more popular it's you know it's Qui a down a little bit now but look for educational games those can often do really well the media section is another area where you will regularly find resellers who lack common decency no it is not okay to load entire shelves worth of media into your cart so that you can privately scan all of them in the corner with your Barcode Scanner but media can be a friendly category for new resellers because almost everything you find here has a barcode making it quick and easy to scan and figure out the value of what you're looking at but this also makes it one of the most saturated and picked over categories for resellers especially video games and especially at thrift stores I don't buy a whole lot of media to be honest especially from thrift stores I just don't have the patience to stand there and scan everything and I don't have enough knowledge on my own yet to know what to look out for instead of pretending to know what I'm talking about I will instead direct you over to the thrift school YouTube channel where Jesse will be more than happy to tell you everything you need to know about this section and the same goes for books it's a category I browse through occasionally but don't know much about Beyond knowing how to read and there are plenty of other YouTubers out there who have this Niche well covered Mel over at the back from burnout YouTube channel sells books exclusively and while she's located in Australia she still provides a wealth of good information relevant to us over here in the United States if you're looking to up your book reselling game so that leaves us with clothing I could do an entire video on clothing alone an entire Channel even so I'm not going to get very deep here a lot of people make incredible amounts of money selling used clothing but I'm not one of them if you want to hear from a real expert on clothing I recommend you check out the thrift of Life YouTube channel but even though I'm no expert I do like to browse and sell clothing finding the Diamonds in the Rough takes a lot of time and I find that my time is personally better spent going through hard Goods so I leave clothing for last I typically start with jackets as they are usually worth more money I follow this by collared shirts t-shirts and then various odds and ends like hats and socks and underwear yeah underwear don't judge me so yeah jackets I mean jackets are where I go to first when I'm out there looking at clothing because typically they're just going to be worth more money this is an example of a starter likee jackets by nutmeg but kind of like the starter jackets from the 9s it sold for $60 in about a month and I made $52 on it this vintage lanen Squall jacket I feel like I find lanen Squall jackets every two weeks at a thrift store for some reason they're just saturated they take a little bit to sell this took took four months to sell but still it's $29.98 I made $15.67 on it or this Powder River Outfitter this thing took a while to sell five months again sometimes I buy these jackets offseason they're cheaper offseason and so it takes five or six months to sell I don't mind they're just hanging up in my basement I made $26.86 or this vintage Thrasher magazine uh hoodie really cool piece only took two hours to sell I made $12.56 on it over to collared shirts anything Harley-Davidson branded is going to do really well this is like a mechanic or shop shirt that sold for $49.98 I made $36.66 on it or this vintage Wrangler shirt uh sold for $31.98 only took three days I made $12.60 on it and this dry fire long sleeve shirt this is like a fire resistant shirt I think it's for welders had never heard of it before but the the style looked interesting the brand looked interesting I looked it up $34.98 out the door I made $22 t-shirts are really fun to shop for I love doing it it's a little tedious but this one was an amazing one this was a new with tags Disney shirt that I bought for $33.50 at Salvation Army it sold for $159 I made $126 18 for a t-shirt so I you know I know that the T-shirt world is crazy I don't know a whole lot about it especially the Vintage t-shirt Market but you know I don't find t-shirts like this all that often at thrift stores but this was a fun one or this vintage novel netwar I like this category of stuff I grew up in the 90s as kind of an Internet dork in the 90s and so I remember all these different products and different brands out in the 90s uh related to internet culture and internet software and Hardware this is this is one of those things it sold for $ 3559 I made $26.20 on it or this uh vintage San Francisco Starry Night t-shirt it's a single stitch single stitch shirts are a good thing to look out for you know if you look at the shoulder of a t-shirt there's going to be two stitches on it that usually means it's more modern a Vint a vintage single stitch only has a single line of stitching on it not all single stitch t-shirts are good uh this one sold for $33.98 it only took just over 3 weeks to do it I made $218 and yes underwear I have no shame I will buy underwear from a thrift store but only if it's in the packaging I'm not going to buy any loose underwear I'm not a I'm not a maniac vintage underwear can do really good in fact I've sold vintage underwear that went for 5060 $70 for a pack like this I'm not exactly sure why um maybe people just like old underwear and they don't want to upgrade maybe they don't make underwear like they used to I don't really know but I don't mind selling them this one for $29.98 took two months to sell I made $15 from 1987 so again thrift stores are not going to know that these things have value most thrift stores aren't so take advantage of that you know look for uh look for underwear in the packaging tell them Justin sent you hopefully this video gave you some good ideas on what to keep an eye out for on your next trip to the thrift store if you made it this far you will probably also like these two videos how to beat thrift stores at their own game and how to Source profitable inventory like a pro thank you for watching and see you next time

Channel: Justin Resells

Views: 126,398

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Id: WBUKF5HmheE

Length: 24min 37sec (1477 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 09 2024