How to Flip Liquidation Store Finds Online
Liquidation stores are one of the best sources for resale inventory if you know what you’re doing. The margins can be great and the supply is consistent since inventory is always being added at liquidation stores, and is added weekly at bin stores. However walking in without a plan and hoping something sells is how people end up with tons of stuff that never moves.
There are so many different online marketplaces nowadays. Years back it was eBay and Amazon and that’s about it. Now there are those plus more like Mercari, Poshmark, Depop, Vinted, Facebook Marketplace, some people even sell live on Whatsapp.
Know what sells before you buy
This sounds obvious but before you walk into a liquidation store with money to spend, spend time on the resale platforms. Search for the types of items you’re thinking about buying and filter by Sold Listings. That tells you what people actually paid, not just what sellers are asking.
The sold listings filter is everything. An item listed for $50 means nothing. An item that sold 23 times in the last 30 days for $25 means you have a real market. This is just a basic guide, as of course there is more that goes into reselling, but this is a great base way of seeing demand. Do this research enough times and you start knowing what moves and what doesn’t.
The best categories for eBay flipping from liquidation
In my opinion, and I have been reselling for 15+ years, you can sell things in almost any category. The important thing is to understand the positives and negatives of different kinds of items. It also is a good idea to specialize in items from categories you’re interested in, since gaining knowledge over time is important to your long term success.
For example, tools and hardware will always have high demand. Brand name tools like DeWalt, Milwaukee, and Makita hold their value well and buyers trust them. A used drill in good condition from a recognizable brand will sell faster and for more money than a no-name drill that’s brand new. On the other hand, they’re heavy so shipping is expensive and you need to test them all. Also when purchasing tools to resell, you’ll be paying a premium since everybody knows that these sell well. That means your profit will be less unless you find a great source for deals, and nobody else finds that same source. In person sales on Facebook Marketplace is usually best for expensive, heavy items like these.
Kitchen appliances and small electronics are always solid if you can test them before you list. A working KitchenAid mixer or Instant Pot from a liquidation store is an easy flip. A non-working one is a huge problem. These also have the issue of being heavy sometimes, and awkward to ship.
Name brand clothing and shoes sell well. Condition and photos matter so much. Clean, well lit photos are very important. You don’t even need a nice white area to list anymore since you can use AI to remove the background for you easily. The biggest negative to selling clothing is the sizing problem. People cannot try the items on themselves, so they may not fit and they will want to return them. Some platforms like Poshmark do not allow returns for fit, so that is great for a seller. Unfortunately in my experience, Poshmark sales are a lot slower than other platforms. The good thing about selling clothing is that the shipping is easy. They’re light and do not break, so are low risk in that way. They also don’t take up much space.
The math that actually matters
Your profit on any flip is the sell price minus what you paid, minus platform fees, shipping, your time and gasoline, shipping supplies, storage, etc.
If you spend two hours sourcing, listing, packing and shipping something that nets you $8, that’s not a great return on investment. You need to either find items with higher margins or get your process fast enough that volume makes up for it. Most successful resellers do both. They know their best categories inside and out and they’ve built a listing and shipping process that’s as fast as possible.
That being said, if you are just trying to make some extra money, you may be happy with that amount of profit. Not everybody wants to be a professional reseller. For example, I was a full time reseller for many years. Nowadays I only do it casually so I am definitely someone that is happy with that $8 profit on an item. For the most part I sell items that I can pick up very cheap at the Goodwill bins, so if I paid 50 cents for something I’m happy with the profit. I also still have quite a few shipping bags and supplies leftover from my full time reselling days, I store items in my shed, and I always make sure I have the buyer pay for shipping. My main categories nowadays are hats, clothing, miscellaneous small electronics, health and beauty items, things like that. I also make sure what I buy is small, easy to store and preferably under 2 pounds.
Make sure you list, don’t let the death pile grow
Searching for deals at liquidation stores is a lot of fun. Listing those items online takes forever and can get very tedious. This can become a problem when you have a huge amount of items that haven’t been listed yet. Your storage space gets full and you get overwhelmed. Your cashflow declines since you are purchasing items but not selling as many as you could have. That being said, I’m pretty sure most resellers do have a death pile as its almost impossible to avoid. As long as it doesn’t get too huge, you’re probably doing better than most.