If you find this fun as a side hustle or expanded hobby, there are a multitude of ways for sourcing second-hand resale items or product. Some of these are in-person, and some are online. Some are better than others, and some just require a sharp eye.

Sourcing Second-Hand Resale Items During Garage Sale Season

Garage sales can sometimes have the best finds. While there are different reasons people hold garage sales, the main ones include needing cash quickly, a desire to dump items as quickly as possible, or the need to downsize or move. The fact of the matter is that you can only ask so much for items at a garage sale, because consumer expectancy drives prices.

So, find some deals, and turn around and sell them for 2x, 3x, or even higher online. You can almost always ask for more online because you have an international market via eBay, or people will buy higher when they know you don’t mind sitting on an item longer.

Sourcing at Second-Hand Stores

In my community, we have a lot of retirees or people who are ready to retire, and thus downsize their home. So very nice items will end up at donation centers because people don’t know what options they have for repurposing their items.

Many don’t want to do full blown estate sales, with people tromping through their house. And while online auctions get a little better each year, most of the time, the client is not getting the value they want. So retirees would rather not go through all that work. That means a lot of good items end up in donation centers. This can sometimes be a perfect place to buy low, sell high.

Always bring your cell phone in order to determine if there is a market for the product, that the inventory of that product isn’t saturated with the exact product, and to see a relative value of the item.

Sourcing Second-Hand Resale Items at Online Auctions

Sourcing through online auctions is ok, but be careful not to get sucked into bidding too high on items, or bidding on too many items that have 0 bids. If they have 0 bids, they may not be an item people are interested in. Or it could be a unique item that would resell for a lot on eBay or another site. Do your research before bidding. Auctions usually last between 3-7 days, so you have time to check an item out fully.

Also, because you can’t touch the item ahead of time, ask questions if you see a hint of breakage or crazing or any other flaw. Because sellers on eBay will lose a sale if they don’t describe something accurately, they disclose everything. Online auction companies do not have the same accountability, so they can get lax about mentioning that small chip.

Sourcing Second-Hand Resale Items at Estate Sales

While prices will run higher than garage sales, you can still find some key antique pieces that could be flipped for higher prices easily. Also, most estate sales run 50% off on Sundays, so you can grab some deals then. Or the more you buy, the better deal you will get, so check with whomever is running the sale. Live sales are not in abundance like they used to be, because during the pandemic most estate sales were pushed to do online auctions. Most never returned to doing live sales, and just stuck with online auctions.

Sourcing Second-Hand Resale Items from Downsizing Clients

There’s one major sourcing option, but it is time consuming and really should be done if you are treating this like a business. That option is recruiting downsizing clients. Nonetheless, you could do this on a small scale with one client at a time or several clients who have a handful of items that have worth to sell.

I had a client who had a house in the capital city. She lived where I did, so we would travel to that house 1x a month and pack up valuables for me to take back and post on eBay. I had this sole client for a couple of months, so I could easily get through the items we packed up.

Sourcing Second-Hand Resale Items from Freebie Sites

One last area that I wouldn’t spend a ton of time on, but can have good buy low, sell high features, since you acquire the item FREE, is sourcing on specific freebie sites. Sometimes, people are moving and they just need to get rid of something fast. In this case, they are giving away a valuable item. I have had to do this when I get down to one last furniture item at a client’s house, and the house is closing. I take the listing and turn it into a free listing. Just be careful to not get too sucked into acquiring too many items that don’t have true resale value. Scan the sites quickly, and only put out the effort if you see a huge return, and if the item is located closely to you.

Note: I never really found many things I could buy low and sell high from antique shops, so those aren’t considered an area for sourcing products.

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