Pickers. Flippers. Thrifters. Treasure hunters. They go by many different names, but resellers — those who buy and sell used, returned or overstock items directly to consumers — are a thriving segment of our economy. A 2021 survey of adults in the U.S. reported by Statistica showed there were 52.6 million clothing resellers alone in 2020, and that number was expected to more than double over the coming few years.
Clothing is bread-and-butter for many resellers, but you’ll find people who buy and sell shoes, housewares, antiques, furniture, collectibles, tools, toys and just about anything that has value to someone. Resellers truly prove the old adage, “One person’s trash is another’s treasure.” There’s obvious value in gold jewelry, working electronics or gently used musical instruments, but there’s also a market for old medicine bottles, original Star Wars figures and ’80s bands tour T-shirts.
You’ll find resellers throughout Greater Cincinnati, including Northern Kentucky. In fact, for the last three years, a group of resellers has hosted a “Resellers Rally” on a BB Riverboat that draws hundreds of resellers from all over the U.S.
The online explosion
Before the Internet, those looking for second-hand bargains found them at flea markets, yard and garage sales, rummage sales, estate sales and thrift stores like Goodwill and the Salvation Army. All of those remain options for buyers and sellers today, but the explosion of online marketplaces has kicked the whole process up a few notches.
Resellers have a variety of outlets from which to sell. For larger items especially, they may sell locally through online services such as Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. While it is possible to have items shipped to a customer farther away, these platforms are great for local pickups. Sellers list their items, buyers find them through searches and together they make arrangements for an exchange.
The granddaddy of the online selling market is eBay. Started in 1995, the site boasted more than 17 million active seller accounts in 2023. Poshmark started in 2011 with a slightly different format and an emphasis on clothing sales. Etsy began primarily as an online marketplace for artists and crafters to sell handmade goods but started allowing reselling of manufactured goods in 2013. Newer online markets include Mercari, Depop, Whatnot and Grail.
Although each platform has its own way of facilitating sales, they all charge sellers fees and a percentage of each sale. Sellers with a large enough inventory can pay for a “store” or “closet.” In exchange, these platforms help with collecting sales taxes, providing marketing support and offering discounted shipping and other perks.
Reselling as a side hustle
Chad Schultz lives in Newport. He does not have a reseller business, he said, but has used eBay and Facebook Marketplace many times over the years to help him declutter his house and recoup money spent on items he no longer needs.
He joined eBay in 2004 and has sold hundreds of items since that time, he said. When he and his family moved into a new house, some of their old furniture didn’t fit in, and he was ready to buy some new things. This led him to look to reselling to earn money back to put toward his new house fund.
“I sold maybe 40 things on Facebook Marketplace and maybe up to 100 things on eBay,” he said. “Anything I could ship, I’d try to sell on Ebay. … It would always get more money and be easier to deal with.
“On Facebook Marketplace, what really surprised me was how well furniture sells. … I got this couch from an estate sale for $75. It was a wooden-framed couch. I wanted to resell it, and I thought maybe I’d sell it for $120.”
He decided to ask $300, fully expecting no buyer would pay that much, but it would give him lots of room to negotiate.
“Someone came in the middle of the night, in the rain, and gave me more than $300 for it. Wow. And it was like that for all of my furniture experiences. … I must have sold 15 furniture pieces, and they sold really quick and for more than I thought.”
What also surprised him was that there was very little haggling when it came to furniture. Most of his furniture customers were young people setting up their first homes. His theory is that younger people didn’t grow up with experience negotiating prices as older generations did.
For extra cash, take a look around
Schultz said there’s money to be made from things you no longer use. For example, he regularly resells clothing his stepson no longer wears.
“Especially if it’s a brand name like Under Armor or Nike, that stuff will always sell pretty well. You won’t make a ton, but you could make some money. … I can get maybe $8 back, which is pretty good to me. It doesn’t hurt to recoup.”
You’d be surprised at what people are looking to buy, he said.
“Here’s a good example. My uncle died and left a knife collection. And my uncle was not a collector of collectible things. He was more of a junk collector,” he said. “So I got these knives, and a handful of them were broken, not functional at all. … I went through and found comparable ones on eBay and started listing them. I think I got a couple hundred bucks. I ended up putting five of the broken ones in a lot and sold them for $20 — for five basically broken knives.”
When selling on any platform, he advised trying to give the buyers the full picture. You may be surprised what people will value, even if it’s not in perfect condition.
“Just be honest; don’t undervalue your own stuff, but be honest about it,” Schultz said.
A new way to sell: live auctions
The Whatnot platform started in 2019. The unique draw of the site is its live auctions. Sellers hold auctions, describing and selling their wares via livestream to people who join in to watch and bid in real time.
The site requires all sellers to take a course in selling on the platform, and buyers must register with their payment method. When a buyer purchases an item or a “bundle” of items from a seller during a live sale, the platform handles the sale and provides the seller with a shipping label.
Fort Thomas native Chris Kidney, who goes by Chris_Kidney98 on Whatnot, said it was the live auctions and direct contact with buyers that attracted him to the platform. Instead of a buyer going to an eBay or Poshmark store to see one or two items, he said, on Whatnot he can show buyers hundreds, if not thousands of items during a three-hour sale.
“My best friend got me into selling clothes,” Kidney said. “We would go thrifting and then sell the clothes on Depop. He still does Depop as bradsVTG, and I do Whatnot. And I’ve sold more in a month than he has in three months on Depop.
“Brad started on his own and has been in it longer than I have. He’s really taught me what clothing and oddities to look out for, and he’s been a wonderful mentor.”
Kidney also said it’s important to know what you’re looking for.
“You need to know the brands,” he said. “You need to look out for what sells better at the beginning of summer or at the end of summer. So it’s really a journey, a learning process.”
How Whatnot works
Kidney holds two live sales per week on Whatnot. He runs his sales from a room in his home filled with racks of his clothes. He keeps piles of popular brands near him but can auction items off as he goes.
What happens in the comment section will dictate what clothes he’ll auction, he said. He will hold up items and describe them to the audience. If he sees interest in the comments, he’ll run an auction on the item. Whatnot allows him to set up the length of the auction time.
If he shows an item and there is no interest in the comments, he puts it aside and goes to the next item. Buyers can ask him for certain items, and they can ask questions as he’s showing items.
Kidney said he will sometimes sweeten the pot by offering buyers a chance to win a free giveaway item. He refers to his auctions as shows — and there is a level of showmanship involved.
“I would not recommend Whatnot for just anyone, especially if you don’t like being on camera and or in front of people,” he said. “For Poshmark and eBay, all you have to come up with is the price, list the description and take photos.
“I almost have to do a song-and-dance every time, which I literally have done for tips. … Something unique to my show is, for a tip of $5, I’ll break a mug. I’m just trying to be creative. … It’s almost like a variety show.”
He’s brought on his friend, his dad and his brother to keep things lively, he said.
“You really have to have high energy to create those shows where things are flying off the shelf.”
Flippers add value to their finds
Although the words are often used interchangeably, a picker picks through items to find things to sell. A flipper does that but is looking for things that could be “upcycled,” repaired, restored or otherwise improved to sell.
Megan McDonough Neiheisel is a fairly new reseller who definitely falls into the “flipper” definition. She works out of a rented garage near her house in Newport, repairing, refinishing and sometimes repainting furniture to resell through her two Instagram accounts, megNdidit and Rocky Fork Revivals.
McDonough Neiheisel said she comes from a long line of people who love and collect old things. Her dad was a collector, and she grew up appreciating the quality and beauty of things made in earlier decades. Yet, it was reselling modern items that got her thinking about turning her passions into profit.
“Last February, my husband and I decided to try to fill our evenings with less pointless things than staring at our phones and watching TV,” she said. “We bought a couple things from (auction site) Bid FTA, palette liquidation. That’s not my jam, because I like old stuff. But I thought that maybe, you know, I just kind of pictured us after work putting things together and then selling and seeing what happened.”
McDonough Neiheisel said they had beginner’s luck and were able to put together several pieces to sell for a very good profit. Yet, they also ran into some challenges.
“We bought something that said it was incomplete. It did not say, box one of two only, which is how it usually is listed,” she said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, we might be able to figure out how to make this work. It was a dresser. … And so we bought it, and it had everything except for the sides and all the hardware.”
“I didn’t want to just throw it in a landfill, and I didn’t like the idea of not being able to complete it. So we ended up finding a ‘box two’ in Dayton,” she said. “But the first box we had bought was black. And then the second box we bought to finish it was fake wood grain.”
She decided to strip and repaint the whole thing black. Lesson learned, but it sparked her to consider doing what she truly loved — finding older furniture to fix up to resell.
Everybody starts in the same place
Furniture flipping has not been without its challenges. While passionate about rescuing old things, she often faces a learning curve. She admits she’s made some mistakes and had to do some “do-overs,” but with each project she gains new knowledge. She recently bought a beautiful old floral couch, but when she got it home she realized its cushions had deteriorated, so she’s now learning a new skill — basic upholstering.
Her advice is if it’s something you feel passionate about, go ahead and try, even if you might make mistakes along the way.
“That’s hard for me. I have a little bit of a perfectionist personality. And, you’re gonna mess a lot of stuff up. I’ve barely been doing this for three months, and it’s crazy how many things I’ve had to redo, but you learn the whole time,” she said. “You’ve just got to dive in. There’s a quote from The Rock my husband and I have been liking lately: ‘Day one or one day.’ So this can be day one, you can start today. … Be prepared to feel very uncomfortable, because you may have no idea what you’re doing. But everybody starts at the same place.”
Charity shop gets into the game
Charities, like Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul, are working to keep prices from going up.
“At a time when all are experiencing higher prices due to inflation, St. Vincent de Paul has made a conscious effort to keep prices stable and affordable for the customers we serve, in keeping with our ministry to provide help to those struggling to make ends meet,” said Karen Zengel, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul Northern Kentucky.
One local charity, Be Concerned, has found ways to use reselling to help raise funds to support its food bank and thrift shops. With two locations, one in Erlanger and one in Covington, its mission is to supply those in need with the basic necessities of life. To ensure its clients are able to get the things they need first and foremost, the organization provides them with vouchers for clothing and housewares that can be used in the thrift shops.
Last year, 1,484 no-cost vouchers were redeemed, said David Laake, business director for Be Concerned. Part of his job is to find and cultivate new funding sources for the charity. This is what led to a unique situation in 2022 that opened the door to the idea of selling some of the more unique donated items online to benefit the charity.
“How it all started was interesting. We had a statue that made its way around quite a bit. … I pulled the statue out of what we call the metal man bin,” Laake said. “We scrap metal that we can’t use. And I looked at it. I went into Andy’s (Brunsman’s) office, and said ‘Hey, what is this?’ It was a little Oscar. … It was super heavy. And there was an inscription on it that said 1935.”
After researching, they discovered that the item went to people who worked on the 1935 Clark Gable film “It Happened One Night.” The film swept all five major Oscar categories, and the studio made the mini-statue for all involved to celebrate. Laake contacted the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and sold the statue to the organization for a $1,000 donation to Be Concerned.
Reselling as another avenue of support
Be Concerned has an eBay store now where Laake puts collectibles and high-value items up for sale. The volunteer staff have been instructed to set aside anything they think might spark his interest. His office is stacked with potential finds.
“I get really particular about the stuff I want to resell, because at the end of the day, I feel like if I can’t identify what it actually is, I’m not going to put it online and try to market it,” he said.
He pointed to his desk brimming with glassware, collectible mugs and other items there for his consideration.
“As you can see in my office, this is a staging area for stuff that I’m working on getting priced up,” Laake said. “I’ve got these ashtrays, these mugs. Weird stuff like that. We get records and all kinds of fun stuff.”
The thrift stores are open to the public, and he said many resellers stop by to look. Because he only deals in a few specific things, Laake said there are lots of “finds” left for resellers who are looking for artwork, glassware and clothing.
In addition to pulling out potential items for eBay, volunteers sort through and remove things that should be recycled or discarded and take the extra time to clean and prepare items for sale.
“One of the big things that has really helped our thrift store, raising a good amount of money for us, is we just give it the TLC that it deserves,” he said. “We do take a lot of time and pride in sorting our stuff to present.”
Advice on getting started
If reselling intrigues you, here are a few basic tips from experienced resellers to get you started.
- Don’t keep your plan a secret — friends and family can be good resources for items and for getting the word out about your business.
- Where to find items? Check out thrift stores, charity shops, rummage sales, garage sales, online auction sites, flea markets, outlet bins (where you can get items by the pound), and your grandma’s basement.
- Start with one or two selling areas. If you have a hobby or an interest, use that knowledge to help you choose what to sell. Educate yourself on areas that interest you, and watch out for changing trends.
- Be sure you can find the items you want to sell. For example, you will not find many pieces of high-end ski wear or surfing gear in Cincinnati, but if Rookwood Pottery or Reds souvenirs are your thing, you’re in the right place.
- Be careful with name-brand items. Some companies do not permit resale of their items, and there are fakes of higher-end brands. Services such as the Real Real and Check Check will authenticate items for a fee.
- Your loved ones will appreciate it if you remind yourself you are not in the storage business. You are in the selling business. If something is just taking up space, it may be time to let it go.
- The number one rule is to be consistent. If you are listing items on an online marketplace, it’s better to list a few items a day than to sometimes list a big batch and other times just leave your store sitting.
- YouTube is your friend. The reseller community is great at sharing knowledge. From their videos, you can learn how to price your items, what sells and what doesn’t, and advice on shipping and record-keeping.
A reseller lexicon
Here are some terms that are common within the reselling community:
Antique – An antique is an item 100 or more years old.
Bolo – “Be on look out” for, used to describe desirable items to sell.
Death pile – The items a reseller has purchased but has not yet listed to be sold.
Flipper – A reseller who repairs, restores, decorates or otherwise upcycles an item to be sold.
Haul – A group of items acquired during a shopping spree or within a particular time frame.
Honey hole – A resource for items where resellers consistently find good items to sell.
MCM – Mid Century Modern, a home furnishing and decor design style, roughly from between 1945 and 1969.
Long tail/short tail – Long-tail items may take a long time to sell; short-tail are quick-turnaround items.
NIB – New in box.
NWT – New with tags.
Picker – A reseller, usually one who picks through items to find things to sell.
Retail arbitrage – Finding new but discounted items at retail stores and selling them for full price on Amazon.
Retro – A new item whose style is drawn from or reminiscent of styles in the past.
Thrifter – A person who finds second-hand items to sell or reuse, usually at bargain prices.
Sell-through rate – The number of a certain item sold on eBay in a 90-day period divided by the number of that item available to purchase expressed. For example, if 100 Red Starbucks Christmas mugs are sold and there are 200 of them for sale, the sell-through rate would be 100 divided by 200 or 0.5. To get a percentage, multiply by 100, and the sell-through rate is 50 percent.
Shop along — A video taken by a reseller, while shopping at a thrift store, showing the items for sale.
“The bins” – Term used for the Goodwill Outlet Store locations. The bins are the last stop for Goodwill items, and items are thrown in together in bins and sold by the pound.
Vintage – Although often used to refer to any older item, the technical definition is anything produced between 20 and 100 years ago.