Is It Worth Reselling?
Questions to ask before you buy secondhand inventory
How to Know if an Item is Worth Reselling
This question is probably asked the most in the reselling business. And while there are many resources available out there to help make your purchase decisions easier, the one you will need to rely on the most is the knowledge you have in your head….and most often…your gut.
There isn’t any “magic formula” to tell if an item is going to sell, but these questions can help take some of the risk out of buying your reselling inventory. Give a point for each “yes” answer you can get for the item in question.
1) Is the item in good to excellent condition?
2) Does it have two or more target groups it could sell to?
3) Could it be sold for at least five times the asking price?
4) Do you have a venue (online or otherwise) that you can list or advertise it immediately?
5) Can you take it home with you and store it easily?
6) Would it be simple and easy to ship?
7) Could it be sold all year long easily?
8)Does it have an identifying mark,tag,label, or box?
9) Would you consider it “hard to find”?
10) Would you buy it for yourself or for a gift for someone who liked it?
If your item scored between 8-10 points, you probably have a good item to resell. Of course, this isn’t an exact science, but it at least gives you some good things to think about before you take it up to the cashier and pay good money for it. We all have things we wished we would have thought longer about before purchasing that are probably still sitting in our inventory area.
So, if you are new to selling or have been doing it for a while, it is always a good idea to think about your reselling purchases. It saves money in the long run and definitely cuts down on your storage space problems.
The author has been in the reselling business for over twenty years. When she’s not perusing thrift stores and garage sales, she writes reselling tips and information on her blog.
