The money series: How to flip and sell items online

For the new ‘the money series’ I will provide 1 article a week on how to earn money in easy ways and most of the time from your home. As fashion and life itself can be expensive I would love to show you many ways to earn some extra cash with least effort as possible.

 

Flipping items into quick cash is not only efficient but it’s also a fun job you are able to do out of the comfort of your home. Flipping items is the buying of products which are going to be sold for more profit elsewhere.

As I mentioned before selling items online is one of my favourite ways of making cash on the side. I have years of experience on purchasing and selling items by doing quick flips. During the years of flipping I got to experience the pro’s and cons in the market and learned what sells fast and what doesn’t sell at all. In this article I will share my experiences and tips to take into account when wanting to flip and sell items online.

 

HOW TO START FLIPPING

I started my selling career on E-bay on a rainy Sunday after I decided to clean my closet. This is when my passion for selling became reality and I wanted to sell more, but I wanted to do it smart. Therefore I decided to do more research about the purchasing of goods by googling and doing research online which brought me to the flipping industry.

The first thing that I recommend when starting your flipping career is to start out of your own closet. It might sounds strange because flipping is a purchase-selling process, however the reasoning behind this tip is that you need to get some experience in the selling processes before investing your money into buying goods. After that you can slowly start visiting thrift stores.

SUCCESFUL ITEMS TO FLIP

When starting your flipping career it is common that you want to buy every good looking piece you see. Especially because the brand or item might look like a great piece to you, however this might not apply to the online market.

As a beginner it is hard to find out which items sell best and which don’t, this is also determined by the location you are selling from and the current trends. Succesful items are the ones that sell the fastest and return the highest profit margin. Another thing to focus on is market saturation. When everyone is selling the same type of items there will be more supply than demand and sales will be low and prices need to be adjusted.

In order to find the latest popular items I recommend to use E-bay. E-bay as a function that shows popular trends which have been sold the most. Another option is to watch Youtube video’s by full-time flippers which often haul their thrifting findings, this gives you the information on which brands to pick up. This has helped me a lot and I will continue doing research this way, and the videos are really fun to watch. It is also important to focus on seasonal pieces, as almost nobody buys sweaters in the summer 🙂

 

WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN BUYING DESIGNER BRANDS

Designer or branded clothing have worked the best for me and are often what people tend to look for when flipping items. However there are a lot of ‘fakes’ on the market which is a loss of money and can damage your reputation when reselling.

When buying designer brands I look for the original tags and the stitching of the garments. Bags and accessories will be a lot harder to authenticate due to excellent dupes on the market, however there are a lot of guides on the internet which can help you authenticate your items from home. Another thing to look for are serial codes, stitching, product material and size measurements.

 

DETERMINE YOUR MARGIN AND PRICING

In order to make profit you will have to determine your margins. Margins are helpful because they help when purchasing your goods. If the margin is too low or just breaking even it’s often not worth the selling as it takes a lot of your time, unless you are looking for a quick flip of course.

When it comes to quick flips, I want to earn at least €10 on non-branded items and at least 60% on designer items. Determining your margin all depends on how much you are aiming to earn and how much the reselling value is at.

To determine how much an item is worth, it depends on the state and if it has the original label and maybe even the tags attached. My favourite option is the ‘what has sold’ option on Ebay as you only need to type in the details of you items and you are able to see the same item or similar ones, and for which price they were sold. More pricing and listing strategies for Ebay will be explained in my how to sell on Ebay guide.

 

HOW TO LIST ITEMS

Listing items is the hardest part of the selling process as the products needs to be attractive to buy and need to have the right title in order to be found. In addition to that the prices need to be reasonable especially when just starting from scratch. This does not mean you have to sell your items for cheap. You can price your items the same as the competition or slightly lower.

For my personal experience pricing determines a lot because people are constantly looking for the best deals and don’t like to pay too much from private sellers. I  recommend pricing your items at a fixed price instead of bidding as your follow base might be too low, you only end up selling prices for really little money.

Pictures are key as it causes the main attraction besides from the attractive price. Therefore make sure to display the items as how you like to see it before you buy something, nobody likes to buy from a picture with a wrinkly shirt on it. I have dedicated a whole post on how to increase your sales by the use of pictures .

 

Are you a online flipper and have some experiences and tips to share? Please share it in the comments below so we can all benefit from each other’s experience.