When I first started selling on eBay, I made one simple assumption.
If I could buy something cheap and sell it for more, it was probably worth buying.
Honestly, that worked…sometimes.
If I found a pair of headphones that sold used for $20 and I could buy them for $5, I figured I was making a good decision.
What I didn’t understand back then was that there’s a big difference between something that can sell and something that actually sells consistently.
I had no idea what sell-through rate was.
I didn’t even know there was a Sold Listings filter on eBay.
I was buying based mostly on instinct.
Today, I still trust my instincts—but now I back them up with data.
If you’re wondering what finally changed the way I evaluate inventory, I wrote a full breakdown in my article: How I Decide If Something Is Worth Selling on eBay.
My First Sourcing Trips
When I first started reselling, I mostly sold clothing.
I spent a lot of time at Goodwill Outlet stores, sometimes called “the bins.”
If you’ve never been to one, it’s an experience.
Employees wheel out giant blue bins full of clothing and random items. Once they lock the bins into place, everyone standing around them jumps in at the same time looking for treasures.
It almost feels like a competition.
The nice part was that everything was sold by weight, so you could walk away with several shirts for just a few dollars.
Every once in a while I’d stumble across something vintage or unusual that turned out to be worth good money.
At the time, though, I wasn’t finding those items because I knew the market.
I was mostly getting lucky.
Over time I realized that instinct is helpful, but instinct plus data is much better.
The Market Usually Tells You the Answer
One of the biggest mistakes new resellers make is guessing.
I’ve made plenty of bad purchases myself, and almost all of them happened because I bought something too quickly without slowing down to research it.
Now I let the market answer the question for me.
The easiest way to do that is by checking Sold Listings on eBay.
Sold listings show what buyers are actually paying.
That’s far more useful than seeing what sellers are asking.
Listed Prices Don’t Mean Much
This is something I see all the time.
Anyone can list an item for $500.
That doesn’t mean it’s worth $500.
I’ve even seen garage sales where someone printed out an active eBay listing and taped it next to the item as proof of its value.
The problem is they never checked Sold Listings.
Maybe there are 100 active listings.
Maybe none of them have actually sold.
Or maybe they’re selling for $25 instead of the $200 asking price.
That’s why I almost ignore active listings until I’ve checked sold listings first.
The sold listings tell you what the market actually thinks.
I Price According to Reality
When I list something, I usually price it somewhere around the middle of recent sold listings.
I spend a lot of time taking clean, well-lit photos, so occasionally I’ll price something a little higher if my item is in exceptional condition.
Even then, I don’t get greedy.
I also leave offers turned on and regularly send discounts of around 10–20% to interested buyers.
I’ve actually experimented with pricing.
I’ve listed items intentionally too high just to see what would happen.
Almost every time, the views slowed down dramatically.
Once I lowered the price closer to where the market actually was, the views came back almost immediately.
Pricing affects visibility more than many people realize.
Sell-Through Rate Changed Everything
Once I learned what sell-through rate was, it completely changed how I sourced inventory.
A simple example:
If there are 10 active listings and 10 sold listings, that’s already a pretty healthy market.
But if there are only 10 active listings and 30 or 40 have sold recently, now you’ve got my attention.
Demand is outpacing supply.
Those are often the kinds of items that sell quickly.
Sometimes you can even price them a little more aggressively because buyers are actively looking for them.
That said, I still remind myself of something I heard years ago:
A fast nickel is better than a slow dime.
I naturally want to squeeze every last dollar out of every item.
Sometimes that’s the wrong decision.
If I can make a good profit today instead of waiting six months for a slightly bigger one, I’ll usually take the faster sale.
One of My Best Purchases Ever
One garage sale completely changed how I looked at taking calculated chances.
A man was closing down an old gunsmith shop and had a large tote full of springs, small parts, hardware, and miscellaneous gun components.
I honestly had no idea what most of it was.
He told me it was worth much more than he was asking.
I paid $20.
That was about two years ago.
I recently looked through my sales history.
I haven’t even sold everything yet, but I’ve already generated around $1,500 in sales from that one $20 purchase.
Not every buy turns out like that.
Most don’t.
But experiences like that taught me something important:
Good research helps.
Sometimes taking an educated chance pays off even more.
Shipping Matters Too
Even if something sells well, I still think about shipping.
Large, heavy items usually have fewer buyers simply because shipping costs scare people away.
Over the years I’ve naturally shifted toward smaller items.
Phones.
Cameras.
Remote controls.
Small electronics.
They take up less space, they’re easier to photograph, easier to pack, and usually much easier to ship.
I eventually stopped buying many large items altogether because of the shipping costs, storage space, and packing time. I explain exactly why in my article: Why I Stopped Selling Large Items on eBay.
Experience Makes You Faster
When I first started, I looked up almost everything.
Honestly, I felt awkward standing in thrift stores with my phone out researching items.
I thought everyone was watching me.
They weren’t.
Nobody cared.
Today I recognize far more brands, models, and categories without needing to research every single item.
But I still double-check things all the time.
Markets change.
Something that sold well six months ago might not be selling as well today.
The research only takes a minute.
Don’t Try to Predict the Future
One lesson I’ve learned is that I don’t need to predict what people might want years from now.
I’d rather sell what people already want today.
If I’m unsure about an item, I simply look it up.
The worst feeling usually isn’t buying something that doesn’t make much money.
It’s leaving behind something that would have made a lot of money because I never spent thirty seconds researching it.
Final Thoughts
The biggest change in my sourcing wasn’t finding better thrift stores.
It wasn’t spending more money.
It wasn’t learning secret categories.
It was learning to ask a better question.
Not:
“Can I make money on this?”
But:
“Will someone actually buy it?”
The more often you answer that question correctly before spending your money, the easier reselling becomes.
If you’re completely new to sourcing, I also wrote about how my own buying process has changed over the years in How I Source Inventory for eBay (What I Used to Do — and What I Do Now).
Over the years, reselling has also changed the way I look at possessions.
Ironically, even though I own more inventory than ever because of my business, I’ve become more of a minimalist in my personal life.
I’ve realized that most of the things we own are just things.
But if an item brings someone happiness, helps them complete a collection, replaces something they lost, or lets them repair something they already own, then I’m happy to help connect that item with the person looking for it.
New to Reselling? Start Here
If you’re just getting started, these posts will help: