What are the best products to flip for a profit?
Buying low and selling high is a mega-popular business for side hustlers and big corporations alike. (I mean, this is the basic model that powers Walmart and Amazon!)
With product flipping, you can turn bargain-hunting prowess into profits. In this post, you’ll learn how to turn your love of flea markets, yard sales, and thrift stores into an extra income stream.
Stick around to read:
- Where to find some educational and inspirational free training on flipping products
- The most popular marketplaces to resell your items
- The most profitable types of products to be on the lookout for
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The Best Items to Flip for Profit
Flipping, or reselling, is a popular side hustle since anyone can do it and it doesn’t require a big investment.
However, not all items are easy to resell. You need to concentrate on products that are in demand. Focusing your flipping efforts on more popular items means that you can sell faster and easier.
Your location and personal preferences will also affect your choices of what to flip. In addition, you’ll want to consider logistics, shipping, and storage.
It also helps to know the value of what you’re selling. Stick to product categories that you know and find interesting.
(For extra credit, be sure put your purchases on a business credit card and earn rewards!)
To get started, here’s a list of the best items to flip.
1. Bed-in-a-Box Mattress Returns
Most online mattress companies offer a 100-night satisfaction guarantee. But what happens when customers are unhappy with their purchase?
That’s where Sharetown comes in. Sharetown is a “reverse logistics” company that coordinates mattress pickups and their subsequent donation or resale. As a local Sharetown rep, you’ll be dispatched to:
- pick up (often) like-new mattresses
- clean and sanitize them
- re-list them for sale on places like Facebook Marketplace
You profit on the spread between your resale price and the amount you owe Sharetown for sourcing the product. But what’s cool is you don’t have to pay for the mattress until it sells. This makes it a very low-risk side hustle as long as you have the means to transport and store these bulky items.
Sharetown reps make money by reselling gently-used furniture and bed-in-a-box mattresses. Top reps earn $4000+ per month.
- Low startup costs
- Great earning power
- No hunting for inventory
- Requires a truck or SUV
- Bulky items to store
- Not available in all areas
Staci Aburto, a Sharetown mattress reseller in Phoenix, reported earning $3,000-$4,000 a month doing this part time.
2. Clearance Items
Finding deeply discounted items is the first step toward a profitable flipping business. One place to source that inventory is the “clearance” section of nearby retail stores or websites.
The key is to find goods that are highly desirable and worth enough money to make a profit after expenses.
Be on the lookout for popular brands, seasonal items, and limited editions.
Reselling on Amazon
One way to resell clearance items is to become an Amazon reseller. You can shop for good deals, send them into Amazon’s warehouse, and let them take care of the fulfillment when someone buys. You don’t have to worry about returns, product descriptions, or shipping to customers.
Check out my podcast interview with Jessica Larrew to learn more about reselling on Amazon. When we spoke, she and her husband had sold over $1 million worth of products on Amazon!
(I did this myself for a while and earned over $650 very part-time.)
Online Arbitrage
One thing I didn’t like about my clearance arbitrage side hustle was the actual shopping trips. There where times where I’d spend 45 minutes in a store and leave empty-handed!
The way around that is sourcing your inventory online, with online arbitrage. The idea here is to find wide enough pricing gaps between products on Amazon and the same products sold on other websites.
Thankfully there are software tools to help with this like Tactical Arbitrage and OAXRAY.
3. Furniture
Flipping furniture is a super popular side hustle. There are always people moving as well as people wanting to downsize or redesign their space. In these cases, people are typically quick to sell, which means the possibility of buying low.
Whether it’s wood, upholstered, or outdoor furniture, you can usually find someone selling it and someone looking to buy it.
And, good quality used wood furniture has a long life span with lots of potential. Many times people don’t want to bother putting in the elbow grease it takes to make old furniture new again. With some work, you can increase your flipped furniture’s value to turn a profit.
4. Sports Memorabilia
There will always be sports fans! Be on the lookout for memorabilia like:
-
cards
-
autographed items
-
championship rings
-
ticket stubs
-
bobbleheads
-
vintage hats
-
shirts
-
jerseys
These items are great to flip on eBay because people buy them as gifts or to add to their own collection.
5. Sports and Exercise Equipment
Sports equipment is another category to be on the lookout for.
Bulky items like home gyms, treadmills, and exercise bikes can actually resell for pretty good prices. And because they take up so much space, sellers are often happy just to get rid of them.
Well-maintained bikes, skis, hockey equipment, and golf clubs are all worth a look. Buyers may be starting a new hobby or purchasing for their kids.
6. Musical Instruments
Musical instruments in good working condition are another item to flip. Both kids and adults frequently outgrow or abandon their hobby.
Once they’ve moved on, you can find musical instruments at a low price to resell for a decent profit. In fact, one Side Hustle Nation reader built an entire eBay business flipping guitars.
7. Power Tools
There’s both demand and availability when it comes to flipping power tools.
New power tools are expensive, so secondhand tools are attractive to people who want to save money.
Look for name brand tools, as buyers will often search by brand name. People sell their power tools when they’re done with a project, moving, or buying a newer model.
8. Baby and Kid Gear
No question—kids’ stuff is expensive. Plus, kids grow fast, which means they outgrow their gear quickly too.
That’s why budget-conscious parents are often on the lookout for gently-used baby and kid gear, such as:
- clothing
- toys
- strollers
- high chairs
- swings
- diaper bags
- Squishmallows
Specialty websites like Kidizen cater to parents looking for designer items for the kiddos.
Pro Tip: Find grandparents selling their young grandchildren’s stuff. These things were probably used infrequently at grandma’s house and are likely to be in great condition.
9. Appliances
Appliances are big, bulky, and heavy, which makes them hard to get rid of. That presents a potential opportunity for you to swoop in and take that problem off their hands. Of course, that’s as long as you have a truck or other vehicle to pick them up and move them.
And since new appliances are expensive, there’s also a healthy market for used ones. So, after you work out the logistics of the transactions, there’s money to be made in flipping appliances.
Ryan Finlay made a full-time income selling used appliances on Craigslist. His advice for people getting started was to try and find a fixed dollar amount (like $50 or $100) of profit each day.
Suggested Playlist: Flipping Profits
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10. Limited Edition Sneakers
If you’re interested in shoe trends and fashion news, then flipping sneakers may be up your alley.
Manufacturers intentionally don’t produce enough sneakers to meet the demand, creating scarcity. For premium brands like Air Jordans, the high demand and short supply fuels the resale market.
Although you need some capital to get started, sneakers can be some of the best items to flip. In fact, Side Hustle Nation reader JV Ortiz reported earning $10k a month flipping sneakers.
Reselling sneakers allows you to piggyback on the success of a brand and tap into a pre-existing fan base. As such, you don’t have to build your own brand or following.
11. Name Brand Shoes
You don’t have to be a sneakerhead to profit from reselling shoes. In fact, there’s a great market for gently-used name-brand shoes.
I know I’ve shopped eBay for particular models I loved that changed or went out of stock.
Shoes also have the advantages of being:
- small and light to ship
- easy to clean
- readily available at deep discounts at yard sales and thrift shops
A typical purchase price for a pair might be anywhere from $5-15, but can sell for as much as $50-300 depending on the brand and condition.
For example, Beau Hunter shared how you can easily make $250-$1,000 a month flipping shoes. He said large size men’s shoes sell particularly well!
12. Books
Despite the rumor that people don’t read books anymore, there’s still a market for used books. You can flip books at local used book stores and online at Amazon (for a fee).
Flipping books requires sourcing books, so you’re limited by your time and book inventory. But don’t let that discourage you.
On The Side Hustle Show, Charlie William reported earning up to $4000 a month flipping books!