Thrift flipping

Which kind of thrift flipping this page covers

The phrase means two things. Most pages that come up when you search it are about buying secondhand items cheaply and reselling them, usually on eBay or Poshmark.

The other meaning is restyling thrifted clothes with sewing, the subject of the 2024 Quarry Books title DIY Thrift Flip by April Yang. This page is about the first meaning: buying at thrift stores and sales to resell on eBay.

Where thrift flippers source inventory

Thrift stores

Regular thrift stores price items one by one, so the job is spotting the ones priced well under their eBay sold price.

Shelves turn over as donations come in, which is why regular resellers visit the same stores often and learn which days new stock goes out. That's practitioner habit, not a published rule, so ask the staff at your store when they restock.

Goodwill outlets and bins, priced by the pound

Many Goodwill organizations run outlet stores where goods sit in large bins and most items sell by weight. Goodwill of Northern New England says items that don't sell in its regular stores go to its Buy the Pound Outlets. In May 2024 it listed:

• textiles, shoes and most table items at $2 per pound
• books, records, glass, corded electronics, suitcases and totes at $0.50 per pound
• fresh bins swapped in at least every 45 minutes

Cincinnati Goodwill's outlet prices clothing by the pound and books and some media at flat prices. It prices furniture, bikes and larger items one at a time, and asks shoppers to buy items within the hour they're put out.

Prices differ between Goodwill organizations, so check your local outlet's page before you go.

The per-pound math changes what's worth buying. At $2 a pound, a pair of jeans weighing a pound and a half would cost you $3, which leaves room for brands that sell for only $20 or so on eBay. The same jeans priced at $9 on a thrift store rack leave far less.

Estate sales and garage sales

Estate sales empty a whole house, so they turn up older goods that thrift stores rarely see: tools, kitchenware, collectibles, records and vintage clothing in one place.

Garage sales are smaller, and prices are usually open to an offer for several items together. At both, the seller wants things gone, so ask whether prices drop on the last day.

Your own closets

Start at home. In eBay's 2026 Recommerce Report, 85% of eBay sellers surveyed said they source secondhand inventory from their own belongings.

Check an item's value before you buy it

The price an item sold for is the only price that matters, and eBay's sold listings show it.

1. Search for the exact item in the eBay app while you're standing in the aisle.
2. Turn on the Sold items filter. eBay's help page says those results cover listings that ended with a sale in the previous 90 days.
3. Compare only sold listings with the same brand, model or style name, size, material from the tag, and condition.

TipIgnore the asking prices on active listings. Anyone can ask $80 for a jacket that sells for $30.

If you have a Seller Hub account, Product Research under the Research tab shows the last 3 years of eBay sales, the average sold price, the sold price range and average shipping cost. eBay's Seller Center says it is free to all sellers.

A good sold price with very few sales can still be a slow item. Our guide to what sells best on eBay shows how to work out a sell-through rate, which is sold divided by sold plus active listings, so you can see how long an item is likely to sit.

The math of a flip

Profit = sale price − eBay fees − shipping you pay − what you paid

eBay's fees come in three parts:

• The final value fee, 13.6% in most categories, is charged on the total amount of the sale, which includes the item price, any shipping the buyer pays and sales tax.
• The per-order fee is $0.40 for orders over $10, or $0.30 for orders of $10 or less.
• Insertion fees only start after 250 listings a month, at $0.35 each.

Worked example: a jacket bought for $8

The jacket is in a category charged at 13.6%. The shipping label cost and the 7% sales tax are assumptions, since yours depend on the package and the buyer's address.

The same jacket bought for $25 would earn $4.05. Put your own numbers into the eBay fee calculator before you buy.

Two things push fees up. Books, movies and music are charged 15.3%, and eBay adds 6% to final value fees for sellers whose account is rated Below Standard.

Taxes on reselling

The IRS says payment platforms and marketplaces have to report your sales on Form 1099-K when payments exceed $20,000 over more than 200 transactions, and that you must report income whether or not you get the form.

Keep your purchase receipts, since what you paid for inventory is part of working out your profit.

What to look for by category

eBay's annual report names Collectibles, Motors Parts & Accessories, Luxury, Refurbished, Apparel and Sneakers as the categories whose sales grew faster than the rest of eBay in 2025. Most thrift finds fall into one of them.

The fee column is eBay's rate on sales up to $7,500 unless noted, and watches drop to 6.5% on the portion between $1,000 and $7,500.

Anything you can't test, or that has a flaw, can still sell if the listing says so plainly and the photos show it.

Storing and listing thrift finds

Inventory you can't find is inventory you can't ship. Give every shelf or bin a short label, such as A3, and record that label with the item when you list it, so a sale tells you exactly where to go.

Store clothes folded in labeled bins away from sunlight, and bag anything small so parts don't separate.

List soon after you buy, because an item on a shelf earns nothing. Before each listing goes live:

• Add photos. eBay allows up to 24 per listing and recommends images of about 1,600 pixels on a plain background, with any flaws shown.
• Fill in the item specifics, since buyers who filter by size or brand only see listings that have them.
• Write the title with the words buyers search.

The eBay SEO guide covers titles and specifics in detail, and how to list on eBay walks through the listing form step by step.