Reselling as a Full Time Job

At its core, reselling is about turning good profits on good information. That’s something successful entrepreneurs and traders do everyday, and once you have your systems in place, capitalizing takes almost no time at all.

Adding reselling to your daily routine is something almost anyone can do with the right systems in place. If you create an efficient system, capitalizing on actionable information provided will be quick and effortless; you’d be surprised how much can be accomplished from your phone.

But sourcing that info is tricky. “Free alpha” is a term you might be familiar with already, and it essentially means giving away actionable information for nothing in return. We regularly provide our readers with profitable tips, but the juiciest info comes from an RC Elite membership.

We’re going to give you some insight on reselling as a “9-5” and how it can fit in your schedule, how to resell efficiently, and give you some general guidelines on how to make money online for beginners.

Staying informed while also getting real time alerts on the most hyped products and events will allow you to earn semi-passive income, making reselling the perfect job for a high school student or even a side hustle for college students with a full time job. If you want to earn more than a passive income, you’ll have to master the basics and find your niche(s) over time.

The first thing you want to do is set up a fresh email that you will use to make accounts on the online marketplaces you will sell on. These accounts only need to be set up once, and then you just list, manage, and ship as you buy products.

First, you’ll want to set up new accounts to keep your reselling business separate from your personal life. Retailers track your account information, and frequently ban or blacklist accounts that they suspect are reselling.

Catchall emails are an important first step for any reseller. These are extremely useful for circumventing retailer quantity limits, privacy, and staying organized.

Essentially, a catchall is an email domains that will receive all email sent to a custom domain like @whateveryouwant.com, even if the name on the email address is incorrect.

For example, you create a catchall domain for @mybusinessnyc.com on any hosting site, like GoDaddy.com. You’ll have to pay a few dollars a month to host your @mybusinessnyc.com domain on GoDaddy, but now all emails sent to [email protected] will go to the same mailbox as [email protected], or [email protected], or [email protected] without those having to be individually created emails.

Check out this list of some popular catchall domain hosts, and try to find the right plan for your goals.

Some providers will offer different features and flexibilities based on your plan, and most are quite cheap. If you’re just getting started, simply creating a new email account through a mainstream service like Gmail or Outlook can work in the short run.

What is the best online marketplace to sell on? It’s a matter of opinion, but we recommend eBay. It’s one of the most used online marketplaces tallying over 2 billion transactions per day; that’s billion, with a B, per day. We’ve written a guide for reselling on eBay here.

Facebook Marketplace is also a great option for generating local sales, and there’s no seller fees for local pickup, but please go the extra mile to be safe when meeting someone in person with cash or a high value product.

Some products do perform better on specific marketplaces, but we recommend beginners become familiar with selling on eBay first. If you’re interested in flipping sneakers and apparel, Alias (the seller app for listing on Flight Club/Goat) and StockX are great options that will save you the hassle of taking pictures and listing products yourself. Electronics and collectibles can also be sold on StockX, but eBay is the all in one platform that will get you going with whatever product you prefer.

As you gain experience as a reseller, you’ll recognize the nuances involved with flipping certain products and using certain platforms. Flipping pallets with Amazon FBA will have different processes than selling sneakers on StockX.

Breaking into reselling with zero experience is difficult. We host our blog as a free resource for resellers to track past flips and stay updated on upcoming opportunities, but the most profitable items are reserved for RC Elite members. Hey, we’re running a business too!

You might have heard the term “cook group” before. These groups are a paid platform where members subscribe to receive advanced notice of flips and advice for the best ways to run their reselling business.

RC Elite moderators and staff will usually deliver information well before it is time to act on it, giving you plenty of time to do things like make accounts, secure funds, and be ready when the drops go live.

Sometimes it’ll be as simple as setting aside 20 minutes at night to enter some raffles. Other times it’ll be as precise as being online for the 1-3 minutes a release is actually going on before the item sells out. Either way, keeping your notifications on and taking the minutes a day to stay aware has a positive ROI.

So, you want to start reselling, but you’re light on funds. Maybe you’re a broke college student, or you’re still in high school and sick of flipping burgers. You can start reselling, today, with very little upfront capital.

First, set a budget for yourself. Do not spend more than you can afford at any one moment, and try to stay flexible for the next big flip. $500 is more than enough for you to start flipping products, but we strongly recommend opening up a new credit card with a 0% APR welcome offer for at least 12 months.

0% APR for 12 months basically means that you can max out your credit card and only pay the minimum payments (usually around 1% of the balance) for 12 months without having to pay any interest.

Resellers are frequently making large purchases on a moment’s notice. Most of the items we publish flip very fast, and typically offer free refunds so the risk is minimal, but it can be inconvenient to try and buy them with the same cash you’re using for rent.

Capital One Bank and Discover are known to have some of the friendliest welcome offers with reasonable credit limits for new customers. If you have exceptional credit history, think about opening an American Express account, but they may give you a lower limit than Capital One.

If you have $5000 in credit with 0% APR for 12 months, you can spend up to $5000 that doesn’t need to be paid for a whole year. During that time you can easily sell products at your own pace while taking profits and paying down your balance, all while maintaining flexibility for future purchases. This is basically a free loan that will allow you to scale your business and build a bankroll with no cash to start.

However, if you fail to pay back your balance within that promotional period, you will be responsible for all the interest you have accrued during that time. We cannot stress this enough… DO NOT MAKE THIS IRRESPONSIBLE MISTAKE. To be blunt, if you can’t turn free money into profit in 12 months you shouldn’t be reselling.

Now that you’ve made and fully verified your seller accounts, registered some new email addresses, and received your shiny new credit card with “free” money for 12 months, you’re ready to start your reselling journey. If you haven’t yet, it’s time to figure out what to buy.

The newer you are to reselling, the more flexible you should be with your products while you figure out where and what you’re most comfortable working with, but at the same time be very selective of your purchases.

There will be clearly labeled opportunities that you should not miss, as well as opportunities that are high risk high reward. It will be up to you to decide where you’d like to dedicate your resources. Focusing on just the most obvious opportunities can easily net an ambitious scalper 5 figures a year with minimal risk or day to day management.

So what makes an item ideal for a reseller? Two things: quick profits, and generous returns. Make sure people actually want to buy the items you’re selling, and check the retailer’s refund policy. Thirty day returns is a common policy, and dramatically reduces your risk as a reseller.

Limited edition and topical items are your wheelhouse. These items will have high volume sales, show general public demand vs being desirable by a particular niche. Also you’ll want to make sure there’s a market for this item wherever you’re selling. Start by checking “sold” listings on eBay for similar items, and price yours accordingly.

Check out some of these flips from earlier this year. None of these required any special hacks or tricks to acquire, it was just about knowing where and when is the right place and time.

Remember the new Alien: Romulus movie that came out earlier this year? Anyone that knew was able to go to the movies and get this limited edition popcorn bucket for $40, it resold on eBay for up to $200

Are you a coin collector by any chance? The US Mint produced these “Flowing Hair” Silver medals for $100, and resellers were flipping them for record profits within days.

It took over 24 hours for them to sell out, and anyone that knew was able to secure as many coins as they wanted. 75,000 total were minted.

If you’re a vinyl collector, you’ve got an advantage over other resellers. Vinyl has blown up with collectors recently, and resellers have been on the frontlines.

In the past few months we’ve tracked profitable flips from artists like Chappell Roan, Taylor Swift, OutKast, and Sabrina Carpenter. With the right info, doubling or tripling your money can be quite easy.

Watches are expensive right? That’s mostly true, but there are actually quite a few affordable watches that have flipped for a profit.

Swatch has been on a tear through 2023 and 2024; releasing collections like their MoonSwatch collaboration with OMEGA and limited edition pieces that went on to flip for hundreds of dollars over MSRP.

So what’s our point? There’s way more stuff to resell than shoes and trading cards. Smart resellers stay ahead of the pack and chase the flips everyone else missed.

There’s no secret websites to make money, no hacks to make money online for beginners. It’s as simple as getting the tip, buying the asset, and listing the asset. The product type will become less relevant as you become more familiar with different types.

Ideally, no. Why spend eight hours a day working when you could make the same profit in twenty minutes? Most resellers treat their businesses as a side hustle. They still work a traditional job, and supplement that income with an extra one, two, five, or ten thousand dollars a month from flipping.

Here’s our advice: start slow. Don’t quit your job until you’ve got the basics down, and make sure that you have money and credit set aside for reselling.

You can start today. Subscribing to our newsletter is the best way to stay updated on profitable flips, but the real ticket to success is joining RC Elite. You’ll have 24/7 access to a network of motivated resellers and daily notifications on the best items to resell.

We’ve said pretty much all there is to say about reselling (at least for beginners). If you’re still not interested, we’ll leave you with “your loss, more for us.” But we do hope that you recognize the opportunity, and know that we’re only here to help you reach your goals while buying the coolest, most in demand products available.

When you break it down, all you really need to ask yourself is “Do you like money and cool stuff?” If the answer is yes, sign up for our newsletter so you can start your journey next time RC opens up its gates. We’ll see you on the other side.