Selling on eBay to work from home or build-up a steady side hustle for a second income is not an easy task. But, with the right knowledge and determination, it’s entirely possible.
For me, eBay has always been a side hustle because I enjoy collecting vintage items like video games, movies, and music. I personally have over 590 positive feedback on my eBay profile as I sit here and write this article.
Every year at the end of the summer I’ll decide which collectible items I don’t want anymore. Then, I list them for sale on my eBay account for a substantial profit during the peak of the holiday online shopping season, which starts in October and ends just before Christmas.
An Advantage For Me: It’s easy for me to source collectibles because where I live I’m able to walk to a local flea market. In addition I also buy random music and movie collections from various collectors in the area looking to downsize.
Below, I’m going to share with you some of the best YouTube channels that I have subscribed to for learning about various ways to negotiate, source, and flip products on eBay.
My Recommended YouTube Channels For Learning How To Resell on eBay
Craigslist Hunter
I’ve been following Pete since he had aright around 80k followers or so. He’s been doing the reselling game for a long time now. He specializes in just about everything vintage. Except, he does not really enjoy selling clothes very much. But, when it comes to vintage signs, electronics, Vinyl Records, toys, video games, and other rare collectibles, he’s usually pretty excited in his videos.
As you watch Craigslist Hunter’s videos he will randomly interject useful eBay tips for sourcing products, determining the value of something, and will even show you how to properly ship a high-end record player!
Recently, Craigslist Hunter has started another YouTube Channel called Daily Mega Flips. On this channel, he’ll share his most valuable and interesting flips in easy-to-watch short video clips. I’ve been watching them for quite some time and am hooked.
I visited Crystal Lake, Illinois in late 2019 to check out his shop in person, it’s called The Trading Post. Sadly, I missed Pete as he was on vacation. However, his staff was very helpful in helping me to make a purchase. Especially Adrian and Vicki, who you will also see in the videos from time to time. Their cat Honey and parrot Ruby are also very cute mascots for the shop.
Shed Flips
I originally started watching the Garage Flips YouTube channel and that slowly evolved into a new channel called Shed Flips. Both channels are still active and the Shed Flips channel has daily videos whereas the Garage Flips channel just shows occasional deal makings at local garage sales.
The eBay power couple Lonnie and Candice (who recently joined Lonnie full-time) openly share prices on what things recently sold for, how to properly ship things, and even how to white label your own merchandise such as mugs, stickers, and a box cutter. Sadly, they’ve always been sold out of the box cutters whenever I try to buy one.
The assortment of merchandise they sell can be anything from a baseball mitt to a high-end collectible toy. Lately, they’ve been really into selling sports cards.
Ralli Roots
Ryan Roots and Allie Roots are the creators and both together they call themselves “Rallie Roots”.
Some of my all-time favorite videos on the Ralli Roots YouTube Channel is watching them drive to various yard and garage sales in their Tesla. They do it for fun on Sunday mornings and will wheel and deal just about anything they can find a deal on.
They share recently sold items from their eBay store with you as well and will talk about selling on Mercari and Amazon. They offer tips for shipping, building a sourcing strategy, and keeping things organized.
Ryan and Allie also really enjoy going to thrift stores like Goodwill to handpick vintage T-Shirts and shoes that have huge potential to flip for a profit. They’ve also discussed how they do bulk buys by sourcing online auctions.
Thrift School
Jesse is the host of the Thrift School YouTube channel. He’s an eBay, Amazon FBA, and local Facebook Marketplace reseller. All though, he mainly talks about his sales on Amazon FBA and eBay the most.
Since I’m a collector of movies and music I particularly like his videos when he talks about buying 10,000 DVD’s or a huge score on some music CDs.
If you are looking for a first person video view of shopping in thrift stores like Goodwill, he’ll break down his sourcing process step by step. Then, tell you why he’d rather sell something on Amazon vs. eBay.
Recently, some videos covered a large score on video games and a cart full of board games.
Thrift Mine
I recently started watching Pam and Ryan who run the Thrift Mine YouTube channel. They run a part-time eBay operation and show videos of their garage sale adventures every Saturday and Sunday. Pam and Ryan also buy storage units from time to time.
They go over recent sold listings on eBay and showcase a lot of the items they buy to resell. If you are a couple whose thinking of doing eBay together as a side hustle you will get a lot of entertainment and knowledge following Thrift Mine.
The biggest thing I like about this particular channel is just how real they are at discussing there overall success on eBay, YouTube, and the merchandise they buy to resell.
Cincinnati Picker
John the Cincinnati Picker on YouTube shows his treasure finding adventures in the city of Cincinnati where he lives. He visits garage sales, yard sales, and various estate sales.
What I really like most about John’s videos is that he shows you exactly how to make a pile of goods at a sale and then negotiate a deal.
He also covers what’s selling in his eBay store and how to organize a store you would run from a storage unit or small warehouse space.
I discovered Cincinnati Picker via watching Lonnie over at Shed Flips.
Resale Rabbit
Resale Rabbit is hopping from thrift store to thrift store and also buys out entire stores that are going out of business. The Resale Rabbit YouTube channel shows you the ins and outs of what it’s like running an eBay business. He does this alongside doing weekend ware house sales.
I’m always amazed at how many people show up to his big warehouse sales and he films a good portion of it so you can see just how crazy it is. In a single day he’ll easily get thousands of dollars in sales.
If you’re looking to run your reselling business out of a big warehouse space, Resale Rabbit will show you some insight to how it’s done.
Part Time Pickers
Part Time Picker shares tips for sourcing products at Garage Sales, Estate Sales, and The Flea Market. He’s based out of the SF Bay Area, which is where I’m from. So for me, it’s especially interesting to see him go picking at the various flea markets that are close to me.
In the SF Bay Area, it seems like the flea markets are way better places to source items at then a garage sale.
At the end of every video, Part Time Picker will always show what the sold price is for each item that he picks up. As of this writing, the YouTube Channel has over 125k subscribers, so he’s doing something right!
And Lastly, Reserved Investments
I saved the Reserved Investments YouTube channel for last because it does not directly provide eBay reselling tips. It’s big benefit to an eBay reseller is for someone who deals with a lot of collectibles.
Shawn, who produces the content is an expert in the antiques and collectibles market. He breaks down different types of items all the way from Magic the Gathering Cards to Vintage Video Game collecting.
He also covers more sophisticated markets such as paintings, coin collecting, and niche collector categories that only the rich invest in.
In addition to his YouTube channel he writes articles for the online publication Antiques and Auction News – to find the articles you’ll need to search for “Shawn” in the search box on the site.
The biggest eBay reselling lesson I’ve learned from Shawn is this: Having a good knowledge of the collectibles market will let you know if a particular category is overpriced or in a bubble. This will help you decide if you should price something to move vs. keeping it around for a top dollar price.
Final Thoughts
In my opinion the best way to get good at eBay reselling and flipping items for a profit is to just get started. I know this sounds over simplistic, but it’s true. You can start it just as a hobby like I’m doing or really deep dive into it if you have the time to feel out your potential with it for an actual business you can run from home.
Along the way, watch YouTube videos from these various creators to get examples of what kinds of products are actually selling for people at a profit. Also, as you watch, listen for the random tidbits of advice along the way for negotiation, keeping an inventory, and handling various conflicts that may arise with buyers.
The thing is: DON’T get caught up just watching videos or reading books and never getting started.
Now if you are seriously thinking about reselling on eBay, go start on your own by seeking out opportunities like garage sales, estate sales, thrift stores, and looking up items around your house to see what the potential value of something is.
As you progress and learn you can focus in on the types of items you’ll have the best time making money with reselling on eBay.