Weekly side hustle idea:
So I came across this side hustle and it’s genuinely one of those things where the more you learn about it the more it makes sense. The concept is simple… you go to stores like Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, etc. and look for items on deep clearance. Then you resell those items on Amazon or eBay for full price or close to it.
A lot of clearance items at these stores are marked down to $2 to $5 but they still sell for $15 to $25 on Amazon because a lot of people don’t live near those stores or didn’t catch the sale. The Amazon app has a built in scanner where you can scan the barcode of any item and see exactly what it’s selling for on Amazon, so you know before you even buy it whether it’s worth flipping.
Your startup cost is basically whatever you spend on your first batch of clearance items. You can start with $20 and test the waters. If you want to sell on Amazon FBA, they handle the shipping and storage for you but they do take fees… so you need to make sure your margins are good.
The categories that do best are toys, health and beauty, kitchen gadgets, and seasonal items. From what I’ve read, some people dedicate a couple hours on the weekends to scanning clearance aisles and pull in an extra $500 a month doing this once they get the hang of it.
The learning curve is mostly just figuring out which items have enough margin to be worth buying after you acount for fees and shipping.
t profit online. People are selling stuff for pennies because they just want it gone… and a lot of times they have no idea what things are actually worth.
The best items to look for are vintage kitchen items, old tools, antique glassware, vinyl records, vintage clothing, old cameras, and anything brand name. From what I’ve seen, you can routinely buy items for $1 to $5 at estate sales and resell them for $30 to $50+ on eBay.
Your startup cost is whatever you spend on your first few items which could literally be $20. You take photos, list them on eBay or Facebook marketplace, and ship them out when they sell.
The trick is to go early… estate sales often have an early bird window and the best stuff goes first. Also, on the last day of a sale they usually mark everything down to half price or less, so you can come back and scoop up anything that’s left for dirt cheap.
Some people make this their main source of income once they figure out what sells well. Building an eye for valuable items takes a bit of time but there are apps that let you scan barcodes and check pices instantly.