side hustle idea:
You can buy pallets of customer returns from Amazon and other major retailers at a massive discount and then flip the individual items inside for profit.
Basically how it works is when people return stuff to Amazon, those items get bundled into pallets and sold in bulk through liquidation sites. You can pick up a pallet for around $200 and it’ll contain maybe $1,000+ worth of retail products…. electronics, kitchen gadgets, home goods, toys, etc.
Obviously not everything will be in perfect condition but a lot of it is either brand new or barely used. From what I’ve read most people find that the majority of items in a pallet are perfectly sellable.
You go through everything, test what needs testing, and then list the good stuff on ebay, facebook marketplace, or even back on Amazon. Some people do this full time but it works just as well as a weekend side hustle where you buy a pallet every few weeks and slowly flip everything.
The main thing to watch out for is buying from reputable liquidation sites.. there are scammy ones out there that will send you literal garbage so do your research before you buy your first palet.
Most people know about regular Goodwill stores but don’t know that Goodwill also has outlet locations where they send all the stuff that didn’t sell at the regular stores.. and instead of pricing each item individually they literally just dump everything into giant bins and sell it by the pound.
The going rate is usually around $1.50 per pound depending on the location. So a pair of jeans that weighs maybe a pound costs you $1.50….. and if they happen to be a decent brand you can flip them for $30+ on eBay or Poshmark.
From what I’ve seen the best finds are brand name clothing, vintage items, electronics that still work, books, and small home goods. People regularly pull designer brands, vintage band tees, and sometimes even sealed products out of the bins.
It’s kinda like a more intense version of regular thrift store flipping because everything is just thrown together in bins and you have to dig through it. Some locations restock the bins throughout the day.. so the inventory is constantly rotating and there’s always new stuff to look through.
The only thing you need to get started is literally just showing up with cash and maybe some gloves because you are digging through bins of random stuff. It’s not glamorous but the margins on the stuff you find are genuinely wild when you’re paying by the pound.