Where to Find Things to Sell ~eBay

Thrift stores

Go early and often. There is a thrift store near my home, and I try to make a point to stop in there every week to two weeks. I don’t always come across gems, but every once in a while a real doozy hits my eye. One example: a brand-new navy blue straw ladies’ hat with a sash, from Nordstrom’s, with tags still attached!

I also find many name-brand items of clothing, including the Gap, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Abercrombie & Fitch, and many more. So check your local yellow pages for thrift stores near you and get shopping!

Estate sales

I also live close to an old, established neighborhood where there are frequent estate sales. Sometimes the sales are in homes that people have been living in for 50 or more years.

At one such sales I acquired several fabulous vintage items, such as a chiffon dress and a beaded handbag, for a song, and I resold them on eBay for a profit.

Check your local paper’s classified ads for the estates sales near you. Many estate sales will run throughout the weekend, starting on a Friday. Not as many people show up on Friday, as you might guess (you know, the poor souls with “real jobs”!). So, if you can at all get to the sale on Friday, do it. And go as early as you can, preferably when the sale begins, or a few minutes before.

I have been to many sales where people were lined up to get in before the sale even started! The estate sale companies usually have some kind of number system where you take a number from a basket in front of the house. Or, if they have a lot of people show up, they may allow only a certain number of people in the house at a given time, so if you get there after the sale has started, you’ll need to take a number after the sale starts to wait your turn.

Yard Sales

I have found that yard sales offer the lowest prices on things, but estate sales, as you might expect, have much higher quality merchandise. But don’t rule out yard sales because of that…there are many hidden gems out there waiting.

If you enjoy going to yard sales and estate sales in your area, again, check your weekend newspaper for listings, go as early as you can to get the best items, and enjoy!

Now, you may be thinking, is there something wrong with this? With buying stuff from a yard or estate sale at a cheap price and turning around and reselling it on eBay or another auction site? Absolutely not. People want things from estates all over the country; especially things that are unique -- and they won’t be able to attend that same estate sale in your neighborhood! It’s surely cheaper than them buying a plane ticket and traveling to the auction!

(I made one of my biggest resale profits from an item I found at a yard sale. I got there shortly after 9 a.m., spotted a slightly beat-up old piece of vintage Vuitton luggage, snapped it up for $5, and turned it around within 3 days on eBay for $75. Not bad for about 15 minutes work. Note to scavengers: anything Luis Vuitton sells and resells well!).