Over the past few years, reselling has rose in popularity largely due to social media. I remember when I started dabbling into reselling 9+ years ago and how very different the reselling scene was. Back then, your options were to either sell on eBay or to try out a new reselling app called Poshmark. There weren’t extensive resources out there teaching you how to resell so you had no choice but to figure things out on your own. Although I am very happy that has all changed, it has brought about a lot of misconceptions about reselling. Today, I wanted to share my thoughts on the 3 most common misconceptions that I hear about reselling.
Reselling Misconception #1: Reselling is Easy….Anyone Can Be a Reseller
When it comes to this reselling misconception, I completely understand why someone might think this. On paper, reselling sounds really easy; All you have to do is find some items to sell, list them online, and then sell them for a profit. How hard could that be, right??! Well, not quite. There is a lot more to reselling than just buying items and flipping them online. Something that isn’t talked about enough on social platforms is all of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into reselling. Sure, it is fun to showcase the highlights but the reality is that the highlights are only a small percentage of the job.
The reality of it is that reselling is a lot more time consuming than most people realize. As a full-time reseller, I could easily spend 12 hours working on reselling tasks on any given day; It is one of those jobs where there is always something to do. As a former part-time reseller, there is also the struggle of trying to juggle a full-time job while also reselling on the side. Additionally, there are other aspects of the job that people just aren’t aware of. Other daily tasks for a reseller including: photographing and editing photos, researching brands and high demand items, listing inventory across multiple platforms, and various business bookkeeping tasks. So yes, although anyone could be a reseller, not everyone will find enjoyment in it and may find that it is not a good fit for them which is perfectly fine.
Reselling Misconception #2: I Can Get Rich Quick as a Reseller
Unless you have prior business experience or are just really really lucky, as a brand new reseller, you will more than likely not get rich quick. Let me explain why… In the past 9+ years, I have learned that in order to be a successful reseller, one needs to be highly knowledgable in two things: (1) market demand and (2) business practices. Market demand refers to having knowledge in what items are desirable in the reselling market at any given time and business practices refer to having knowledge in various business applications such as bookkeeping, constructing business models, and managing multiple reselling platforms.
Without knowledge in both of these areas, reselling can be very challenging, especially in the beginning stages. It is going to take time to learn your audience, learn what items are in high-demand in the reselling market and successfully sell well for you, and also to profit enough funds to reinvest back into inventory. As much as I would love reselling to be a get rich quick operation, that just realistically isn’t the case. BUT I can say that if you persevere and keep manageable expectations along the way, it can definitely be a rewarding experience.
Reselling Misconception #3: I Can Only Succeed If I Sell What Other Resellers Sell on YouTube and Social Media
Of all of the misconceptions that I hear about reselling, this one has to be the most frustrating for me to hear. One of the most common concerns that I hear from new resellers is that they live in an area where they don’t have access to the same brands that they see other resellers showing on social media and YouTube. Because of that, they are convinced that they will not be able to succeed as a reseller. That truly breaks my heart!
Prior to living in Tampa, Florida, I lived in a rural area in New York where there were maybe 5 local stores that I could go to for inventory. If I wanted to have more access to goods, I would have to travel to Syracuse which was over an hour away. Instead of comparing myself to other resellers on social media, I took a different approach to reselling. Whenever I would go thrifting, I would make a list of common brands that I would find at my local thrift stores (most were mall brands). I would then go home and run comps on items from those brands on Poshmark, specifically focusing on items that sold for $25-$50 and $50-$100. After doing this, I would go into my local thrift stores knowing exactly what to look for based on comps using items that I had access to. Did I look for the popular social media reselling brands too? Absolutely, but they were always a nice to find and not a need to find for me.
Another way to combat limited access to goods is to source for items online. Some places to check out are various reselling platforms, retail sales and clearance merchandise, buy-sell-trade online stores, and boxes and pallets. Regardless of where you live and what items you have access to, please know that you can succeed as a reseller and don’t let social media discourage you from it. Your journey may look a little bit different but it doesn’t make you any less successful!
I hope that you find this post helpful! If you have any questions or just want to chat, please reach out!
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