August officially starts Halloween season here in Florida! Many of the Halloween-themed events that take place at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios begin in mid-August. As a result, Halloween decorations begin to emerge at various retail locations and popular theme parks around this time. Halloween and Christmas are my two favorite holidays (as they are conveniently sandwiched around my birthday) and as a result, I love shopping for themed merchandise, specifically when it comes to holiday apparel for Walt Disney World. Today, I wanted to share with you what I normally source for this time of year and how these items help me to maintain consistent sales across all of my reselling platforms.
Sourcing Halloween Costumes
Some of my best sellers during the months of August, September, and October are Halloween costumes. They sell consistently for me during this time and have close to a 100% sell-through-rate within a 90-day period. (More on calculating sell-through-rate HERE). When sourcing for Halloween costumes, I focus on finding costumes that are either classics or well-known in pop culture. Specifically, I look for costumes from Disney Parks/ Disney Store and Pottery Barn Kids as these two brands perform the best for me. I have sold Halloween costumes from other brands before but they typically don’t perform as well.
Why I Sell Disney Merchandise
Before I discuss why I sell Disney Halloween items, I want to share a little bit about why I source Disney items in general. If you’ve been following along with me for a while now, then you know that I have a lot of luck and experience sourcing Disney items. Disney is an extremely popular brand/company that has a very large and dedicated following. Since I live pretty close to Walt Disney World, it is very easy for me to find Disney merchandise; I can typically source it at my local thrift stores and buy-sell-trade stores in addition to various retail locations such as a Burlington and the Disney Store Outlet.
When I first moved to Florida in September of 2020, I did not sell any Disney items. Eric and I moved from a rural area in Upstate New York with very limited sourcing options to the bustling Tampa Bay area with more sourcing options than I could ever dream of. As a result of this move, I had to adjust both my sourcing and reselling strategy. Now that I had access to a larger variety of inventory, I decided to experiment with different brands and items to see what would consistently maintain a high sell-through-rate for me. One brand of items that I experimented with early on was Disney.
Shortly after moving to Florida, Eric and I bought annual passes to Walt Disney World. When we would walk through the various parks, I would pay attention to what people were wearing and make mental notes. Whenever I would notice a large amount of people wearing the same brand/style/etc, I would quickly make a note of it on my phone as these would be items that I would potentially source. A few Disney items that I would consistently notice being worn by people in parks included: Disney Loungefly backpacks, Disney Spirit Jerseys, various Mickey ears, and Disney-themed costumes (worn by children). As a result, I began to experiment with sourcing and selling these particular items. To my surprise, these items started to not only sell quickly but for higher than average sales prices. It was during this time that I realized that I might have found my key to consistent sales.
[Fun Fact: Did you know that Disney has been my highest grossing brand every month for the past year?]
Selling Disney Themed Halloween Items
Something that I was unaware of until I moved to Florida is the impact of popular holidays on the local culture and economy. There are many popular theme parks within the state of Florida and most of these theme parks have themed events throughout the year that are centered around holidays; The most popular holidays being Halloween and Christmas. As a result, many visitors travel to these theme parks to attend their limited-time events. During the Halloween season, two of the biggest events that people attend are Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights and Walt Disney World’s Mickey’s-Not-So-Scary-Halloween party. Both of these events typically start in mid-August and end on or around Halloween night prompting Halloween season to unofficially begin in Florida.
From my experience attending these events, both adults and children like to wear Halloween costumes or holiday-themed items to these events. Many of the items at these theme parks are overpriced and limited in selection so people will shop for these items online ahead of time in hopes of finding a bargain. That’s where I come in as a reseller. Since I have access to a sizable supply of Disney items where I live and I know that the demand is there in the market, I pick up Halloween (and Christmas) themed Disney items when I can find them while sourcing. I will pick up both children’s and adult items in all sizes but I do tend to stay away from dated merchandise as they don’t sell as well for me. Since many of the Disney Stores and outlet locations closed during the pandemic, customers do have a harder time finding these items locally so I am glad that I can provide customers with these items at a great price.
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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