Sourcing 101: The 5 Best Places To Source Inventory For Flippers
Written by Frey Chu
Last updated on December 17, 2022
Over the past two years, I’ve explored every possible method of sourcing items.
Estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores, wholesale outlet stores, flea markets, Facebook Marketplace – you name it. I’ve also purchased entire pallets off of FaceBook Marketplace to test if it’s worth the money, as well as bought items in online auctions.
From niche poster art that I purchased for $80 and flipped for $600, to VHS/DVD players, Sony handy camcorders, hair-dryers, sports jerseys, video games and much more, I’ve bought and flipped a lot of items.
In this blog, I’m covering the best places to source items for flippers. Factors that I consider when I rank the best to the worst places to source inventory for your online re-selling store include:
- Variety of items to purchase
- Potential to buy a larger quantity or bulk amount of items
- Competition
- Ability to negotiate pricing
- Reliability of the location/event to occur consistently
Table Of Contents
5. Thrift Stores
Before you get upset that I placed thrift stores dead last for the “worst” place to source items to re-sell, let me say this: I’ve resold some extremely profitable items from thrift stores. I’m talking about finding brand new $500 designer dress shoes in brand new condition, for $12 at a Goodwill thrift store (and the list goes on).
The Pros
Thrift stores, like Goodwill, are great because you will always be able to shop for newly donated items due to the sheet volume of donations they receive. Smaller, independent thrift stores are also potentially profitable sourcing spots because prices are usually cheap, returns are accepted and you never know what you’ll find.
With many thrift stores accepting returns and exchanges, it’s also less risk to to source at a thrift store.
- Open every day
- Large variety of items to shop for
- Returns are accepted
- Relatively cheap prices
The Cons
Every reseller goes to thrift stores to source. It’s the top of mind option for people who are starting out in the flipping game and where seasoned re-sellers go when they need a simple flip. But unless you have expert-level knowledge in specific items, such as glass decor, high-end pots and pans, or niche clothing brands, it’s rare to find a very profitable flip. You may find plenty of items that cost $5-$10 that you can re-sell for $25-$40, but anything more than that is rare.
Additionally, thrift stores, like Goodwill, have jacked up their prices like crazy over the years. There are whole internet communities that make fun of the way some Goodwill thrift stores price items absurdly high, despite the items being donated to their thrift stores for free.
Lastly, thrift stores typically aren’t negotiable with their pricing too. This is important, as shipping labels, shopping materials and re-seller fees can add up quick.
- Extremely competitive landscape full of re-sellers
- Rare opportunities to score big profits
- Often includes overpriced items
- Inability to negotiate the prices
4. Estate Sales
If you’ve never been to an estate sale, it’s basically an experience where you walk inside someone’s home and everything in the house is for sale. I’m talking…everything. The dusty broom in the corner of the garage and the knife set that sits in the kitchen.
These sales are typically organized professionally by a third party company that runs the sale for you, in exchange for a portion of the sales as payment. For this reason, it’s not a complete free for all (that is, until you get inside the house).
The Pros
Estate sales are one of my favorite ways to source. It’s usually well organized, easy to research before visiting to see if it’s worth your precious time, and often full of surprisingly high-profit items. Also, many are negotiable if you buy a lot of items at once.
For example, it’s at estate sales that I learned that skin care items and perfumes can be a mini gold mine. While everyone would go for the electronics, Pokemon cards, and vintage clothes, I would go straight to the bathroom in the master bedroom to scour for high-end brands of lotions, skin care items, perfumes and more. It would be common for me to pay $3-$5 for skin care items that would re-sell for $50-$150.
Research is also a enormous factor. The special thing about estate sales is that they often promote on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and estatesales.net with dozens of photos showing the items that are for sale. This helps you, as the reseller, research the photos to see if the items at the sale are high-value items or not. As far as saving time, this is a big differentiator that makes estate sales an incredible place to source items. While it’s not guaranteed to be priced low, it gives you the opportunity to create a game plan the day before.
Lastly, one persons trash is truly another person’s treasure. The number of times I’ve bought an item that no one else thought was flip-worthy or valuable is laughable. Sweater that are niche street brands that are $250, but I bought for $10, and vintage art posters that I bought for $80, that I sold for $600 (after piecing them out).
- Large variety of items to purchase
- Allows people with different niches to find valuable items
- The ability to research what items are for sale and save time through photos
- Offers the chance to find extremely profitable items
The Cons
Sadly, not all estate sales are the equal. In the dozens of estate sales I’ve visited, there are some that are just a total waste of time for someone looking to re-sell items for a profit.
In many cases, the people who manage the estate sale will price the items at or just below the eBay sold listing prices. Basically, you’re better off buying the same item on eBay. While it’s not all estate sales, this is pretty common to see because the more money they can generate for the homeowners, the more money they make as the estate sale service.
Competition can also be quite fierce here. Since it’s easy to research and check for valuable items, these sales attract seasoned re-sellers who know what they’re doing.
Lastly, items are typically final sale and cannot be refunded.
- May sometimes be overpriced
- Medium to high competition, especially if it’s in a nicer part of town
- All items are final sale
3. Goodwill Outlet (Wholesale Outlets)
If you’ve never heard of a Goodwill outlet, it’s not the same as a Goodwill thrift store. The experience of shopping at a Goodwill Outlet, or Goodwill Bins, is completely different and offers a much more “Black Friday” type of experience, but on a daily basis.
You have probably visited a regular Goodwill thrift store that is more or less organized by product type, but a Goodwill Outlet is a warehouse full of large blue bins, full of an assortment of items.
The Pros
Why do people love these Goodwill bins? Because it’s usually priced by the pound.
This means that regardless if you find a pair of crocs or a pair of brand new Gucci shoes, it will probably cost a few bucks…literally. And believe me when I say, people find all sorts of high-end, designer brand products that can re-sell for hundreds of dollars.
One of the thrills of the Goodwill Outlets, besides the opportunity to find treasure, is the sheer volume of items that are rolled out on a daily basis.
With most Goodwill Outlets being open every day, it also leaves a consistent opportunity for flippers to source many items to boost their inventory without having to drive around to different thrift stores.
- Pricing is by the pound (at very cheap prices) regardless of the brand names of the item
- Tons of new merchandise each day
- Allows you the opportunity to find very valuable items
- Open every single day (most locations)
- Allows you to source many items under one location
The Cons
When it’s too good to be true, it usually is. While the deals at Goodwill Outlets are amazing, you may find that it attracts some serious competition. Goodwill Outlet locations across the country are known to attract flippers and resellers that are daily shoppers and regulars. It’s so profitable to resell items you purchase from Goodwill Outlets, it can quickly be too crowded and overly competitive for the casual reseller.
Another major difference is the sanitation and presentation. Goodwill Outlets release large bins full of merchandise and it’s not sorted. Clothes are piled onto each other, making it one giant heap that you will need to sift through slowly to find any notable brand names or pieces you like.
Naturally, this makes for a less than sanitary environment with shoppers using their hands to sift through the bins. It’s recommended to bring a pair of disposable rubber gloves to keep your hands clean and protected.
- Attracts competitive resellers regularly
- Typically not very sanitary
- Unorganized and hard to shop for items that you want
2. Garage Sales
The most fun way to source inventory, in my opinion, has to be through garage sales. Usually discovered using Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or simply driving around your local residence for signs and posters with the word “YARD SALES”, garage sales are one of most profitable ways to source items.
In my two years of re-selling items on eBay, I’ve found my most profitable flips from garage sales. This includes a box of about 50 comics I purchased for $15, where I sold one for $780. And another instance where, during 2020’s Pokemon craze, I purchased 4 authentic vintage Pokemon gameboy boxes (blue, yellow, gold and silver version) for $20, which was valued at about $1200 at the time.
While you may think these two rare occurrences have made be biased, which you may be partially right, there are most reasons I put garage sales as the second best sourcing method.
The Pros
Most garage sales are ran and operated by people who want to de-clutter their homes. They want to get rid of things as quickly as possible. In this scenario, you can haggle, negotiate and barter your way into amazing deals.
When it comes to finding amazing treasures for cheap, there’s no better chance to strike gold than with garage sales. Many people don’t even know what they’re selling. Whether it’s an old vintage motor cross shirt that would sell for $200 in an instant, to the box of comics I bought for $15 and flipped for $780.
Garage sales are also easy to research. Using Craigslist, finding garage sales can offer photos that can help you determine if it’s worth you time. On the flip side, many garage sales aren’t even promoted online. That’s the fun of it. It’s first come first serve and the early bird gets the worm.
- Items are very negotiable
- Highest probability of finding extremely valuable items for cheap (due to lack of knowledge on the seller’s end)
- Relatively easy to research
- Less competition, first come first serve
The Cons
Since garage sales occur mainly on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, there’s not a lot of opportunity compared to other methods of sourcing. The truth is, Saturday is usually the biggest day for garage sales in my experience. There was a noticeable difference in the number and quality of garage sales happening, even on Friday and Sunday.
Another flaw is the lack of consistency. You’re not guaranteed a certain amount of garage sales. You may even need to drive out far outside your city to an area with more active garage sales happening on a given weekend. It’s not up to you, and that’s what makes it hard to rely on as a single sourcing method.
Additionally, the prices and type of items are truly a toss up. I’ve spent 4-5 hours driving to garage sales on a Saturday morning and have left with little to show for it. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s a possibility.
It’s not like you can return or exchange what you buy too. If the condition is worse than you thought, it’s too bad. You’re stuck with it.
- There’s only 1-3 days to visit garage sales
- Lacks consistency each week
- May require you to drive far some days
- Prices and item variety are unpredictable
- Can’t return or exchange items you buy
1. Flea Markets
If you’re in a large city, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Atlanta, Austin, and many more, chances are you have a flea market near you that you never knew existed. Inside these flea markets is an entire ecosystem of buyers and sellers who rely on these markets to make ends meet.
Many flea markets occur on the weekends, just like garage sales. But there are also many cases where a flea market happens every single day, offering re-sellers a constant opportunity to source inventory.
The Pros
In my experience, flea markets offer the consistency of a Goodwill Outlet but with a higher opportunity to find treasures, similar to a garage sale. If you find a flea market that occurs every day, you can literally different vendors with different products for sale each visit.
The vendors at a flea market also usually lay out their items on the floor like a garage sale. It’s the best situation for someone who isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty.
Also, many flea market vendors will source their items from buying large amounts of Amazon returns, expired storage units and liquidation warehouses. What does this mean? They can sell it for cheap, because as long as they sell a large volume of items in a day, they will get their initial investment back and more, even it they sell each item for $1 to $10 each. This works in favor for us re-sellers who can recognize value and can cherry pick items that can re-sell for $50, $100 or even more.
Another big advantage is the ability to bulk purchase. In many instances, I will purchase a box full of the same item, which makes listing and selling the item much faster. For example, I once bought 20 Moleskin notebooks for $1 each. Since they were all the same product, I only needed to make one listing on eBay. After a couple months, I sold all the notebooks for $30 each, earning a hefty $600 in revenue.
Lastly, relationships matter at the flea market. After months of buying from the same vendors, you can build a relationship that is mutually beneficial. I’ve had vendors set aside certain items for me because they know I’ll buy it.
While I haven’t found my most valuable flips from flea markets, I’ve found plenty of insanely profitable flips regularly. It’s the best place for your every day, bread and butter flips. It’s what “pays the bills.” I would very often leaving the flea market with items I bought for $5 that I can re-sell for $60.
- Consistent vendors and new products each week
- Gives you the opportunity to find highly valuable items
- Prices are cheap, often times items can be as low as $1
- Bulk purchase opportunities
- Opportunity to create relationships with vendors
- Vendors can allow returns and refunds
The Cons
With the flea market, it faces similar issues as Goodwill Outlet. It’s pretty unorganized and usually a bit filthy. To find items to flip, you can’t be afraid of getting your hands dirty and rummaging through tables and bins of used items.
Another con is the condition of items are unknown. This matters especially for re-sellers who like to buy and sell electronics, such as cameras, computers, video games and more. I experienced this first-hand pretty often, as this was my specialty. However, the high profits that flipping electronics would give me would usually be enough to offset any faulty devices I would purchase. It’s also possible to sell broken electronics “for parts” on eBay, so it wouldn’t be the end of the world to make a faulty buy.
- Often unorganized and requires rummaging through trash and junk
- The condition of the items you purchase may be unknown
Final Thoughts For Resellers
My ultimate sourcing hack that helped me earn an extra $43,000 from eBay in 2021 wasn’t that I stuck to one sourcing environment. Due to the inconsistent nature of some of these sourcing methods, I’d learn to use a combination of all.
On the weekdays, I would go to the thrift stores and/or Goodwill outlets. On Saturdays I would often spend my entire morning either at the flea markets or garage sales. On Sunday, I would re-visit the flea market for an hour or two for some casual sourcing.
My biggest recommendation is to taste them all and find the environment that works for your niche or geographic location. If you’re not in a big town, you may be limited to thrift stores. And, if you’re new to re-selling, you might not see the value in the flea market immediately – I know it took me a few visits to the flea market before I trained my eyes to spot valuable items.
When it comes to re-selling, I believe knowledge is power. The most ridiculously weird objects can re-sell for a price that would make you choke on your spit. Sharpen your knowledge base by watching YouTubers like Part Time Pickers to expand your understanding of reselling.
I hope you found this valuable. If you know a fellow re-seller who can benefit from this, please send it their way.
