People are starting to realize that nowadays, having one income stream is usually not enough to provide for a comfortable lifestyle, especially with rising costs in almost every aspect of life. In response to this, many are getting second or third jobs, or making income from side hustles, which may be a hobby of theirs. Aside from having their regular 9-5, you may find others teaching in their downtime, or working on an e-commerce website to generate passive income. One of the most popular ways of making an extra income is buying and selling. This is one of the most basic ways of making money, and can also be enjoyable if you take a genuine interest in what you are dealing with.
If you are interested in making a few extra bucks from buying and selling, here are a few tips and methods you could follow in order to do so. Remember, the aim is to buy low and sell high!
1) Resell limited/exclusive items
This is an especially popular way of making a “quick” buck in the streetwear industry– some limited edition sneakers or clothing will be released in-store and dozens of people will be lining up in order to purchase then resell the product, much to the ire of many in the community. For example, a pair of sneakers may go on sale for £200, but due to its limited availability, it’s immediate resale price could be up to four times as much! If you have the willpower to wait in line for days to get your hands on the next latest and greatest, then go ahead– it could prove to be very profitable, for relatively minimal effort.
2) Amazon FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon)
The world’s largest e-commerce store is bringing in your average joe and allowing them access to a huge market of customers, all for very little effort. You can now purchase almost any product from abroad; have it shipped it directly to the Amazon warehouse, post your product on their website, and sit back and let them do everything from advertising, accepting payments, shipping, and paying out. Amazon FBA is a fantastic way of selling products if you don’t want to create your own website and deal with the hassle that tends to go with it.
3) Dropshipping
Similar to Amazon FBA in a sense that you don’t even have to touch the product, dropshipping is when you create a website to be a middleman between the consumer and the wholesaler. You pick products, put them on your website and market them, and when an order comes in, you direct it to your wholesaler who fulfills the order. Imagine a customer in the U.S seeing a product on your website, ordering it, and you passing on that order to your Chinese wholesaler who will send it out directly to them, while the customer is none the wiser. At no point do you ever need to touch the product, and the margins you can make on each one are huge thanks to the minimal overheads.
4) Thrift shopping
You would be surprised at the type of clothes, accessories and such that are thrown away or donated to charity stores all the time. Charity stores in more affluent areas have been known to come across expensive goods that once belonged to celebrities, but who then sell them on for well below their retail price. I personally have a penchant for jackets, and Rains have great raincoats for women (of which I was lucky enough to come across, but kept for myself). By taking your time to search through such stores, you may encounter some hidden gems that you could potentially resell for a handsome profit on Ebay.