Growing up I always thought my friend Megan’s family must have a lot of money. It seemed like every time I went over to her house, her dad had a new toy – a big TV, the latest audio equipment…
Megan’s mom always wore beautiful leather jackets in colors like dusty pink and butterscotch yellow with fabulous jewelry to match.
And Megan and her family lived in a nice house adorned with dramatic decor.
But it was the day that her dad brought home the shiny, new red Bayliner speedboat that I was convinced Megan’s dad must be making the big bucks. (I loved that boat, and I’ve wanted one ever since!) 
Megan and I only went to school together for a couple years and I never asked what her father did for a living. It wasn’t until several years later when we ran into each other while she was home from college on a visit, that I found out how her dad made the extra money to get all this stuff.
Turned out Megan’s dad was what I call a “Deal Scout”. He loved to find deals on new merchandise and then resell it through the local Classifieds.
For example, one time he bought out the inventory( for pennies on the dollar) from a hardware store that was closing and resold it to another store and made $20 thousand bucks on the deal.
Later on, when the local Classifieds got too expensive and less effective, he turned to Craigslist and eBay to resell in-demand items.
Megan told me her dad had resold almost everything over the years. From printers to concrete pavers. Jewelry to shoes. Nothing was off-limits when it came to buying and reselling (unless it was illegal!) 
He preferred dealing in new consumer goods, claiming there were “deals to be had everywhere” if you just looked for them.
Well I can tell you from experience, Megan’s dad was right.
He was using a method I call Retail Resale. Buying new consumer goods in one market for the purpose of reselling them in another. And generating thousands of dollars of extra income a year.
Megan’s dad was my first exposure to someone who made some serious money with Retail Resale, and I didn’t think much more about it until 2002. When I used this exact method to start my online business.
Making Money with Retail Resale
When I started my online business back in 2002, I used this method to buy high-end leather kids shoes at deeply discounted sale prices and resell them on eBay to a global customer base.
For me it was instant profit. I knew about kids shoes, I knew what brands were hot, and it didn’t take me long to find deals locally and online for these in-demand brands. I soon figured out what I needed to do to minimize my sourcing risk, in the event that I’d chosen items that didn’t sell. I was off and running!
I used Retail Resale to generate the majority of my income that first year in business, and it continued to represent about 30% of my sales for the next two years.
- Retail Resale works great for start-ups sourcing products on a shoestring budget.
- But it’s also perfect for established businesses who want to create extra income without committing to a new product line.
Retail Resale works for any marketplace from marine electronics to toys. clothes and shoes. It works for car tires and cars. Jewelry and Halloween Costumes. You name it!
If You Know How to Shop, You Can Profit from Retail Resale
The principle behind Retail Resale is simply this, shopping for your customers. You can shop anywhere to get your inventory. Offline, locally, online from websites, from marketplaces like eBay, Amazon or Bonanza.
There are millions of products right now available for sale both online and offline, that are either under priced, deeply discounted, or in short supply and high demand that are prime candidates for profiting with Retail Resale.
Make Extra Income with Just a Few Hours of Work a Week
For example, the Nerf N-Strike Stampede is already the #1 selling toy on Amazon. Sales of this hot new toy have already increased in sales 1800% since July. Already sold out at Walmart, you can still find it for $44 + Free Shipping at Toys R Us (or pick one up locally).
It’s currently selling for between $59 – $108 (with a sweet spot of about $75) on eBay and demand is starting to rise. This one will be sold out before Christmas and prices will go up to reflect it’s in-demand status.
This is an example of a product that lends itself perfectly to Retail Resale.
Last weekend we were out at the mall, when we came upon a sunglasses shop that had MAUI JIM HOKU 
On eBay you can pick up a new pair for $160. If I’m going to sell these Retail Resale, I’d sell them on Amazon rather than eBay.
There’s a lot of money to be made with Retail Resale!
In fact one of my favorite new books on the subject is Retail Resale by Chris Green.
-Lisa
My question is, with buyers now being equally smart in sourcing a good buy – would this retail resale method still work as effectively? I mean, its intuitive for a buyer to look up the prices across different sites before clicking ‘BUY’.
Hi Rose,
You’d think that with easy access to the Internet and mega-stores that people would be well versed in all their buying options. But surprisingly, most people have a very limited knowledge of what products are out there.
In the case of arbitrage sourcing, there are millions of buyers without the time, knowledge, inclination to scour the web for deals. Some do. But many don’t. Add to that the millions of people who don’t have access to local stores.
If you’re savvy at arbitrage sourcing, you’re basically doing the work of “shopping” for that future customer. You’re scouring the web and local stores for that merchandise. Once you know what to look for and get really good at arbitrage sourcing, you’ll see that products that are easy for you to find are in high-demand by others.
-Lisa