The Surprising Truth About the best items to resell for profit (Most Sellers Guess Wrong)

Introduction

When I started reselling in 2019, I believed that the top resale items were the ones I saw on YouTube: vintage band tees, hyped sneakers, rare electronics, and anything “Y2K.” But the moment that changed my entire approach happened on an ordinary Tuesday. I picked up a $3 universal TV remote at a yard sale, mostly because I felt guilty leaving without buying something. I listed it that night, and it sold before sunrise for $17. That one random item sold faster than the designer jeans I’d spent an hour debating in Goodwill.

And that’s when the idea clicked: maybe the best items to resell for profit weren’t the glamorous ones — maybe they were the boring, overlooked categories that everyone else ignored. This guide is everything I learned after scaling to thousands of sales, including the failures that forced me to rethink my sourcing completely.

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Why the best items to resell for profit are rarely the ones people expect

Here’s where it gets interesting: most new sellers assume that high profits come from high-ticket categories. But high-ticket often means high risk, high returns, and high buyer expectations. The real winners — the best items for profit — are products that:

• sell quickly

• have stable buyer demand

• don’t break in shipping

• attract low return rates

• list easily across platforms

• have predictable price trends

I call them “unsexy winners.”

Anecdote:
In early 2024, I made more profit from a $12 batch of office labelers than I did from three “premium” pairs of Nikes I bought for $45 each. The labelers sold within 48 hours. The Nikes took 51 days.

Opinion: the market rewards speed and consistency, not hype.

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Top resale items that consistently perform on eBay and Mercari

Most resellers quickly discover that eBay and Mercari behave differently. But there’s a set of overlapping categories that reliably produce profit on both.

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1. Small household goods (my most consistent performers)

These items check every box: cheap to source, fast to ship, low return risk.

Examples:

• drawer organizers

• spice racks

• minimalist storage bins

• desk accessories

• kitchen utensils

Anecdote:
I bought a $5 bamboo drawer organizer from a liquidation pallet. It sold 14 times in 10 days on Mercari. I still don’t fully understand why it went viral — but this category has been a top performer ever since.

Parenthetical aside: these items rarely get returned, which matters more than most sellers realize.

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2. Used electronics that aren’t hyped (but always sell)

Forget iPhones and Beats headphones. Those markets are flooded.

The profitable electronics are:

• routers

• calculators

• TV remotes

• old gaming controllers

• label printers

• external hard drives (tested)

Failure #1:
I once bought a “great deal” on a lot of broken Nintendo DS consoles thinking I could repair them. I ended up selling them for parts and losing $63. Lesson: simple items beat repair gambles.

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3. Shoes (but only the right categories)

Here’s the truth: the best items for profit in footwear are not hype releases. They’re functional shoes.

These are winners:

• running shoes (Hoka, Asics, Brooks)

• work boots

• slip-resistant shoes

• Crocs

• casual white sneakers

Anecdote:
I bought a pair of worn Hoka Bondi 7s for $9.99 and sold them for $54 in 24 hours. The condition wasn’t perfect, but the demand was there.

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4. Beauty bundles (high-volume flips)

Individual beauty items are hit-or-miss. Bundles are reliable.

Types that work:

• skincare sets

• hair-care duos

• Korean beauty bundles

• fragrance sample kits

Mercari loves bundles.
eBay loves bundles.
And buyers repurchase them.

Failure #2:
I once tried selling a single, unbundled sunscreen. It sat for 102 days. When I bundled it with two other travel minis, it sold in a day. Lesson: buyers want sets.

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5. Tools and home improvement items

One of the absolute best items to resell for profit.

Examples:

• hand tools

• measuring tools

• drill bits

• wrenches

• laser levels

Tools have:

• high sell-through

• low fraud

• low return rates

• reliable demand

Anecdote:
A $1.50 stud finder from Goodwill sold for $27. I grabbed three more the next week.

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How the mercari fee calculator changed how I evaluate profit

Now the tricky part: fees eat margins. Mercari fees especially confuse beginners.

Mercari takes:

• 10% seller fee

• payment processing fee

• shipping (if you don’t charge the buyer)

I used to estimate everything manually. But after underestimating fees on a bulk shoe purchase, I started using a mercari fee calculator religiously.

Tools I’ve used:

• Mercari Fee Calculator (online)

• Vendoo fee breakdown

• Seller Assistant apps

• Spreadsheet formulas

• Closo price optimizer (for multi-platform pricing)

Personal loss:
In 2022, I bought a pair of boots for $19 expecting a $40 flip. After fees and shipping, I made $4.23 profit. One of my most embarrassing margins.

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Vendoo extension, Closo automation & listing tools that multiplied my profits

I’ve used multiple tools to optimize resale operations, but a few shaped how I choose items.

My five most useful resale tools:

• Closo — crosslisting, delisting, pricing sync, and listing speed

• Vendoo extension — fast listing drafts and inventory tracking

• PhotoRoom — clean photos

• Google Sheets — COGS + ROI calculations

• ShipStation — labels + shipping workflow

Parenthetical aside: listing speed directly affects revenue; slow processes kill growth.

When I started automating listings, I could test categories 3× faster — and quickly learned which ones were the best items to resell for profit long-term.

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Understanding style keywords — the hidden driver of profit

Here’s something most sellers miss: style keywords matter as much as the product itself.

Examples:

• “minimalist”

• “mid-century”

• “modular storage”

• “boho”

• “Y2K”

• “industrial”

• “aesthetic”

These keywords shape:

• search visibility

• buyer confidence

• click-through rate

• category relevance

Anecdote:
I listed two identical shelves on Mercari.
One simply said “Shelf.”
The other used “minimalist wall shelf.”
The second sold in two days. The first sat for three weeks.

Style keywords matter — especially in décor, storage, shoes, and clothing categories.

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Comparison Table: Best items for profit by category (2025)

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People always ask me… “What items to resell for profit if I’m new?”

Here’s something everyone wants to know: beginners should focus on the fastest-moving categories, not the highest-priced ones.

If I started over today, I’d choose:

• running shoes

• kitchen tools

• décor and storage

• basic electronics

• beauty bundles

• office supplies

These are easy to ship, source, list, and price correctly.

And most importantly: they’re repeatable.

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The real difference between top resale items and garbage inventory

After four years, I can tell within seconds whether something is worth selling. The best items to resell for profit have:

• brand transparency

• clear condition

• stable pricing

• strong search volume

• low breakability

Garbage items have:

• ambiguous condition

• high shipping cost

• low margin potential

• trending-only appeal

• confusing category placement

The biggest cost in reselling isn’t bad purchases — it’s inventory that sits.

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Failures that helped me understand profit far better

Failure #1:
I once spent $112 on a box of collectible mugs I thought were underpriced. They took six months to sell and produced maybe $35 profit total.

Failure #2:
I tried selling hair straighteners from a liquidation pallet. Three were faulty. One was returned. One never sold.
Lesson: electronics with moving parts are risky.

Failure #3 (bonus):
I mispriced an entire batch of leggings because I didn’t understand style keywords. They sat for weeks until I relisted.

Failures shape judgment more than wins.

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Worth Reading

When I finally got serious about profit margins instead of chasing trends, the Inventory Optimization Playbook inside the Closo Seller Hub helped me understand which categories deserved scaling and which ones were dead weight. And later, when I shifted into a multi-platform workflow, the Marketplace Listing Strategy Guide gave me a structure that improved my sell-through rate noticeably.

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Conclusion

If there’s one truth that took me far too long to learn, it’s this: the best items to resell for profit are the ones you can source repeatedly, ship easily, and trust to sell every single week. It’s not about hype categories or rare finds — it’s about consistency. Once you master categories like shoes, home goods, small electronics, and beauty bundles, you no longer depend on luck. You operate a business, not a treasure hunt.

Reselling will always have limitations — slow weeks, bad buys, and categories that suddenly lose demand. But once you automate the repetitive work and focus on proven categories, profit becomes more predictable. Toward the end of building my workflow, I found myself relying increasingly on automation tools to keep listings synced and avoid double-selling across platforms. It’s amazing how much time that saves when you’re trying to scale.