To be a successful reseller, there are major factors that you must consider; you need to know whether it's economically safe for you to go all-in for a new release or you should just ignore it and wait for something better. Nobody wants to commit resources into an item that will not resell or to an item with no resale value.
Sometimes you can get an item easily and spend days before you will get someone to buy it from you. This can be quite frustrating, and you don't really want to make that mistake. Reselling items online is a profitable and interesting business, but you need to follow the rules to be successful. In this article, I will explain the basic factors that you need to look out for before you commit your resources to a drop.
The Price of the Product
The first thing you should take note is how much the product will cost when you want to resell it. For example, let us use the price of the resell market for Jordans a few years ago; the price was around the $150 mark. According to a report that was released later that year, the total money made by resellers by the end of the year was close to 1.3 million dollars.
The following year, the same market could only make around $400,000 during the same window. The question is, what made the difference so significant and big? What Nike did was to increase the retail process and also increased their stock; this really affected the resale market. There was a time that Jordan was literally the order of the day, but right now, you really need to evaluate your options because of the high retail cost that leaves a low profit for resellers. The gap is becoming slimmer, making it discouraging to put money on.
If the retail price is high, you can expect the resale price to be high, and the problem is that lesser people will be willing to be at a high price unless if it's really a popular item that everybody wants with low stock. You will hardly see a lot of people that will be ready to pay anything over $400 for a general release Jordan; nobody wants to pay much for something that everybody will be able to have. If it's expensive, it has to be exclusive and just because something is exclusive, does not automatically mean that it will resell.
There have been some releases that were limited but didn't do well, for example, the Reebok Purple Ventilator that was released in 2016 was just 200 pairs, and the resell was seriously poor. People just didn't like the shoe even though the price was reasonable. Before you decide to go for a product, ensure that you analyze it well with the factors that determine a good resell, if it comes short then it's probably better to let it go.
Quantity of the Product
I mentioned earlier that a lower stock does not mean automatically mean that the resale value will be high. This is quite true, but it is not a normal occurrence. There are only a few instances where you will have low stock of a product, and it won't attract a higher resale value. It happens once in a while, but we can't ignore the fact that it happens and that's the reason why you need to keep it at the back of your mind.
Basically, if a product has a limited quantity, I will advise that you go for it. Most times, it means that there people that will buy it. What is important is that you should not use the lower stock number of an item as the only factor to decide if an item will resell or not. There are other factors which include price and the uniqueness of the item.
The Hype of the Product
This is another important factor that you must consider before going for an item. The only way you can know this is to understand where to look. There are numerous markets with different people that are interested in different products. There are people that will like to go for sneakers while some people will prefer to go for jeans. You need to learn where to look and how to look. Platforms like Reddit, Twitter, NikeTalk are always filled with people talking about a release that is going to happen soon.
You need to look out for the product that is being hyped and write it down. The higher the popularity that a product is gaining before it is released, the higher the number of people that are getting their money ready to buy it. Do not forget that with more people that are preparing to buy it, the higher the number of people that won’t be able to buy it when it drops and that’s where you come in as a reseller.
Pre-Orders
This is another factor that can make or mar your day. Because an item has a high pre-sale value does not mean that it will have a high resale price after the drop. However, it will provide you with a general idea of what people are willing to pay. If there are preorders for a product but you notice that people are not really going for the product, it's likely that the product did not get enough hype or the price is too high. Once you notice any of the two options, it's better not to invest in the product.
For every product that is realized, it will first make a few sales, or it will drop online, you can use this opportunity to check how the market price and how it will be sold. Since preorders are always the first to set the market price of the product, one of the amazing sites that you can visit to have an idea of how the product will move is eBay.
Tips on How You Can Sell Quickly
Let's assume you've already bought the item and you have your order confirmation. The question is, what do you do next? You can t list it right away because you don’t have it physically with you yet. But what you need to know with lower stick releases and any other type of release is that the product gets hyped the most on the launch day.
If you are aware of the time it requires to process the item, get it shipped and delivered then you will be able to accept the highest offers from GOAT or StockX while still waiting for the delivery. If you decided to list your product the same day that it was released, it would be quite easy to sell your product eleven before it is delivered.
If you are hoarding your products, for example, if you still have your product a week after it has been released and you do not list it, your chances of losing profit are very high. After the first 7 days of a release, nobody is really excited about it anymore, most customers have their pairs already, and you can be sure that only people that are not really excited about the shoe will be patronizing you. These set of people are not in a hurry to buy the shoe, and you will be forced to sell to them at a lower price. So basically, if you waste your time listing your item, you can expect less profit or no profit at all.
Once you receive your order confirmation and the item that you are ordered, there is no reason to wait anymore. You have all the necessary details that you need to list and sell your item on numerous available sites. All you need to make sure is that you block out any order numbers to prevent your order from getting canceled before it gets shipped.
And talking about sites, you don't want to waste time on that, you need to hit up any available site as quickly as possible which includes eBay, Twitter, GOAT, StockX, Craiglist and all relevant groups on Facebook. There are other sites that you can hit up, but the ones that I just mentioned are the most popular ones. And when it comes to pricing, you need to put other buyers in mind and not overcut them because it will also affect your profit and indirectly you are helping to reduce the market price of the item, and that's the last thing you want to do. Do not undercut heavily and you will definitely get your buyers, and you can also take any reasonable offer that you see.
If you do not see your item within the first few days after a release, trouble is looming. This is where you need to put on your best method of selling to get your items out as quickly as possible. At this point, it will be essential to take pictures of the product that you are trying to sell, work on your listings, update your price, and get it out as quickly as possible.
Most of the time, the price of an item most especially a shoe will hardly go higher unless, after some months, it's always risky to hoard a shoe unless the shoe is already super valuable. All I'm trying to say is that sell your item even before it gets delivered to you. It's always better to sell when the market is still competitive, once you receive a good offer, accept it. Most times, it will be the highest you will receive because as the days increases, the offer reduces. So get your item on out on every platform to increase exposure.
Drawbacks of Reselling
The only drawback of selling before your item is shipped is that it can get canceled after you've sold the item and that puts you in an awkward position. The next thing you will have to do is to cancel your selling order, and that will be more discouraging, but you have to do it. Personally, I believe this is a risk worth taking because of the way the price of items drops these days a few days after they are released. The difference can be so significant sometimes that you will hardly see any profit from selling your item if you sell late.
