The short answer
What gear should a beginner reseller buy first?
When I made this video in Nov 2023, the gear I'd buy first was a 5-tier metal shelving unit (about $135 on sale), a Bluetooth thermal label printer (about $67), and a renewed Galaxy S20 for photos (about $184). The rule I'd follow: buy sturdy gear that does one job well, not the top-end brand you don't need.
- Shelving: a 5-tier metal unit was about $135 on sale when this video went up, versus $200 or more at a big-box store.
- Label printer: a Bluetooth thermal printer at $67 was enough to start. Skip the $250 name-brand unit until your volume justifies it.
- Photos: a renewed Galaxy S20 at $184 (about 42% off new) on auto mode was good enough for my listings, with two LED lights at $160.
- Shipping: large poly bags at $13 for 100, sent with USPS Ground Advantage, cut what I spent shipping heavy coats.
- Desk: a $99 electric sit-stand desk (down from $150) is worth it if you list for hours a day.
Chapters (10)
Cyber Monday is the easiest time to fill in the gear a reseller setup needs. In Nov 2023 I went through the ten things I'd buy first if I were starting over, and this post covers them. Every price here is the one shown when this video went up on Nov 27, 2023. Prices move, so check each one before you buy.
I'm not a CPA, but from what I understand, anything you buy for the business can usually be written off. Check that with a tax pro for your situation.
What gear did I recommend, and what did it cost?
Here's the list with the prices from the video. The last column is the reason each item earned its spot.
| Gear | Price in the video (Nov 2023) | Why it earns its spot |
|---|---|---|
| 5-tier metal shelving | about $135 | Holds your inventory and goes up in an afternoon |
| Two-piece faux wood backdrop | $40 (20% off) | Makes product photos look like a real shop |
| Velvet hangers, 50-pack | $20 (30% off) | Wider for plus sizes, and they look better in photos |
| Bluetooth thermal label printer | $67 | Ends the hand-cutting of every shipping label |
| Renewed Samsung Galaxy S20 | $184 (about 42% off new) | A camera for listing photos |
| Dual-blade fabric shaver | $19.99 (down from $30) | Covers more area on pilled or painted clothing |
| Neewer 2-pack LED lights | $160 (22% off) | Light that doesn't eat up a small room |
| Electric sit-stand desk | $99 (down from $150) | Lets you stand while you list |
| 12x16 poly bags, 100-pack | $13 | Ships coats and jackets without a big envelope |
| Double-rod clothing rack | $20 off with free shipping | Holds coats and puffers, and rolls around on casters |
Is a sturdy shelf worth the money?
Yes. A shelf is the first real purchase I'd make, because your inventory has to live somewhere. The 5-tier WorkPro metal shelving I showed was about $135 when this video went up. At Home Depot or Lowe's, a similar unit can run $200 or more. Look for one that breaks down easily, since you'll want to add shelves as you grow. Check the weight rating, and make sure the depth still leaves you an aisle to walk through.
Does a photo backdrop make a difference?
It does, especially for shoes and smaller items. The two-piece faux wood backdrop I showed was $40 with a 20% discount when this video went up. You don't need a $5,000 studio. You need your photos to look like you care about the business, because buyers compare your listing to dozens of others on Poshmark, Mercari or eBay. Keep the background clean and the lighting even, and check the color in your photo against the real item before you post.
Are velvet hangers worth the upgrade?
For clothing, I think so. Velvet hangers are a bit wider, which helps with plus-size clothing, and the garment stays put instead of sliding off. Fifty of them were $20 when this video went up, 30% off. I said you'd probably pay nearly that much for plastic ones at Walmart, and the velvet pair looks better in your photos. So you're spending about the same for a nicer result.
Which label printer should a beginner buy?
Start with a Bluetooth thermal printer. The Rekdom model I showed was $67 with a 4.4-star rating from about 350 ratings when this video went up. I paid about $250 for a name-brand printer when I started. It still works, but you don't need one that expensive to begin, especially when money is tight. Before you buy, check that it prints the label sizes you actually use.
Can a phone take good listing photos?
Yes. I used a renewed Galaxy S20 for listing photos when I made this video, and before that I used an S10. Anything from the S10 up gives you decent autofocus and color, and you can leave it on auto. Renewed phones are a good way to start: the S20 I showed was $184, which saved $136 off the new price. Add a case and a neck lanyard, which I put at about $14 in the video, and you can shoot while you work. Once the photos are taken, EasyFlip writes the listing from a few of them.
Is a fabric shaver worth it for clothing?
Only if you sell clothing with pilling or paint on it. The dual-blade shaver I used was $19.99 when this video went up, down from $30. Two blades cover more surface than one, so you spend less time on each piece. I don't buy much pilled clothing, so mine doesn't get much use, but it helps with the odd bit of paint too.
What lights work in a small space?
LED panels fit a tight space better than big softboxes. The two-pack of Neewer 660 LED lights I showed was $160 with a carrying case, 22% off, when this video went up. I'd used mine for almost three years by then. They're very bright, so I run them on medium or low and pull them back a bit from the board or table. The listing showed 4.7 stars from about 3,500 ratings, which is a better signal than the stars alone.
Is a standing desk worth it for listing?
If you list for hours, yes. I stand for about five hours a day while I list, audit and cross-list, because I get more done that way and I don't slouch over a laptop. The electric desk I showed is 40 by 24 inches and was $99 when this video went up, down from $150. Repetitive work wears on your neck and back, so pick a height that fits your body rather than a generic one.
How do you ship coats and jackets cheaply?
Use large poly bags and USPS Ground Advantage. The 12x16 bags I use for jackets, sweaters and big overcoats were $13 for 100 when this video went up. I ship heavy pieces in those bags with Ground Advantage instead of Priority or a priority legal envelope. It's slower, but it saves money on shipping. USPS rates change, so check the current price before you ship.
Do you need clothing racks?
For clothing, yes. The double-rod rack I use holds coveralls, large overcoats and puffy jackets, and it has casters so you can roll it around. When this video went up it was $20 off with free shipping. I label mine Rack 1, Rack 2 and so on. When something sells, I know exactly which rack to check, and items don't get lost in a pile.
What can a beginner skip?
Plenty. You don't need a DSLR, a top-of-the-line iPhone or a name-brand label printer to start. You also don't need a big softbox that takes up your aisle. Start with what you need to list and ship, and add the rest once sales are paying for it. Amazon lets you return things you don't like, so you can test a purchase, but check the return window before you order.
Where should I check reviews before I buy?
Look at the number of ratings, not just the stars. A 4.7 from 3,500 ratings tells you more than a perfect score from a handful of people. Read the one-star reviews for the specific problem you'd be buying the item to solve, such as label jams for a printer or wobbly legs on a desk. Then check the price against what it was last month, because sale prices come and go.
The bottom line
This week, pick the two or three items that fix your biggest bottleneck. For most beginners that's a sturdy shelf, a label printer and a phone you can use for photos. Add the rest as the business grows, and keep your receipts. Prices from Nov 2023 won't be the same now, so check each one before you buy. If you want more of these, sign up for the Easy Flip newsletter.
Questions people ask
How much does a beginner reseller need to spend on gear?
Shelving, a label printer, a renewed phone and a backdrop came to about $426 together at the sale prices in my video from Nov 2023. Add the lights ($160), hangers ($20) and poly bags ($13) and you're closer to $620. Check current prices before you buy, because these were the prices when the video went up.
Is a renewed phone good enough for product photos?
I used a renewed Galaxy S20 for my listing photos when I made this video in Nov 2023. Anything from the S10 up gave me decent autofocus and color on auto mode. A case and a neck lanyard make it easy to shoot while you work.
Do I need a fabric shaver for clothing?
Only if you sell clothing with pilling or paint on it. The dual-blade shaver I used was $19.99 when this video went up, down from $30. I don't buy much pilled clothing, so mine doesn't get a lot of use.
Are standing desks worth it for reselling?
If you list for hours, a sit-stand desk can help your posture. I stand about five hours a day for listing and auditing. The 40 by 24 inch electric desk I showed was $99 when this video went up, down from $150.
What's the cheapest way to ship a heavy coat?
Put it in a large poly bag and ship with USPS Ground Advantage instead of Priority. It's slower, but it saves money on heavy jackets and coats. The 100-pack of 12x16 bags was $13 in Nov 2023, and USPS rates change, so check the current price first.
Sources
Prices are eBay sold listings, and every fact below was checked on November 27, 2023.
Read the full video transcript
what's going on everybody it is that time of year where everyone is shopping like crazy and I want to focus on beginner resellers today I have a link down below to my top 10 favorite Cyber Monday holiday deals found on Amazon to really help you guys build up your business maybe you're just getting started maybe you're just one shelf away from your reselling business to really making it complete so we're going to be going over each of these 10 items into why I think they're important to helping you in your reselling business so let's not waste any more time and jump right into it I want to first start off with the thing that is asked the most in my opinion um you know through Instagram or through YouTube comments is what type of shelves should I be using in my reselling business well I have a linked down below um of the shelves that
I use you know these are sturdy shelves um these are ones that you can break apart very easily they are the work pro five tier met metal shelving unit I have on similar to these the ones that I get um the last few times are the ones that I got off Sam's Club but these are very similar as far as the dimensions and build quality these can hold 4,000 pounds and they are quick and easy to set up we don't want to be spending too much time setting these items up we want to be able to just build the shelves and continue to add on so these are a great cyber mondy deal almost 25% off $135 to your house I know that if you were to go to your local Home Depot or local Lowe's a shelf like this may be upwards of $200 so for this you know for 135 bucks to be
able to get your you know reselling business up off the ground and maybe look to do something like the sequential system that I do for my clothing this is going to be a purchase that is going to last you a lifetime obviously these shelves are built to last once you buy them that's the investment that you have into your business so remember all these purchases are tax deductible I'm not a CPA but from what I understand anything you buy for your business can be written off this video is sponsored by vendue a cross-listing platform that can help you generate more sales not just by listing on one platform but multiple platforms to help generate more sales in your business and get more eyes on the items that you are listing so I've been using vendu for a couple months now and the main feature that I love is the auto sales detect feature so when
something sells on eBay it gets uh Dlisted off of other platforms so right now they just have that for Poshmark but I hear word on the street is that they are rolling out that feature for a couple other platforms here soon so they also have a data analytics tracking tool to track your revenue and profit for what items sell on what platform you can easily import items from multiple platforms eBay Poshmark merari Shopify and Depot pop so this is a platform that helped me generate an extra $4,500 in just a few months by just cross-listing my items from eBay onto Poshmark selling about 255 items so the cool thing about uh doing vendue is that you can get a couple dollars off your first month so you could check out Linked In the description down below you could just give it a try see if you like it and see if it's going to be
a right fit for you it can help you make a little bit more money in your reselling business while eBay is getting their stuff together and getting things figured out I'm so happy that I chose vendue to help make an extra $4,500 extra this year that's a good purchase um for people that maybe are doing shoes or maybe smaller items um you want to have a nice backdrop um I puted here this just nice kind of faux wood backdrop here um 20% off Cyber Monday deal it's a two-piece set with two two boards that it's going to really take your photography to the next level you want to be standing out when you do your photos so for 40 bucks you have a nice backdrop here to really make it look professional remember we're trying to be professionals at our craft we're not just trying to you know do the bare minimum I I really
encourage you guys to invest in your business and really show that you care about your business you know and by picking up quality products you know you don't need a $5,000 photo set up but you do need some tools that can really help level up your game and stand out amongst the crowd with everyone trying to get into reselling we need to do whatever it takes to stick out so having a nice backdrop like this is really going to help you stick out amongst the crowd whether on Poshmark merari or Ebay having something like this is really going to be helpful you know for those smaller type items I for me like I would use something for my shoe setup like this you know um the next thing I know it's not really uh too uh expansive but I've uh ordered these before and they're The Velvet coat hangers um they are a little bit
wider so they do help with plus-size clothing um it really helps the clothing stay on and they are more quality they look a little bit better in your photos and for 30% off you get 50 of them for 20 bucks I think that is a pretty good deal especially when you're going to like Walmart um you know you're going to be paying probably a little bit more than this just for plastic hangers which you might as well take a next step up and get something like this like you see here the Velvet hangers just a little bit nicer um than just your standard hanger the next one I get asked all the time is like Bo which printer should I buy which thermal printer should I buy should I buy the Rolo um should I buy some other high-end brand that I don't need and I just go no you don't need the Rolo you
don't need any of that you could go with the thirdparty Chinese thermal printer that you see right here 15% off of the reccom recd Bluetooth label printer um this has great reviews 4.4 reviews 350 ratings for $67 you don't need to go out and spend $250 for a Rolo I did that when I first got started and it still lasts me till this day which is great but you don't need to do that to start especially when funds are tight so for $67 you could get something here which will be plenty and it also has that Bluetooth feature which is nice so $68 invested in your business it's going to beat the heck out of cutting out labels every time you get an order you might as well make that process a little more enjoyable and pick up the wck Dom label printer uh I'm sure they have different colors but purple seems to be
the color that I landed on so the next one um you know people do ask me what kind of phone or what kind of camera do I use to take pictures guys you don't need to over complicate the situation I use a Samsung Galaxy s22 for my photos um I used to use a Samsung Galaxy S10 for my photos so something above you know the S10 version and above is going to give you good autofocus going to give you good color and it's something that you could just put on auto and you could just start taking photos you don't need to mess with the iso the shutter speed you know in the brightness of each photo so um I think this is one of the better deals right now because it's through Amazon's renewed program so you get the Samsung Galaxy s20 which is a couple years old but you're going to have a great
wide angle lens you're going to have a zoom lens and then a normal aperture lens for $184 um you save $136 so 42% off and if you don't like it you can return it so what I would suggest is try this phone out um get one of those detachable uh lanyards that you can have around your neck and use this phone for your photos you don't need to go buy a DSLR you don't need to buy a top-of-the-line iPhone this is a few Generations old so for $14 you get a good case you get that lanyard and you are set for years down down the road for your photos um and the best part is like if you don't like it just return it but I would suggest leveling up through um you know had the S10 for quite some time but I did notice that the shutter speed was just a tad bit slower
than these newer versions like the s22 which I have which is much more snappier and the photos just seem a lot more punchier better and vibrant so like I said everything linked down below is um really going to be everything that we're talking about right now products that I wish I had when I first started but it took me a while to figure out what kind of products I actually wanted and through testing and trial and error I've settled on these 10 that could really help a lot of the beginner resellers out there getting started in their business so the next thing you know if you're a clothing reseller you already know what this is but this is a dual edged fabric shaver so I've used the cheapest fabric Shavers I've used the middle of the road but I really think when it comes down to it when you have a dual Edge fabric shaver
it's really going to help you cover more surface area you know typically I don't buy stuff with pilling on it so I wouldn't be using my fabric shaver too often but if you are in that kind of situation where you do pick up the you know clothing with peeling or even paint this helps get off some paint as well um a fabric shaver like this with two blades versus one is going to be a lot better this is originally $30 so you could get it right now for $19.99 and um I just think the dual motors is going to help you also cut down on your uh shaving time because if you just have commonly they just come with one uh blade so it takes a little bit more time to cover more areas so you could check that out um I guess the best part about Amazon is you can return anything you don't
like so if you buy it and you don't like it you know you can return it or resell it but the next one I get this comment um the most out of all of them is like what type of Lights what what do I you get a softbox do I get uh do I use the lights that are in my house do I use shop lights I've used these lights here right in front of you the newer 660 byol LED lights I've used them for almost three years now without any issue um these lights are nice because you can adjust the brightness and the color temperature to suit your photography setup they are really bright so I would suggest maybe running them on medium to low setting and um maybe pulling them back a little bit from your actual photo board or where you're laying your items um the the main reason why I chose
these is because I don't have a lot of space in my little photo setup so if you're dealing with a low space isssue you're going to want something that's like more of an LED light versus like a big soft box that's going to take up a massive amount of space and not a lot of us have a tennis space I know I do take my photos in my warehouse but the work area is going to be you know I want to be able to have an aisle to walk around so I don't want these big soft boxes taking up that aisle so I chose these new two pack LED lights and they seem to be just perfect because they don't take up a ton of room you can see 4.7 stars out of 3500 ratings right now 22% off for 160 you get the carrying case um and you get uh the two lights as
well so you could check it out see if you like it I would highly rem recommend this if you aren't um you know working in a large space the next one you hear me talk about quite often um is the standing desk I like to work standing up for about five hours of my day I am standing up whether I'm doing my listings uh Ed auditing listings um doing any kind of cross listing so those are the things that I'm looking to really help my posture out so having a sit stand desk is key for the long run because if you're doing listings year over year over year you're going to really feel crouched down and looking at your laptop or your cell phone and you're going to develop bad posture habits so right here 33% off of this uh sit stand desk that's electronic um it's a 40 by 24 in perfect for people
that are just trying to do their listings um and you know right here $99 so originally $150 and um that's what I have I have a stand desk here a sit stand desk and I also have a sit stand desk out in the shop because I want to be standing and I feel like I get a lot more done when I'm standing versus sitting and slouching down um I just really think our posture is huge in this type of business it's we do a lot of repetitive tasks so we need to be able to really treat our neck and our back and body with respect and not really you know blow your back out or you know I talked to people who are doing their photo setups and they just feel like their back is really aching you really want these things to really be custom fit for your you may be six foot five
you may be 5 foot5 but you really want to make your Works spaces and your workflow to fit your body typ type so you could check this one out it's got great reviews 600 ratings four and a half Stars 33% off not a bad deal I think I paid 150 for mine so that is a good deal if I needed another one I would buy that one another option too is you go through a lot of poly bags I haven't seen this good of a deal on poly bags though it's just a few dollars off this is the big size poly bag that I use for jackets sweaters large overcoats it's 12 by6 16 in uh there's 100 pieces poly bags for $13 so um you know this is a great option for people that maybe have a lot of big coats and sweaters and you don't want to ship it Priority or in a
priority legal envelope you could shoot what I've been doing is choosing ground advantage and just shipping him in these big poly bags and saving some money on shipping even though it's a little bit of a slower option so you could check out those poly bags a link down below save a couple bucks and to really help you maybe save some money on your shipping as we are shipping more and more jackets this time of year another one if you are a clothing reseller you're going to want to have a good quality set of racks these are similar to the racks that I use as they have extendable edges but um so you can extend the rack more so you can hold a little bit more um these have sold really well four 4.4 rating 67,000 reviews and right now 31% off for this clothing rack and this is what I use for like um coveralls
large overcoats any type of puffy jackets or maybe huge jeans that won't fit in my um inventory system I'm going to be hanging them on racks I have five of these racks all lined up in a row and they really get the job done the nice part of is they have casters on the bottom so you could wheel them around and right now $20 off free shipping you can't really beat that um you know especially if you're getting into clothing and you really don't know what to do with your jackets so instead of putting in them in tubs and then bins you could really you know help it help your workspace look a little bit better and more organized um I just labeled mine rack one rack two rack three and so forth so when something sells I know exactly which rack to go to and I could find my jackets that are being purchased
to ship out very easily and very quickly and items don't get lost so all of this stuff that we just talked about it's really going to be helpful for a lot of people that are just getting their reselling business going and they're like they don't know what products to use um like I said you H you have access to all of it link down below I also have another link below where it has more of those other kind of you know really useful reseller tools like the oxy clean that I use to kind of clean all the stains out of my shoes and shirts and jackets and so forth um you know a couple scrub brushes I use the Magic Eraser quite a bit so all of this goes and helps support the channel but my whole goal is to help support you guys especially the ones that are just getting started I hope you
all have a blessed holiday week and we'll see you in the next one take care
