The short answer
How can resellers use Whatnot to move stale eBay inventory?
When I made this video on July 29, 2024, adding Whatnot shows helped lift my daily gross sales from about $492 to $743, a 52% increase. That weekend I shipped 220+ packages for about $2,400 gross. The rule: keep eBay fresh and move inventory over one year old into dollar-start Whatnot shows.
- In the 17 days before the video, my daily gross sales went from about $492 to $743 after adding extra Whatnot shows.
- That weekend’s shipping was 67 eBay orders, about 4-5 Poshmark orders, and about 150 Whatnot orders for roughly $2,400 gross.
- Nine Whatnot shows in 17 days brought in about $2,100 profit toward my wife’s neck procedure.
- My Whatnot shows were running 2-3 hours, selling 50-90 items, and moving about 95-100% of what I ran.
- My new rule was simple: once an eBay item is over one year old, delist it and send it to a $1-start Whatnot show.
Chapters (9)
When I made this video on July 29, 2024, the big change in my resale business was adding more Whatnot shows on top of eBay, not replacing eBay. The reason it mattered was simple: I had too much old inventory sitting, daily sales jumped, and I found a way to turn stale clothing into cash without letting my eBay store get bloated.
What changed when I added Whatnot shows?
Adding extra Whatnot shows increased my daily gross sales from about $492 to about $743 over the 17 days I talked about in the video. That is where the 52% increase came from, and it happened by adding one more selling lane to a workflow I was already running.
Over that weekend, I was shipping out a little over 220 packages for roughly $2,400 in gross sales. The breakdown was about 67 orders on eBay for a little over $1,200, about four or five Poshmark orders for about $100, and about 150 Whatnot orders for around $1,150.
That is not me saying every reseller should stop what they are doing and go live. For my store at that point, the win was that Whatnot gave me a place to move volume fast. eBay was still producing the bigger individual clothing sales, but Whatnot helped me turn piles of older inventory into money.
| Platform | Orders shipped | Gross sales shown | What it did for the business |
|---|---|---|---|
| eBay | 67 orders | A little over $1,200 | Continued to carry strong individual sales |
| Poshmark | About 4-5 orders | About $100 | Small extra channel for the weekend |
| Whatnot | About 150 orders | About $1,150 | Moved volume fast and cleared inventory |
| Total | 220+ packages | About $2,400 | Added cash flow and inventory movement |
The biggest lesson for me was not just the sales number. It was that I had an idea back in January and gave myself every reason why it would not work. Once I actually tried it, I realized I did not have a real opinion until I had tested it.
How much did the Whatnot shows produce?
The nine Whatnot shows I ran over 17 days produced about $2,100 in profit toward my wife’s neck procedure. That number was huge for us because it came from inventory we already had, a simple live setup, and a repeatable process.
The shows were lasting between two and three hours each. In those shows, I was selling between 50 and 90 items, and we were able to sell about 95% to 100% of the items we ran.
That sell-through is the part that changed how I looked at old inventory. On eBay, some of those pieces might sit for months. In a live show, especially with a dollar start, I could move a rack of clothing in one night and get space back.
| Whatnot metric from the video | Number shown in July 2024 |
|---|---|
| Time period | 17 days |
| Shows run | 9 shows |
| Length per show | 2-3 hours |
| Items sold per show | 50-90 items |
| Sell-through during shows | About 95-100% of items run |
| Profit set aside | About $2,100 |
I was also enjoying the part I did not expect: connecting with people. A lot of viewers from YouTube were showing up in the shows, and that support made it more fun than just grinding through old inventory by myself.
What sold on eBay while I was testing this strategy?
The eBay sales still mattered because they showed which items were worth listing traditionally and which items made more sense to liquidate later. When this video went up in late July 2024, these were the real examples I showed from my store.
| Brand or item | What sold | Price shown | Listed time shown | My note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simms | Men’s nylon fishing pants | $34 + shipping | About 2 weeks | One of my favorite outdoor brands to pick up |
| Hugo Boss | Men’s XL button-up shirt | $15 + shipping | About 1 month | Lower sale, but it moved |
| Banana Republic Traveler | Pants / jeans | $29.95 + shipping | About 2-3 weeks | One of the few Banana Republic lines I pick up |
| Patagonia | Women’s Better Sweater, size large | $37.46 + shipping | About 1 month | Sold by best offer |
| Old Navy | Women’s plus-size top | $15 + shipping | About 2 weeks | Plus size helped it move |
| Levi’s 541 | Men’s jeans | $29.95 + shipping | About 1-1.5 months | Sold full price |
| Not Your Daughter’s Jeans | Women’s chino pants | $12 + shipping | About 6 months | Slower and lower sale |
| Dockers | New with tags vintage pants | $20 + shipping | About 2 weeks | Bought for $3 each locally |
| Under Armour Auburn | Men’s small jacket | $15 + shipping | About 2 weeks | Goodwill bins pickup |
| Canali | Men’s wool dress pants | $25 + shipping | About 2 weeks | 38x32 and wool helped |
| Levi’s | Women’s jeans | $19.95 + shipping | About 2-3 months | Regular women’s Levi’s still moved |
| Pendleton | Men’s XL wool flannel | $35 + shipping | About 2 weeks | A brand I love picking up |
| Vineyard Vines | Men’s XL performance shirt | $10 + shipping | About 3 months | Lower sale than I would want |
| Eddie Bauer First Ascent | Women’s pants, size 16 | $20 + shipping | About 3 months | Better line than plain Eddie Bauer |
| The North Face | Paramount Peak II convertible hiking pants | $25 + shipping | Same month | Another pair in that model sold for $34 |
| Merino wool running shirt | Performance running shirt | $1 + shipping | About 1 week | Very low sale, better liquidation type item |
| L.L.Bean Cresta | Men’s plaid shirt | $14 + shipping | About 1 month | Model names can help sell-through |
| Callaway | Men’s pants | $20 + shipping | About 2 months | Sold by best offer |
This is where I started separating inventory in my head. Simms, Patagonia, Pendleton, certain Levi’s, Canali, First Ascent, and The North Face hiking pants were still eBay-type items for me. Low-dollar pieces, older listings, and pieces that had already had plenty of time on eBay became Whatnot candidates.
If you are listing similar pieces, the details still matter. Put the model in the title when you know it. For L.L.Bean, typing in the model like Cresta can help. For Eddie Bauer, I would rather pick up First Ascent or Travex than plain basic Eddie Bauer because those lines usually sell for more and sell faster.
Once I have the photos, I want the listing done fast. That is where a tool like EasyFlip can help because it writes the listing from a few photos so you can get the item live instead of letting it sit in a death pile.
How did I run the Whatnot workflow?
The Whatnot workflow was simple: prep the rack the day before, check condition, run the live show from a small station, then label and ship everything after. I was not trying to make it complicated.
The station had racks, lights, a laptop, and a phone. The items were checked for holes and stains before the show because even if something starts at a dollar, I still want to bring the best quality products I can.
During the show, everything that sold was put on racks labeled with the buyer’s name. That helped keep the pace moving and made shipping possible after running that much volume.
My wife was also helping behind the scenes. That mattered a lot. One person could engage with the audience while the other processed the order, wrote the name on the item, and kept the show moving. Without that help, doing extra shows on top of eBay would have been a lot harder.
The show plan going forward was around 70 items per show, mostly women’s clothing with some men’s mixed in, and starting items at $1. At the time of the video, I was planning to run shows Monday through Friday at 5:00 p.m. Pacific.
What inventory did I decide to move off eBay?
My new rule was that anything over one year old in my inventory would be taken down from eBay and moved into Whatnot dollar-start shows. That rule gave me a clear cutoff instead of letting old listings sit forever.
I still planned to run markdown sales and be aggressive as items got closer to that one-year mark. But after a year, I wanted the item out of the eBay store and into a liquidation lane.
The other reason was that I was finding items in my inventory that I thought were listed but were not. I was pulling random SKU numbers, especially some new-with-tags pieces, and when I looked them up on eBay they were not there. I had several hundred items like that.
That could have been frustrating, but I decided to treat it as a blessing. A lot of those pieces were already marked down heavily or were stale anyway. Instead of spending all my time trying to rebuild old listings, I could put them into Whatnot shows and turn them into cash.
The bigger goal was to keep my eBay store fresher. At the time, I was sitting around 8,000 to 9,000 items, and I thought this strategy could bring the store down closer to 3,000 to 5,000 better-quality active listings.
How was I planning to source enough inventory?
To keep eBay and Whatnot both moving, I needed more inventory than I could comfortably source by myself forever. At the time of the video, I was sourcing about 300 to 400 quality items per week, and that was with me sourcing around 40 hours a week.
My sourcing schedule was heavy. I was doing two 12-hour trips on Tuesday and Wednesday, then hitting local mom-and-pop thrift stores between Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
That is why I started talking about buying more wholesale and paying other sourcers. I said I could pay between $3 and $10 per item depending on the piece, and I was looking to bring in 5,000 to 10,000 items over the next few months.
That only works if the quality is there. More inventory does not help if it is the wrong inventory. The whole reason Whatnot worked in this test was that I already had clothing people wanted at prices that made sense for a live auction format.
What should you copy from this strategy?
The part to copy is not just “go live.” The part to copy is building a second exit plan for inventory that is aging out of your main store.
For me, eBay was still the place for better pieces, better models, and items that deserved time to find the right buyer. Whatnot became the place to move older items, extra new-with-tags pieces, lower-dollar finds, and anything that was taking up space after too long.
If you try this, I would start smaller than I did. Pull one rack of items that are over a year old, flawed for eBay but still sellable, or simply not worth relisting. Check every piece for holes and stains. Run a show with clear starts and clear expectations. Then look at the numbers after the show instead of guessing.
If you want more resale breakdowns like this when I post them, you can join the newsletter at /newsletter.
The bottom line
When I made this video in July 2024, adding Whatnot shows gave my business a way to move old inventory, increase weekend shipping volume, and keep eBay focused on fresher listings. The strategy was not complicated: protect eBay for better items, mark down aggressively as inventory ages, and send anything over one year old to a dollar-start live show.
This week, look at your own store and pull a small batch of stale inventory. If it has had enough time on eBay, give it a different exit path instead of letting it sit another year.
Questions people ask
Is Whatnot worth it for eBay resellers?
It can be worth it if you already have extra inventory to move. In my July 2024 video, nine Whatnot shows over 17 days helped lift daily gross sales from about $492 to $743 while clearing older clothing.
What should I sell on Whatnot from my eBay inventory?
I would start with stale items, older listings, lower-dollar pieces, and inventory that has been sitting for over one year. Better eBay items like strong outdoor brands, desirable models, and higher-value pieces can still stay listed.
How many items should I run in a Whatnot show?
At the time of the video, I was planning shows around 70 items each. My recent shows had been selling 50 to 90 items in two to three hours, with about 95% to 100% of the items run selling through.
Should I start Whatnot auctions at one dollar?
That was my plan for stale inventory and liquidation-style shows. A $1 start can move volume quickly, but I would not use it blindly on every high-value eBay item unless I was comfortable with the risk.
When should I delist old eBay inventory?
My rule in the video was to delist items after they had been on eBay for over one year and move them into Whatnot shows. Before that point, I still planned to use markdown sales and aggressive pricing as items got closer to a year old.
Can Whatnot replace eBay for clothing resellers?
For my business, it was not replacing eBay. It was an added platform that helped move inventory faster while eBay continued to produce stronger individual sales on better clothing pieces.
Sources
Prices are eBay sold listings, and every fact below was checked on July 29, 2024.
Read the full video transcript
so just by adding that one extra platform to our workflow we are shipping out a little over 220 packages for $2,400 in gross sales let's talk about it one of my favorite Brands to be picking up is Sims fishing gear these are some men's nylon pants that's sold within about 2 weeks for $34 plus shipping this is a men's Hugo Boss extra large button-up shirt sold for $15 plus shipping it was listed a month ago one of the very few Banana Republic products that I pick up is the Banana Republic traveler pants Jeans they sell really fast and they sell for a decent amount of money I just listed these two to 3 weeks ago and they sold for full price of $29.95 plus shipping this is a women's Patagonia better sweater it is a size large I listed it about a month ago and it sold on a best offer of $37.46 plus shipping
all right so we have 67 orders going out on eBay totaling a little over $1,200 in sales we had a about four or five orders on Poshmark for about $100 in sales and then we're shipping out about 150 orders on whatnot totaling about 1150 in sales so grand total about 23 $2,400 in sales going out over the weekend what a blessing let's get to pulling these orders to find out what's sold we had this women's Old Navy plus-size top that I listed two weeks ago and it's sold on a best offer of $15 plus shipping so yes you heard that right our daily sales went from about $492 per day over the last 17 days to $743 every day just by doing extra whatnot shows so I'm going to be breaking down the statistics on where we stand all right so over the last 17 days we've done nine whatnot shows and that has totaled
uh us putting away about $2,100 in profit towards my wife's neck procedure which which is absolutely unreal the shows last between 2 to 3 hours per show and we're selling between 50 to 90 items per show and we've been able to sell about 95 to 100% of the items that we run in each show which is amazing I just want to say thank you to you because I see a lot of people that come on to the the whatnot show from YouTube so I appreciate that thank you so much and I really just am blown away honestly like I really don't have words because going back starting this journey I didn't know what to expect I didn't know what to how whatnot shows were I didn't even know what to make of it right but overdoing those eight or nine shows over the last two weeks um I'm really enjoying it I'm really enjoying connecting
with you connecting with people bringing them the best deals that I possibly can find I really think it's going to transform our reselling business from here on out it's going to transform our reselling business because we're going to be using a lot of this inventory that is over 2 years old we're going to be able to liquidate it on what not starting it at a dollar a lot of these items that I've gone through anyways um aren't even listed on eBay hundreds of items hundreds of items possibly even over 200 items I've just counted not listed on eBay I'm pulling some of these random skew numbers a lot of these new tag items I'm looking up the skew number on eBay and it's not there so which is kind of a blessing because all these items were marked down heavily so I'm going to be able to pull a lot of these new with tag
items and put them into the whatnot show as well as bringing your favorites Patagonia carheart Northface all your favorite brands starting at a dollar from here on out we're going to be running shows of about 70 items and it's going to be mostly women's with some men's mixed in but we're going to be running those shows at $1 start price Monday through Friday uh 5:00 pm. Pacific Standard time you can uh click a link below where you get a $15 credit it really helps support the channel and the mission for the vision but just wanted to show you how our layout goes this is kind of the whatnot station here where everything gets put on racks the day before it gets checked um you know for holes for stains we want to make sure we bring the best quality products possible and then we just run the show from this little station here pop open
the laptop put the phone right here and keep it simple um definitely got to have a lot of lighting and and then basically everything gets put on racks labeled with the person's name and then we ship it out so it's been really fun I just wanted to show you how the process goes and kind of how we're kind of making Headway towards saving up had to get some coffee I was running low on energy but the Learning lesson in all this there's a Learning lesson in all things is to be able to capitalize on your ideas because I had this idea back in January to start doing and whatnot but I gave all the reasons and excuses as to why it wouldn't work and then I kind of realized hey try it give it a shot I have no opinion if I haven't tried it right so I just want to encourage you if you
have an idea at least try it before you formulate an opinion about it and if I hadn't done that who knows where we would be by now you know if we had started this thing back in January we had these Levi cell these are some 541s size 30 40 34 actually sold for full price of 29.95 plus shipping and these were listed about one to one and a half months ago here are some women's not your daughter's jeans chino pants sold for $12 plus shipping and these had been listed for about 6 months one of my local thrift stores had a good bit five six seven pairs of these new it tag vintage Dockers um I wouldn't usually pick these up but for $3 a piece I couldn't pass them up and and these actually sold for $20 plus shipping after listing them about 2 weeks ago picked this up from the Goodwill bins about
2 weeks ago it is an under arour University of Auburn jacket mens siiz small sold on a best offer of $15 plus shipping so I wouldn't be able to do any of this extra work without first saying thank you to God for the idea and giving me the strength and the idea and the passion and the power to accomplish this task but also my wife relle has stepped it up she is doing a lot of behind the scenes type of work she's helping me in the shows if you want to see us both run a show together you could bookmark tonight's show starting at 5:00 and that has greatly helped you know someone can engage with the audience and someone can process the order write the name on the on the item and then keep the show moving also she's been able to help by doing some photos for eBay as well so just wanted
to say thank you and have that attitude of gratitude to be able to really do this extra work I need help like I can't do it by myself we don't have employees we don't have behind the scenes people helping us it's just us husband and wife couple also want to shout out everyone in our school Community 780 members growing and I just really appreciate everyone coming in showing support showing the love and I really appreciate that everyone been able to get to know been able to help them grow their business and for people that have come on to the whatnot show to show support just want to say thank you I greatly appreciate it we just started this group man like six weeks ago and just blown away from the support and the community and just been able to really enjoy getting to know the members and you know continuing to grow together you know
because we're all at different levels in life and just really help you know really enjoy helping people get to the next level wherever they're at these Canali men's dress pants size 3832 % wool just listed two weeks ago sold for $25 plus shipping so what is the plan moving forward and how am I going to be able to keep up with the extra added work I'm going to be able to now look to buying more wholesale and if you're looking to scale your wholesale business and you just don't like listing you don't like storing inventory you don't like all of the aspects that come with listing on platforms but you do like sourcing then reach out to me down below we can book a free call and see if we're going to be a right fit to work together I can provide you with a brand list and I pay anywhere between three and $10
per item and I'm looking to bring in between 5 to 10,000 items over these next few months so I'm only able to Source about 3 to 400 quality items every week and that's me sourcing about 40 hours every week I do two 12h hour trips on Tu I do Tuesday and Wednesday and then between Friday Saturday and Sunday I'm hitting those local mom and pop thrift stores as well so if you want to work with me and be able to grow your wholesale business let's work together and we can see if we're right fit these women's Levis actually sold for full price they had been listed for about 2 to 3 months but they sold for full price of $19.95 and they were just some regular women's Levis size size eight love picking up this brand Pendleton this is a men's extra-large Pendleton wool flannel sold for $35 plus shipping and was listed just about
two weeks ago so what is my plan with eBay going forward my plan I kind of touched on it earlier but anything over a year old in my inventory is now going to be taken down off of eBay and put into our whatnot shows for a dollar so that's kind of the strategy that way I keep things fresh in my eBay store and I I feel like after a year it gets lost in the algorithm or gets delisted for that matter I know that I didn't physically go in and d-list items from my eBay store and I was kind of surprised to see several hundred items that I thought that were listed that weren't so all these items here I just pulled yesterday there's about six or seven items here none of these were listed on eBay so which is fine they're all kind of new with tag stuff and they're just going to go
in the whatnot show but that's my strategy going forward I'm still going to be doing my markdown sales and still going to be pretty aggressive with that as they get closer to that year mark and then after it goes over a year on eBay I'm just going to delist it and put it in the whatnot show so that's kind of my strategy going forward that way keep things fresh and hopefully that can give us a store size of around maybe 3 to 5,000 items versus 8 to 9,000 where we're at now this is a men's extra large Vineyard Vines performance shirt it's sold in about 3 months and it sold for $10 plus shipping one of my favorite models of Eddie bow to pick up is the first Ascent line these are some first Ascent women's pants uh size 16 listed three months ago and sold for $20 plus shipping so first asent is the
model for Eddie Bower and then also Trax so those are the models that I look to pick up rather than just plain old Eddie Bower and I should probably explain why because they sell for more money and they sell a little bit faster all right this is the second pair of pants by Northface I've sold this month in this model the Paramount Peak 2 convertible hiking pants the first one sold for $34 these ones sold for $25 plus shipping so that was a nice sale more of a performance Marina wool running shirt it's by carbon and it was listed a week ago sold for $1 plus shipping and this is a men's LL Bean plat shirt uh it is the Cresta model so typing in the model number for L Bean products really does help I think increase the selfie rate didn't sell for a ton of money sold for $14 plus shipping it was
listed a month ago all right we have some men's Callaway pants that were listed two months ago they sold on a best offer of $20 plus shipping if you're looking to grow your business and you're looking to maybe take that next leap into going full-time you could check out the free resources down below we do have a free school Community where we do weekly master classes and where it's my mission to help you take that next step in your business it's 100% free and you can check it out down below I hope this video was helpful and if you have any questions just leave them down below and I'd love to be able to help you out so appreciate you we'll see you in the next video take care
