The short answer
Why do most resellers fail, and what can you do about it?
In my August 2025 video, I said most resellers struggle because they waste time on items that don't move and ignore change. The fix is to know your numbers: what you paid, what it sold for after fees, and how long it took. Test a small batch before you buy in bulk, because slow stock ties up your cash.
- Boots I bought for $9 and sold for around $20 roughly doubled my money after fees, but they took months to move (video from Aug 2025).
- Etica denim bought for $16 sold for $25 after fees. That margin was thin enough that I wouldn't buy it again.
- Over four months of selling new-with-tags Lululemon, I got five to 10 wholesale messages a month before I sent out one email.
- Track units, sell time and margin after fees so you know what to buy again and what to skip.
- Test a small batch before a bulk buy. If it sells slowly or the margin is thin, pass on the big order.
Chapters (11)
Most resellers don't fail because they can't find product. They fail because they lose track of two things that never stop moving: their time and the changes around them. That's the core of a video I made in August 2025, and it still holds up for me. Here's what I said, what I learned from my own buys, and what I'd do this week.
What does “time is your currency” mean for a reseller?
Your time is the one thing you can't get back, so spend it where the money is. For me, that meant learning what sells on Whatnot, what buyers actually ask for, and cutting back on everything else. Doubling down on what's selling and getting rid of the rest is a big part of the job.
At the time, I was testing different pricing on Whatnot, from $1 starting bids to fixed prices, and moving between them to see what fit the items and the audience. That kind of testing takes time, and it only pays off if you pay attention to the results.
If you spend your hours on tasks that don't push the business forward, you have only yourself to blame. That's harsh, but I believe it. You get out what you put in.
How do I keep up with change in reselling?
Change is the other certainty. Platforms change, buyers change, and the tools we use change faster than most of us expect. When I made this video, I was experimenting with AI to help with listings and to analyze our data. I said then that this time last year, nothing like what we had now existed.
You don't have to become a tech person to start. Try something small. Are you uploading your sales spreadsheet into an AI tool and asking it what's selling and what's sitting? That's a simple test that can show you patterns you'd miss by scrolling your sold list.
Change also means watching where your buyers are going. Ask yourself whether the platform you rely on is still sending you the customers you want, and whether another platform could be a second place to sell the same items.
Should I sell wholesale as well as retail?
Maybe, but treat it as a test. Over four months after we started selling new-with-tags Lululemon, I got at least five to 10 messages a month from people on Instagram and Whatnot asking whether I offered wholesale. I ignored them for four or five months. Then I asked myself, “Why not?” We sent out an email, and a few people placed orders over a weekend.
The reason I was interested is simple. Wholesale is another income stream, and it can use the stock you already have. Some of those buyers want to put the items in a brick-and-mortar store, and others want to list them on eBay. Wholesale also helps with restocking. If a certain size of a certain item sells well, you can order more.
Wholesale is not a guarantee, though. It doesn't replace retail, and it takes time to set up and follow up. Start small, watch what happens, and keep retail running while you learn.
Do I need to sell on more than one platform?
In the video, I argued that the more places your listings are, the better. You can be successful on one platform, but why not put your stock on several? At the time, we were selling on Whatnot and planned to list some of our new-with-tags items on eBay, especially since we had employees now and could handle more listings.
The logic is that some items stall on one platform and move on another. Something that doesn't perform on Whatnot might do well on eBay. Something that goes slowly on eBay might find its buyer on Poshmark or Facebook Marketplace.
Not every platform fits every seller, though. I know Whatnot isn't for everyone, and eBay isn't either. Start with the platform you already know, then add a second one once you understand your numbers well enough to compare them.
How do I decide if a bulk buy is worth it?
Not every buy works out, and I've had plenty that didn't. In January, we bought four or five pallets of boots to test them. They sold well, but they moved slowly over the summer. When I made the video, we had about 200 left, and I said I probably wouldn't buy them again.
The Etica denim had a similar story. We bought it to try something new. When I made the video, we had about 100 pieces left, and the margin was not great.
Here's how the numbers looked, according to my video from August 2025:
| Item | Bought for | Sold for | After fees | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boots (4–5 pallets, bought in January) | $9 | $20 | Roughly double my money | Sold slowly over the summer, picked up again, about 200 left |
| Etica denim | $16 | $25 | “Not the best” | About 100 pieces left |
These are the prices I gave in that video, not current prices. Check what similar items are selling for now before you make a buy.
Before you buy in bulk, check these things:
- How long similar items took to sell. Slow stock ties up your cash and your storage space.
- Your margin after fees. The gross price can look good while the profit is thin.
- Whether you can test a smaller batch first. A small test tells you more than a big order you hope will work.
- Whether you'd buy it again. If the honest answer is no, don't buy it the first time either.
What did the bad buys teach me?
The boots made money, but the time they took to sell is the reason I wouldn't buy them again. The denim was a similar lesson. Profit on paper doesn't tell you the whole story. You also need to know how fast the stock moves and what it costs to hold.
Mistakes aren't the end. You tried something, you learned from it, and you move on. You don't need to be perfect, and you never will be. But you do need to try new things, because not taking a risk is its own risk.
Why do I need to know my numbers?
I love numbers, and the numbers don't lie. I want to know how many units we have, how long each item takes to sell, and what the margin is after fees. I want the exact metrics, not a guess.
Many resellers struggle because they don't know these numbers. They don't know how much to order, how long an item will take to sell, or whether a product is worth buying again. When you don't know your numbers, every decision gets harder.
You don't have to be an accountant to start. Write down what you paid, what it sold for, and the fees for your last 10 items. Look at how long each one took to sell. That's enough to start making better decisions.
When I didn't know my numbers, I didn't really know what I was doing. As the business grew, the more I knew about it, the better my decisions got. If you're in that place right now, that's okay. I've been there too.
Where does EasyFlip fit in?
Listing is one of the most time-consuming parts of this business, and it's the part that bothered me most when I started on eBay four years before this video. The workflow felt clunky and unorganized, so we started building something for ourselves.
EasyFlip is that tool. When I made this video, it was still in beta. The idea is to snap a few photos, have the title, item specifics and a suggested price drafted for you, and then check everything before it goes to eBay. I asked viewers what they'd want next, like cross-listing to other platforms or an AI coach that helps analyze your sales data.
If you want to follow along as the tool develops, sign up for the newsletter.
Am I doing my best?
I asked myself a hard question while making this video: am I doing my best with the tools I have? I wasn't, and I said so. I wasn't putting in the time it took to get the output my family and my business needed.
That's the question I'd ask you too. Are you doing your best? Are you using your time to learn new skills and develop yourself? Are you watching what's changing around you?
The bottom line
Pick one or two things to change this week. Track your time for three days so you can see where it actually goes. Write down the cost, sale price and fees for your last 10 items. If you're only selling on one platform, list one item on a second one and see what happens. Make mistakes, learn from them, and keep moving.
Questions people ask
How much can you make reselling boots or denim?
In my August 2025 video, boots I bought for $9 were selling for around $20, which roughly doubled my money after fees, but they took months to sell. Etica denim bought for $16 sold for $25 after fees, which I called not the best. Those are the numbers from that video, not current prices.
Is wholesale worth it for a reseller?
It can be, but for me it was a test, not a sure thing. I got five to 10 wholesale messages a month for Lululemon over four months before I sent out an email. A few people ordered, and I'm treating it as one income stream among several.
Should I sell on more than one platform?
I think so. Listing on several platforms gives items more chances to sell, and something that stalls on one platform can move on another. Not every platform fits every seller, so start with the one you know and add a second once you understand your numbers.
How do I track my numbers as a reseller?
Write down what you paid, what the item sold for, and the fees, then note how long it took to sell. I track units, sell time and margin after fees. Those numbers make it much easier to decide what to buy again and what to skip.
How do I avoid buying too much stock?
Test a small batch before a big order. Check how long similar items took to sell and what your margin is after fees. If the stock moves slowly or the profit is thin, pass on the bulk buy, even if the price looks good.
Sources
Prices are eBay sold listings, and every fact below was checked on August 18, 2025.
Read the full video transcript
Two things that have really impacted me as a reseller and an entrepreneur is identifying the fact there's only two things that are certain in this life. One is time and one is change. And if you struggle to figure out the time that you're in or what you do with your time, you'll be out of business. If you struggle to identify the changes that are happening within you, around you, and in your industry, you're going to struggle to stay in business. So, in this video, we're going to be going over the things that I'm doing to be able to stay relevant in 2025 and beyond. So, the first thing being time. What am I doing with my time? I'm learning to be able to become more efficient and more optimized when it comes to reselling. Doubling down on what's selling and getting rid of the rest. So, figuring out what you do with your time is
really what makes the impact and what pushes your business forward. We only have so much time and if you're not putting your time into your business, you're only going to get out of it what you put into it. So, I've been spending my time over the last few months figuring out what are the best items to sell on whatnot. What do the people, what do they want? Trying new pricing strategies from $1 starts to fixed pricing to now doing a little bit of wholesale, which is going to get me to my next point. But if you don't understand the time that you are in and figuring out what you're doing with your time, your time is like a currency and whatever you spend it on, that's what you get. So if you're spending your time not being productive and efficient in your resell business or as an entrepreneur, you can't complain. You only have yourself
to blame. So now we are trying out wholesale Lululemon. You can link it. You can click the link down below if you are interested in wholesale uh Lululemon. Um we can chat. But that's just one new thing that we're trying. Another thing we're trying is an AI automation when it comes to listing stuff on Poshmark, eBay, Merkari, and etc. So those are the two things that we're going to help in our workflow and get a little bit better in the groove and keep up with the times and the change. So, I want to just ask you, what are the things that you're doing in 2025 to stay relevant? Because in the reselling niche, things are going to be changing more than ever before. So, you got to stay on your toes. You got to stay relevant and you got to start learning new skills. So, for example, we've been spending a lot of time getting
ready to start doing wholesale when it comes to Lululemon. We had a few orders come in over the weekend for people that are wanting to buy wholesale. So, why I started to do this is because over the last four months since we started selling new with tags, Lululemon, I've gotten at least five to 10 messages every month. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but they come up on Instagram and on whatnot. Hey, do you offer wholesale Lululemon? I ignored it for four or five months and then I realized, you know what, why not? So, we started it. Just sent out an email this weekend. We had a few people that are like, "Yeah, I love that. I want to be able to take that Lululemon and put it in my brickandmortar store or list it on eBay. And for me, it's just another way to create another income stream, you know, something that
we have abundance in. Why not open it up to more possibilities than just selling on whatnot, right? And over the next week or two, we're going to start implementing listing some of this stuff on eBay as well. Not just Lululemon, but other stuff that we get in that's new with tags. Maybe it doesn't perform well on whatnot, but we could list it on eBay, especially since we have employees now. There's no excuses. So, that's what I'm doing with my time, figuring out the product that I have and how many marketplaces, how many distribution channels can I get that out on. We do get a lot of the same stuff. So, a lot of this stuff can be replenishable, you know, so that is nice. We know that, hey, these certain Lululemon items in this size sell really well. Order more. A brand we've been experimenting with is Skiims. And oh my goodness, I think Ski
is even better than Lululemon because Lululemon is great, right? But Ski, this BL brand, I don't know, blows my mind, especially when it comes to selling on whatnot. I think it's a better brand for whatnot. Anyways, and we're starting to experiment with uh doing some Hoka stuff, which is uh mainly going to be listed on eBay, but maybe in the future we could do some wholesale when it comes to brand new Hokas. So, to sum it all up is just figure out what you're doing with your time. Like, come on. Like, really, are you using your time to learn new skills, to develop yourself? Like, that's really what it comes down to it. and you're going to outco compete the people who don't. Basically, that's what it is is if you're developing your skills, no matter what it is, when it comes to just entrepreneurship in general, you're going to be ahead of the people
that fail to learn and fail to learn new things. So, these are the things that we're doing and we're learning and we're implementing them. Does everything work? No. Things fail. We learn and we learn from those errors. But it's important to try. So, that's what we're doing with our time and change. There is insane change happening right now, especially in the resale space. But look around you. The biggest businesses being built right now are AI startup businesses. So maybe how can you use the change in the world today to help your business out? Like are you having AI analyze some of the data that you have when it comes to reselling? Are you uploading spreadsheets into your to GPT5 to help you analyze and optimize your business more? you know, you got to start using these tools to get better and keep up with the times because they are a change. And this time last
year, there wasn't anything like what's going on now today. So, which is why we're starting to experiment with new things with, you know, creating an AI listister and, you know, all these other things that are so many shiny object syndrome, but I think it's important to identify what's changing around you. Pick an idea that you have and go all in with it. So those are the things that we're doing with time and change. You can either be like an agent of change and initiate the change you want to see or you can be a victim of change and blame everything around you why things aren't working out. I think it's important to not do the blame game. You only have yourself to blame for the reasons why things aren't working out. It's more to it in reselling than just to find items that people want. I mean that's one step. That's the most logical step,
right? But there's more to it. There's more to it than that. Is being actually thoughtful in planning, in figuring out what is it that you want out of this business, whether it's reselling or entrepreneurship. What is it that you want and focus on the goals that you're trying to achieve? Stop trying to copy everyone else and just figure out what do you want. For me, I want optimization and efficiency in my business. I want to be able to know where things are at. Um, how many units do we have? I want to know that Align tanks size six crater blue sell usually between4 and $43 for us on whatnot. I want to know like the exact metrics. And maybe that's just the nerd in me, but I love numbers and the numbers don't lie. And I think that's why one of the reasons why a lot of people just struggle in general, especially in reselling,
is that you just don't know your numbers. You don't know how much, you know, to order, how long this is going to take to sell. And it's just like if you don't know your numbers, it's hard to make decisions in this business. And you know, not saying that, hey, you know, if you don't know your numbers, you're going to fail. It's just like you got to learn the basics and you got to learn how to run your business efficiently and effectively. And just I'm going off experience on what I've just gone through is that, you know, when I didn't know my numbers, I didn't even know what I was doing. And if you're there right now, it's okay. I've been there, too. But as our business has grown more and more, the more numbers that I knew in my business, the better decisions I could make. And that's it. I'm just trying to bring you
some clarity. And I know this is a long talking head video, but that's kind of my point of view. And I want to still see you succeed whether it's in reselling or any kind of entrepreneur entrepreneurship endeavor is that you really just got to know what time you're in and know what's changing around you. If you can capitalize on those two things that are inevitable, you're going to be ahead of the game. Different ways to sell product is huge, too. Like all of this was from our whatnot show on Saturday. All of this was Lululemon. A lot of pre-owned Lululemon as well. And you just got to have different ways to sell product, right? So you got one there, you got one to wholesale, and then maybe one for eBay and Poshmark and then maybe one for Facebook Marketplace. I mean, I really think the more platforms you're listed on, the better in today's age.
I mean, yeah, you can be successful on one, but why not have your listings out on multiple platforms? It just makes sense. I know whatot's not for everyone. I know eBay's not for everyone, but I think today in today's life, you got to be putting that stuff everywhere. Also, another thing, too, is being comfortable with decisions that maybe didn't turn out the way you wanted to. So, back in January, we had bought five, four or five pallets of these boots, and you know, they were great. They were great. They were selling good. They kind of sold a little slow during the summer, but now they're picking up again. We have about maybe one pallet left or less. There was about a,000 boots. I think we're down to about 200 now, 150 to 250 in that range. And, you know, it just took so long to sell. And if I were have to have the opportunity
again, I probably wouldn't do it again. profit margins were good. We bought them for nine, sell them for 20. After fees, you're maybe almost doubling your money. But it's still like something that I wouldn't do again. And that's just something that you shouldn't get bummed out on. You tried it, you move on, and you learn from your mistakes, right? So, this was just a learning mistake. Same thing with the Etica denim. It's like we're down to our last maybe a hundred pieces. There's some over there. Um, great, good, not great. So it's just like you know profit margins like bought for 16 sell for 25 after fees it's like yeah not the best. So I think I just want to share with you that it's okay to make mistakes like you don't need to be perfect and you never will be but it's important that you try new things and you know it just goes
back to that quote of like not taking a risk is the biggest risk. So, did I want to buy a thousand boots in January? Not really, but I wanted to try it to see if it would work. Did we want to buy a thousand pairs of Etica denim? We wanted to try something and we did it. And maybe it's not something we would do again, but we learned a ton in the process. And I think the value comes from learning from the mistakes. So, that's just through my journey. Maybe you have a similar journey. If you are a reseller, maybe you've had a few bad purchases. It's okay. Learn from them. Apply what you learned to avoid that for next time. So, I just want to be 100% raw and real with you that I care about your future and I want you to succeed as an entrepreneur, which is why I'm just showing you
the journey on this channel. It's going to be a lot of journey. Here's what I'm doing. Here's what worked. Here's what didn't. Take it for what you will. So, that's kind of what we're doing. I want to get into a project we've been working on that I think is going to help your life become a little bit easier as a reseller. Behind the scenes, we've been building this AI app to make the listing workflow that much easier because we all know how tedious and timeconuming it can be. So, we built this AI analysis app to be able to read photos and launch listings onto platforms like eBay, Poshmark, Merkari, Offer Up, Facebook Marketplace, etc. Uh, so I want to just give you a brief overview on what we've been working on and when we start getting listed back on eBay, this is going to be something super nice to use and just easy to implement
into our workflow. Long are long gone are the days of paying for listers to list your listings, how annoying and how timeconuming it is to train a lister to actually list the things that you want to list. The cool part about this is we are developing this platform. So, we're taking basically all the experience that we've had over the last four years reselling on eBay, putting it into our knowledge base. So, we're able to actually build listings that actually rank with the correct titles, with the correct item specifics, things that are super important when it goes into creating a listing. And this is what we got going on. Easyflip.ai. Just want to give you a quick overview on the process. So, once you sign in and get into the dashboard, you're going to want to upload your photos. Very simple, very easy. We just chose a few photos just for demonstration purposes. And then you're
going to want to assign the skew. Very simple. That's one. Assign skew. Two. Assign skew. This is going to help cut down on the time it takes to get listings done. Okay. So, once the listings are imported, it's very simple. You're just going to have AI analyze these items. Very simple. And once they're analyzed, you're going to be hitting the ground running, ready to get your listings put onto eBay. And like I said, we're still in beta testing, but it's really going to help you save the time it takes to be able to get listings done. It's one of the most time consuming parts of this entire business, and we need to be able to keep up with the times. I mean, come on. And once your listings are analyzed, you're going to be able to kind of just verify all the item specifics, verify that you want to price it according to the market
or come up with your own bucket pricing, and you're going to be able to launch this listing right onto eBay for now. So, we are going to be starting this beta testing program here in the next couple weeks and I want the feedback from you. What are some features that you want to see in this platform? Do you want to see multiple, you know, crosslisting platforms integrated? Do you want to have a AI reselling coach that's going to help analyze all your data to be able to help you make datadriven decisions? There's multiple ideas that I have, but I want your feedback because I'm building this for the reseller. So, like I said, it's down below. You can sign up, join the wait list, and we will send beta testing to all the people that sign up. The workflow as a reseller has always kind of bothered me, especially when I started listing on eBay
four years ago. Very clunky, very unorganized, very archaic way of doing listings. So, I was like, you know what? Let's build something for ourselves that we could use to help this workflow become a little bit more optimized, a little bit more efficient. So, that's the thing we're running with. I always goes back to that quote is like, am I doing my best? Am I doing the best that I h that I can with the tools that I have? And I just flat out was like, "No, I'm not doing my best. I'm not putting in the time that it takes to get the required output that we're looking for as a family and as a business." Then I just say to you, are you doing your best? Are you doing the best that you can in your business? The thing that convicts me the most is like, God deserves my best, so why shouldn't I try
to do my best? Try to wake up a bit earlier. Try working on that project an extra hour. Try taking the kids out to the park in the middle of the day. You know, things like that. It's just I know it's very simple and very basic, but I just say that you get what you put into it. And that's with a lot of things in life. So, are you doing your
