Best items to flip: what sells, fees and taxes

Flipping is buying something used or discounted and reselling it for more. Some people use it to add a second income stream, but the profit is only what's left after the fee, the shipping and what you paid.

This guide does three things most items-to-flip lists skip. It shows each marketplace's own fee, the items the law or the platform won't let you sell, and the tax basics.

And we checked real sold prices ourselves.

Small, light things are the easiest to start with

Start with what fits in a padded mailer. It's cheap to ship, easy to store, and buyers type the brand and size straight into the search box.

Brand-name clothes and shoes

Clothes are the classic first flip, and your own closet is free stock.

Start there.

Brand, size and condition sell it, so put all three in the title. Athletic shoes get a break on eBay: its fee page lists 8% on sneakers that sell for $150 or more, with no per-order fee, as of October 2026.

Video games and consoles

Games are small, sturdy and searched by exact title.

Easy to list, too.

Complete-in-box copies usually beat loose discs, so photograph the case, the disc and the manual.

Test consoles before you list them, and say what you tested.

Cameras and lenses

A lens can be worth more than a bag of sweaters and weighs less.

Shoot a test photo and include it, because buyers want proof the autofocus works.

Note any haze or scratches on the glass up front.

Books, with one catch

Textbooks and niche nonfiction can sell, but check the fee first. eBay charges 15.3% on books, movies and music, higher than its 13.6% for most categories (as of October 2026).

That's 1.7 points more, taken straight out of a low-priced item.

Bulky things sell best to local buyers

Now flip that logic for big items.

Shipping a dresser across the country can cost more than the dresser itself, so sell it to someone nearby who'll drive over with a truck and pick it up.

Furniture

Solid wood, a known maker or a good refinish sells. Particleboard rarely does.

Measure everything and put the dimensions in the first line.

People ask anyway, but fewer of them.

Exercise equipment

Weights, bikes and rowers are heavy, which is exactly why owners let them go cheap.

Local pickup only.

Check the model on the recall list before you buy it, too (more on that below).

Power tools

Drills and saws from big brands hold value when the batteries and charger come with them. List the voltage and battery count, and run the tool on video if you can.

Collector items reward knowing more than the seller

Beyond size and shipping, there's knowledge.

In collector categories the same comic or bowl can sell cheap or dear depending on edition and condition, so learn one niche well before you buy deep.

Trading cards and comics

Condition is the price here. eBay's fee for trading cards, comics and collectible card games is 13.25% as of October 2026, a bit under its standard rate.

Vintage kitchenware

Old patterned glass bowls, cast iron and enamel pots turn up at estate sales all the time.

Check for chips under good light.

Then pack them like they owe you money.

Guitars and amps

Instruments are worth learning about for one reason: eBay's fee for guitars and basses is 6.7% with free listings as of October 2026, about half its usual cut.

Clothing that is actually vintage

Etsy is the marketplace built for vintage, but its rule is strict. Its Creativity Standards exclude resold items newer than 20 years old, even if they're designed to look old.

A tag with "vintage" in the brand name doesn't count. More on why in our price check below.

Where to find stock without breaking rules

Those three groups all start in the same places, and the cheapest one is your own house.

Clear your closet, garage and storage unit first. You'll learn the selling side before you spend a dollar on stock.

After that, try thrift stores, church rummage sales, estate sales, garage sales, flea markets and store clearance racks.

Keep every receipt, even a scrap with a price on it. You'll want it at tax time.

Reselling things you own is legal. U.S. copyright law's "first sale" rule lets the owner of a lawfully made copy sell it without asking the maker.

Stolen goods are a different story. Meta's Commerce Policies ban items "stolen or otherwise acquired unlawfully", and a too-cheap deal with no history is the warning sign. Walk away.

Check sold prices, not asking prices

Before you buy anything to resell, look up what the same item really sold for. Asking prices are wishes, and sold prices are what buyers paid.

We meant to show this with eBay's Sold filter. On October 25, 2026, it sent us to the eBay sign-in page, and a second try hit a browser check, so we stopped there.

Poshmark worked without an account. We searched "vintage denim jacket" and switched Availability to Sold. The first page had 48 sold jackets with a median price of $21. The same search for jackets still for sale showed a median asking price of $40.

That's nearly double.

Two more things jumped out.

Fourteen of the 48 sold for under $15, where Poshmark takes a flat $2.95. And 20 of the 48 titles named one label, Ethyl, most as "Ethyl Vintage Denim", which is a name, not an age.

Here's the check we'd run on any item before buying:

1. Search the exact item: brand, model, size or edition.
2. Filter to sold or completed listings, not active ones.
3. Compare at least 5 sold copies in the same condition.
4. Take the middle price, not the best one.
5. Subtract the fee, shipping and supplies for the platform you plan to use.
6. Buy only if what is left is worth your time.

Good photos in daylight, a plain background and an honest note on flaws do more for the sold price than any keyword trick.

What each marketplace takes, as of October 2026

Those sold prices only matter once you know the cut. Each marketplace charges differently, and several charge on shipping and sales tax too. Here's what their own fee pages said on October 25, 2026.

Mercari's fee FAQ says there's no extra payment processing fee for sellers since January 2025.

eBay folds processing into its one fee, while Etsy charges processing on top of its 6.5%.

So the lowest headline rate isn't always the cheapest sale.

Sharing a listing on Instagram or in a link-in-bio page? Our UTM builder adds tracking tags to that link, so you can see which post sent the buyer.

One jacket, five marketplaces: the math

That table is hard to feel, so here's one sale run through all five.

Example: Marisol, a made-up side seller in Macon, Georgia, buys a 1990s denim jacket at a church rummage sale for $14.00. She lists it at $45.00, and the buyer pays $9.00 shipping. The buyer lives in Oregon, which has no general sales tax, so tax doesn't change the fees. Her label costs $9.00 and the mailer $1.00.

On eBay, 13.6% of the $54.00 order plus $0.40 is $7.74, leaving her $22.26. Facebook Marketplace and Mercari each take $5.40, so she keeps $24.60. Etsy's three fees add up to $5.58, leaving $24.42.

Poshmark works differently: the buyer pays Poshmark a flat $6.49 for shipping (as of October 2026), and Marisol's label is included. Its 20% of $45.00 is $9.00, so she keeps $21.00.

The spread is under $4, and none of that counts the hour she spent washing, photographing and packing.

Our take: pick the marketplace where buyers already look for your item, not the one with the smallest percentage. A jacket nobody sees doesn't save you any fee.

Things you shouldn't flip at all

That math only works if the item is allowed.

Some things are illegal to sell. Others break a marketplace's rules and can get your account shut down.

Recalls come first. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says "it is illegal to sell any recalled product", and that covers items sold secondhand by a consumer in an online marketplace. The rule sits in Section 19 of the Consumer Product Safety Act.

Search the CPSC recall list by brand and model before you list anything for kids, any heater or anything with a battery.

• Anything on a recall list.
• Used car seats and used bike helmets, which eBay's product safety policy doesn't allow.
• Infant inclined sleepers and crib bumpers, also on that eBay list.
• Makeup that's been used or isn't in its original packaging, banned under Meta's Commerce Policies.
• Fakes, replicas and "dupes". eBay's counterfeit policy says a brand name plus "dupe" isn't allowed.
• Weapons, ammunition and prescription drugs, which Meta bans in the same policies.

When you're not sure a designer bag is real, don't buy it to resell. eBay says you may list an item only if you're certain it's genuine.

Do you pay taxes on things you resell?

Yes, on the profit, whether or not you get a tax form. The IRS says that "whether or not you receive a Form 1099-K, you must still report any income on your tax return."

Marketplaces send Form 1099-K only above a threshold. Today that's payments over $20,000 and more than 200 transactions in a year, after a 2025 law brought back the older limit. A marketplace may still send one below it, and the IRS 1099-K FAQ notes state limits may be lower.

The form shows gross sales, not profit.

It doesn't know what you paid for anything, which is exactly why those thrift-store and rummage-sale receipts from earlier matter so much in April.

Selling your own used stuff for less than you paid usually isn't a profit at all.

Buying to resell is different.

To tell a hobby from a business, the IRS weighs factors such as whether you run it in a businesslike way and keep complete books and records. As a business, net earnings of $400 or more mean self-employment tax of 15.3%.

Creators face the same side-income questions; we answer them for TikTok in how to make money on TikTok.

This section explains IRS rules in general and isn't tax advice. For your own return, ask a CPA or an enrolled agent.

When reselling outgrows the marketplaces

Once you're buying stock every week and paying fees on the same repeat buyers, it may be time for your own store.

Marketplaces bring traffic. A store keeps more of each sale but needs you to bring the buyers.

Our step-by-step ecommerce website guide covers costs, payments and sales tax, and WordPress vs Shopify helps you pick a platform. For a full build, the WordPress website guide goes from domain to launch, and our ecommerce trends piece shows what shoppers expect now.

Already have a store? Our website audit tool costs nothing and flags slow pages and broken links before buyers find them.

Want someone to build it? Our developers make small online stores. That's our own paid service, so weigh it against the free guides above.

How we made this guide: on October 25, 2026, we read the fee pages of eBay, Mercari, Poshmark and Etsy and Meta’s checkout terms, the CPSC recall pages and the IRS 1099-K, hobby and self-employment pages. That day we also checked Poshmark’s sold and available results for one search without signing in; eBay’s sold filter needed an account, so we couldn’t use it. Every fee and total in the example was worked out by hand and checked twice. Sources sit inline in the text, and our author, Eram N., gives it a final read and sign-off ahead of publication.

First published April 2024. Rewritten October 25, 2026: the old list promised $100 to $5,000 a month without any source. It's now a practical reselling guide with each marketplace's fees, our own sold-price check, a worked example, the items you can't sell and the tax basics.

Sources

• eBay: Selling fees
• eBay: Product safety policy
• eBay: Counterfeit policy
• Meta: On-site Checkout Payments Features Terms and Conditions (updated September 23, 2025)
• Meta: Commerce Policies
• Mercari: Changes to our fee structure
• Mercari: FAQs about our new fee structure
• Poshmark: What are the fees for selling on Poshmark?
• Poshmark: search results, vintage denim jacket, sold (read October 25, 2026)
• Etsy: Fees & Payments Policy (last updated October 5, 2026)
• Etsy Help: Payment processing fees
• Etsy: Creativity Standards
• CPSC: Stopping the online sale of recalled products
• CPSC: Recalls and product safety warnings
• 15 U.S.C. 2068: Prohibited acts (Consumer Product Safety Act, Section 19)
• 17 U.S.C. 109: Effect of transfer of particular copy (first sale)
• IRS: Understanding your Form 1099-K
• IRS: Form 1099-K FAQs, general information
• IRS: FAQs on the Form 1099-K threshold under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill (October 23, 2025)
• IRS Tax Tip 2022-57: Hobby or business
• IRS: Self-employment tax
• Oregon Department of Revenue: Sales tax