Greetings and happy Summer! If you’re as excited as me about yard selling season being upon us, just know that you’re not alone! Each year I plan to yard sale my heart out but as time goes on, our inventory actually fills up with more and more items from contacts gained along the years. Sometimes those meetups can go great, but sometimes they can include items that are not great for resale and will need to be repurposed somehow. Here’s a few ideas for upcycling and rotating through the products you already have on hand if you’re looking to pinch pennies and save up for an epic yard selling Summer! Let’s take a look at how to continue rotating stale items without spending.
The Reseller Journey Continues… As Does Our Inventory
The good news is that with more and more years under our belts of being a reseller, the more and more opportunities we come across that provide us with additional contacts and therefore products for inventory to stock up in.
The bad news? Unfortunately, not everything is worth as much as we would like it to be. Therefore, to maintain creating enough space for storing these items, we have to get creative about what to do with items that aren’t making the sale. I do like to encourage resellers to try their hand at all categories! If you’re just interested in clothes, try out hard goods. Or if jewelry is your thing, give selling shoes a shot. Just because you’re not an expert in every category doesn’t mean your goods won’t sell, it just means that you’re giving another reseller an opportunity that is an expert to pickup your product and list it again.
I used to be envious of resellers trying to buy up my products. I’d scour their profile and find a million other items just like the one that they were offering on…only for a MUCH higher price on their site. The thing is, I’ve come to realize that some sellers are in fact experts, and others, like myself, are just here for the flip.
That means I do my best to invest in new inventory, grab a few quick pics, and list it to the best of my knowledge or that Google Lens has to offer me. I’m not the reseller to spend hours researching and price comping these items as my inflow of new items comes way too fast to be able to spend time on things like that. Therefore, I’ll leave that handywork to another seller and let them be the expert in their field while I’m the expert in mine, (quick flips!).
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All of this to say, that I’d like to introduce to you a few other options if you’re struggling to find ways to move through that inventory that likes to stick around just a little too long. (Especially those bigger items!)
(Keep in mind that I am an everything seller. Which means I invest in any inventory that comes along my way as long as I deem it sellable at the time. If you have specific questions about certain inventory to move, please feel free to comment below if I didn’t touch on your category in the post!)
Tips For Maintaining Your Reselling Inventory
Don’t hang onto something for too long just because you’ve grown attached to it. Too often in the past I’ve done this and it’s caused anxiety and grief over how to get it moved and why I bought it in the first place. Look at this opportunity as a lesson learned and find a way to move it without getting stressed.
One of my favorite ways to flip items if I’m having a hard time moving them is local auctions. This has become a simple and (quicker) way to ensure those items are getting the last chance bids that I know they deserve. Sure, it’s unlikely that you’ll make any major profit from this option, but you’ll at least gain another chance to make your investment back or in the least bit, clear some space!
An easy way to find your local auction houses is through a simple Google search. You can just type in local auctions and I promise, more than you think will pop up around your area!
This is also a great way to score some new inventory if you’re looking for new products! Check out their page to see any upcoming online or in-person auctions to place a bid on something that catches your eye.
Here’s some items that we’ve sent to the auction so far this year, in case you need a few ideas of what can be sold at them:
- Leftover decorations that have been relisted on eBay and are still sitting despite lowering prices.
- Hard to package/ship bins or boxes full of vases/candles, or other similar less costly/unbranded glassware.
- Lamps…of all kinds! Unfortunately we are not the Crazy Lamp Lady. We do not possess her lamp selling skills and therefore all lamps now go straight to the auction house if they’re included in a local inventory pickup.
- Bicycles for adults or children. Many times these sit for a long time until they find exactly the right buyer. They also take extensive cleaning and tinkering with parts that may cause too much work for the $25 sale. We focus on flipping quick, not spending too much time on each item.
- Most books, unless they’re specifically sought after or a movie was made from them or they are some weird awesome vintage find. (Remember, churches have book sales where they’re sold for 5, 10, or 25 CENTS…keep your storage space and move these bulky, heavy items at your local auction instead.
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Thinking Outside the Reselling Box
You may think I’m crazy, but our second mention today is your local scrapyard. Yes, yes. It’s not “reselling.” But it is a way to recoup some of that hard earned dough spent on that unmoving inventory. It typically doesn’t bring in a large profit, but it helps to move some of the bulk of your inventory that isn’t finding that perfect buyer. (As long as you’re okay with letting these things go!)
Last year, we came across a large metal desk. It was awesome and wonderful and SURELY someone would want it, I thought. A collector or someone looking for a project would most certainly seek it out to upcycle or appreciate as is…right??
Nope.
This same desk has sat for nearly a year in our storage space, just waiting for that special someone to invest in a piece of the past. Unfortunately, that day never came. (Maybe I’m weird, but I do feel sort of bad for these items that no one wants. This is why I mentioned at the beginning to allow inventory to come in and out of your life without attachment. They are just objects! You do not owe them your space for an eternity.)
After many attempts on several platforms and re-listings and price drops and new pictures, it was time to make the call. As of last weekend, it’s been making its way to the scrap yard where it’ll have a chance to be repurposed into something more modern and updated to what people are seeking out these days.
It’s vintage look was appealing at first, which is why we spent the time and (pretty big effort) of loading it, hauling it, removing the dents and fixing the drawers in it, and storing it in the first place. Even with all of this work put in, we had to finally accept the item as a loss.
Losses happen sometimes and it’s okay to accept that. At least by taking it to the scrap yard we’re able to make a little back for investing in another piece of inventory in the future, (and saving a LOT more space). Sure, if we had more space we may have hung on a little longer, but unfortunately that is not the kind of sellers that we are. Because of this lack of space we need to focus on moving items quickly and being okay with things that don’t.
We even had people reaching out that had similar desks, offering for us to come pick it up for FREE because they didn’t want it anymore. After a few of these incoming messages, we realized it was highly unlikely to sell.
It’s okay to make changes to your way of listing, or way of buying, or even way of letting inventory go. As your business grows, things will differ with each new batch of inventory or new contact you obtain product from.
If you’re looking for other ways to move items please feel free to check out some other posts of ours below! Questions about a specific item or category of goods that are sitting stagnant? Drop a message and we’ll do our best to suggest some options for what you can do.
Save storage space, save time, and sell on peeps!
Thank You For Reading “How To Continue Rotating Stale Items Without Spending To Maintain Revenue”
We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all those who have supported us thus far on our journey including today’s post about reselling inventory management and more. At Rooted Drawers, we deeply appreciate your ongoing readership. We hope that you will continue to visit us in the future. Please feel free to share any comments or suggestions below.
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Talk to you soon!