Why I Started Sourcing Wholesale & Buying in Bulk

9 Minute Read

How Did I Find a Wholesaler?

Hi friends! I’m back and I’m here to finally explain what I’ve been talking about the last few weeks. Yay! So, as you may have read previously, I have been sourcing/thrifting/aka collecting other peoples things, quite a lot recently. Yep, I’m talking about buying in bulk and wholesale!

Related: 22 Reasons Why I Became a Reseller

So, why buy in bulk? Why wholesale you may ask? Well, I’m going to explain that in just a moment, but first I want to introduce you to the guys over at Branded in Butler as I’d like to talk about them for a moment. You can reach them at brandedinbutler on Instagram and Facebook! And you can shop their eBay store here: wholesalevtgshop.

Here is just one of their available vintage tees! Being a Def Leppard lover myself, it’s tempting not to go and purchase it! Click here to check it out on their website!

It’s funny, I don’t know how I really feel about manifestation and all, but I’d say my feelings are mixed. I’m bringing this up randomly because I was searching Google high and low the day prior to speaking with these guys. I went through, I don’t know, maybe 14 or so pages of wholesalers all over the country, including companies overseas in the UK and Europe.

After a ton of emails and a bajillion open tabs on my web browser, I sat back for the day and thought I’d put in an honest amount of effort trying to find a few winners. I would give myself a break and tackle the remaining pages tomorrow, I thought.

Finding a Match for My Business

That night, a one man company from a state over reached back out to me, and although he had what I was looking for, (and was within good driving distance!), we just weren’t a match for business unfortunately. I was bummed! But I had lots of others to lean on so I wasn’t too worried just yet.

Related: 10 Unlikely Places to Source From

Anyway, the next day, literally within 24 hours or less even, I got a message through eBay. It asked straight and to the point, if I was interested in wholesale. At first, I thought maybe they were buyers, looking for me to liquidate to them. But no, I was wrong! All of my hard work had paid off! Except it hadn’t.

That hard work I’d done the day prior, really didn’t pay off. Out of the hundreds of companies I’d emailed, I decided to stick with just one. (We’ll talk more about them later in a different post, along with two others I found through a previous web search).

However, once the conversation took off further with wholesalevtgshop, I understood that they were in fact the wholesalers, in search of potential customers of their own! This is perfect I thought! But wait, where were they located, and how did they find me? And, if I could drive there, this would save me tons on shipping costs!

They went on to explain that they’d simply searched locally on eBay, and looked for stores that had a lot of reviews and sales. This made sense, and it was great, since I wouldn’t have to drive to Timbuctoo to source from their warehouse! I was thrilled! We set a time and date to meet up the next week, and off to their warehouse I went.

What Was My Experience?

Yes I had to use GPS! It wasn’t hard though. It was right in the town (or city as I suppose it’s technically deemed), of Butler, Pennsylvania. They have a nice warehouse with oodles of inventory literally bursting at the seams!

The whole place was very clean and organized. I wasn’t sure what to expect since I’d never been to any sort of warehouse before to source from, (except if you count the Goodwill Bins as one). I was impressed to say the least. They had some super cool vintage tees hanging from the ceiling as well, which from what I understand is their own collection. I thought this was a nice personal touch!

They focus primarily on “raw donations.” What are those, you may be asking? They are simply sourced from the bins that have donations in them near stores, roads, etc. These donations (from my own experience), have all sorts of items in them!

That could range from New with tags North Face, to pre owned Banana Republic, maybe some super sweet Lululemon hoodies, Coach loafers, and yes also, your grandmothers old socks we talked about in a previous post! Check that post out here if you missed it!

*Side Note: I’d like to mention that Branded in Butler also offers pre-sorted inventory as well, that you can purchase by the piece. This can be a little more costly, but removes the hassle (I find it fun, though), of digging through the bags of donations and saving a few hours of your time.

Related: 77 Brands to Look for While Sourcing

It was sweet. You go in, you pick out whichever bale (which is just a big pallet full of raw donations), that’s calling your name, and boom, it’s all yours! Well, after you exchange the moolah of course! This can be done by using cash, PayPal, or Venmo. These bales are only $1/pound, which I feel is super helpful especially when you’re starting out! The bale is then cut open with some wire cutters, and it literally, as I said, BURSTS at the seams. It was like CHRISTMAS!!!

Next, you’ll go through the items one by one…yes, one at a time! This took me approximately 4 hours, with about a half hour to get acquainted and choose the bale, and a half hour to load, so about 5 hours in total.

It was exhausting, but also super fun and rewarding! Of course I came across some old socks along the way, but they conveniently have two large empty bins set up right in front of the sorting table for you to toss those suckers into. Another nice touch.

You can bring your own bags, but trust me when I say you’re probably going to need those black contractor bags instead. (They provide these if your bags just aren’t cutting it!) They fit A LOT more and will most likely be more durable to lug your new treasures home with you in.

I have an SUV, and they were kind enough to help me load it up when I was finished! It was STUFFED to the brim, like legit. No extra room. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

They were super kind, helpful, and professional from the start. I highly recommend these guys to do business with, as they are very knowledgeable in their field and fun to talk to as well! I learned a lot of tips and can’t wait to go back!

*Keep in touch and make sure you’re subscribed to hear about how I’ve done so far with my wholesale buying experience!

Wholesale and Bulk, Are They One in the Same?

Stay tuned for another post to come that will go over: What’s the Difference Between Wholesale and Bulk?

Thank You!

A giant thanks to everyone that has supported me this far into my journey! I greatly appreciate you returning to read my posts hope that you will continue to drop by in the future.

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Happy selling friends!

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We have also created a Merch Store that donates 10% of profits to the National Resources Defense Council. If you are interested in helping out to promote Rooted Drawers Stores, please stop by to contribute! Remaining profits will be put towards our ever-growing business and are always genuinely appreciated.

Please feel free to drop any comments below that you would like to add! I am always open to advice, suggestions, or even hearing related stories of your own! I stay as active as possible in the comment section, therefore I will reply to any questions asap.

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