Stock You Can Source to Resell for a Penny or Less

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How Do You Managed This One, Then?

My entry point into reselling didn't come with any investment whatsoever. I was so used to finding ways of making money that didn't involve my own, so it didn't feel right to part with money.

It's a more fun way of doing things, but the rewards are often less fruitful and infrequent. Most importantly, you can’t scale that way. However, what that period taught me most was how resourceful you can be, how to avoid waste, and how almost everything has some value to someone else.

Over the course of this period, I uncovered a whole host of ways to source free products that will sell for actual money on eBay and other online marketplaces. Here are a handful of the most lucrative things you can get by spending just one penny.

Magazines

We all know that magazines are collectible. Studying for a journalism degree, I found myself wanting my own collection of old music magazines, just to see how things changed over time. For some of the older ones that are harder to come by, I spent real money to own them. Other people will do the same.

In London, there are a lot on the go for free. NME, Timeout, Stylist, Coach, RWD Mag, Red Bulletin are a few that I've kept a stash of (for myself and to resell).

People want to own magazines featuring cover stories (or even smaller ones) of people they admire. And this even goes for the magazine inserts from newspapers.

My advice for these ones is to bundle them. A year's worth will usually be worth more than individual ones.

Newspapers

It's the same deal with newspapers. There's information contained with them, such as reports on global events that people want physical versions of. Obama leaving the White House and handing over to Trump is a recent event that people wanted a keepsake of, apparently. Celebs dying will prompt this kind of second-hand newspaper spending behaviour too.

There are whole websites dedicated to selling your old newspapers. What was 40p yesterday is now worth £7.99, plus P&P, showing you how big the profit potential is for certain papers from significant times. Beyond the big stories, local newspapers have stories about the people in the area. If they don't buy it when it comes out, they have no choice but to hunt – and pay up – to own it.

You don't even need to spend money on them. If you're a commuter, you're bound to come across discarded papers around. Even an old Metro will be worth something to someone. My advice: see a newspaper, grab it, hold onto it. List it when the time's right (which could be the next day, or in months or years).

Trinkets

Alibaba and its consumer facing AliExpress site never ceases to amaze me. It's a place for (mainly) Chinese manufacturers and wholesalers to shift their stock to the rest of the world. People have been taking advantage of it for years to resell all sorts for high margins on eBay, Amazon, and their own sites.

eBay is where I want to concentrate for now. Some seller dropship from China, so it may take a month for a purchase to eventually get to the UK. This has an advantage though, because they acknowledge this inconvenience by pricing items at low prices.

There are even things that you can get for a penny. Adjust your eBay search filters to find penny listings, and they will soon appear. They are almost always auctions, so you usually have to bid on many before you win one. Once you do, you'll have a trickle of items to sell on.

You can get trinkets, hair clips, dice, scrabble tiles, and loads of others things. It's all tat, but it's new, and you can bundle to sell on again. It's easy to sell boxes of these things at boot sales. If you're the crafty sort, make something out of the bits and flog it on Etsy. Alternatively, buy a few lots, and sell them back on eBay.

Catalogues

Argos catalogues make people very happy. Thinking about it right now makes me want to hunt down all the ones from 1996 to 2001. The way things are going, physical catalogues aren’t going to be around forever. Grab them, wait a few years, and you might have some free money on your hands.