Sign in Subscribe

Tools & Supplies

Marty

— 4 min read
Tools & Supplies
Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki / Unsplash

Every new business plan needs tools and supplies to begin operations, reselling is no different. We've got three lists below for items for resellers, 1. Bare Minimum, 2. Ready to Expand, and 3. Beyond.

Bare Minimum (Apprentice Level)

For brand new resellers, here are the essentials you need with an explanatory paragraph following the list detailing why.

  • Smart phone and/or a computer with internet access
  • Bank account
  • eBay Account
  • Scale
  • Packing Tape
  • Measuring tape, ruler or yard stick
  • Bank account
  • Inventory System

These are the essentials. If you don't have a smart phone, then an older digital camera will work long as you have a computer with internet access (but you'll want to upgrade to a smart phone quickly because it will save you a lot of time and effort for photography AND you need it to properly research items you come across in thrift stores, yard sales, etc.).

A bank account is a must; from connecting it to eBay for paying fees and receiving the proceeds form your sales, to using the debit card to purchase items at thrift stores, and so on. At the very beginning, you can use your current, personal bank account but we recommend you open a second, dedicated only to your business account. We'll go into greater detail on setting up your dedicated bank account for your eBay business bank accounts in another article.

The scale is another must have, using a bathroom scale doesn't work well at all, especially for smaller items that weigh two pounds or less. There are some links at the bottom of this article directing you different models of scales to explore. Packing tape and a measuring stick round out the bare essentials. Notice there is no mention of buying cardboard boxes and bubblewrap. Why? You likely already have a few lying about from Amazon or WalMart deliveries, we reuse these all the time. Or, you can find them for free if you ask employees at dollar stores, supermarkets, hardware stores, et al. Download and check the NextDoor app--in our area there are usually free boxes and dunnage for the taking from folks who recently moved to the area.

Last, the Inventory System, also known as a SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) system, means having a set of bins, drawers, cabinets, et al that are labeled something like "01" and "02" and so on. This way, when you list an item, and there is room for it in the "01" bin, you store the item there and enter "01" into the SKU field within the eBay listing. When you sell the item, eBay displays (only to the seller) the SKU so you can easily retrieve the sold item for shipping. You must develop a way to track and find inventory items and this is a simple method most seasoned eBay resellers use.

💡
Pro Tip: If you're new to eBay, use your new account to make the purchases you need, such as the scale, tape, etc.; you might as well source on eBay now and receive some positive Feedback as soon as possible. Making several micro purchases to build your Feedback score is never a bad strategy when starting out. You want to build your Feedback up so that buyers are more comfortable buying from you.

Ready to Expand (Journeyman Level)

  • Mercari account
  • Poshmark account
  • Etsy account
  • Facebook account
  • Vendoo account
  • Small supply of flat-folded cardboard boxes
  • Roll of bubblewrap
  • Packing tape gun and tabletop dispenser
  • Thermal label printer
  • 4x6 shipping labels
  • LED lighting for photography area
  • Dedicated bank accounts solely for business use
  • Credit card solely for business use

Mercari, Poshmark, Etsy and Facebook (for posting on Facebook Marketplace) are additional marketplaces for many of your items to be cross-listed to, while the Vendoo account is an online service costing roughly $30-$40 monthly, but easily populating your listings from eBay onto these marketplaces justifies the cost.

Regarding buying cardboard boxes, the following measurements are all in inches, we keep a good supply of 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 6x4x4, 6x6x4, 12x6x6, 8x6x6 and 10x8x8 boxes available. We still use any and all Amazon/WalMart boxes we receive from our personal delivered items, but our sales volume uses those quickly, so we need additional boxes and flat-packed ones take up the least amount of space for storage. For bubblewrap, the same idea of the boxes applies to bubblewrap, paper-stuffing, air-pillows, etc., reuse them all but you'll need more, so a roll of bubblewrap goes a long way. By the way, packing material is called dunnage, so bubblewrap, paper, air-pillows, styrofoam, and the like... dunnage. Last, the packing tape gun is a must, and the tabletop dispenser is a nice luxury for quickly cutting small lengths of packing tape.

You'll welcome the thermal printer with open arms once it arrives. They work well, the 'ink' doesn't smear if it gets wet, but the time and effort needed to print a label versus hand-writing each cusomter's address on packages... that's golden! Buy the 4x6 thermal printer labels when you acquire the printer.

For the photography area, you need dedicated lighting for better pictures. We've listed a few options at the end for you to consider.

💡
When tax-time arrives each year, the dedicated bank accounts (savings and checking) plus a dedicated to your business credit card will ease the work and stress you may feel during income tax preparation time. One really does need to keep business banking separated from personal banking--soon we'll deep-dive into banking accounts and budgeting for income tax payments in another article.

Beyond Journeyman Level

  • Grailed account
  • DePop account
  • Vinted account
  • Vestiaire Collective account
  • WhatNot account

Once you're at this seller level, you may as widen your reach by marketing items on additional online marketplaces. Each of the above specialize in either the types of items you can sell on their platforms (mainly clothing, personal accessories and so on for the first four listed above) or for a different type of selling experience, you can sell live to an audience (think Home Shopping Network where you're the one hawking your items for a low starting bid and the auction last for 20 seconds or so) on WhatNot. We'll likely explore more of these marketplaces as time goes by.

Read more