# Is reselling worth it in 2026? Real hourly numbers from flippers

Source: https://rushilo.com/blog/is-reselling-worth-it
By om.assets, Rushilo. Updated 2026-11-03.

> Reselling is still worth it in 2026 for people who source well and treat it like a small business, but not for everyone. Part-time flippers on r/Flipping reported $500 to $3,000 a month in profit, which works out to roughly $6 to $66 an hour once sourcing, listing and shipping time is counted. Most land between $15 and $40. If your local job pays more than that and you hate digging, skip it.

"Is reselling worth it?" is really two questions. Can you make money? Yes, people clearly do. Is that money worth the hours? That depends on hours nobody posts in their sales screenshot: the drive to three thrift stores that turned up nothing, the Tuesday spent photographing, the post office line.

So this page does one thing the profit posts skip. It takes what part-time flippers actually reported, both their profit and their hours, and turns it into an hourly rate. Then it shows where the unpaid time goes and who should not bother.

A quick definition: **reselling** (or flipping) means buying items below what they sell for, usually used goods from thrift stores, estate sales, Facebook Marketplace or liquidation, and selling them on eBay, Mercari, Poshmark or locally. **Profit** here means sale price minus item cost, platform fees and shipping.

## Is reselling worth it in 2026? The short answer

**Reselling is worth it in 2026 if you can net more per hour than your next best side job, which for most part-time flippers means $15 to $40 an hour.** Demand for secondhand goods is still there and eBay fees have not changed much. What decides your result is what you buy, not how hard you work.

The honest split from Reddit looks like this. In a 2026 r/reselling thread asking if it is worth getting into, one seller who tried for a year said they never beat their area's $15 minimum wage. Another said five years of reselling gave them cash flow but no real net profit. In the same thread, a seller reported $3,000 a month from Goodwill clothes, and a 10 year veteran reported about $150,000 net a year while warning that it takes outworking almost everyone.

Both are true. The gap between them is sourcing, item price and process. If you want the full sourcing and listing system rather than piecing it together from threads, the [Reselling pack](/reselling) lays it out step by step.

## What do part-time flippers actually make per hour?

**Across 8 sellers in one r/Flipping thread who gave both profit and hours, the hourly rate ran from about $6 to $66, and most landed between $15 and $46.** We converted weekly hours to monthly at 4.33 weeks per month.

| What they sell | Reported profit per month | Reported hours per week | Approx. hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Books, comics, magazines (eBay only) | $500 to $800 | about 20 | $6 to $9 |
| Books plus art, electronics, games | about $2,000 | about 30 | about $15 |
| Mixed items, husband and wife team | $3,500 to $4,000 | 50 combined | $16 to $18 |
| Easy to ship niche antique | about $1,900 | about 20 | about $22 |
| Clothing and media, one listing a day | about $500 | 4 to 6 | $19 to $29 |
| Furniture, storage lockers, auctions | $1,500 to $2,500 | about 10 | $35 to $58 |
| Higher priced pieces from regular Goodwill | $2,500 to $3,000 | about 15 | $38 to $46 |
| Undisclosed, sourced online | about $2,000 | 7 to 10 | $46 to $66 |

Source: [r/Flipping, "Resellers making $500 to 1000+ a month, how much time are you putting in?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/Flipping/comments/1bg9z3z/resellers_making_5001000_a_month_how_much_time/). These are self-reported and not audited, so treat them as a range, not a promise.

Three patterns stand out:

- **Cheap items pay the worst.** The books seller at $6 to $9 an hour sells low priced, light items. The antiques seller said their limited time means they need **$40 or more profit per item** or it is not worth the hour.
- **Online sourcing cuts the biggest unpaid cost.** The two sellers at the top of the table both source mostly online or buy in bulk, so they skip hours of driving and digging.
- **More hours do not scale.** A seller at about 20 hours a week said working 40 would not double profit, because the extra hours go into hunting for more inventory.

Another r/Flipping seller making about $1,000 a month in 2025 put it bluntly: their hourly rate was "probably less than I'd make substitute teaching," but they kept going for the flexible schedule. For more profit ranges by experience level, see [how much you can make reselling part time](/blog/how-much-make-reselling-part-time).

## Where does the unpaid time go?

**Most of a flipper's hours are spent on work that does not feel like selling: sourcing trips that find nothing, cleaning, photographing, writing listings, answering messages, packing and drop-offs.** The sale itself takes seconds.

One r/Flipping seller shared their weekly schedule, and it is a good picture of the real job:

1. Sunday: 1 to 2 hours packing weekend sales.
2. Monday and Wednesday: post office runs.
3. Tuesday: packing plus photographing a full week of listings.
4. Wednesday evening: researching upcoming estate sales.
5. Thursday: up at 3 AM, a 2 hour drive, waiting in line for a 9 AM estate sale, posting scheduled listings from the car.
6. Friday: up at 5 AM for another estate sale, then thrift stores and a live auction until about 9 PM.

None of the Thursday and Friday hours are paid directly. They only pay off if the items bought sell at the price you expected.

### A worked example for one item

Say you buy a jacket at a thrift store for $10 and sell it on eBay for $40 with free shipping.

| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sale price | $40.00 |
| eBay final value fee (13.6%) | minus $5.44 |
| eBay per order fee | minus $0.40 |
| Shipping label (estimate) | minus about $5.00 |
| Item cost | minus $10.00 |
| **Profit** | **about $19.16** |

eBay's fee figures are from its [selling fees page](https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822), as of November 2026. The label cost varies by weight and service.

Now the time. If your share of the sourcing trip is 20 minutes, cleaning, photos and listing take 15, packing 10 and the drop-off 5, that is 50 minutes, or **about $23 an hour**. If the trip took twice as long or the jacket sat for three months and sold for $30, you are near $10 an hour. That is why the experienced sellers in these threads chase higher priced items: the time per item barely changes, but profit does.

> **Tip:** Batch everything. Photograph a week of finds in one session and list on a schedule. The clothing seller at $19 to $29 an hour lists one item a day from batches done on a day off.

## Who is reselling worth it for, and who should skip it?

**It is worth it for people who enjoy the hunt, have good sources nearby or online, can wait for cash to come back, and want flexible hours more than steady pay.** It is a poor fit if you need predictable income now.

Worth it if you:

- Live near good sources. One seller said they made about $50 an hour in San Diego thanks to swap meets and garage sales, and much less in other places they lived.
- Already own sellable stuff. Selling your own items has no cost basis and is the cheapest way to learn listing and shipping. See [how to start reselling with no money](/blog/start-reselling-with-no-money).
- Value schedule control. Several sellers said they earn less than a part-time job but prefer the freedom.

Skip it if you:

- Need money this month. Early profits have to be rolled back into inventory, as the minimum wage seller pointed out.
- Plan to buy only cheap Goodwill rack clothing. The top replies in that 2026 thread said this alone is not worth it.
- Have no space. One five year seller said bins, a photo corner and a shipping station took over their whole dining room.
- Expect passive income. A top reply put it plainly: "Definitely not passive income."

## What goes wrong for new resellers?

**The common losses come from buying volume instead of margin, ignoring fees and shipping, and letting stock sit.** These are the mistakes repeated across the threads.

- **Buying cheap junk.** "Cheap junk is ALWAYS cheap junk, avoid it," said a top reply in the 2026 r/reselling thread. A 2025 seller's one lesson for the year was "stop buying most garbage." Their eBay average was about $104.50 a sale on items that cost under $8.
- **Forgetting the fee stack.** One commenter complained that eBay takes about 13%, payment processing takes more, and promoted listings take more on top. Price with all of it in.
- **Counting sales as profit.** A first year seller can show big sales and small profit. Track item cost, fees, shipping, gas and supplies per item from day one.
- **Letting inventory sit.** A Goodwill seller said a lot of their stock sits for months. Unsold items are hours you already spent with no return.
- **Not checking sold comps.** Look up what the exact item actually sold for, not what it is listed for, before you pay.

> **Watch out:** Pallet and liquidation sites that look too cheap are a frequent scam in r/Flipping. Pay with a card so you have a dispute window, never a person to person app.

## What changed for reselling in 2026?

**Not the basics: buy low, sell where buyers search, keep costs down.** What sellers in the 2026 r/reselling thread pointed to is more competition at thrift stores, more platforms and live selling, and AI tools that make good photos and titles less of an edge.

That last point matters for your hourly rate. If listing gets faster for everyone, the advantage moves to sourcing: getting to items before others do. One seller who started three to four months before that thread said they make about $1,000 a month from thrift, garage sales and Marketplace. Another reply said daily listing of high sell-through items is the closest thing to a guarantee of steady sales. For what tends to sell, see [the best things to resell from thrift stores](/blog/best-things-resell-thrift-stores).

## Where to go from here

If you want to find out whether reselling is worth it for you without risking much, run a 30 day test:

1. Sell 10 things you already own on eBay or Facebook Marketplace and time every step.
2. Pick one lane: higher priced clothing, books, furniture, tools or a niche you know.
3. Set a rule of a minimum profit per item, for example $20, and check sold comps before every buy.
4. Track hours and profit in a simple sheet, including sourcing trips that find nothing.
5. After 30 days, divide profit by hours. If it beats your alternative, keep going and raise your average price.

The [Reselling pack](/reselling) gives you the full version: 24 lessons across 6 modules on sourcing, fee math, listing, offers and the scams to avoid, with templates and checklists, for $19. All 16 Money Printer packs are $39 together.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is reselling worth it in 2026?

Yes, for people who source items with real margin and work in batches. Part-time flippers on r/Flipping reported roughly $15 to $40 an hour once all their hours were counted, with outliers far above and below. It is not worth it if you only buy cheap thrift clothes, list a few items a week, or need steady pay right away.

### How much do resellers make per hour?

Reported numbers range from about $6 to $66 an hour. One seller made $2,000 a month on 30 hours a week (about $15 an hour), another made the same on 7 to 10 hours a week by sourcing online (about $46 to $66). The difference was item price and sourcing method, not effort.

### Is reselling clothes from Goodwill worth it?

Usually not on its own. In a 2026 r/reselling thread, the top replies said Goodwill rack clothing leaves very thin margins and that most pieces are not worth listing. Sellers who make clothing work buy only branded, higher priced items, use outlets or bins for lower cost, and list daily to keep sales steady.

### Can you get rich from reselling?

A few people build six figure businesses, but they treat it as a full-time job with hundreds or thousands of listings and sources outside thrift stores. One 10 year seller on r/reselling said it is worth it only if you outwork almost everyone. For most part-time flippers, reselling is a side income of a few hundred to a few thousand a month.

### Is eBay still worth selling on in 2026?

Yes for shipped items with national demand. eBay charges 13.6% of the total sale in most categories plus $0.30 or $0.40 per order, as of November 2026. That eats small sales, so price items above roughly $25, and sell bulky or cheap items locally on Facebook Marketplace where there is no fee for pickup paid outside checkout.

### What is the best way to learn reselling?

The Rushilo Reselling pack is the most direct route: 24 lessons in 6 modules for $19, covering sourcing with sold comps, fee math, listing and the scams and freight traps resellers wrote about. Pair it with selling a few things you already own, so you learn listing and shipping before risking money on inventory.

### How many hours a week does reselling take?

Sellers making $500 to $1,000 a month in profit reported 5 to 20 hours a week. One clothing seller did about $500 a month on 4 to 6 hours a week by listing one item a day. Doubling hours rarely doubles profit, because extra hours go into hunting for more inventory, not selling it.

## Sources

- [Resellers making $500-1000+ a month, how much time are you putting in? (r/Flipping)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Flipping/comments/1bg9z3z/resellers_making_5001000_a_month_how_much_time/)
- [Is getting into reselling worth it (r/reselling)](https://www.reddit.com/r/reselling/comments/1rhmxbv/is_getting_into_reselling_worth_it/)
- [So far in 2025, I have made $16,000 in profit from reselling (r/Flipping)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Flipping/comments/1o26e97/so_far_in_2025_i_have_made_16000_in_profit_from/)
- [Is it worth pursuing reselling in 2026? (for real) (r/reselling)](https://www.reddit.com/r/reselling/comments/1tmwtzo/is_it_worth_pursuing_reselling_in_2026for_real/)
- [Selling fees (eBay Help)](https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822)