The Reselling tools

Live tools Calculators and charts you can use in the browser

• What you keep on each platformCalculator Live

  One sale through eBay, Mercari, Poshmark, Depop and Facebook Marketplace, side by side — fees, postage and your cost charted, sorted by what you keep.

• Is this flip worth your time?Calculator Live

  Profit, return on cost and profit per hour for any item, the most you can pay, and a buy-or-walk call against your own hourly hurdle — with a chart across every selling price.

• The sourcing scorecardCalculator Live

  Your sold comps plotted, the median and a conservative price marked — and the demand check: listed against sold, read as moves, maybe, slow or too thin.

• Can you afford this buy?Calculator Live

  Run a big buy through the next eight weeks: open-to-buy with and without it, your hours against your ceiling, and a yes or no from three gates you set.

• Your shelf, by age — in 3DCalculator Live

  Your stock by age band as a shelf you can turn, and the share of your money that's been asleep more than 90 days — by items and by cost.

Basics Your first profitable flips, on one platform, at a net you can actually name

• Your operating commitmentPrintable checklist TXT

  chapter 1

  Four numbers to write before you buy anything: the hours you can really give, the most cash you'll have tied up in unsold stock, the least profit an item must clear for the time it takes, and the real condition under which you'd stop.

• The eBay account setupPrintable checklist TXT

  chapter 2

  Three settings and one search, with the sane defaults: link your payout, returns at 30 days buyer-paid, ship-from location and one-day handling — then find the Sold filter the next chapter runs on.

• The sourcing comp checkSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapter 3

  Type in the buyer-paid totals of the sold listings that truly match your item. It takes the median — the middle number, so one lucky high sale can't inflate it — rounds it down to a clean price, and tells you to walk if you have fewer than three real comps. The one honest price you build everything else on.

• The real-net & max-buy calculatorSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 4–6

  The deal sheet, done for you. Enter the sale price and your costs and it works out eBay's real fee — charged on the whole sale, sales tax included, plus the flat per-order fee — the net you'd keep, and the most you can pay for an item and still clear your floor. That last number is the one you carry into the store.

• The honest listingPrintable checklist TXT

  chapter 7

  The intake line the moment it's yours, the inspection, the photo set (a wide and a close shot of every flaw), the condition in plain words, and a title built the way buyers search.

• The records ledger + auditSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 7–9

  One row per item. Log what you paid the day you buy it — your record of costs — then the sale when it sells. Your real profit and the audit gap (what the deal sheet predicted minus what you actually made) compute themselves, so each flip sharpens the next. Running profit, stock spend and cash-still-tied-up sit at the bottom.

• The 14-day protocolPrintable checklist TXT

  chapter 9

  If it sold: audit the real net against your deal sheet and fix the line that missed. If it didn't: re-check comps, improve the listing, cut toward — never through — your floor, and set a hard exit date.

Intermediate A repeatable sourcing-and-listing system, on the platforms that fit

• The inventory, sell-through & aging trackerSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 1, 3, 7 and 8

  One row per item. Type tonight's date and every listed item's age and band — 0–30, 31–60, 61–90, over 90 — work themselves out. The aging report counts each band in items and dollars, flags anything over six months, gives your over-90 share, and checks that its total matches the committed figure in your log. A cohort tab gives your own sell-through, counts first.

• The category pick & demand checkSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 2 and 3

  Nominate one category on access, margin and what your own sheet says; then three specific searches, listed against sold, each read as moves, maybe, slow or too thin — and a verdict that keeps, narrows or rejects it.

• The weekly routine plannerPrintable checklist TXT

  chapter 4

  The week built from blocks: a sourcing route with a count and a cash limit, one photo-and-listing session from a skeleton, shipping windows matched to your handling promise, a draft bank, a working float — and what to do in the first bad week.

• The weekly log + open-to-buySpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 4, 5 and 10

  One line a week. Capital, committed stock, reserved cash and your open-to-buy carry from line to line, and Saturday's buy limit is the smallest of your per-trip ceiling, your open-to-buy and the cash actually in the pot — or release block when there's nothing free. An example tab holds the book's four worked weeks.

• The floor cardSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 6 and 9

  Set your constants once — postage, packing, a breakage allowance, your time, your minimum profit — and get a floor for any cost and a maximum buy for any sold price, for eBay and one second platform side by side. eBay's planning rate covers the fee it charges on the buyer's sales tax.

• The liquidation protocol + platform-fit & delisting checklistPrintable checklist TXT

  chapters 8, 9 and 10

  One printable checklist to keep with the shipping supplies: a dated rule for every age band, the one question for old stock, the four exits, the slow-by-design rules, the three-question platform-fit test, the delisting rule, and the six-item four-week audit.

• Next month's buying planPrintable checklist TXT

  chapter 11

  Read the month four ways — what moved, what sat, where it came from, what an hour is worth — and write next month's plan from the evidence, not from momentum.

Advanced Run reselling as a real business — beyond what your own two hands can list

• The ceiling calculatorSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 1 and 10

  Your business as one line — hours × 60 ÷ minutes per sale × net per item — your target run through it, the hours it would need, and what your ceiling buys under each change, with paid help counted as the cost it is.

• The time study & net-per-hour sheetSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 2 and 9

  Log one ordinary week, block by block, and it turns your time into a month: what each job, platform and kind of item earns per direct hour, with your overhead on its own line and the whole business per hour beside it. A once-a-month event, like a flea-market Saturday, goes in as that month's real hours.

• The buy-hurdle cardSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 3, 7 and 9

  Set the hourly rate every buy must pay and your minutes per sale, and it gives you the minimum net per item, a max-buy line for normal and heavy items, the lowest comp that can ever clear — and the comp a consigned item needs for your share of the split to clear the same bar.

• The exceptions reckoningPrintable checklist TXT

  chapter 4

  Count what the platform never saw: costs you can't show, direct sales and their cash, returns that never reached your figures, and the running costs — then a rebuild with a cut-off, the one-account rule, and the triggers that send a question to a professional.

• The eight-week forecast & gatesSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 6 and 9

  Put in this week's capital, committed stock and reserved cash, and run any offer — a big buy, a consignment, paid help, a new channel — against a no-change baseline. The cash, hours and payback gates answer yes or no automatically, and your real weeks go beside the forecast so the misses can change your rules.

• The consignment screenSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapter 7

  Thresholds first, then the stock: the comp an item needs for your share of the split to clear your hurdle, how many your hours allow this window, and which to take now, take later or decline in writing.

• The operations packet checklistPrintable checklist TXT

  chapter 9

  The five parts of the proof in one folder, a page for reading the forecast's misses, the dated changes they cause, and the growth option you decided not to take.

• The operations packPrintable pack TXT

  chapters 1 and 4 to 10

  Everything else the book has you write down, ready to print: the professional-referral triggers, a sales-tax and resale-certificate record, the exceptions routine and log, a returns-and-condition policy template, the delegation trial sheet, the decision page, and the operating calendar with its automatic actions.

Current figures The numbers that change faster than a book can

Last checked 10–11 October 2026, each at its own official source. Fees and thresholds move — if a date here is more than a few months old, read the source before you rely on it.

• eBay selling fees (US, most categories)

  13.6% of the whole amount the buyer pays — item, any shipping you charge, and sales tax — plus 40¢ per order over $10, or 30¢ at $10 or less. Some categories differ. 250 free listings a month without a Store, then 35¢ a listing in most categories; good-'til-cancelled listings renew monthly and each renewal counts. Source: eBay's selling-fees page.

• Mercari selling fee (US)

  10% of the item price plus any shipping the buyer pays; no separate payment-processing or per-order fee for sellers. Source: Mercari's fees help page.

• Whatnot seller fees (US)

  A commission that starts at 8% in most categories (lower for coins, and lower at higher sales volumes), plus payment processing of 2.9% + 30¢ on the total order. Promotions change these often. Source: Whatnot's seller fees page.

• Selling recalled products (US)

  It is illegal to sell a recalled product; resellers are expected to check before listing, and a recalled item may only be resold if its recall notice says so after the remedy. Source: CPSC, Resellers Guide to Selling Safer Products (February 2025); check items at cpsc.gov/recalls.

• Form 1099-K reporting (US)

  Payment platforms must report when your payments exceed $20,000 and more than 200 transactions in a year; some states set lower thresholds. Either way, profit from reselling is taxable whether or not a form arrives — the IRS says you must report all income. Source: IRS, Understanding your Form 1099-K.