How Much Money Do You Need to Start Reselling?

There's no single number. What you need to start reselling depends on how you buy: a few items at retail by hand can start in the low hundreds of dollars, while a sneaker bot setup costs more than that before you buy anything. This guide breaks down the costs by path, explains how long your money is tied up before payouts arrive, and works through an example starting budget.

Prices and fees below are as listed on each company's own pages in October 2026. They change, so check before you buy.

What every path costs#

Whatever you resell, the same four costs show up:

• Inventory. What you pay for the items, including the sales tax you pay at the register.
• Marketplace fees. Taken out of each sale rather than paid upfront. eBay's fee table lists 13.6% of the total sale amount for most categories, plus $0.30 or $0.40 per order, with 13.25% for trading cards and 8% for sneakers over $150. Our guide to StockX, GOAT and eBay fees compares the sneaker platforms.
• Shipping supplies and postage. Mailers, boxes, tape and labels. For scale, Uline lists a case of 100 poly bubble mailers at $29.
• Taxes later. Reselling income can be taxable, so part of each sale may need to be set aside. See our guide to reseller taxes and 1099-K forms.

Path 1: buying at retail by hand#

Of the four paths here, this one has the fewest upfront costs. You buy a few items at full retail, in store or online, and list them yourself. Your starting money is the retail price, the sales tax, your supplies and a buffer. There's no software to pay for, but your time is the main cost, and popular items sell out fast.

Path 2: sneakers with a bot#

A bot adds a layer of costs before you buy a single pair: the bot license, proxies, often a cook group and sometimes a server. In our worked examples those add up to thousands of dollars in a first year, and our guide to what a sneaker bot setup costs breaks them down. You can test your own setup with the bot cost calculator.

On top of that, every successful checkout charges the full retail price to your card, so you need the inventory money ready when a drop goes live. Whether the setup pays for itself is a separate question, covered in is a sneaker bot worth it.

Path 3: cards and sealed TCG#

Sealed Pokémon and other TCG products can be bought at retail, so the starting costs look like Path 1: product, sales tax and supplies. Singles add protective supplies for each card, and graded cards add grading fees and wait times on top. Check what each product sells for after fees before you buy several.

Path 4: thrift and retail arbitrage#

Thrift stores, clearance racks and outlet sales can mean a low cost per item, so the money barrier is small. The trade-off is volume and time: you're photographing, listing and shipping many cheaper items, and some won't sell. Per-order fees and supplies take a bigger share of low-priced sales.

Cash flow: when the money comes back#

Your starting budget isn't just what you spend. It's what you spend while waiting to get paid. Each platform pays on its own schedule:

• StockX. On the Verified Marketplace, StockX pays once the item passes verification, in a lump sum each evening. US sellers' funds land in their StockX Balance, which they can withdraw. That means the item has to ship to StockX and pass inspection before you see the money.
• eBay. Proceeds usually become available 1 to 2 days after the buyer pays, payouts are daily by default, and the money takes another 1 to 3 business days to reach your bank.
• eBay holds for new sellers. eBay's payment holds page says a new private seller's funds are typically held until 2 days after delivery with an eBay label, 7 days with other tracking, or 31 days without tracking. High-priced items are typically held 31 days. You can use on-hold funds to buy eBay shipping labels, and after 10 completed sales totaling $150 or more, with no more than 2 open requests, cases or defects in the past 12 months, new sellers can qualify for faster funds.

Put together, the money for your first sales can be gone for a week or more after you buy, and longer if an item sits unsold.

That's why a buffer matters. Money tied up in inventory that hasn't sold, a return, or a held payout can stop you from buying the next item. Only use money you can afford to have tied up for weeks.

An example starting budget#

This is an illustration, not a recommendation: our own arithmetic for someone starting with Path 1, using an example sales tax rate of 8% (your rate depends on where you buy).

Fees and postage aren't in the total because they come out of each sale. They still matter when you choose what to buy. For example, if you sell one item on eBay for $70 and the buyer pays $5.60 in tax, eBay's fee is 13.6% of the $75.60 total ($10.28) plus $0.40, or about $10.68, before postage.

To check an item before you buy it, enter the cost, sale price, fees and shipping in the resale profit calculator.

From experience: how we'd start#

We started paycheck to paycheck, with no credit cards or business funds. It began as personal collecting, became a hobby, and grew into a full-time job supporting a household. So it can start small; it just grows slower when each purchase waits on the last payout.

Starting today, our own budget would be around $1,000 to $2,000: enough for several items and the first costs of a bot setup. That's one experienced seller's judgment, not a number everyone needs, and bot licenses and proxies keep billing every month after that. Before buying, we watch trends, how much presale interest an item draws and where the market is heading.

Two lessons shape where the money goes:

• Volume and margin can reach the same total. 100 items at $5 each after costs and 5 items at $100 each both come to $500. The first means far more buying, listing and shipping, with fees taking a bigger share of each sale; the second ties more money up in each item.
• Be careful with items that can flood the market. In our experience, the biggest waste is mass-produced products, items with no set production limit, and items that are easy to fake. Some Labubu figures, for example, started with large margins that faded quickly once counterfeits reached the market. Our guide to reselling Pop Mart and Labubu covers the fakes problem.

Ways to start smaller#

• Pick one path and learn it before adding another.
• Buy a few items first and wait for the payouts before buying more.
• Track every cost from day one, including sales tax and supplies. Our guide to tracking reselling sales and profit shows what to record.
• Leave the business structure for later. You don't need an LLC to start selling; our guide on whether resellers need an LLC explains when people consider one.

Startup costs on OOSClub#

OOSClub listings show prices and fees from each company's own pages, so you can price a setup before you commit. Start with the marketplaces hub to compare where to sell.