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10 Best Items to Resell in 2023: Top Things to Buy and Resell on Amazon
Did you know that there are millions of people buying and reselling products on Amazon? It’s true, and the best part is many of these people are making good money doing it. Some have even built entire businesses around this strategy.
But how do you know which items to resell? You don’t want to purchase a bunch of products only to discover that no one wants to buy them.
Table of contents
In this guide, we’ll go over ten types of items that are great for reselling on Amazon. We’ll also provide you with some tips and tricks to help you find success.
What are the Criteria for Profitable Products?
Once you decide to become an Amazon reseller you need to figure out the best things to resell. But with so many items being sold online how do you choose? Here are some criteria to look for:
Stable Demand: The number one thing you should look for is a product that’s in high demand from consumers. Watch out for temporary trends. Ideally, you want to find an item that has a proven track record of sales.
Low Competition: You also want products that don’t have a lot of other sellers to compete against. Look for underserved niches that not many sellers have discovered yet.
High Profit Margins: The best items are ones that you can buy for cheap and sell for a really high markup. Remember, Amazon takes a cut of every sale, so make sure your margins are large enough to account for that.
Everyday Use: Stuff that people use every day is in higher demand because it’s more important. Products that run out or wear down are the best because customers will have to buy from you on a regular basis.
Small and Light: If you’re buying from a wholesaler you’ll probably need to have your inventory shipped to you. The smaller and lighter your items are the less shipping will cost you. That means you’ll be left with more profit after each sale.
Analyzing a Product To Determine How Easy It Is To Resell
Several factors determine how easy a product is to resell on Amazon. Below are some lesser-known tips:
Avoid private label products. These products are sold by one merchant only. They are usually a member of the Amazon Brand Registry. Brand owners can limit who sells their products, so these are usually unsuitable for dropshipping or online arbitrage.
Gated category or hazardous materials (hazmat) products. Gated categories are those that require approval from Amazon. Some are hazmat, requiring certifications to ship and handle. Both require extra steps to sell.
Products under Prime delivery. Dropshippers should avoid products under Amazon Prime. Providing fast shipping services isn’t typically an option.
Keep each of the above criteria in mind when choosing your products and you’ll have a much better chance of building a profitable business.
Tools to Help You Find the Best Products
In addition to the criteria we mentioned earlier, you’ll need access to a wide range of data in order to find the best products. Luckily, there are two tools that will help you with this.
AMZScout Online Arbitrage Tool
The AMZScout Dropshipping & Arbitrage Software is a research tool geared toward dropshippers and sellers who work in both retail and online arbitrage. Below is a quick tutorial you can use to understand the tool’s best practices.
Here is how to get started:
Step 1. Open the AMZScout Dropshipping & Arbitrage extension.
Step 2. Log in to get started.
Step 3. Browse Amazon for product ideas. The tool is built directly into Amazon. So all you need to do is go to Amazon.com and scroll through the search pages for potential topics:
Categories or niches you want to join
Trending products (or popular ones found in offline stores)
Products your dropshipping supplier has available
Step 4. Narrow your product ideas. The tool allows you to check by viewing data on each product page. Here is what you are going to see:
Margins (note products with margins over 50%)
Amazon fees if you decide to sell the product or use FBA
Seller types (if Amazon sells this product, your competition will be high. Products with FBA and FBM sellers have lower competitiveness)
Mark products that meet these requirements and your needs for later use. You can look at them in greater detail later.
Step 5. Check the top products. Each product page has a built-in window with important data. Use this page to check if a product is private label, ungated, or hazmat. This will tell you whether the product requires additional steps or potential restrictions.
Step 6. Check the product’s historical data. Next, use the Price history and Buy Box history to display price fluctuations. This will help you determine the highs and lows you need to be aware of, helping you with the long-term potential of the target products.
Step 7. Find out how much potential profit it offers. The built-in calculator allows you to determine potential costs. Your cost will likely include the following:
Shipping costs (ask your supplier or estimate how much it costs to ship to Amazon)
Advertising costs (look at the PPC bids you need to make)
Other (anything else you pay to make your business work)
The app calculates your Profit Margin, Minimum Net, and ROI fields. This data will tell you whether you can make a profit.
The AMZScout Dropshipping & Arbitrage Tool can help you narrow down products for your selling empire. Because selling relies on so much data, it’s important to have a simplified tool to help you find the best potential products.
How to Succeed in Reselling on Amazon
Make your reselling product research more efficient by analyzing product profitability and demand by viewing sales data and trends. AMZScout sellers' tools help you get analytic data to make the right decisions.
Analyze products with five handy tools for research
Conduct keyword research to understand niche demand
Get insights from experts with courses and masterclasses
Explore new trending Amazon products each week (annual license)
Try all-in-one software and find the best products to resell quickly.
Extended Research
When you get an AMZScout account, you get multiple tools in the bundle. The second tool, the AMZScout Product Database, helps you find many products that meet specific needs.
Below is how you can use the AMZScout Product Database for reselling ideas:
Step 1. Start by opening the AMZScout Product Database. This is included in the comprehensive AMZScout Seller’s Bundle.
Step 2. Log in to get started.
Step 3. Look through the search filters. You can search based on prices, category, keywords, seller type, size, weight, etc. You can focus on high sales (300 or more a month), a small number of sellers (a range from 2 to 20), and affordable prices ($40 to $70).
Step 4. Click Find Products for results.
Step 5. Write down the items that appeal to you.
The AMZScout Product Database is excellent if you want to find a quick list of items that meet your specific needs. Its simplicity gives you data you can use to filter the best products quickly.
Once you know whether an item fits your needs, you’ll need specific data to be successful. More specifically, you want to measure demand and competition. To do this, use the AMZScout PRO Extension.
Step 1. Log in to your AMZScout seller dashboard.
Step 2. Install and open the AMZScout PRO Extension.
Step 3. Search for the item list you made with the database (or any new product types that appeal to you).
Step 4. Click the AMZScout icon (upper-right corner) to open the extension.
Step 5. Review the product information like the seller count. Having more sellers means the product is likely available for resale but more than 20 is heavy competition, net margins (look for those over 50%), and when the product was first available on Amazon.
Step 6. Check the product score for reselling. Focus on products that have a score higher than seven.
Step 7. Evaluate the product sales performance. Then click the arrow to the product's left and select product history. Take note of how the product fluctuates over time to gauge its consistency
The AMZScout PRO extension has the ultimate data set for all seller types. Because information is your friend in sales, always check this with any new product.
The Best Items to Resell: Our 10 Picks
Want a little help figuring out what you should resell? Here are ten items that are always popular with shoppers:
Jewelry
These products are usually seen as strictly for women, but there’s a growing male jewelry market as well. So, you’ll have no trouble finding customers.
Perhaps the biggest advantage to selling jewelry is that most of these items are extremely small and light, which reduces your shipping costs. And if you decide to sell through Amazon FBA you’ll save money there as well, since they also base their fees on size.
It’s worth noting that this category is restricted on Amazon. However, as long as you’re not selling precious metals and stones (platinum, gold, silver, diamonds, etc.) you’ll have no problem getting approved.
Toys
Parents love to spoil their kids with toys, which means these products are always in demand. Toys become especially popular around the holidays, so that’s a great time to stock them in your inventory.
Things like dolls and toy cars are small so you’ll save on expenses. There are also plenty of options to choose from, so you can carry a wide variety of items to suit many different interests.
Just make sure to stick with simple toys. Electronic products are prone to breaking or malfunctioning, which leads to bad reviews. So, you‘ll want to avoid those items.
Books
While eBooks have grown in popularity there’s still a massive market for physical books. Many people still like to have the real thing, rather than a digital copy.
There’s also a lot of demand for used books, as they’re seen as more eco-friendly. Plus, some used books are no longer published, making them collectibles and resulting in very high profit margins.
A lot of people who sell books don’t know their true value. If you do your research you should find plenty of hidden gems that you can resell on Amazon for a lot of money.
Board Games
During the pandemic board games became extremely popular, and that trend has continued into 2023. Most games come in small packages and are easy to ship, which is great for resellers.
There are some established board games (Monopoly, Scrabble, Sorry, etc.) that are always popular. So, these are always great products to carry. You’ll also want to watch out for any games that are trending and sell those while they’re popular with consumers.
Some versions of board games are rare and valuable to collectors. If you can find any of these you can sell them for a very high markup.
Sports Equipment
Sports are a great way to stay active, and they’re also a lot of fun. So it’s no surprise that there always lots of people looking for sports gear.
You can buy these items new or used. Amazon allows you to sell used sports equipment, so these are great products to look for at thrift stores. Sports equipment is very durable, so it usually lasts a long time and is hard to damage.
The only downside is a lot of these items are large and heavy. However, if the sales margins are high enough it’s definitely worth reselling.
Phone Cases
Nowadays, everyone has a smartphone. And most people like to keep their phones in cases, which means these items always generate lots of sales.
The best strategy is to carry cases for lots of different types of phones (iPhone, Android, etc.). That way everyone can use your products and you’ll have a large customer base.
Phone cases are another item that’s small and light, which helps you reduce your expenses. They’re also extremely hard to damage during shipping, which is one less thing for you to worry about.
Cameras
Photography is one of the most popular hobbies, so this is always a good niche to get into. In addition to cameras you can also sell accessories, which will help expand your offerings.
Because cameras can be expensive people are usually happy to buy used. So, this is another good opportunity to check used listings and flea markets for great deals.
The only downside to these products is that they’re fairly complicated. There’s a lot that can go wrong with cameras, which is a risk you need to consider. If that’s something you’re worried about you can always focus on accessories (lenses, straps, etc.).
Collectibles
This includes items like posters, Pokemon cards, sports tickets, comic books, and stamps. Basically, anything that certain people like to collect.
The great thing about this niche is that customers are always looking for new things to add to their collection. That means there’s constant demand.
The advantage of these items is that most people value them very little while a small group of people value them a lot. That means you can buy them extremely cheap from one person and then sell them for large amounts of money to another.
Antiques
This is another type of product that you can often buy below market value and sell for a huge profit. Thrift stores and flea markets are great places to look for these items. You might even find some people giving them away for free.
Products like antique furniture are extremely popular, so you won’t have any trouble selling them if you find the right piece.
If you’re going to sell antiques make sure to do plenty of research beforehand. You need to know whether an item is authentic before you buy it. Otherwise, you might end up with products you can’t sell.
Records and Record Players
Vinyl has made a huge comeback over the last few years. Lots of people are rediscovering this method of listening to music, and collectors are on the lookout for rare items.
Lots of artists have started releasing their music on vinyl, so you can find these products new. However, the real money is in used records. You can sometimes find these for cheap and resell them to record enthusiasts for a nice profit.
The key is to do your homework and determine which items are in demand. If you find the right records you can make a lot of money.
How to Buy and Resell on Amazon
There are two methods for Amazon reselling:
Wholesale
The first method is to buy wholesale items to resell. Because you’re buying in bulk your per product price is much lower than it would be if you bought it from a retailer. This means when you resell them on Amazon you can make a healthy profit.
The only downside to buying wholesale is it requires a larger budget. Most wholesalers have a minimum order quantity, which means each order can get pretty pricy. But if you can afford it this strategy is very effective.
Retail/Online Arbitrage
Your other option is to do retail or online arbitrage. This is when you buy items at retail stores, flea markets, or other online marketplaces (on eBay, Walmart, Etsy, etc.) and resell them on Amazon for a higher price. The key is to find products that are selling for less than they are on Amazon so you can take advantage of the price difference.
This strategy isn’t as profitable, but you don’t have to worry about minimum order quantities and sourcing suppliers.
Is it Illegal?
Reselling items on Amazon is perfectly legal. The majority of stores, eCommerce sellers, and Amazon sellers get their products from wholesalers. The process of buying items from a wholesale company and reselling them on another marketplace is a long-established business practice that’s been going on for many years.
So, why don’t consumers buy directly from wholesalers to save money? First of all, wholesalers only sell to businesses (so you’ll need to establish a business before buying from them). And second, most people don’t have the money to meet the minimum order quantities. Plus, in most cases consumers just want one product, not 100.
And when it comes to retail and online arbitrage, if you own a product you have every right to sell it to someone else. Most people don’t have the time to search for the best deals, they just want to buy something when and where it’s convenient. If you can help them do that you’re doing them a service.
Conclusion
Reselling products on Amazon is very profitable when done correctly. If you’re willing to put in the time to do your research there’s nothing stopping you from using this strategy to build a successful business.