14 Must-Have Tools For eBay Resellers (Speed Up Your Growth)

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What is reselling to you?

A lucrative hobby?  An easy part-time income?  A serious business?

No matter what platform you sell on, the basics are pretty much the same and you’ll need the same tools to excel.

When we first started reselling we thought we’d wait until we had some success before we started purchasing things to streamline our business….but we were backward.  It is the streamlining that allows your business to grow!

Once we were able to identify the right areas to invest in we were able to scale our reselling gig much faster than we thought possible.

Most resellers that we help are in the boat we were in when we first started. In other words, you probably don’t have a ton of money that you want to spend on your new endeavor. Because of this, we put a ton of thought into this list.

We want to recommend only the best items, the ones that we use every single day in our business.

While there are other items that might help you take cuter Instagram photos, the following tools are hardworking items that will help the rubber meet the road.  So if you’re serious about selling on eBay, don’t be caught without these.

As a side note, I often find that the main measure of how successful someone is is how much they have invested in their business.  eBay is an incredible opportunity because you can start making money with absolutely no investment.  You can find something in your house, take pictures on your phone, and have it for sale within minutes.  While this is a great starting point, you always get out of things what you put in, and having the right tools for a job will make you much more effective!

Best Tools For eBay Resellers

1. A Thermal Printer

ROLLO Label Printer - Commercial Grade Direct Thermal High Speed Printer – Compatible with Etsy, eBay, Amazon - Barcode Printer - 4x6 Printer

If you are serious about eBay, you should be shipping all of your orders from home.  Not only is it cheaper, but you don’t have to wear pants.  Buying a thermal printer and shipping straight from eBay has saved us a ton of money and time.  Printing with an ink printer is both expensive (ink prices are out of control) and time-consuming (we hate taping paper labels to boxes).

We have written about our favorite thermal printers on this site a couple of times but, if you don’t have time to read our full reviews here is the spoiler: the ROLLO Label Printer won by a landslide.

If you have a bit more time to read, finish this article and then hop over to one of our thermal printer reviews to see what would be the best fit for you!

2. Shipping Scale

Smart Weigh Digital Shipping and Postal Weight Scale, 110 lbs x 0.1 oz, UPS USPS Post Office Scale

Whether you decide to invest in a thermal printer or not, a good shipping scale is integral to any eBay business.  Guessing wrong about the weight can leave you with either a buyer who is angry to have overpaid, or leave you out money when you have to make up the difference.

There are several things that you should look for in the best scale for eBay sellers. For example, the scale we use can be powered either by a cord or by a battery (useful when you need to set it in the middle of the kitchen floor to weigh something large) and has a detached screen.  A detached screen is important as you still need to be able to see the readout when there is a large box on the scale!

It’s cheap, it’s super durable, and it’s the best home shipping scale for not only eBay but Mercari and Poshmark as well!. We’ve actually bought 4 of them now because we like adding shipping stations as we go! (and I stepped on the readout of one and dropped another on concrete…)

If you’re less accident-prone than I am, this is a great scale for home shipping!

3. A List Perfectly Subscription

If you are a reseller that sells on a single platform, you’re asking for trouble. No matter where you sell, things can go wrong which leaves you with no sales and, if you rely on your reselling income, no food.

When eBay had a massive glitch about 3 years ago we went from $3-400 in sales per day to $0…for 6 days. We would have been fine if we had diversified by crossposting onto another platform. Even if we had been able to have a couple of sales per day on Mercari or Poshmark during that time our stress levels would have been much lower.

Not to mention that, during the good times, cross-posting to other platforms can give you a 30% boost in sales!

List Perfectly makes cross-posting as easy as possible. We use it to copy all of our eBay listings over to Mercari and get twice the eyeballs and sales! With just a few clicks you can turn a task that would normally take a couple of hours into a 15-minute job.

And you know what’s even better, we have a coupon code that will get you 30% off the first month! Just apply the code “ResellingRevealed” when checking out.

If you are serious about reselling and cross-posting it will be a total game-changer for your business!

Read Our Full Review Of List Perfectly

(If you’re looking for software that will help you grow a reselling business, also check out our article on the best bookkeeping software for eBay sellers)

4. Label & Sticker Remover

Scotty Peelers Label & Sticker Remover - 3 Plastic Red, White, Blue and 1 Metal Blade with Cover

One of our local thrift stores (which we visit at least once a week) seems to put super glue on its labels.  Removing the labels leaves pieces behind, tears, or sometimes even stains the item.  Enter the Label Scraper.  This handy dandy little guy easily removes labels from all of our eBay items!  It can’t help with the stains, but for once in our lives, the Goo Gone can stay on the shelf because our labels are all coming off in one piece!

There are many options available (go for metal ones instead of plastic) but there is one we have found that these ones (Amazon link) give us the best bang for our buck

5. A Quality Point-and-Shoot Camera

Is a camera necessary to make money on eBay?  No, not at all.  We did over $10,000 a month for two years using only our phones and didn’t feel like we were missing out.  That is until we got a camera.  Even with a point-and-shoot, our colors were more accurate, we have more attractive-looking textures and details, we could take awesome close-ups, white out the background more effectively, etc.  And what’s more, a camera was actually way faster! With my phone, I was always fiddling with my lights or set-up to get everything just right. The increased firepower of a camera has rendered that unnecessary. Once you know for sure that you are in it for the long haul on eBay (or Poshmark for that matter) it’s time to get a camera!

6. Free Shipping Supplies

Packing materials are one of the most overlooked costs in eBay selling.  We have spent over $50 for supplies to ship a single order (it was a huge set of china and needed lots of bubble wrap) and, if you don’t have a cheap supplier, you might lose your shorts!  The best shipping supplies are free supplies so check out some of our favorite sources:

  • USPS.  You can get free boxes and mailers from USPS delivered straight to your door!  Just be sure to order them ahead of time as it can take a week or two to receive them.
  • Dumpsters.  While it’s not as much a hobby for us anymore, there was a time when we would stop at dumpsters and pull out boxes and bubble wrap (and saved a ton of money doing so).  We routinely found large rolls of bubble wrap, excellent shipping boxes, and even sellable inventory!  Just be sure that you’re being safe and not trespassing if you go down this route.
  • Local Newspapers and Grocery Stores.  Newspaper printers are notorious for creating huge amounts of waste.  Whether they are misprints or just leftovers, large bales of newspaper get recycled or thrown away all the time.  In conjunction with this, grocery stores that stock free newspapers/classifieds/etc. end up throwing away all the extras when they get new stock.  Reach out to your local stores or Newspapers and ask if they have a day when they toss things and offer to take it off their hands for free!
  • Stores. If you are shipping a specialty item, odds are you can score a free box from a friendly local store.  When we ship bikes or guitars we head down to our local bike or guitar shop and ask if they have any leftover boxes.  More often than not the answer is yes and you can get a box meant for your item for nothing!
  • Craigslist/FB Marketplace.  After people move they typically end up with tons of boxes as well as packing material.  You can either put an ad up saying you’re looking for packing materials or simply search for ads of people trying to give them away!
  • Friends & Family.  We have a spot in our garage for random boxes and the pile grows and changes slightly every time I look at it.  Family members and friends know not to throw their boxes away and make regular drop-offs to our garage stash!

If you are recycling boxes, be sure to get a box resizing tool as they can make any box the right size (reducing your shipping cost) and also reduce the amount of packing material you need to stuff inside.

7. Packing Tape That Doesn’t Suck

We have had our share of mishaps when it comes to buying packing tape and, since we typically buy in bulk, we have ended up with bunches of useless tape more than once.

Two specific instances come to mind:

  • We like 3″ wide tape as it bridges gaps better and we don’t have to double tape boxes together.  We bought a box of 12 rolls of 3″ tape from an eBay seller only to find out that they had deceptively described it as 3″ tape because the inside hole measured 3″ (it all does).  The actual width of the tape was barely over 2″. We still used the tape but were pretty bummed out.
  • Another time, we found a great deal on tape that really was 3″.  Unfortunately, when we got it it was so thin that it would tear when going on boxes and barely stuck enough to keep boxes closed.  In this instance, we didn’t actually use any of it because we didn’t trust it to get our packages to our buyers safely!

Getting the best packing tape doesn’t have to be hard. Just order the same brand consistently! These days, we buy Uline tape which is a great deal and sticks like glue. Trust me, don’t bother buying inferior tape, you’ll regret it.

8. Poly Mailers

The day we made the shift to poly mailers was one of the happiest of our life.  There are better than boxes in so many ways:

  • Lower weight reduces shipping cost
  • They are much faster to pack things in
  • They are much cheaper than boxes
  • They are easy to store and take up very little space

We ship almost all of our clothing items in poly mailers and it saves us a ton of money (not to mention time).

However, not all poly mailers on the market are created equal.  There are many versions that are thin (they tear easily) and have a very weak adhesive.  Be sure to shop around to find a well-reviewed company that isn’t just looking to make a quick buck.

You can check out the brands and sizes of poly mailers we use here

*If you have an eBay store subscription be sure to use your quarterly shipping supplies credit before buying extra

9. Photography Staging Gear

There was a time when we took almost all of our clothing pictures using mannequins.  We had 3 different sizes on hand and thought it really made us stand out from the crowd.  These days, I firmly believe that a mannequin is unnecessary for the majority of sellers and we only use ours for 10% or so of the clothing we picture.   Flat lays and hangers allow you to picture items much faster and, in my opinion, it’s easier to make look nice.  

Cute Hangers (Amazon link): This should be obvious.  If you’re trying to sell cute clothes, hang them on a cute hanger.  These have the added benefit of adding color to any picture which can give you a more accurate color balance.

Extra Wide Hangers: One of the main errors that eBay sellers make when taking pictures of clothing is that they use too narrow of a hanger.  If the hanger is narrow, the clothing has no shape and the body/arms just drape down in a mass.  Wide hangers, on the other hand, mimic much closer a flat-lay.

If you are set on mannequins, there are good options and we still use ours a couple of times per week. We use this one (Amazon link) for men’s clothing and this one (Amazon link) for women’s items.

​​10. ​Light Kit & Soft Box

The fine print for the idea that you can take nice pictures on hangers would read, “as long as you have good light.  If you work at unusual times (like us) or in places without good natural light (like us) you’ll want to invest in a good lighting kit.  Do not get suckered into buying anything overboard.  Pretty much any kit that doesn’t catch on fire will provide adequate lighting to set your items apart.

Before we bought a lighting system, there were whole days that we couldn’t take a single picture because we couldn’t get the lighting just right!  The picture is your customer’s first point of contact with your item and, if it’s poor, it can turn them off from even clicking on your listing.

Torjim Softbox Photography Lighting Kit, Professional Photo Studio Lighting with 2x27x27in Soft Box | 2X 85W 3000-7500K E26 LED Bulb,Continuous Lighting Kit for Video Recording, Portraits Shooting

If you’re not ready for a lighting kit, there are two cheaper tricks you can try out: pick up some floor lamps from a thrift store and stick daylight white bulbs in them.  Or, if you want a more permanent solution, check out our homemade camera lighting set-up.

​11. Sweater Stone or Shaver

Ever since we figured out how to clean the pills off of sweaters and fleece, we have been buying all the fleece jackets we can find!  It takes less than 10 minutes for us to turn a cheap, pill-covered, worn-out-looking jacket or sweater, into something that looks beautiful and almost brand new!

Our weapon of choice used to be the Dritz Sweater Stone.

In fact, we loved it so much that we wrote a guide on how to use it here!  While I still love the results it gives, I got tired of it getting dust on everything and cutting up my fingers.  These days I’m partial to a battery-powered shaver and pick only really nice items to de-pill.  Just be sure to get a clothing shaver that has an AC Cord. The first one we bought was battery-powered only and we used up two sets of D batteries on a single cardigan.

12. Shoe Cleaning and Picturing Kit

Believe it or not, it’s possible to do $100,00/year or more on eBay just selling thrifted shoes.  If you specialize in footwear, it’s no trick at all to recognize half a dozen pairs at a thrift store that are worth picking up every time.  We have found shoes worth over $300 at Goodwill and routinely pick up shoes in the $100 range.  (Check out this article for shoe brands that sell well on eBay).

Finding shoes is only half the battle, however.  No one wants to buy stinky shapeless-looking shoes.  Since your pictures are the only real interaction your buyer has with your item you better….put your best foot forward.  Beyond the obvious items (shoe polish, etc) we use the following items to make sure our shoes are looking awesome:

Shoe Forms: These can give any rumply shoe a decent shape again and are an absolute necessity for dress shoes.

Clear Shoe Inserts: These are dirt cheap and we use them for everything from sandals to heels.

Boot Shapers: Tall boots are some of the most difficult footwear to photograph attractively.  Some sellers simply stick a chopped-off pool noodle inside to keep the boots upright but we prefer the more attractive option of white boot shapers. Just be sure to state in the auction that they aren’t included!

13. Photo Backdrop

Ella Bella Photography Backdrop Paper, Vintage Wood, 48" x 12', 1 Roll

Let’s face it, nobody wants to buy your used clothes off of eBay when they’re laid out on your kitchen floor or table (or worse, your dirty floor).  A professional backdrop gives your buyer the sense that you are, in fact, a professional.  Since you’re a hustler at heart, you’ve probably already figured out that you don’t need expensive vinyl backdrops to get the job done.

After all our years on eBay, will actually take most of our pictures using rolls of paper from Michael’s as a background.  Woodgrain on one side and white on the other.  We simply thumbtack it to the wall and nobody knows that it’s not a $100 backdrop!  If it gets dirty or tears, it’s cheap enough to buy another roll!  If you aren’t close to a craft store, you can find the same ones we use here on Amazon.

While the paper is awesome for hanging on the wall, I will admit that it falls a bit short for flat lays.  The paper quickly wrinkles and tears if you move it too much.  For flat lays, we recommend a long hair rug or sheepskin.  You want something with a neutral color but lots of texture!  IKEA sheep skins work nicely as will a couple of yards of faux fur fabric from your local craft store!

14 – To Follow Our Facebook Page!

This is probably the most necessary item on this list!  Well, maybe not quite.  But I can tell you that every single member who joined our site and put in the work has been able to grow their eBay business and increase profits.  It’s free to follow us (obviously) and you also have the chance to ask us questions, talk with the eBay community, and more!

3 thoughts on “14 Must-Have Tools For eBay Resellers (Speed Up Your Growth)”

  1. Great information! So useful! I’ve made money selling online for years, but your articles make me want to go full-time and do it right! Get better! Go bigger! Sell more! Thanks so much! Angie

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