People Throw Shade on Resellers for Some Valid Reasons, But…

While I think of myself as a vintage/antique dealer, I am in fact, a reseller. I buy goods and resell them for a profit. My value added is that I have done the leg work and research so you can buy the item from the comfort of your home. And I not only enjoy my biz, but I work hard to present my items honestly and at fair-market value.

Now I have noticed that there are plenty of YouTube content creators who love to hate on resellers. They call us scumbags, predatory, greedy. And I will admit there are some resellers who fit the adjectives!

There are those in retail arbitrage reselling who will swoop into a store to buy all of a product to resell online for three times the original store price. During the Covid pandemic two brothers traveled around Tennessee and Kentucky buying up nearly 18,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and wipes and sold them on Ebay for $8 to $70 per bottle. The law caught up with them for price gouging on essential medical supplies. In the end they had to donate their remaining stock to avoid prosecution. These same predatory buying tactics have driven some toy stores to limit their new products to one per customer. So yes, there are resellers of a certain ilk who are rather deplorable. They try to create scarcity to price gouge.

Are we any better in the secondhand goods arena–for those of us who hunt at auctions, thrift stores, estate sales, etc?

Well, I have personally experienced some terrible behavior at estate sales. I’ve been pushed and blocked. I’ve seen folks try to take things off the hold table that weren’t theirs. I had someone try to take something out of my hands at a yard sale. I’ve seen estate sale shoppers running around slapping their own sold stickers on items. They weren’t examining the items or even intending to buy them all. It was their way of holding them till they could take a closer. That shouldn’t be allowed.

And I do think some secondhand goods resellers misrepresent their items, either by ignorance or design. One seller described her creamer as being sterling silver when the photos clearly showed the EPNS (electro-plate nickel silver) mark on the bottom. I’ve seen newer reproductions being touted as antique. I bought a wool jacket that was described as “mint condition.” It arrived with pilling and moth damage.

So, yes, second-hand goods resellers can be just as bad.

Here’s the But…

One bit of shade I won’t accept is that resellers ruined thrift stores and are essentially stealing from the poor. It’s just not true. Thrift stores were created to help their organizations raise money for their programs. Their intent was never to help the poor. And thrift stores are raising prices because their operational costs have increased and they are becoming more knowledgable about their donations. (You can read more here: Did Resellers Ruin Thrift Stores?) And anyone can go in the store and find these items just like we are. So I will not feel bad for buying antique plates, paintings, vintage purses or whatever as though I was depriving someone of a necessity.

Another type of shade I won’t accept has to do with pricing. There are some who believe if I buy an item for say $5 that I should happy to sell it for $20 or $30 regardless of what the item is or what its true value is. Which makes no sense. I sell things based on their fair market value. What I paid for it does not enter the equation. If I pay $5 for a leather box and its value is $40 to $60, then I’ll price it accordingly. If I paid $5 for painting and it’s worth is $125 that’s what I’m selling it for. It’s not greed. It’s just being objective.

Years ago I had a MCM painting from a known artist listed for $300. A prospective buyer sent me an offer of $100 and a long-winded story of why he wanted it. I declined his offer. A few days later the painting was still unsold and he wrote again saying, “Now, will you take it for $100?” As though a few days made any difference. I declined again. Finally, in frustration he wrote “How much did you pay for this painting? And how much profit do you need to make?” Frankly what I paid for it was none of his business nor was my potential profit. Both were irrelevant in this conversation. I was selling it at fair market value. Period. (I paid $30 and it sold for $275.)

But his line of thinking represents what others outside the biz believe as well. It seems to anger folks that resellers can acquire items for a few dollars and sell them for a lot more. In their eyes it makes us greedy.

I also won’t accept the “get a real job” shade that gets thrown at resellers. Most of us have worked at “real” jobs. We’ve been teachers, nurses, writers, flight attendants, etc. Maybe we were laid off. Maybe burnt out. I’ve worked decades in both the corporate world and in the non-profit sector and at some point I was done with it. Done working in a cubicle under fluorescent lights. Done dealing with bosses and co-workers. Selling vintage stuff is my semi-retirement job and it’s one I enjoy.

---

The bottom line–yes, some resellers are scummy and greedy, but most of us are decent folks trying to make a little money. We work hard for it and we run honest businesses.