11 Reselling Mistakes That Cost Me Thousands (13 Years Full-Time)

追加: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]If you're starting reselling, there are a load of mistakes that you could make that will cost you money right off the bat. Now, I made a load of these mistakes myself when I first started reselling, and I'm here to now tell you guys what not to do so that you can save yourself time, money, and frustration.

[00:00:17]Now, if you're new here and you don't know who I am, I'm Luke, and I've been full-time reselling for 13 years now.

[00:00:24]When I first started reselling, there was no one out there giving advice, helping others out, because when I started a long time ago now, there was no one really doing YouTube or making content about reselling. It was all quite a new thing, especially in the sneaker and streetwear space. So, if you're looking to start reselling or you're early on in your journey, definitely watch this video, go through all of the tips and tricks that I give, and make sure you avoid the mistakes that I mention. The first mistake that people make is not gaining any of their own knowledge and doing none of their own research. Now, whilst there are a lot of resources out there that tell you what to buy, and how much profit you should make, and how to do that, I definitely recommend doing some of your own research and learning the ropes so that you have some basic knowledge and understanding yourself.

[00:01:14]The last thing you want to do is go blind into something listening to someone's advice that may not actually know that much, and then end up getting burnt, losing money, or just potentially wasting time. So, I definitely recommend to learn the markets and just do some research, understand >> [music] >> some examples. Let's look at a shoe that has resold and try to understand why exactly that shoe has been profitable.

[00:01:38]There's a load of different reasons. Is it that it's bang on a new trend? For example, something like ASICS when they first started reselling, why are they reselling? Why is this shoe just come out of nowhere and started to be profitable? Once you start to understand the why of something reselling and something being profitable, then you can start to understand exactly what items you should and shouldn't be buying. And this is super important when you're first starting out. Mistake number two is imagining your profit and not accounting for fees. So, when you purchase something, you see that there starts to be eBay sales for that item.

[00:02:19]Now, [music] what's easy to do when you're first starting out is you almost make the profit in your head. So, let's say you buy an item for 50 pounds and it's selling on eBay for 100 pounds.

[00:02:31]Before you've even sold it, you'll start to think that you've made 50 pounds profit. It's extremely dangerous because you start to think that you've made more than you have. You're also not accounting for fees on platforms. Now, whilst a lot of platforms out there don't actually charge fees, such as eBay and Vinted, [music] there's still costs to account for packaging, the time it takes you to go to the post office, all of these various little things. On a lot of platforms, there are fees as well. So, you can't just buy something, check the eBay sales, and then start [music] to spend that profit in your head. Super, super important when you're first starting out. And to be honest, even now, 13 years down the line, I can still be guilty of this sometimes. That profit is not yours until it's in your bank [music] account. Mistake number three is overpaying or paying too high for an item. Now, of course, if you're purchasing items for retail, that doesn't particularly matter too much.

[00:03:30]But if you're someone that's maybe purchasing items off of Vinted, or you're buying items at an already [music] resell price in order to invest potentially, like things like Pokémon, One Piece, a lot of people will purchase TCG from resellers to try to make some profit on top. Now, it's important, and this kind of ties back into mistake number one of knowing the market and doing your own research, it's important that you make sure you're paying not too high of a price. This can really burn you, especially when it's an item not from a retailer, because you can't necessarily return that item and just get your money back. If you purchase it off of someone on eBay or Vinted, then there's a much higher risk level, and you've got to make sure that you're paying the right price for that item.

[00:04:14][music] I know it can be quite exciting when you first start out. You start to see items and you think that they could potentially be profitable, but just be careful and make sure that you're not paying too high. [music] Mistake number four is not picking a niche. Now, this is a bit of a loose one because >> [music] >> sometimes I will preach to people that they should diversify, look at other markets, and not just niche down to one thing. But I do think it's important when you are first starting out, which is what this video is about, that if you don't pick a niche, you can kind of just be all over the place. I definitely think sometimes it's good to pick a niche [music] because you can gain advanced knowledge in that specific thing. And once you kind of master that, so let's just take for example, maybe you want to niche down in Pokémon, or if you're looking at vintage reselling, [music] maybe you want to niche down into Ralph Lauren as a brand.

[00:05:05]>> [music] >> You want to focus on that specific brand or market, then you can gain advanced knowledge and research in that >> [music] >> particular area, and become an expert to some extent. Now, this is going to benefit you massively because within that small little niche, you're going to be able to make money, be profitable, and also just have an extra step above other people.

[00:05:30]Now, once you've mastered that niche, you can go on to diversify into different avenues and look at other places and things to do within reselling. But I definitely think if you stay too broad from the get-go, that can definitely harm you. Mistake number five is not taking care of your listings.

[00:05:48]Now, when you're listing items on platforms, especially when it comes to eBay and Vinted, the way that you are going to get sales over all the other people reselling the same item is if your listings are better. [music] Now, I think over time, somehow, people kind of gave up on making their listings look nice. I remember back about five or six years ago, there was almost like a competitiveness to who can have the nicest pictures or the nicest layout or the nicest background. A lot of people back in the day, we would argue over who's got the best background. And what I mean by that is they would place all their items on a specific background.

[00:06:26]Now, mine and Eddie's, which is Paragon as a brand, we started doing like chipboard, like the plain wood chipboard, we [music] painted it white, and that was sort of like our unique thing for taking photos on.

[00:06:38]>> [music] >> Now, other people have done that since, and maybe people did it before, but for us, that was our little unique thing.

[00:06:44][music] We made sure that we took our photos in daylight, which was actually a little bit of a mistake because it's not very consistent. We had to basically wait till the sun was out to take the the product photos for our eBay and for our website. Now, if you're just starting out, this does not by any means mean you need to buy a professional camera, a light box, and, you know, all that fancy equipment. iPhones are insanely good cameras. I used to be a photographer, videographer, still am, and I'm telling you factually that iPhones have insane cameras. You don't need expensive ones, and daylight can be really good for photos. Of course, as I said, it can be a bit temperamental, but just buy a cheap little ring light or lights these days on Amazon, 20 quid. Just prop that up, get a nice clean background.

[00:07:33]You don't have to have a white background, it could be black, it could be anything. But just pick your thing, have some consistency to your photos, and definitely make a little bit of an effort on them, and I promise you you will get the sales over the people that are just using stock images or really badly lit iPhone footage or photos. So, that's something that you should definitely not overlook when you're first starting out. Mistake number six, ignoring the condition of an item when you receive it. Now, this applies to both people purchasing from retailers and also purchasing from Vinted or second-hand marketplaces. You want to make sure when you get an item in that you're checking it thoroughly, making sure that there's no quality control issues.

[00:08:17]>> [music] >> Places like Nike will ship shoes out, they've got glue stains on them, they might have stitching issues, and those are going to affect you when someone buys them and then complains.

[00:08:29]They might want to return, and they might want a partial refund. So, it's important that when you first receive your item, you check the condition is all good, because then if there are any issues, you can go back to the retailer or the place you purchased it from, get some sort of compensation, or if it's bad, you might just want to return that item and not even bother.

[00:08:46]I I couldn't tell you how many times that I didn't do this. I sold an item on a platform or to a customer on eBay or even on our website, and it's turned out that the shoes are different sizes. You know, one of the shoes is a nine and one's a 10.

[00:09:03]And that's from the retailer, the place I bought that from messed up, but because I hadn't checked it, I didn't know. And then you've got an angry customer, a disappointed customer on the other end, which is never good for your feedback, your reviews, and just your general reputation. So, definitely make sure that you're checking over these things when you're first starting out, and just always.

[00:09:23]That's a general rule for reselling.

[00:09:25]Mistake number seven, and this is a big one, not reinvesting.

[00:09:30]Now, we've all been there. If you're watching this video, or maybe you're not a beginner, you'll know what I'm talking about. You make that first a thousand pound profit, boom. Gone on holiday, gone out for a few meals, you've spent that extra money.

[00:09:44]Before you know it, you're back either using your credit card or starting off again with 500 pounds. Now, when you're first starting out, it is so, so, so important to be reinvesting your money and just keeping that money separate.

[00:09:59]Get yourself a little business account.

[00:10:00]I'm not saying you necessarily need a limited company because you can be a sole trader. You can do whatever you want in that regards, but have the money in a separate pot. Don't mix it with your personal funds and the money that you're going to actually use on a day-to-day basis. Keep it separate. Keep some money aside for tax as well, but keep reinvesting. Now, for a lot of people and a lot of you guys watching this, you're going to be starting reselling as a side hustle. Okay, maybe eventually you want to go full-time and take it further, but don't be too overambitious. Set yourself some good, you know, targets. You want to make an extra £500 a month and then you might want to make an extra £1,000 a month.

[00:10:38]But that money should always be kept as your reselling capital because the more capital you have when you're reselling, the more money you can make. It's as simple as that. And I myself made this mistake on plenty of occasions. Do not get me wrong. There's always been times where I've looked back and gone, "Damn.

[00:10:56]If I just had an extra £5,000 on that release or, you know, an extra £1,000 for this drop, I could have made so much more profit." You don't want to be looking back in the past and thinking, "Oh, what if I had more capital for that?" Whilst simultaneously spending your profits or wasting that money. That is probably the most important point that we have made in this video. Mistake number eight is giving up too early. When you first start out reselling, it might take you months and months and months to start making consistent profit, and that is absolutely fine. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. This is not get rich overnight. Okay, maybe going back 5, 6 years, there were some shoes you might be able to make 2, 3,000 pounds on. Wasn't common, but it might have been possible. And I think a lot of people on social media will mislead you and tell you that you can make thousands and thousands of pounds profit, but that's not a beginner. You cannot start reselling and expect to make thousands and thousands of pounds of profit straight away.

[00:12:00]>> [music] >> It's not possible. So, manage your expectations and don't give up. Reselling is hands-down the best side hustle. I mean, I'll put my hand on heart and say that.

[00:12:12]It's what I genuinely believe because what side hustle out there allows you to spend an hour a day on it, if not less sometimes, and make £500 profit a month on the side of your job, your studying, whatever you're doing?

[00:12:28]I genuinely think reselling is the number one side hustle. And if you just stick to it, you will easily get to those 500, 1,000 pounds profit a month numbers. And then if you want to take it further, you can, but just don't give up because I promise you it's some of the easiest money you can make in the world, genuinely. Number nine is procrastination.

[00:12:49]Now, I am guilty of this. I still am to this day. Procrastinating is something that has bitten me many times. One of the main reasons and the things that I'm talking about here is shipping something out. You get that sale and you might think, "I'll I'll send that off tomorrow. You know, I'm going past the parcel shop. I'm going past the drop-off. I'll do that tomorrow." And then you might go tomorrow and you forget. And then day after day after day, next thing you know, you've got an eBay case open against you. You've got bad feedback. Now, if you've maybe sold on eBay before, but you guys are supposed to be beginners, right? So, I'll tell you now, if you get into a bad cycle on eBay, you get too much bad feedback, you have too many late shipments, defects, it's so hard to get out of that cycle.

[00:13:37]Just don't get in it in the first place.

[00:13:39]You get a sale, ship that item as fast as you possibly can because the reviews, the feedback, all of that stuff is going to be great for your online profile, for your reputation, and you just want to give good customer service. Of course, sometimes there might be times where you can't go ship an item the same day, but just make sure that you communicate with the buyer. You let them know, and just don't procrastinate on shipping orders.

[00:14:03]And on that note of procrastination, don't procrastinate paying your taxes and sorting out and getting organized. And that leads on to mistake number 10, not being organized and building systems. Now, when you first start out, you might not be taking things too seriously, but I promise you it's going to get It's going to get crazy quicker than you're expecting.

[00:14:25]And if you don't prepare, have the systems in place, keep on top of your accounting, then you're going to get burned at some point. It might be that the tax deadline comes around and you're super unorganized. You're going to be up late, not sleeping properly, worrying about doing your tax return, things like that. It's so important that you get organized from the get-go.

[00:14:45]Before you even buy that first item, if you can, get your spreadsheets set up.

[00:14:50]Have everything in order. Get your, you know, all of your website uh profiles for eBay, Vinted, Laced, StockX, GOAT, etc. Get everything organized. Get yourself some packing boxes, some tape. You know, just Just be organized. I promise you you'll thank yourself for doing it. If you stay organized, just get it all together before you start buying too many items because it's kick Reselling can snowball way quicker than you can ever imagine. You might buy one item. The next day you buy two, and then 2 weeks down the line, you might have 50 boxes of Pokémon. You never know what's going to happen. And if you don't stay organized, then you're going to mess up somewhere. Now, I know I've said a couple times that these are the most important points, but I think this last mistake could be the most important, especially in 2026 and with how the market is and how things are today. And this is returns. This is the This is the number one. This is the number one mistake that you shouldn't make when you're purchasing from retailers. So, if you're a Vinted reseller, then this probably doesn't apply to you. But for me and my reselling strategy and the strategy that we mainly focus on inside Paragon Network, I don't know if I've mentioned Paragon Network yet, but I run a community that teaches people how to resell, teaches you everything you need to know, 24/7 support, everything you could possibly need to run a successful reselling business, and it's just £40 a month. There is a waitlist, but if you comment down below that you've joined the waitlist and you're really getting, you know, looking to get inside it because if you've watched this video, I really appreciate that. And I appreciate that you're putting your own time in to learn what not to do and learn about the mistakes that resellers can make. And I appreciate that and I think that that means you're a good fit for our community. So, I'll let you skip the waitlist. So, if you do want to get involved, click the link down below, join the waitlist, and then drop a comment down below, and I'll skip you through the waitlist. But without further ado, returns.

[00:16:57]Not returning items will be the death of your reselling business, genuinely. I'm not exaggerating here, but I have seen so many people over the years, they've bought stock. They've bought 50 pairs of something. And like As I said at the start of this video, I have made these mistakes. I have lost thousands and thousands of pounds because of this one mistake that I'm talking about. And that's not returning your items if it hasn't sold. Now, in the UK and in Europe, this doesn't apply in the US. We have returns periods.

[00:17:33]Legally, a retailer has to accept your return. Now, normally this is within 14 days of delivery. Some places it's 30, and over Christmas periods, a lot of retailers bump it up to 60 days, which is great. But if you purchase an item, you list that item as soon as you can.

[00:17:51]You try to get it up and get it sold. If you're coming up to that 10-day, 12-day period where that item hasn't sold, you need to do your own research. Check the market prices. Check the sales. Are the sales prices good? If the sales prices are good, is the sales volume good? Are enough people buying that item that you think you can sell it within the next, say, 10 days or 20 days or 30 days? If you think you might have to wait 6 months to sell this item, return it.

[00:18:24]You're not going to sell it. It's going to end up on a shelf or in the corner of your bedroom or wherever you keep your stock.

[00:18:30]And in 2 years' time, you're going to see that item and you're going to have to sell it for half of what you paid for it. Now, this will really burn you over time, and it's super important that you get organized and make sure that you're keeping track of all of your your return dates. If you have to, put it in your calendar.

[00:18:48]Set an alarm. Set a reminder. Keep a spreadsheet just of return dates because it's so crucial in this day and age where the reselling game is a bit more I wouldn't say risky because as I say, there's returns, so there is zero risk.

[00:19:04]But it's kind of hard. Sometimes you'll purchase something. There might be 50 sales of it on the day it releases, and then in a week's time, everyone's forgotten about it and moved on to the next thing. So, it's super important that you keep on top of this because reselling, as I say, it's a risk-free process if you return it before the return period. If you don't do that, then reselling isn't risk-free at all, and you're potentially putting your money into dead capital, uh dead product, and dead stock that you can't even sell.

[00:19:35]And as I said, that can then potentially lead to you losing money, not just not making profit. You might have to sell that item for less than you paid for it.

[00:19:44]And that does genuinely sometimes happen. It's happened to me, and I'm sure it's happened to loads of other resellers out there. So, my number one tip, my number one mistake is not returning items when they should be returned. And as I said, what I mean by that is you need to research and figure it out. If you're in the Paragon Network and inside of our group, we give you this information. If you ask, "Should I return this? What do you think?" We will analyze it and look at the market for you and tell you. But even if you're not in a community like that, you can do the research yourself. Just be realistic. Do you think that item is realistically going to sell for the profit you want it to within the next few weeks? And if you don't think it will, then honestly, just return it. Unless it's something that's super, super hyped and genuinely you think that that might go up in value over time, which is not really an outlook or a method I tend to tell anyone to look at, especially. But especially not as a beginner. I don't think you should be thinking in your head, "Oh, well, you know, I saw once upon a time that the Sean Wotherspoon Air Max 97s were reselling for 300, and then a month later they were selling for 600, and then another month later they were selling for 1,000." That rarely happens anymore. So, definitely don't look at that as a way of reselling or a potential thing that's going to happen to an item you buy. It's so rare that that happens that it shouldn't really be a possibility that you're thinking about. So, I hope that this video was entertaining and useful for you. The reason that I'm making this video is to just help people. I made these mistakes myself and I lost thousands and thousands of pounds because of them. So, I don't want anyone else making those mistakes. So, I'm putting this video out there and I really appreciate it if you've liked this video. Drop a comment down below. Subscribe to the channel if you aren't already. Give us a like.

[00:21:27]Share the video with all your friends if anyone out there you know is starting to resell. This isn't typically the type of video I make, but a lot of people inside of our community have been asking for things like this. So, hopefully this has helped you or at least given you some tips, tricks, and guidance in which direction to go in. So, as I said, appreciate it as always and I'll see you in the next video.