If you’re new here, I’m the auction guy you probably saw on Insta, YouTube or X. You may have downloaded my Auction Starter Guide with the lists of all the auction sites and tips on getting started.
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I never wanted to sell clothing.
But sometimes a deal is too good to ignore.
A few years back we bought 18,067 pieces of licensed NFL apparel for $28,287. We sold them for $101,730.
Here’s how it went, including the part where I almost blew it.
Work the deal backward
I found the lot on Woot!, Amazon’s one-deal-a-day site. It was the leftovers from one of their NFL promos and they were auctioning it off.
First rule that you know by now: never buy without a manifest. We had one, plus photos.
Then I did what I always do. I worked the deal backward. I ran the manifest through Terapeak and pulled SOLD prices only. Not asking prices. Real sales.
The goal isn’t profit. It’s finding the worst case. I want to know I can’t lose money before I ever think about making it.
The math said I could safely pay up to $54,000, about $3 an item.
We won it at $1.57 an item.
The rookie mistake
The truck was on the way. Then I looked at the manifest again.
Almost everything was big and tall. 3XL. 5XL. 6XL.
Oh sh*t!
Then the truck showed up and it got better. Nothing was sorted. Every team, size and product was dumped together in pallet-sized boxes. Over 1,600 SKUs.
My wife ran this project, and she ran the sort from hell. Our kids helped. I mostly stayed out of the way. Organization is not my gift.
And the sizing “mistake”? It turns out almost nobody sells 3XL to 6XL NFL gear. Our problem turned into our Unfair Advantage.
Sell the cream, then shotgun it
My rule on any big buy: get the initial investment back fast. I call it Selling the Cream. Skim the best inventory and turn it into cash.
We had our money back in 43 days.
Then we hit every channel:
- Poshmark: $38,519, from a new store promoted by our 250K-follower account
- eBay: $28,529
- Liquidation.com: big wholesale loads, lower margin, fast volume
- Amazon: $18,341, from a profit split with an existing seller who came to us.
Total: $101,730. And my wife is still shipping leftover inventory today, chasing $20 sales for fun.
The right spouse is a force multiplier.
Would I do it again?
Not if we had to sell it the same way.
These days, I would focus on Live Selling on TikTok and Whatnot marketplaces.
Here’s the thing
The deal didn’t make the money. The system did.
Get the manifest, pull sold comps, do the worst-case math, sell the cream, then move volume through every channel you can find.
Most people never learn that system. They buy on vibes, get stuck with the 6XLs, and quit.
Inside the Reseller Mastermind, we work deals like this together every week. Real loads, real numbers, and people who’ve already made the mistakes (like me!) so you don’t have to.
Cheers to your inevitable success!
~ Shannon
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I built and sold companies for 30 years. Now I help resellers build theirs.
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