Have Vintage Items? Here’s How You Can Make Money Selling Vintage Goods

If you’re anything like us, you have a soft spot for vintage and antique items. Whether it’s because you just love furniture from a certain era, or you like to turn a profit, we don’t blame you! That being said, wanting to make money off of vintage items and actually doing so are two different stories!
Being good at anything takes some learning and practice, and selling vintage goods is certainly not exempt from that; luckily, we’ve always got your back. Want to make money selling vintage goods? Here’s how to get started.

Read up on vintage items and antiques

You don’t have to be the world’s leading expert on vintage items, but it can be quite useful to be able to stand your ground, at least. Since the difference between a valuable item and a regular old piece of furniture can be a few key details, it can be easy to be duked out of quite a profit.

If you have an item you’re not sure about, the best thing to do would be to call up an expert and get an appraisal. This way, you know what you should be expecting when it comes time to sell, and you know when to walk away from an offer that simply doesn’t cut it.

If you’re looking to go out and find vintage items, then there’s plenty of material online to learn a little bit more about how to spot valuable items. With a bit of studying and a careful eye, you’ll certainly have a better idea of what to look for and how to judge an item in no time.

Take advantage of yard sales

Yard sales probably aren’t where you’re going to want to sell your vintage items to make a profit. Regardless of how much your item is technically worth, people don’t go to yard sales planning to drop big bills, so anything priced too much over something like $50 is likely just going to gather dust.

That being said, you can take advantage of yard sales the other way around. Nearly everything at a yard sale is going to be priced quite low, even if the item is particularly old or valuable. A lot of people use yard sales to declutter or find forgotten items in a new home, so whether or not they’re aware of what they’re letting go, the point is almost never to make a profit.

While you probably aren’t going to find an antique dresser worth millions of dollars, you can almost certainly find vintage items in good shape that are worth more than the yard sale price. With a good eye and these low prices, it shouldn’t be too difficult to be able to resell at a rather significant markup. Even just a beautiful vintage bicycle might go for a few hundred dollars to the right seller, while it’ll probably cost you under $30 at the yard sale.

Know where to sell

Like we said, the yard sale is typically not the place to go for profits. Instead, look for different platforms where people will be looking for the kind of item you’re selling, and looking to pay a bit of money as well. Etsy is a great example of an online platform for this. Although they’re more typically known for handmade items, there’s quite a big vintage market on the platform as well. Importantly, people go to Etsy to find beautiful and special items, not really to find a bargain.

Facebook and Instagram also function as a marketplace that can be quite popular in niche markets. They’re also great platforms for promotion and, if you have your own website or plan on building one, can be a great way to get shoppers to visit your shop and buy from you.

Whether you’re looking to make finding and selling vintage items into a career, or you’re just trying to grab some extra cash, we hope these tips are useful in starting out your journey. And always remember: your secret weapon? Taking advantage of yard sales, of course! Long live the yard sale!