Sourcing: buy or pass

The most expensive mistake in resale is the item you shouldn't have bought. It costs you the purchase, and the shelf space and attention for months. The check in this chapter takes a minute or two in the aisle.

The idea

The Sourcing tab runs the floor math backwards:

max to pay = likely resale x (1 - fee %) - fixed fee - shipping - supplies - minimum profit

If the asking price is above that, it's a pass, however good the find feels. The made-up fleece in the examples is listed for 9 and would resell for around 22. After fees, shipping and a 10 minimum, the most you could pay is just under zero. Pass.

In the store

Open the Claude app, in your Resale project, and send a photo or two: the item and the label.

Thrift store, asking $[14]. Photos attached. What is it, and what's the one detail that changes the price most? Give me search phrases for sold comps. Don't guess a price from memory.

Then look up two or three sold comps yourself, on the eBay app or wherever you sell. Paste or screenshot them back:

Sold comps attached. Likely resale on eBay? Then work out the most I should pay, using fee 13.6%, fixed fee 0.40, shipping [9], supplies 1, minimum profit 10. Buy or pass, one line why.

Log it on the Sourcing tab, including the passes. After a month, the passes tell you which categories aren't worth stopping for.

When there's no signal

Sometimes the comps aren't there: an unbranded piece, an odd one, a thing nobody sells online. Claude should tell you that, and that's useful. Decide on purpose whether it's a gamble you want at that price. Cheap gambles you can afford to lose are part of the job. Expensive ones aren't.