One of the hardest parts about making money online using retail arbitrage is knowing what stores to buy from. What sells for $50 online might sell for $55 at one store, $40 at another, and $25 at the last. But once you understand the general trends of what stores have the best deals, finding profitable retail flips is easy!

Dollar Tree

Dollar Tree is a great option for beginners to learn the retail arbitrage ropes. Every item is cheap! (either $1 or $1.25, depending on your location) and a lot of the items are very fast sellers. My favorite things to resell from Dollar Tree are DVDs, video games, music CDs, food products, collectibles, books, and toys. By far, I make the most money selling Dollar Tree DVDs.

Dollar General

Dollar General is a budget store similar to Dollar Tree, but closer to Walmart. There are lots of Dollar Generals in rural locations, so if you live in the middle of nowhere, this might be the best place for you to start. Dollar General has great coupon deals as well as markdown events, so if you’ve a savvy shopper, you can maximize your profits by taking advantage of those discounted deals. For Dollar General, I find myself most often selling sports cards, toys, markdown items, and toys.

Walmart

Walmart is a great place to do retail arbitrage once you’ve got some more money. They almost all have clearance sections that get periodically get new inventory, plus they have many store specific toys and trading cards. I also sell Equate brand products on eBay and Amazon because, since Walmart is a direct competitor of those two companies, they do not have a direct relationship to sell on their site, thusly creating a gap in the market that you can capitalize on by offering simple, easy access to equate products for those who favor them but can’t or won’t go to the store to buy it themselves.

TJ Maxx

This might as well be all reverse logistics locations, but TJ Maxx is the one that I see the most of. We also have Home Goods and Sierra Trading Posts around here, all of which I’ve sourced from before. You are typically going to find clothing items here that you can resell. They also have quarterly markdown events where they clear out stale inventory at HUGE markdowns. I’ve purchased several Filson button downs for 80% off retail.

Target

The final mention on this short (but important) list is Target. I purchase both on Target and Target.com. Target has great deals on toys and trading cards, as well as many discount incentives that allow you to get better deals on products. Less frequently, I find myself searching the clearance racks for great deals because I’ve seen so many people on social media find 80%+ off wins, but in my area, I rarely find clearance items worth selling, and if it is, it’s video games. I more commonly profit off target exclusive and in-demand toys around Christmas.

I hope this list helped you understand a little more about retail arbitrage! With supply chains being as crazy as they are, being able to store and ship in-demand items with great agility is a more valuable skill than ever!