You buy sneakers, vintage clothes, cards or collectibles cheaply and sell them online for more. Mostly a side income.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$3,500
Most people
$0
Full-time few
$70,000
There is no Job Bank wage for resellers. Most do it part time and clear a few hundred dollars a month after fees and stock, so about $3,500 a year is a fair typical figure. Full-time resellers who source every day can reach $45,000 to $70,000 of profit, working more than full-time hours.
Often $5 to $35 profit an item
Thrifted clothing, books and household goods
Shipping inside Canada is expensive, so small cheap items often make more sense sold locally on Facebook Marketplace or Kijiji. Volume, not big wins, is what makes the money.
About 10% to 20% of each sale
Taken by the marketplace, plus shipping
eBay takes roughly 13% to 14% in most categories. Poshmark takes about 20% on most sales. Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji are free for local pickup, which is why so many Canadian flippers start there.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is flipping finds from thrift stores and garage sales with the phone you already have, about $150 of first stock and shipping supplies. The high end is starting in sneakers or graded cards, where one item can cost hundreds of dollars, plus a scale, a label printer, photo lighting and crosslisting software, much of it billed in US dollars. Expensive stock is the risk: one fake or one price crash can wipe out months of profit.
Start with cheap stock so your mistakes are cheap too.
Shipping
Canada Post and courier rates eat the margin on low-priced items.
Unsold stock
Items that sit for months tie up cash and space.
Price crashes
Hyped sneakers and cards can lose half their value in weeks.
Fakes
Buy one counterfeit and you lose the money. Sell one and you can lose your account.
Your time
Sourcing, photos, listing and packing. Many people earn less than minimum wage per hour.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
No diploma or licence. You learn what sells by selling.
Sell what you already own
1 month
Clear out your closet first. It teaches photos, pricing and shipping with no risk.
Pick a niche
1 to 3 months
Vintage clothing, sneakers, hockey and trading cards, books or electronics. Know one category well.
Learn to price from sold listings
Ongoing
Check what items actually sold for, not what people are asking.
Build a sourcing routine
6 to 12 months
Thrift stores, estate sales, garage sales, auctions and card shows on a regular schedule.
Grow or stay a side hustle
1 to 3 years
Full-timers keep hundreds of items listed on several sites, often selling to US buyers too.
Math
Fees, shipping and profit per item, done fast in your head.
Business studies or marketing
Pricing, buyer behaviour and keeping records.
Photography or media arts
Good photos sell items faster and for more.
History or visual arts
Spotting the age and maker of vintage pieces is where the bargains are.
No licence is needed. Buying things to resell at a profit is business income you report to the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency), even in small amounts. Selling your own used belongings for less than you paid is usually not taxed. Since the 2024 tax year, marketplaces report sellers to the CRA once they pass 30 sales or $2,800 in a year. If sales pass $30,000 over four quarters, register for GST (goods and services tax) or HST (harmonized sales tax).
Fake sneakers, bags and cards are everywhere, and many look perfect. Selling them breaks the Trademarks Act, and platforms ban accounts for it, even if you did not know. Describing an item falsely, such as calling a reproduction vintage, can break the Competition Act. StockX and some eBay listings are checked before reaching the buyer. Buy from people you trust, keep proof, and list flaws plainly.
Things you don't need, but that help.
eBay
The biggest collector audience, and easy access to US buyers.
Poshmark
Clothing and accessories, with a prepaid shipping label.
StockX
Sneakers and streetwear, checked for fakes, with set prices.
Whatnot
Live video auctions, strongest for cards, toys and collectibles.
Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji
Local, free and best for furniture and bulky items.
Spotting value fast
Brands, materials and makers that sell, seen in seconds on a rack.
Photos and listings
Clean backgrounds, measurements and honest flaws.
Live selling
Talking on camera for hours keeps a Whatnot show moving.
Card grading
Sending cards to a grader such as PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) can raise value, but costs money per card, plus shipping to the US.
Social videos show huge sneaker and card flips. They are real but rare, and the people posting often earn more from the videos or a paid group than from flipping. Hype items are crowded with bots and big buyers, and prices fall fast. Steady resellers mostly sell ordinary things, like brand-name clothing, books and hockey cards, at small profits in large numbers.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Mornings are sourcing: two or three thrift stores, or an estate sale that opens early. Back home you clean, measure and photograph what you bought, then list it on two or three sites. Afternoons are packing yesterday's sales and a Canada Post drop-off, plus a few local buyers picking up from your door. Some evenings are a live show. Weekends are garage sales and card shows.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Since the 2024 tax year, platforms like eBay and Poshmark report sellers to the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) once they pass 30 sales or $2,800 in a year. Clearing out a closet stays under that line.
Canada's platform reporting rules follow a model written by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), so many countries now share seller data the same way.
Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji charge nothing for local pickup sales. For couches, bikes and tables, that beats any shipping platform, and furniture flipping is one of the few kinds that needs no shipping at all.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Online business first, then the rest of the field. See all online and self-made careers.
Last checked October 2026. This is self-employment, so there is no government wage data for it. The income figures come from the studies and platform data listed above.