Reseller Tools and Supplies Checklist (With Real Costs)

Getting Started · 2026-07-09 · 8 min read · FlipScout Team

New resellers love buying gear. A ring light, a label printer, branded tissue paper, a logo stamp — it feels like progress. It isn't. Most of that stuff sits unused while the actual bottleneck is that you haven't shipped your first ten items yet.

This is the full checklist of tools and supplies you need to run a reselling operation, split into what to buy on day one and what to add once you're actually shipping regularly. Every price range here is based on current retail pricing, not guesses.

Day-one essentials: the under-$75 starter kit

You can start shipping items with about $50–$75 in supplies. That's it. Everything else is an upgrade you earn after your first few dozen sales.

Digital postal scale

A kitchen scale won't cut it — you need one that reads in ounces up to at least 50 pounds, because shipping costs jump at weight thresholds and guessing means you either overpay on postage or get hit with postage-due charges that eat your profit.

The Accuteck 50lb postal scale is the reseller default. It runs $28–$40 on Amazon, reads down to 0.1 oz, and comes with an AC adapter so you're not burning through batteries. It's been the standard recommendation in reselling communities for years because it works and it's cheap. Don't overthink this purchase.

Poly mailers

For anything soft — clothing, plush toys, flat accessories — poly mailers are lighter and cheaper than boxes. A 100-pack of 10x13" poly mailers runs about $12–$15. Buy in bulk (500+) and the per-unit cost drops to roughly $0.05–$0.09 each.

Start with two sizes: 10x13" for most clothing and 14.5x19" for bulkier items like jackets. That covers 80% of what you'll ship in soft packaging.

Shipping boxes (many are free)

Here's the single best deal in reselling that new sellers consistently miss: USPS Priority Mail boxes are free. Order them at usps.com/store — they ship to your door at no charge, no minimum order. The catch is they can only be used for Priority Mail shipments, but for items that weigh over a pound, Priority Mail is often the cheapest option anyway.

For non-Priority shipments, save boxes from your own deliveries. Every Amazon box, every Walmart order — break them down and stack them. You'll have a usable supply within two weeks without spending a cent.

Packing tape and bubble wrap

• Packing tape: A single roll of Scotch Heavy Duty shipping tape costs about $12–$13 and will last you dozens of shipments. A 6-pack runs $20–$25 and lasts months.
• Bubble wrap: A 12" x 175' roll costs roughly $25–$30 at Staples or Amazon. For a cheaper start, grab a 12" x 25' roll for about $12 and see how fast you go through it.

Don't buy packing peanuts. They're messy, customers hate them, and crumpled newspaper or the free air pillows from your own deliveries work just as well.

Tape measure

You already own one, or you can grab a basic one for $5–$10. You need it for two things: measuring items for listing dimensions (required on eBay for calculated shipping) and measuring boxes to avoid dimensional weight surcharges. Not glamorous, not optional.

Cleaning supplies

A $15 investment here directly raises your sale prices:

• Microfiber cloths ($5–$8 for a multi-pack) for wiping down electronics and hard goods
• Lint roller ($3–$5) for clothing
• Goo Gone or rubbing alcohol ($4–$6) for removing price stickers without damaging surfaces

A clean item with sticker residue removed photographs better and sells for more. A dirty item with a Goodwill sticker still on it tells the buyer you don't care.

Your total day-one spend on supplies should be $50–$75. If you're spending more than that before your first sale, you're procrastinating with a credit card.

The day-one cost breakdown

That's the real startup cost for supplies. Anyone telling you that you need $300+ in gear to start reselling is selling you something.

Upgrades worth buying after 30+ sales

Once you're regularly shipping several items a week, a few upgrades genuinely save time and pay for themselves.

Thermal label printer

This is the single best upgrade for a working reseller, but only after you're shipping consistently. Printing labels on a regular inkjet printer means cutting paper, taping labels to boxes, and replacing ink cartridges. A thermal printer uses heat on label stock — no ink, no cutting, peel and stick.

Here's what the main options actually cost:

The ongoing cost is just the label stock: 4x6" direct thermal labels run about $0.03–$0.05 per label when bought in rolls of 500+, or roughly $13–$25 per 500-label roll. Compare that to inkjet ink cartridges at $25–$40 each that run dry fast.

My recommendation: if you're shipping fewer than 10 items a week, a MUNBYN in the $70–$80 range is the right entry point. The Rollo is better built, but at double the price it only makes sense once you're shipping daily. Skip the Zebra unless you're doing 50+ shipments a week.

Better photography setup

You don't need a studio. You need consistent, even lighting and a clean background. Here's the progression:

1. Free: Shoot near a window during the day, lay items on a white poster board ($3 at a dollar store). This is genuinely good enough for your first 50 listings.
2. $15–$30: Add a phone tripod. A basic one like the K&F Concept flexible tripod runs about $25–$37 and eliminates blurry photos from hand shake. Consistency matters more than perfection.
3. $45–$150: A simple LED softbox kit adds even lighting for evening shoots or rooms without good windows. Budget kits start around $45. The popular NEEWER kits run $145–$245 depending on what's included.

Skip ring lights for product photography. They're designed for faces, not objects — they create circular reflections on anything shiny and uneven lighting on textured surfaces. A softbox or even a desk lamp with a daylight LED bulb behind a sheet of diffusion material works better for products.

Phone tripod

Mentioned above, but worth calling out separately: a $15–$30 phone tripod eliminates the two most common listing photo problems — blur and inconsistent angles. When every photo in your store has the same perspective and sharpness, the whole store looks more professional. Buyers notice.

What's a waste of money early on

Some purchases feel productive but actively hurt you when you're starting out, either because they cost too much relative to your volume or because they solve problems you don't have yet.

• Branded packaging (custom tissue paper, thank-you cards, logo stickers). Your buyer on eBay or Mercari does not care. They want the item to arrive undamaged and match the listing. Branding matters when you have repeat customers on your own site. On a marketplace, it's vanity spend.
• Inventory management software subscriptions. A free Google Sheets spreadsheet handles your first few hundred items. Seriously. Track item name, source, cost, platform, list price, sold price, fees, shipping cost, net profit, and days to sell. There are free reseller spreadsheet templates available — Sheetrix and others offer ready-made ones. Move to a paid app like Resylr or ResellAIO when your spreadsheet starts feeling slow, not before.
• A steamer. Unless you're selling exclusively clothing at volumes above 20 items a week, a $5 spray bottle of wrinkle releaser works fine for photo prep.
• Multiple platform subscriptions or cross-listing tools. Start on one platform. Learn it. Expand later. A cross-listing subscription at $30/month is a recurring cost that needs to be justified by actual multi-platform sales volume.
• Premium shipping supplies (custom boxes, branded tape, colored poly mailers). Every dollar you spend on packaging is a dollar off your margin. Plain white poly mailers and free USPS boxes are what most full-time resellers use for a reason.

The supplies that actually scale your business

After six months of consistent selling, here's what separates part-time hobby sellers from people who do this as real income:

• A thermal label printer — saves 2–3 minutes per shipment, which adds up to hours per week at volume
• A dedicated photo area with consistent lighting you can leave set up — eliminates the friction of "setting up" every time you want to list
• An inventory spreadsheet you actually maintain — the sellers who know their sell-through rate and average days to sell make better buying decisions, full stop

If you're just getting started and haven't made your first 10 flips yet, buy the $50–$75 starter kit above, source some items, and start listing. The gear upgrades will earn their place once you have the volume to justify them.

The one tool that pays for itself from the very first sourcing run is knowing what an item sells for before you buy it. That's a research problem, not a shipping-supplies problem — and it's exactly what FlipScout is built to solve.