I like to think of my wife and daughter as masters of locating the bargains that are out there in the marketplace. When it comes to clothing and shoes, they specialize in the garage sale arena; however, they also know where and when to look for the bargains at the retail stores. Almost every store has a clearance rack of items that are soon to be out of season items, or may be slightly damaged in some way that is easily repairable. My daughter is only 13, but she’s been shopping with mom since the week after she was born. When she walks into a store, she immediately begins the search for the clearance section. She never pays full price for anything she wears and averages 70-80% off of original retail price. If your plan if to sell clothing of any type, you’ll want to be sure to look for clearance items as potential product sources.
For clothing, you’ll need to time your visits for the season. If it’s already summer, then clearance items for summer clothing will begin to appear. Clothing typically sells in the season prior to the season it was designed for (i.e. summer clothing appears in early spring. Spring clothing appears mid to late winter, etc.
My wife’s aunt makes a living selling clearance item clothing on eBay. One of her favorites is Old Navy! Old Navy will organize $0.25 tables where everything is a quarter. She and her family pack up arm loads of items, and then resell them on eBay for a hefty profit.
There are other items such as seasonal decorations where there are profits to be made as well. Generally all Hallmark Ornaments are 50% or more off the day after Christmas. While you’d think the sale of Christmas ornaments would limited strictly to the period just prior to Christmas, they sell year round on eBay as people are always looking to add to their collections. Although not a niche market by any means, it is none the less profitable.