Tips for Sourcing Inventory Online for Your Antique Booth

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If you’re an antique booth owner, you know a big part of the job is always being on the hunt for fresh inventory for your space. 

Even if you resell vintage items mainly online, having fresh stock to offer to customers and replenishing your inventory after a good month of sales is essential.

For most vintage booth owners, sourcing looks like lots of hours spent on weekends at estate sales, rummage sales, and other flea markets. 

But what if you could supplement these weekend supply outings with sourcing inventory online as well?

Not only does sourcing inventory online for your vintage or antique booth free up some of your time, it could also allow you to find items you can’t usually score locally.

Read on to learn my best tips for how you can start sourcing inventory online for your vintage reselling business.

How to Shop for Vintage Inventory Online

Many of us now do our gift shopping, clothes shopping, and even grocery shopping online–so why not try to do some antique booth inventory shopping online as well?

It’s true that sourcing inventory online for your business will likely never replace actually going out and hunting around. 

In the niche retail world we live in, booth businesses are appreciated by customers because we do the dirty work for them–climb through junk piles in barns or dig through messy garages at estate sales just to find those unique treasures.  

Nothing can really replace that!

But if you work another job (besides your reselling business), your time to go out and hunt may be limited. Or other personal factors could limit your in-person sourcing time.

Heck–maybe you just want to stop spending every weekend out shopping and do something different for a change!

Sourcing inventory online for your vintage booth space can be a good way to supplement your regular sourcing efforts. 

Think of it as a way to fill in the gaps or find those unicorn items you’ve been searching for.

What does my business need to start sourcing inventory online?

For some of the resources shared, you need nothing other than a regular debit or credit card tied to your business account.

Of course, I always recommend keeping your vintage resale finances separate from your personal finances, so make sure you have credit or debit cards you keep for only business use on hand.

Some of the places I share will require you to have a sales and use tax ID to purchase from their site.

This is a state registration number that allows you to purchase items that you intend to resell without paying sales tax on them.

The process for getting this number varies from state to state, as does the reporting that is required once you have it.

This online article here can help you determine what the right steps are for your specific state. 

One other thing to consider is how your items will be delivered.  If you decide to jump deep into online sourcing and begin purchasing amounts that come on freight trucks, you could find yourself having issues with delivery to your home.

If you live in an area where delivery of many, large boxes could be an issue or where a large semi-tractor trailer truck can’t navigate, having an office address where you could receive shipments may be helpful.

Again, this issue will come mostly with very large orders. But it’s something to think about!

My Favorite Places to Source Antique Booth Inventory Online

Let’s dive in to the actual websites and methods you can try for sourcing your booth inventory online. Some may work better for you than others, depending on your brand and what types of items you like to sell.

1. eBay

I like to think of eBay as the outlet mall of the vintage world. 

There you can find everything from high-dollar antiques to literal junk drawers dropped into a box.

My favorite way to source using eBay is to look for “lots” of vintage items. 

Often, sellers will bundle a whole bunch of one type of item together and sell it as one listing, called a lot (or job lot on eBay UK).

Shopping like this on eBay is an opportunity to purchase a bunch of smaller items at once, then divide them out and price them individually for your booth.

Some good items to search for in lots on eBay are:

• old books
• old postcards, photographs
• kitchen utensils
• old tin containers/boxes
• flatware and cutlery
• unframed art
• vintage jewelry
• buttons or sewing notions, old fabrics
• Christmas ornaments
• anything small!

Remember that shipping will be added to the final cost of the lot you purchase! So search for listings with lower shipping costs to help keep your overall cost-per-item down.

And for this reason, I try to avoid heavy or fragile items that require big boxes and lots of packaging material. Shipping can get expensive!

 

2. Online Auction Sites

While eBay may have started as an auction site, it functions more now as a regular online store. 

However there are still a lot of other auction houses all over the country, where real-time bidding takes place online!

HiBid.com is a site I visit frequently.

You can search for auctions happening that are local to you, or shop auctions happening all over the country.

To shop on HiBid, you first need to create an account. Then, when you are ready to bid on an item, you have to register for that specific auction.

Each auction will have its terms clearly listed on its main page. Be sure to make note of when the auction closes, when pickup happens (if you’re local) and if shipping is offered (not local).

LiveAuctioneers.com is another online auction source for antiques and vintage items. In my experience, their items are more expensive, but also often of higher quality!

I’ve seen some real steals come through this site–like 4-5 marshmallow tins being sold for $100! Prices do seem to be going up though, so be patient as you hunt for bargains.

One main caution to shopping these sites–unlike eBay, your shipping costs will not be displayed prior to purchase.  So it’s a bit of a risk when you make a purchase, especially larger or heavy items.

Because of this, I usually only bid on auctions where I can drive and pick up the items or if it’s a unicorn find that is way underpriced.

 

3. Wholesale Websites

Some vintage booth vendors mix new with old in their spaces, selling gifts, florals, or other home decor items along with their vintage finds.

Or, perhaps you want to start a new revenue stream and add a funky line of vintage-inspired t-shirts to your business–that’s when online wholesale websites become really helpful!

Unlike the resources above, these online outlets will require you to have a sales and use tax ID to shop with them. 

I went about 8 years as a booth vendor before I learned how to shop for new wholesale items. Something about it felt very overwhelming!

But truly, learning to source some of my inventory via online wholesale sites was one of the ways I was able to grow my business.

In case you’re new to shopping wholesale, I put everything you need to know about getting started in my Wholesale Starter Guide.

Rather than going through everything again here, I’m gonna encourage you to grab below that guide for a full breakdown. You’ll also get links to my favorite online wholesale sites!

Of course, not all antique malls will allow new items in their spaces, so you will want to confirm what your contract says first.

And whatever you decide to purchase needs to be on brand for your business as well. 

But with those things in mind, some of my favorite items to source wholesale are:

• faux greenery and florals
• greeting cards
• soaps 
• candles
• jewelry
• t-shirts
• baskets
• pillows and blankets
• reproduction home decor items 

If your booth really is mostly antique and vintage, I would caution you against adding too many new wholesale items.

You want to make sure to stay on brand and use your new finds as accents and fillers, rather than as your main offerings. 

 

4. Create a Connection with a Picker or Another Dealer

If you’re active on social media, then you’re probably following a lot of other vintage resellers and antique dealers.

Have you ever thought about asking one of them to help you source?

Some dealers have access to great finds in large quantities, and many of them are more than willing to sell off their excess inventory at closer to wholesale prices.

This is a bit of a tricky process to navigate, and it does require you to spend some time building relationships with other dealers online. 

Usually these sourcing opportunities aren’t being openly advertised, you have to be willing to ask.

I’ve found that most dealers who are willing to source are more open once I have spent some time following and commenting on their social feeds.  Then once a connection has been made, I will send a direct message asking if they would be willing to help me source.

I do not recommend just going around on Instagram or Facebook and cold-messaging every dealer you can find–that will likely get you nowhere!

But even if you aren’t able to find someone who is willing or able to be a full-time picker for you, sometimes you can make connections with dealers that will send occasional items your way–things they find that don’t fit their brand, but they know fit yours.

This is also an idea to consider if you want to sell some international items.

You may not be able to travel to England or France yourself to source, but you may find an English dealer on Instagram that is willing to ship you a box from time to time!

Again, there’s no real step-by-step method for making these connnections, it’s more about networking and keeping your eyes and ears open.

Then once you feel like it’s appropriate, you have to be bold and make an ask.

You may get ten no’s, but all it takes is one really good yes! So don’t write this off.

Final Thoughts on Sourcing Inventory Online

For most of us, keeping our antique booths and online shops full will continue to be a job for the weekends–actually getting out and hunting for those one-of-a-kind treasures hidden around us.

But one of the challenges to scaling as a vintage reseller is being able to keep enough inventory on hand. You can only sell what you have!

This is where sourcing online can help. I view it as a way to fill in the gaps and have some easy, on-demand items always at the ready.

It can also be a way to branch into new avenues of selling or expanding your brand.  

My biggest caution is to avoid overspending! Always remember to factor in shipping costs to the items you purchase; high shipping costs will decrease your overall profit margin, sometimes to the point where it doesn’t make sense to purchase the items.

If you treat online sourcing like a tool for your business rather than a shopping spree, you can find some real benefits there. 

Just as with your local sourcing, be disciplined, hunt for bargains, and make the most of relationships to see online sourcing work for you.