We love talking to people in all areas of the reselling industry. Today we’re interviewing Dalton Lanning from Dealing With Dalton. Dalton has been a full-time shoe reseller for three years. He will share his story of how he got into reselling and found his way to reselling only shoes.
How Did You Get Started Reselling Shoes?
Dalton had sold personal things on eBay when he was done with them but says he never looked at it as a business or way to generate income until his friend Carlos introduced him to the idea. At the time, he worked at a hotel in Orlando, and his friend Carlos said he would go to Ross after work to flip football cleats.
Dalton said the idea interested him because he didn’t understand how someone could walk into Ross, buy items, and sell them online for a profit. He went with his friend, and long story short, they didn’t make money reselling football cleats from Ross, but it took him down the rabbit hole of reselling. Dalton got on YouTube and saw other people successfully reselling by purchasing from garage sales. The thrill of thrifting took hold, and Dalton went to garage sales every weekend.
One day a coworker called to check in on him, and Dalton realized he was supposed to be at work, not a garage sale. That was the point where he got into reselling as a business.
How Long Did You Resell Part-Time Before Going Full-Time?
Dalton sold for about four to six months part-time before he got fired from his job and started going full-time at reselling. It flopped. A few months in, he had to get a part-time serving job at Bahama Breeze to pay his bills, but he continued to resell on the side. Another three to four months after that, he went full-time and hasn’t looked back.
When You First Tried To Go Full-Time, What Pushed You Back?
Dalton says the initial time he was reselling, it felt like a business because he was making a lot of money. But he wasn’t treating it like a business by setting money aside to reinvest in inventory. He wasn’t paying himself.
The transition to a part-time job with a part-time focus on reselling allowed him to look at his numbers and spreadsheets to see how much he was making from different items. He settled on selling shoes, and to this day, he just sells shoes. He realized he was wasting time going into thrift stores hoping for one big profitable item when he could focus on consistent sellers.
With one category, he says you develop an idea of how much it will cost per pair, what he will make in profit, and how many he needs to sell per week to pay his bills and buy new inventory. It was a more methodical approach.
How Do You Keep Track Of Your Shoe Inventory?
When he first started reselling, Dalton used a spreadsheet to track what he was selling, but he says it wasn’t very accurate. When he began reselling the second time, he paid more attention to the spreadsheet. He tracked how much he purchased it for, where he sold it, and what the fees were, and he put SKUs on items. He had a whole spreadsheet so he could search the SKU. That was a lot of work, so now he has simplified it to the point where he is recording how many units he’s picking up per month and how much he’s spending. Then he can pull inventory numbers or shipping fees from eBay and Poshmark.
The detailed spreadsheet helped him understand his business more and learn what shoes sold well.
How Much Profit Do You Make Per Item?
On average, Dalton picks up a pair of shoes for $10 and sells them for $30 after shipping and fees, before taxes. Sometimes he can also find $100 shoes for a great deal and make more.
How Are You Storing All Your Shoes?
Dalton said the SKU system had helped him. He assigns each shoe a number and writes it on a clothespin. He also photographs the clothespin with the shoes and includes it in the eBay listing so he can go back to the photos and find the number. All of his shoes are in a storage unit.
How Many Items Are You Trying To List Monthly?
Dalton tries to list 20 items a day. That’s his goal. He has hit 15 but is trying to work his way up to 20 per day on average.
How Many Are You Selling And Shipping Out Per Day?
Dalton sells about 12 to 13 pairs of shoes a day.
What Is An Average Month Of Sales?
Dalton says his before-tax income is about $5,000 to $6,000 monthly.
How Many Hours Are You Putting Into Reselling?
Dalton works 40 hours per week flipping shoes, but also works more because he’s building his presence online through content creation. He treats content creation as a side hustle. He also developed shoe trees, a product to help resellers stage their shoes for photographing or cleaning. He saw a need through his niche and did a private label brand to create a product his viewers would use.
Where Do You Source Your Items?
Dalton mainly goes to thrift stores for shoes because he knows they will always have shoes on the shelf.
What Advice Do You Have For Someone Looking To Resell Full-Time?
Dalton says it helped his business to niche down and do one thing. Picking one area allows you to understand that niche and find ways to increase efficiencies because you only have one photo setup, one inventory system, and maybe three to five box sizes. It streamlines everything.
He also recommends making friends with people that do the same thing as you. Find other resellers and get to know them. Don’t be afraid to reach out. It doesn’t have to be competition. You can motivate each other.
Show Notes
Dealing With Dalton Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dealingwithdalton/
Dealing With Dalton YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DealingWithDalton
Dealing With Dalton Shoe Trees: https://dealingwithdalton.com/
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