Charity shops and car boots are where most UK resellers start — and for good reason. The barriers are low, the stock turns over weekly, and the margins can be excellent if you know what you're looking for. But knowing what to look for is the whole game.

This guide cuts to what actually sells, what to leave on the shelf, and how to make quick decisions without spending 10 minutes Googling every item.

The mindset: buy price first, emotion second

The biggest mistake new resellers make is picking up things they personally like and hoping someone else will pay for them. The question is never "do I like this?" — it's "what will this sell for, and does the maths work?"

Before picking anything up, apply a quick mental filter:

  • What's the minimum I'd need to sell this for to make it worthwhile?
  • Is it likely to sell for that price on eBay or Vinted?
  • Is the condition good enough, or am I buying a problem?

As a starting point: aim for a 3x return on low-value items (buy for £1, sell for £3+), and at least 2x for higher-value items (buy for £20, sell for £40+). This accounts for eBay's ~13% final value fee, postage costs, your time, and a buffer for items that don't sell as fast as expected.

How to check prices on the go

The fastest way to check an item's real value while standing in a charity shop:

  1. Open the eBay app on your phone
  2. Search for the exact item (brand + model + key spec)
  3. Filter by Sold items — this shows what buyers actually paid, not aspirational asking prices

This gives you a real market price in under a minute. You can also scan the barcode with FlipIQ for an instant AI-generated assessment with UK pricing — useful when you want to check whether an item is worth buying before committing.

What to buy — category by category

Video games and consoles

Retro gaming is one of the most reliably profitable categories. The market for older consoles and games has grown every year as nostalgia buyers pay premiums for working hardware and complete games.

Look for: GameBoy (any version), Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, SNES, N64, PS1, PS2, original Xbox, Nintendo DS and 3DS. Original cartridges in boxes are worth significantly more than loose carts, which are worth more than disc-only games.

Modern games (PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X) rarely appear in charity shops yet, but grab them if they do.

Red flags: disc-only without case sells for 50–70% less. Consoles without cables or controllers need heavy discounting to move.

Books

Most paperbacks aren't worth your time — common titles in poor condition will sell for less than your postage cost. But books are worth scanning because the exceptions can be excellent.

Look for:

  • Cookbooks with personality — Ottolenghi, Nigella Lawson, Heston Blumenthal, especially older editions and out-of-print titles
  • Children's illustrated books — first editions, out-of-print titles, illustrators with followings (Shirley Hughes, Raymond Briggs)
  • Crime and thriller hardbacks — early editions of bestselling series authors before they were famous
  • Programming and technical books — older editions of popular titles still sell surprisingly well

Always check the ISBN on eBay sold listings before buying any book.

Clothing

Charity shop clothing varies enormously. The basic rule: brand name matters far more than style. A mediocre Ralph Lauren polo sells; an excellent unbranded shirt doesn't.

Target: Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Puma, Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger, Fred Perry, Stone Island, Barbour, Patagonia, The North Face. In any condition. In any style. If the brand is right, there's a market.

For women's clothing, vintage (genuine 80s/90s) and Y2K pieces have strong demand on Vinted specifically. Check the care label — "Made in England" or vintage brand tags are signals worth investigating.

Homeware and kitchenware

This category is underrated by new resellers and overexploited by experienced ones. The key is recognising quality brands that charity shops systematically underprice.

  • Le Creuset and cast iron: Almost always underpriced. Even chipped or stained Le Creuset sells. Check the underside for size markings — larger pieces are worth more.
  • Branded kitchen tools: KitchenAid attachments, Magimix parts, Kenwood blender jugs, Vitamix containers. Individual parts from these premium machines sell well to people replacing broken components.
  • Vintage ceramics: Look at the backstamp. Royal Doulton, Beswick, Hornsea, Denby, and Wedgwood all have collectors markets. A quick search tells you immediately if something is valuable.
  • Good quality glassware: Dartington Crystal, Edinburgh Crystal, and Waterford are worth checking.

Toys and games

  • LEGO: Always worth buying in any condition. Loose bricks sell by weight, complete sets sell as sets. Never pass on LEGO.
  • Fisher-Price Little People: The vintage solid-headed plastic figures (pre-1991) are collectible. The newer hollow ones are not.
  • Board games: Only if 100% complete — missing pieces destroy resale value. Always check before buying.
  • Scalextric and model railways: High value if complete and working, but verify before buying.

Electronics

High risk but high reward. The rules:

  • Test before you buy — many charity shops will let you plug in an item or check it powers on
  • Chargers and cables matter — an iPad without its charger sells for less; a turntable without its stylus sells for much less
  • Stick to brands: Sony, Bose, JBL, Apple, Sennheiser, Technics
  • Check for physical damage — cracked screens, broken ports, and water damage indicators are usually visible

Car boots: how to shop them effectively

Car boots require different tactics than charity shops.

Arrive early. The best items are gone within the first 30–45 minutes. Many experienced resellers arrive as sellers are still setting up their stalls.

Walk the whole boot first. Before buying anything, do a quick circuit to see what's available. You'll make better decisions and avoid spending your budget on the first interesting thing you see.

Negotiate. Unlike charity shops, car boot sellers expect to haggle. "Would you take £X for this?" is a normal and expected question. Buying multiple items from one seller gives you more leverage: "I'll take all three for £X."

Ignore the "antiques" stalls. Sellers who know the value of what they have will price accordingly. The opportunity is with sellers who have a jumble of household items — they're far more likely to have underpriced things.

What to leave on the shelf

  • Unbranded clothing — unless it's genuinely vintage or unusual, it won't sell at a useful price
  • Damaged electronics — don't assume you can fix it or that buyers will accept broken items
  • Exercise equipment — bulky, expensive to post, and everyone has one they're not using
  • Incomplete sets — board games, model kits, jigsaws — always assume pieces are missing unless proven otherwise
  • Common DVDs — the Harry Potter and Bond DVDs that appear at every car boot sell for pennies if at all
  • Anything that might be counterfeit — replica branded goods are illegal to resell and platforms remove your listings

Log everything as you go

The worst habit in reselling is losing track of what you paid for something by the time it sells three weeks later. Log purchases immediately — what you bought, where, what you paid, the condition.

This matters practically for pricing (you can't calculate profit if you don't know your cost) and it matters for tax if your income exceeds £1,000 per year. See our HMRC trading allowance guide for what records HMRC expects.