Seasonal side-hustles: buy low, sell high next year

In this modern world, it is not uncommon for people to have a second job; sometimes people just need more cash to pay the bills. But some crafty men and women have found another way to earn that money, treating seasonal products like shares on the stock market.

"Seasonal Reselling" involves buying products from physical shops, wholesalers and online stores post-season, when items are heavily discounted to get rid of stock. As the season ramps up again next year, the items are then resold through eBay, Amazon, Etsy and other online platforms, at huge markups. Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, Hanukkah, Ramadan, even Super Bowl merchandise rarely goes out of fashion. As long as there's no year printed on them, they're just as likely to sell at their Recommended Retail Price next year.

Now it’s understandable that many people would be unwilling to quit their jobs and fully commit to buying and selling online, so practising Seasonal Reselling just in the Christmas or Easter period is the perfect chance to dip a toe in the water. Christmas goods are often heavily discounted during January and February, giving you the perfect chance to stock up, ready for the holiday season. Once that comes around, these goods can be sold for a huge profit. In the period between buying and selling these goods, storing them in a self storage unit is usually the best idea. Surewise have seen a significant increase in insurance policies for storage units, for the purpose of storing seasonal goods.

Some ambitious individuals also try to guess upcoming Christmas toy trends, buying them in bulk and reselling them at inflated prices in the holiday season. This can be quite controversial, with angry parents having to pay a premium to fulfil their child's Christmas wish. In the UK, a simple carrot toy that retailed for £3.99, sold out last year and was resold on eBay for up to £100 each, according to The Mirror.

Seasonal Reselling works in much the same way as a traditional retail shop does, with the owner buying stock and selling to customers. Your inventory is the goods you have purchased at either other online retailers or from physical shops. Customers are those people who visit your page on eBay, Amazon or Etsy. Perhaps you'll even have enough stock to justify running a Shopify store. The beauty is that you do not need to invest in a retail premises, custom ecommerce site or expensive marketing. Demand is so high for seasonal products, that buyers will find you and be desperate to buy products, especially if they're sold below the RRP.

One such example is Hiren Patel, the boss of the gift company, "Sent 4 U". He has no website presence and sells exclusively on marketplaces such as Amazon. Featured on BBC News, Hiren runs his business out of a Self Storage facility in London, hiring up to 20 casual workers over the Christmas season to deal with demand. Once the season is over, Hiren downscales the storage unit's size to save on costs, says goodbye to his workforce and begins stockpiling discounted goods for next year.

So rather than feeling like you need to build a unique brand or product, the fastest way to make money is to leverage an existing market, with high demand and limited supply. You also don't need to risk diversifying at the start. Stick to one seasonal event, even a subcategory within it, such as "Christmas Lights". Think how many people buy Christmas Tree decorations each year, how little they have changed over the decades and how many "90% off - Everything Must Go" signs you see in Christmas stores and even Walmart post-December.