Reseller glossary

The shorthand you’ll see in listings, reseller groups and marketplace help pages, in plain English.

Arbitrage (retail arbitrage): Buying new items at retail or clearance prices in stores and reselling them online for more.
As-is: Sold in its current condition with no promise it works or is complete. Describe known faults clearly anyway; marketplaces can still side with a buyer who got something different from the listing.
Auction: A listing where buyers bid and the highest bid at the end wins. Useful for rare items with no clear market price; fixed price is the default for most everyday resale.
Best Offer: An eBay fixed-price option that lets buyers send an offer below your price. You can accept, decline or counter, and set auto-accept and auto-decline thresholds. Sending offers to watchers →
BINAlso: Buy It Now: Buy It Now: eBay’s name for a fixed-price listing, or a set price on an auction that ends it immediately.
BOLO: Be On the LookOut. A brand or item worth grabbing when you see it while sourcing, usually shared as a list. Clothing BOLO list →
Bundle: Several items bought together from one seller in one order, usually for a discount and a single shipment. Poshmark and Depop have built-in bundle features.
COGSAlso: cost of goods sold: What you paid for the items you sold. Profit is sale price minus fees, shipping and COGS. Profit calculator →
CompsAlso: comparables: Recently sold (or currently listed) items that match yours, used to decide a price. Sold comps are the stronger signal; active listings show your competition. What’s It Worth lookup →
Consignment: Handing items to a store or service that sells them for you and pays you a share after the sale. Reseller Playbook →
Crosslisting: Listing the same item on several marketplaces at once and removing it everywhere when it sells on one. Crosslisting guide →
Cubic pricing: A USPS pricing method for small, heavy packages that charges by package volume instead of weight, often cheaper for dense items.
Dead stockAlso: deadstock: Old but never-sold, never-used merchandise, often still with original tags or packaging. Common in vintage and sneakers.
Delist: Removing a listing from a marketplace, for example after the item sells elsewhere.
DIM weightAlso: dimensional weight: A package weight calculated from its size. Carriers charge the greater of actual and dimensional weight for large, light boxes.
Drop-off: Handing a pre-labelled package to a carrier location instead of scheduling a pickup.
EUC: Excellent Used Condition. Worn or used, with no flaws worth mentioning.
Fast fashion: Cheap, trend-driven clothing brands. Usually hard to resell for a profit unless new with tags or a sought-after collaboration.
FBA: Fulfillment by Amazon: you send inventory to Amazon’s warehouses and Amazon ships it. The opposite is FBM, fulfilled by merchant.
Final value feeAlso: FVF: eBay’s main selling fee: a percentage of the total sale charged when an item sells, plus a small per-order fee. eBay fee calculator →
Flat rate: USPS Priority Mail boxes and envelopes that ship for one price regardless of weight (within limits) to anywhere in the US.
Flip: Buying something to sell for more. Also used as a noun for a single successful resale.
GTC: Good ’Til Cancelled: an eBay listing duration that renews automatically every month until the item sells or you end it.
GUC: Good Used Condition. Shows light wear; describe any flaws in the listing.
Haul: Everything bought on one sourcing trip. Also a popular video format.
Item specifics: Structured details on an eBay listing (brand, size, color, model and so on) that search and filters use. Missing specifics cost you visibility. Item specifics guide →
Lot: Several items sold together in one listing, useful for low-value items that aren’t worth listing one by one.
MarkdownAlso: price drop: Lowering a listing’s price over time to find the price the market will pay. On some marketplaces a big enough drop notifies people who liked the item.
Media Mail: A cheaper USPS service for books, CDs, DVDs, vinyl and similar media only. Packages can be inspected, and non-media contents can be charged the difference.
MSRP: Manufacturer’s suggested retail price. A reference point for new items; used items rarely sell for it.
NIBAlso: BNIB: New In Box (Brand New In Box): unused and in the original packaging.
NWOT: New Without Tags. Never worn or used, but the original tags are gone.
NWT: New With Tags. Never worn or used, with the original retail tags attached.
OBO: Or Best Offer: the listed price is negotiable.
Offer to likersAlso: OTL: A Poshmark feature that sends one discounted offer to everyone who liked a listing. eBay’s equivalent is sending offers to watchers. How to sell on Poshmark →
OOS: Out Of Stock. On a sold item, it means the listing can no longer be bought.
OTL: Offer To Likers, Poshmark’s bulk offer to everyone who liked a listing. See Offer to likers. How to sell on Poshmark →
Pallet: A large lot of returned or overstock goods sold by the pallet, often unsorted. Cheap per item, with a lot of unsellable stock mixed in.
Pit to pitAlso: P2P: The chest measurement of a garment laid flat, taken straight across from armpit seam to armpit seam. How to measure clothes →
Posh Party: A themed Poshmark event where listings that match the theme can be shared into the party for extra visibility.
Promoted listing: A paid eBay ad: you pay an extra percentage of the sale (or per click) for more visibility in search.
Rag out: Selling unsold clothing by the pound to a textile recycler instead of throwing it away.
Relist: Listing an item again, either after it ended unsold or as a fresh listing to get new visibility.
ROI: Return on investment: profit divided by what you paid. A $5 item that makes $15 profit is a 300% ROI. Profit calculator →
Sell-through rateAlso: STR: Sold listings divided by sold plus active listings over a period. A high rate means demand is strong compared with supply. Sell-through explained →
Share: On Poshmark, sharing a listing puts it back in front of followers and in feeds sorted by “just shared”.
SKU: Stock-keeping unit: your own code for an item, often tied to where it’s stored so you can find it when it sells.
Sourcing: Finding inventory to resell: thrift stores, estate sales, garage sales, auctions, liquidation and retail clearance. Sourcing guide →
Stale listing: A listing that has sat unsold for a long time. Usually a sign the price, photos or title need work.
Stock photo: A catalog image of the product rather than a photo of the actual item. Most marketplaces want real photos for used items.
Tags attached: Original retail tags still on the item. For clothing it’s the difference between NWT and NWOT.
TerapeakAlso: Product Research: eBay’s built-in research tool (in Seller Hub) that shows sold prices and sell-through for up to about three years. Finding real Best Offer prices →
Thermal printer: A label printer that uses heat instead of ink, printing 4×6 shipping labels in seconds. The standard for volume sellers. 4×6 label help →
Top Rated Seller: An eBay seller level for strong sales and service records. Top Rated Plus listings (with fast handling and 30-day returns) get a fee discount.
VGUC: Very Good Used Condition: between EUC and GUC, with minimal signs of wear.
Vintage: Generally items 20 or more years old. Etsy uses 20 years as its rule for listing an item as vintage.
Watcher: An eBay shopper who added your listing to their watchlist. Watchers are prime targets for offers. Sending offers to watchers →
White-glove: Premium delivery for large or fragile items, where the carrier handles placement or setup. Relevant for furniture and big electronics.

Missing a term? Tell us at hi@flippertools.com. New to reselling? Start with the Reseller Playbook.