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Reselling retail tees

947 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  binki, 
neto45
Looking at the prices of wholesale tees and some retail tees and retail seems to be cheaper. In light of this I've considered buying retail, relabeling, and reselling. Is this illegal? please let me know:confused::confused::confused:
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kimura-mma
Most wholesale sites require you to set up an account before they show you their actual wholesale prices. So it's possible you are actually viewing their retail prices. It doesn't make sense that retail prices would be lower than wholesale, but without knowing specifically what you are looking at, I can only guess.

In regards to the legality of relabeling and reselling retail goods, it really depends on what shirts you're talking about. Based on the "first sale doctrine," once you buy something at retail, it is yours and you can do what you want with it. But buying a Nike shirt and relabeling it for resale could be seen as a form of counterfeiting. So there are some fine lines to work out. Maybe you can give an example of what shirts you plan on buying for relabel and resale.
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neto45
Appreciate the reply, I am actually seeing the wholesale prices and they are much more than the retail of other commercial stores. this isn't for every product. but particularly to what I am looking at.

The shirt i'm looking at are basic crew necks and basic tanks. I was looking at alternative brand and they were priced higher than the ones in the retail store. Yes i understand the quality is much higher therefore I understand that, but yeah.
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kimura-mma
If you're referring to Alternative Apparel, they are a premium blank supplier. So yeah, their prices are on the high side (in comparison to other blank suppliers) unless you can buy large volume and get additional discounts. I'm still a little surprised that the wholesale prices would be higher than retail prices. What retail stores are you referring to? What brand are those shirts?
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binki
It would help to have the model number and the locations you are looking at. This doesn't sound right.

There are a few other things to consider when you are reselling retail purchased shirts.

The retail shirts may have sizing or other coating on them where your wholesale shirts will not. This may affect your ability to print or cure the prints as the sizing may scorch with the heat.

On the other side of it, your agreement with your wholesaler will probably be something along the lines of you can only sell the garments if you decorate them. Basically you are not competing with the retail channel by selling blank shirts.

As far as buying retail shirts and reselling them, you can do it but where are you going to find a retailer with enough inventory in the size, color, style that you want? What about reorders and season? You will also pay sales tax if you live in a place that charges tax on clothing. I just can't see walking into Sears and buying 500 t-shirts and getting a good deal on them. Add up the time to go there, get a cart, load it up, wait in line, check out as they scan each one, take them to the car, load it up and so on.
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