Turning a small investment into a solid profit isn’t always easy. Many side hustlers spend hours searching for the perfect products to flip, only to discover their potential earnings are eaten up by high purchase costs, shipping fees, and marketplace commissions. The traditional reselling markets—like thrift stores and garage sales—have become increasingly competitive as more people seek extra income streams.
What if the answer to your reselling struggles was hiding in plain sight? While everyone else fights over estate sales and thrift store finds, discount retailers like Dollar General sit largely untapped by serious resellers. These stores offer consistently low prices on everything from seasonal decor to brand-name household items—creating perfect opportunities for profit when you know what to look for.
With the right approach, Dollar General can become your secret weapon in the reselling world. From mastering their unique clearance system to knowing exactly when seasonal markdowns happen, there are specific strategies that can help you turn Dollar General purchases into reliable profits. Here are nine proven ways to make money reselling items from this discount retailer giant.
Profitable Strategies for Dollar General Resellers
1. Why Dollar General is a Gold Mine for Resellers
Dollar General creates unique opportunities for resellers because many profit-seekers ignore these stores in favor of big-box retailers. This oversight gives you an immediate competitive advantage. When sourcing products from Dollar General, your profit margins can reach between 30-100% on carefully selected items—far higher than the typical 10-20% seen with traditional retail arbitrage methods.
The store’s presence in rural areas provides another significant advantage for resellers. Many Dollar General locations serve communities with limited shopping options, meaning you can find items that might be common in your area but highly sought-after elsewhere in the country. Additionally, Dollar General’s own brand products typically sell at 75% below comparable name-brand items, creating natural price differences that you can leverage when reselling. This price gap allows you to offer products at competitive rates while maintaining healthy profits.
2. Best Dollar General Products to Flip
Seasonal merchandise consistently produces the highest returns when reselling from Dollar General. Holiday decorations typically arrive in stores early and get marked down quickly after the holiday passes. For example, you can purchase Easter decorations at 70-90% off in April and sell them for close to full price the following February and March. Halloween and Christmas items follow similar patterns, often yielding three times your investment when held until the appropriate selling season.
The clearance sections contain some of Dollar General’s most profitable potential flips. Watch for discontinued packaging on name-brand health and beauty products, which often sell for 50-90% below their normal price but maintain their full market value when listed online. Products featuring popular characters from recent movies and TV shows can also bring substantial returns, especially after these items disappear from regular retail stores.
Brand-name cleaning products, over-the-counter medications, and personal care items frequently appear at Dollar General for much less than at major retailers. Products from companies like Tide, Crest, and Neutrogena packaged in smaller sizes specifically for dollar stores can yield 40-60% profits when sold individually or combined into bundles on various online marketplaces.
3. Essential Tools Every Dollar General Reseller Needs
Price comparison applications make on-the-spot purchasing decisions much easier during your store visits. Apps like Scoutify, Profit Bandit, or the free Amazon Seller App can instantly show you potential profit margins by scanning product barcodes and calculating your expected profit after accounting for fees, shipping costs, and taxes. For Dollar General specifically, their DG GO! app allows you to scan items in-store to check for additional discounts that might not appear on shelf tags.
Inventory tracking systems prevent costly purchasing mistakes like buying duplicates of items you already have in stock. Basic spreadsheet templates work well for beginners, allowing you to track purchase cost, expected selling price, and actual profit for each item. As your operation grows, dedicated inventory management programs like InventoryLab or Sellbrite become necessary to maintain organization and prevent costly errors.
Online communities focused on Dollar General reselling provide valuable real-time information about clearance patterns and special deals. Facebook groups such as “Dollar General Clearance” and “DG Penny Hunters” share timely updates about markdowns across different regions. These communities give you a significant advantage when planning which stores to visit and what products to look for during your shopping trips.
4. The Clearance Calendar and Penny Deal System
Dollar General follows a predictable markdown schedule that successful resellers learn to navigate. Tuesdays mark the introduction of most new clearance items, while seasonal markdowns typically begin 1-2 weeks after a holiday ends. The first major price reductions start at 30% off, then progress to 50%, 70%, and finally 90% over 2-6 weeks, depending on inventory levels and the specific season.
But the penny deal system represents the ultimate discount at Dollar General. When seasonal merchandise reaches the end of its clearance cycle but remains unsold, these items should be removed from shelves, but often aren’t. Instead, they get marked down to one penny in the store’s computer system. While employees shouldn’t sell these items if they recognize them, they ring up for $0.01 if they reach the register, creating extraordinary profit opportunities for resellers who can identify them before checkout.
You can spot potential penny items by looking for products with specific colored stickers that indicate older clearance cycles (or check out my free weekly Penny List). Yellow price stickers generally signal the final clearance stage before penny status. The most reliable penny items typically come from seasonal merchandise that’s 2-3 seasons old, discontinued product lines, and older packaging designs that have been updated with newer versions.
Also See: Beginner’s Guide to Penny Shopping at Dollar General
5. How to Calculate Profitability Before Buying
The fundamental return-on-investment formula for reselling is straightforward but essential: (Selling Price – Total Costs) ÷ Total Costs × 100 = ROI Percentage. When evaluating Dollar General items, your total costs must include the purchase price, marketplace fees (typically 10-15%), packaging materials, and shipping expenses. A quick mental calculation helps determine if an item meets your profit requirements—multiply your purchase price by three, and if you can sell it for that amount after deducting all fees, it’s generally worth buying.
Establish a minimum profit threshold appropriate for your business size. For smaller operations, aim for at least $5 profit per item sold and a minimum 50% ROI. As your business grows, you might adjust to focus on higher-volume, lower-margin items, but beginning with strict profit requirements helps build capital and prevents investment in marginal products that tie up your money and storage space unnecessarily.
6. Where to Sell Your Dollar General Finds
Facebook Marketplace offers the highest profit potential for many Dollar General flips because it charges no listing fees and enables local pickup, eliminating shipping costs entirely. However, this platform works best for larger items and product bundles that appeal to local buyers within a reasonable driving distance. For smaller, more easily shipped items, eBay typically provides the widest customer base, especially for discontinued or hard-to-find products that buyers specifically search for online.
Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) provides tremendous scaling potential but comes with stricter requirements and higher fees than other platforms. This option works exceptionally well for brand-name health and beauty products from Dollar General but can be challenging for seasonal items due to long-term storage fees that accumulate over time. Mercari and Poshmark have gained popularity for reselling Dollar General home decorations and gift items, with their simplified shipping options and social selling features attracting buyers willing to pay premium prices for unique finds.
Platform fees vary significantly and directly impact your profitability: Facebook Marketplace charges 0% for local pickup and 5% for shipped items, eBay takes 10-15% including payment processing, Amazon’s fees range from 15-40% depending on product category, while Mercari and Poshmark charge flat rates of 10% and 20% respectively. Always select your selling platform based on the specific product category and your target profit margins.
7. Pricing Strategies That Maximize Profits
The high-price approach works best for seasonal items purchased at deep discounts. For example, Christmas decorations bought at 90% off in January can be listed at full retail price the following November, maximizing your return on investment even if it means storing items for months. In contrast, everyday items like discontinued brand-name products often sell better with a quick-turnover strategy—pricing them 20-30% below current retail generates faster sales and frees up capital for additional purchases.
Bundle techniques substantially increase your average sale value. Combining related Dollar General items—like matching holiday decorations or complementary kitchen products—can transform several low-value items into a desirable collection that commands a premium price. The most effective bundle combines one highly desirable “anchor” item with several related products that have lower individual value but enhance the overall appeal of the package when grouped together.
Create urgency through time-limited pricing for seasonal merchandise. As holidays approach, gradually increase your prices on relevant items. This approach takes advantage of buyers’ increasing willingness to pay as the season progresses—what might sell for $15 in early October could bring $25-30 in late October as Halloween approaches and availability diminishes in regular retail stores.
8. Building Efficient Reselling Systems
Creating optimized sourcing routes dramatically increases your efficiency. Map clusters of Dollar General stores within reasonable driving distance and establish a regular rotation, visiting each location on specific days aligned with their markdown schedule. Stores in rural areas often have better selection and face less competition from other resellers, making them worth the extra travel time. Maintain a store-specific record documenting which locations consistently offer the best clearance finds to focus your efforts.
Simplify your listing process by creating templates for common categories you sell. Prepare standard descriptions, shipping information, and photography setups that maintain consistency across your listings. Group similar activities together—take all photos in one session, write all descriptions in another, and schedule all listings during a dedicated time block to maximize efficiency and maintain quality standards across your online storefronts.
Develop packing and shipping routines that minimize hands-on time for each order. Keep standard shipping supplies organized and easily accessible, and consider pre-packaging similar items immediately after photographing them. For higher-volume sellers, shipping software that integrates with multiple selling platforms can dramatically reduce fulfillment time and eliminate manual entry mistakes that lead to costly shipping errors.
9. Common Mistakes New Resellers Make
Inventory challenges can quickly undermine your Dollar General reselling business. The most common error is purchasing too many identical items, creating inventory bottlenecks that tie up your capital and storage space. While finding 20 identical seasonal items at 90% off might seem like an amazing opportunity, market demand may only support selling 5-10 at profitable prices. Always start with smaller quantities until you confirm actual selling speed for each product category through real-world sales data.
Many resellers ignore Dollar General’s more ordinary categories like basic household supplies, focusing exclusively on obvious clearance items. This approach misses significant opportunities. Basic items like specialty light bulbs, small tools, and niche cleaning products often sell for 2-3 times their Dollar General price online because customers value convenience over traveling to a physical store for a single needed item.
Overlooking tax obligations can eliminate your apparent profits when tax season arrives. Maintain detailed records of all purchases with itemized receipts, and track all business expenses including mileage, shipping supplies, and home office usage. Consider using accounting software designed specifically for resellers, and set aside approximately 30% of profits for potential tax payments. As your business expands, consult with a tax professional familiar with reselling businesses to maximize deductions and ensure full compliance with regulations.
Turn Your Dollar General Discoveries Into Steady Income
With these nine strategies in your reselling toolkit, you’re positioned to capitalize on opportunities that most arbitrage hunters miss entirely. Dollar General’s unique pricing structure, predictable clearance patterns, and widespread locations create perfect conditions for profitable reselling—whether you’re looking to generate side income or build a substantial business. The key lies in systematic sourcing, careful item selection, and strategic selling that aligns with seasonal demand.
Start your Dollar General reselling journey by focusing on one or two of these strategies rather than attempting everything at once. Perhaps begin with seasonal clearance items or penny finds, then gradually expand your approach as you gain experience. The beauty of this business model is its scalability—you can start with just $50-100 in capital and reinvest your profits to grow steadily over time without the significant upfront investment many other side hustles require.