Glossary
The most important reseller terms briefly explained — from bundle to sell-through.
- Reselling
- The buying and reselling of items (mostly second-hand fashion) with profit intent via platforms like Vinted, eBay or Etsy.
- Bundle
- A package of several items sold together (often at a discount) or bought as a purchasing lot.
- Bump / boost
- Pushing a listing back up in feed and search to increase visibility — paid or by relisting.
- Crossposting
- Offering the same item on multiple marketplaces at once, ideally with synced stock.
- Flip
- A single profitable resale; “to flip” = buy cheap, sell higher.
- Snipe
- A quickly secured deal/bargain before others grab it; snipe tracking keeps an eye on in-demand items.
- Sell-through rate
- Share of stock that sells in a period — a metric for healthy turnover.
- ROI
- Return on Investment: profit relative to the purchase capital deployed.
- Margin
- The profit share per sale after deducting purchase, fees and shipping.
- Deadstock
- New goods never sold/worn, often from old stock — sought after by collectors.
- Grail
- A particularly coveted, rare collector's or wish-list piece in a niche.
- Kilo goods
- Unsorted second-hand clothing sold by weight (per kilo).
- DAC7 / PStTG
- EU rule or German Platform Tax Transparency Act: platforms report seller data to the tax office.
- Margin taxation
- VAT only on the margin (§25a UStG), relevant when reselling used goods bought from private individuals.
- Small-business scheme
- §19 UStG: below certain revenue limits, no VAT is shown.
- SKU
- Stock Keeping Unit — a unique item number for stock and warehouse management.
- Flatlay
- Photo of a garment laid flat, shot from above.
- Cutout
- Image with the background removed, usually for a clean white background.
- AI on-model shot
- An AI-generated image showing your real item on a generated model.
- Lowball
- A deliberately very low purchase offer well below market value.
- Relisting
- Relisting an item (instead of just bumping), often with reworked photos/title.
- Bulk editing
- Editing or listing many items at once instead of individually.
- Wholesale
- Wholesale/bulk purchase of goods for resale.
- Sourcing
- Procuring goods for resale (finding sourcing sources).
- Buyer protection
- Protection of the buyer against non-delivery/wrong delivery, works only within the platform.
- Item Specifics
- eBay item specifics (brand, size, color …), important for search and ranking.
- Crosslister
- A tool that distributes the same listing across multiple marketplaces.
- Auto-delisting
- Automatically removing a listing on other channels once it has sold elsewhere.
- Bump rate
- How often/regularly listings are bumped to stay visible.
- Poshmark / Depop / Mercari
- International reseller marketplaces; Depop (Gen Z, Y2K), Poshmark/Mercari (mainly USA).
- Vinted Pro
- A commercial Vinted account with corresponding features and obligations.
- DAC7 threshold
- Reporting threshold: 30 sales or €2,000 income per year and platform.
- EÜR
- Cash-basis profit statement — a simple profit calculation for taxes.
- GoBD
- Principles for the proper, unalterable retention of digital receipts.
- Small business (owner)
- Scheme under §19 UStG: no VAT when staying below the limits.
- LUCID / VerpackG
- Packaging register and act: registration obligation for commercial shipping.
- Sourcing
- Procurement of goods for resale.
- Cream / Grade A
- Highest quality tier of curated sorted/kilo goods.
- Wardrobing
- Return fraud: worn goods are sent back.
- Chargeback
- Reversal of a payment, often in a fraud context.
- Item Specifics
- eBay item specifics, important for search and ranking.
- Best Match
- eBay's default sorting of search results by relevance.
- Break-even
- The point at which a buying lot has recouped its costs.
- Contribution margin
- Sale proceeds minus variable costs (purchase, fees, shipping).
- Crosspost sync
- Automatic stock reconciliation across multiple platforms.
- Bundle discount
- A price discount for buying several items together.
- Clearance lot
- Larger quantities of clearance/return goods for cheap resale.
- Sell-through
- Sell rate of stock in a period.
- Bump
- Boosting a listing for more visibility.
- Account-safe
- A way of working without forbidden mass-actions in the platform system.
Practical knowledge from the reseller community and experienced full-time sellers, summarized generally. Legal & tax matters follow official sources (incl. the German Federal Central Tax Office on the Platform Tax Transparency Act/DAC7) and do not replace tax or legal advice. As of 2026.