He Bought $900 Sneakers and Flipped Them for $1,200 Days Later — Now He Makes $10,000 a Month Reselling Shoes

JV Ortiz started reselling by buying clearance-rack and thrift-shop t-shirts for $1-2 and flipping them for $10 each, moving about five a week for roughly $10 profit apiece, before a 2015 discovery changed his trajectory: Nike Air Jordan 2 Just Don sneakers retailing around $350 were reselling for $1,000. His first major flip bought a pair for $900 and sold it for $1,200 within days.

He shifted focus to high-value sneakers -- Air Jordans and Adidas Yeezys bought at retail ($220-$585) and resold for roughly $500 profit a pair -- researching drops through Hypebeast and High Snobiety, sneaker conventions, and social accounts, and checking eBay and resale prices before buying. He used sneakerbots, brand websites, and in-store release-day purchases at retailers like Foot Locker to source inventory, then sold across eBay (his main channel), GOAT, StockX, Facebook groups, Craigslist, and conventions -- prioritizing quick turnover over holding inventory to keep cash flowing.

"It's good that I was making some money on the side pretty consistently, but I became hungry for more," he said. After about two years of reselling, he quit his full-time job, with income now running around $10,000 a month.