Selling children’s products at flea markets is one of the best ideas you can have. In 2025, it remains a good strategy to profit and won’t be as competitive considering how people are turning to usual online platforms.
With the right approach to sourcing, pricing, and display, you can turn kids’ products surplus flea market lots into steady income streams.
But how profitable is it? or, how difficult is it to achieve?
Surplus children’s products resale is not that tough when you have got the items. Finding the best surplus and guaranteeing they fulfill regulations and standards are the challenging parts.
However, pass that, you can rest assured it won’t be hard to start listing and making profits with the option.
Here, our team at Coastal Surplus Solutions offers support in how to maximize your success with children’s items, liquidation vendors, and surplus children’s product resale.
It does not matter from which city you are or the specific items you are going for.
Best-Selling Items: Toys, Clothes, Books, Sports Equipment
Value and variety are hard to balance. Once you make it possible and work on it whatsoever, you are able to conquest the entire process to maximize your profits.
Flea market shoppers are always looking for this balance to make sure their investment is worth it.
Since you are treating with mainly families, you will need to stick to certain flea market kids merchandise to make the process viable and worth the investment:
- Toys like action figures, dolls, puzzles, and board games. You can also opt for outdoor toys like perennial favorites or electronics and educational kits.
- Clothing includes popular brands. You have to stick to the usual big names or look for a surplus that is worth adding to the catalog.
- Books, but specifically children’s books, coloring ones, and activity sets.
- Sports equipment like bicycles, scooters, balls, and similar gears that are good for both play and during back-to-school seasons.
Whenever you have items that don’t meet the criteria above, you can always bundle them with the rest.
Combining high demand with slow-selling items always adds value and helps you move inventory.
How to Price: Family-Friendly Prices for Flea Market Customers
It isn’t the same as having an independent store or going online.
You have to consider your customers, target, and where you are located to be competitive with the prices and, more importantly, transparent with them.
What we recommend are a few strategies around how you can make your products more appealing without affecting people’s budget and pockets.
- Affordable bundles. Always put toys, books, and clothing together. This helps them access a variety of items without spending more than they can.
- Clear signage on the prices. Make sure they can read the prices easily and know if they want to compromise on any purchase based on that.
- Flexible negotiation. Always be open to haggling. While this does not happen in online platforms and most independent stores, the flea market works under its own rules.
- Volume discounts like if you buy two, you get a free one. Or maybe 4×3. It all depends on the target and average transaction size you see moves in your market.
How to Display Your Items: Attracting Parents and Children at Markets
If they are not attracted, they won’t buy.
It sounds simpler than it is, but you can always work on strategies to make this more doable on your end.
A well-organized, colorful display draws both kids and adults. This is what you want to aim for:
- Eye-level displays: Place toys and books at child height to encourage browsing and interaction. Many people fail on this and rely too much on the parents making decisions.
- Interactive elements: You can always set up demos or a few toys as samples they can use to play.
- Bright colors and themes: You can prepare different sections and bright, cheerful colors with them.
- Clear sorting: Group type, age range, or price to make shopping easier for parents. Not so much for kids.
Inventory Turnover: Fast-Moving vs. Slow-Moving Categories
Remember what we mentioned about slow-selling items?
You don’t want to hang up with them for too long.
There is just much you can do with limited space, and you don’t want to incur higher costs in inventory.
Try to bundle them and work on how you can move both types of categories at the same time.
Of course, learn which ones they are first:
- Fast-moving includes everything like toys, trendy clothing, popular books, and new releases from the toy brands. The River Hill Community Association always highlights the top categories for the year, helping you know what to aim for during your flea markets.
- Slow-moving includes out-of-season apparel, very niche sports equipment, and books that are not as popular in terms of genres.
While working on this, always make sure to keep track of your sales. Take notes of what sells more and how you can refresh your inventory.
Coastal Surplus Solutions is always here to connect you to flea market kids merchandise and help you bring variety and opportunities.
