Every Whatnot seller gets asked the same question in chat: where do you get all this stuff? The honest answer is that there are five places, and most sellers use two or three of them at once. Which ones you lean on decides your margin, how many hours a week you spend hunting, and whether you can run a show on a Tuesday night without a trunk full of guesses.
This guide covers all five, then gets specific about golf, because golf is a different animal from vintage tees or trading cards. We work with Canu, a wholesale network built for live sellers, so the last section is about buying direct from brands. The first four are where most people start.
The short answer
Whatnot sellers get inventory from five sources:
- Thrift stores, estate sales and garage sales. Cheapest to buy, most expensive in hours.
- Liquidation pallets and lots. Fast volume, unpredictable quality.
- Retail clearance and arbitrage. Reliable, thin margins, easy to get undercut.
- Other sellers, including Whatnot's own wholesale category. Convenient, but you are buying someone else's leftovers at their markup.
- Direct from brands at wholesale. The best margin and the most consistent product. Harder to get into, which is the whole point.
Most full-time sellers end up at number five for the core of their shows and keep number one for the fun finds that make a stream worth watching.
One number explains why. Across a live show, items sell for about two thirds of retail on average. Your viewers are there for a deal, and the auction format means some items go high and some go low. If you bought at retail or close to it, two thirds of retail is a loss. If you bought at wholesale, which is typically around half of retail, it is a healthy margin on every item and room to give the crowd a real deal. The source decides the margin before the show starts.
1. Thrift, estate and garage sales
This is where almost everyone starts, because the only cost is gas and a Saturday. You find a putter for twelve dollars that sells for sixty, and you are hooked.
The catch is time. Sourcing this way is a second job. Two hours of driving for one good find is normal, and you cannot plan a show around it. It works for one-of-a-kind items that draw viewers, and it stops working the moment you want to go live three times a week.
For golf, thrift is good for clubs and bags, and poor for apparel. Used golf shirts sell for a few dollars. Used putters sell for real money.
2. Liquidation pallets
Liquidation companies sell returned, overstocked and shelf-pulled goods by the pallet or the case. You get volume fast and you get it cheap per unit.
What you do not get is a choice. A sporting goods pallet is whatever came off the truck: some of it sells, some of it is broken, and some of it is a treadmill. Sellers who do well with pallets treat them as a sorting business first and a selling business second, and they have the space for it.
Golf-specific liquidation exists but it is thin. You will see mixed sporting goods far more often than a clean golf lot.
3. Retail clearance and arbitrage
Buying marked-down stock at a big box store or an outlet and reselling it live. It is simple and it is legal, and in golf it can work for balls, gloves and last season's apparel.
The problem is that everyone can do it, so your margin is whatever is left after the next seller finds the same rack. You are also selling a brand's leftovers, which the brand did not want sold that way, so you cannot build a relationship or get restocked.
4. Other sellers and Whatnot's wholesale category
Whatnot added a wholesale category in 2025 where sellers move bundles, case packs and pallets to other sellers. Buying there is convenient because you already have the app open and the seller already has a rating.
It is still a middleman. The seller you buy from paid wholesale or less and is marking it up to you. For a filler bundle before a show it is fine. For the products you sell every week, you are leaving margin on the table that a direct relationship would give you.
5. Direct from brands at wholesale
This is how shops have always bought: from the brand, at the brand's wholesale price, usually around half of retail. A golf shop buys hats from the brand that makes them, not from another golf shop.
Live sellers were mostly locked out of this for two reasons. Brands did not know what live selling was, and the ones that did could not tell a real seller from someone wanting a discount. So the brands that would have been perfect for a Whatnot golf show sold only to brick-and-mortar accounts.
That is the gap Canu fills. Brands list their wholesale catalog once. Live sellers apply, get approved, and buy from the brand at wholesale through Canu. The brand ships direct to the seller, and the seller sells it live. The brands on Canu right now are golf: hats, apparel, balls, grips, towels, accessories, from brands like Primo, Hinotori Golf and Kabra Golf. You can see every product and photo on the public catalog before you apply. Pricing shows once you enter an email.
What that means for a show: you know on Monday what you are selling Thursday, you can reorder what sold out, and when a brand runs a clearance or a drop, approved sellers see it first.
How golf sellers actually do it
Golf is unusual because the used market and the new market are both strong, and the best sellers run both in the same show.
Used clubs are the draw. Putters, wedges and drivers from the last five years hold value, and viewers will sit through a show to bid on them. These come from thrift, trade-ins, estate sales and the occasional eBay lot. Expect to spend hours per week to keep this flowing.
New apparel and accessories are the volume. Hats, polos, balls, gloves, towels, grips. They sell at fixed prices, ship flat, and a single wholesale order covers a month of shows. This is where buying direct from brands pays, because the margin is predictable and the restock is a click.
A typical show from a seller doing well: three or four used clubs as the headline items, often sold at little or no profit to fill the room, and a run of new hats, balls and towels between them. Sellers open those at a dollar and let the chat bid them up; a hat that retails for thirty-five can clear fifty in a busy room. The clubs bring the audience. The new goods, bought at wholesale, pay the bills.
What you need to buy wholesale
A few things come up every time a seller tries to open a wholesale account anywhere, so here is the list.
- A resale certificate from your state. It lets you buy without paying sales tax, because you will collect it when you sell. Most states issue one online in a day. Canu asks for it when you apply, the same as any wholesaler would.
- Proof you sell. A link to your Whatnot, TikTok Shop or YouTube channel. Brands want to know their product is going to a real show, not a closet.
- A business name and a shipping address. Even a sole proprietorship works.
- Money up front. Wholesale is paid when you order. On Canu the order is paid before the brand ships, which is why brands trust it.
Why do wholesalers not sell to the public?
Because their customers are stores, and a store will not stock a brand that sells the same product to anyone at the store's price. Wholesale pricing is a deal between a brand and the people who resell for it. That is also why wholesalers ask for a resale certificate and proof of a storefront, and why a live seller with a real channel counts as a storefront now.
Where TikTok Shop sellers get inventory
The same five places. TikTok Shop sellers skew toward new, branded product because the format is shorter and buyers expect a listing with a price, not an auction. That pushes them toward sources four and five faster than Whatnot sellers, who can carry a show on one-of-a-kind finds for longer.
Start here
If you sell golf live, or want to, the fastest way to see what direct wholesale looks like is the Canu catalog. Every brand, every product, every photo is open. Enter an email to see the wholesale prices, and apply when you are ready to order. Approval takes about a day.
If you are still on your first few shows, start with thrift finds and a handful of new accessories, learn what your audience bids on, and move to wholesale for the things that sell every week.