Tradeblock launched in August 2020 as a marketplace to help sneakerheads trade their shoes with other sneakerheads. They allow users to trade new and used pairs and either side of the trade can offer up to 3 pairs. Most importantly, Tradeblock allows users to post public offers.
The opportunity here lies in the fact that the target audience for this platform is not resellers, it is collectors and general sneakerheads, so although Tradeblock does show an estimated market value for the items in each offer, the collector’s genuine desire to add the shoe to their collection typically outweighs whatever aftermarket value for that shoe is, which leads to lopsided trade offers that resellers can profit off of.
Here is how to take advantage:
1. Determine a current hype pair that is very difficult to obtain.
Let me explain what I mean by that with a few examples. Pine Green SB 4s and Yuto Dunks: when they first released, EVERYONE was going after these, yet there were very few people looking to resell them. Another example is the Born x Raised dunk, which had its initial release through the LA raffle and then a much bigger release online. However, the online release took over a month for orders to get shipped, so while the hype was at an all-time high following the release, there were very few pairs on the market, making it nearly impossible to buy these for a reasonable price outside of a marketplace platform.
- Search for these shoes on Tradeblock.
After you search an item, select any size, click “View X Public Offers”, switch to the “I Have It” tab, and make sure the Sort By setting is set to “Best Offer Value.” Scroll through the list and locate trade offers with just the one pair on the left (it will be easier for you to just source the one pair) and without any Used pairs on the right (it will be easier to sell DS pairs). Once you find one, click the offer and check out the “Est. offer value” for each side of the trade. Repeat this process with all of the different sizes of the shoe until you find an offer where the For side’s Est. offer value is more than $100 over Your side, because Tradeblock takes a $44 fee and in order to source your item quickly, you will need to pair market value or even a little higher.
- Find a VERY trustworthy supplier.
The majority of the best lopsided trade offers that I have found so far are for early SB dunks and almost always high-ticket items. There are very few trustworthy suppliers for 100% authentic early pairs, so find one that is reliable (and can ship quickly, because you have to ship within 3 days after you accept an offer). Two suppliers that I trust personally are @theraresizeboy on Instagram and @horhead_sales on X.
- Accept the offer.
You will need to first add the shoe to your Closet in Tradeblock and then go back and accept the offer. After it is accepted, you will get a free shipping label, which you could send to the supplier you source from and have them dropshipped directly to Tradeblock.
**ATTENTION**
Before accepting the offer, look for how many trades the user that you are trading with has. If it is 0, then there is a possibility that accepting the offer does not go through. Some users will put a fake card on their account to prevent them from getting charged automatically when you accept the trade, which will lead to the trade getting canceled. If it is a really good offer and the user has 0 trades, then you can always message the user and confirm that they are in fact willing to do the trade before you accept the offer.
- Sell the shoes once you receive them.
A lot of times, there will be lopsided offers for very obscure shoes, such as a super old DS dunk or a size 4 men’s Jordan 1. Although the estimated value of the shoe will be super high, making it look appealing, these items are typically entered incorrectly (the size 4 men’s was supposed to be a size 4Y) or just extremely hard to sell. I recommend just looking for easy movers. I am happy to take a smaller margin if I know that I can sell the items for a profit right away by taking the highest offer on either StockX or Goat, but you do you.
Here are some examples of my past trades (I paid market value or higher for all of the sourced pairs)…
Brett Nilsen
