Shop owners: NARTS (fall seminar Oct 11–12) and SMCo Thrift (Mar 22–24, 2027). Online resellers: PoshFest (Oct 2–3) and eBay Open Miami (Oct 15). Sourcing: Round Top, Brimfield, Manhattan Vintage and ThriftCon. The industry view: ReCon (Apr 8–9, 2027) and RL Expo (Mar 23–24, 2027, free expo pass). Go with one job in mind — learn, buy or sell — and bring your resale certificate and a card reader.
The calendar, by who it’s for
Dates, venues and prices read off each organizer’s own page in September 2026. Events change — confirm on the linked site before you book travel.
For consignment and resale shop owners
NARTS Fall Seminar — “Chart Your Course”
NARTS, The Association of Resale ProfessionalsWinston-Salem / Greensboro, NC · See site
Two days built around planning a year of promotions: education sessions on the Sunday, local store tours on the Monday. The NARTS Annual Meeting runs the same morning. NARTS also holds a four-day annual conference that moves city each year; 2027 dates are not yet posted.
SMCo Thrift National Training Conference
SMCo ThriftBridgewater Place, Knoxville, TN · $450 early bird, $550 regular
Three days of training for directors and managers of nonprofit thrift stores — donations, pricing, merchandising, operations and leadership. The most operations-heavy agenda on this list, and useful to for-profit shops for the same reasons.
For online resellers
PoshFest 2026
PoshmarkCity Market Social House, Los Angeles · Vendor booth $350 + 20% of sales
Reworked this year from a seller conference into a public shopping market where Poshmark sellers run the booths, plus a ticketed Posh Party on the Friday evening. Less a place to learn, more a place to sell and meet the community.
Miami, FL · See registration page
The last of four one-day stops that replaced eBay’s single annual conference (San Diego, Chicago and Dallas came first). Main-stage session, seller panel, one-on-one Seller Clinics, time with the eBay Live team and workshops.
Whatnot meetups
WhatnotVia Whatnot’s Meetups Hub · Varies
Whatnot ran its first Seller Summit in Austin in April 2026 and has not announced a second. For now it points sellers to local, seller-run meetups instead — smaller, but often the best room for live sellers in your own category.
Vintage fairs and antiques shows (for sourcing and selling)
ThriftCon
ThriftConLA Convention Center · Kay Bailey Hutchison CC · NRG Center · See ticket pages
A touring vintage clothing and collectibles convention where attendees buy, sell and trade. The LA date runs inside ComplexCon; Dallas is a first edition. Aimed at shoppers, which is exactly why vintage resellers go — to source and to see what the buyers are wearing.
Manhattan Vintage — Fall Show
Manhattan Vintage EnterprisesMetropolitan Pavilion, New York · $25 one day · $35 three days · $45 with preview
More than 100 vintage clothing dealers under one roof. A buying trip for vintage and luxury consignment, and a benchmark for what dealers are asking for the pieces you already stock.
Original Round Top Antiques Fair
Original Round Top Antiques Fair (since 1968)Big Red Barn, Round Top, TX · Tickets via Eventbrite
The anchor show of the Round Top season, with Designer Day on opening day and Blue Hills opening a week earlier (Oct 17). Where furniture and décor resellers fill a truck.
Brimfield Antique Flea Markets
Independent field promotersBrimfield, MA · Varies by field
Six-day outdoor markets, three times a year, run by dozens of separate fields. Go early in the week for the best buying; the first mornings are when dealers restock.
Recommerce, brands and reverse logistics
RecommerceBuzz — “Resale at Scale”
AIM GroupMeliá Berlin · See site
For marketplace operators, brands, refurbishers and investors. The European view of resale as an industry rather than a side channel.
NRF 2027 — Reverse Logistics Pavilion
National Retail FederationJavits Center, New York · NRF Big Show pass
NRF absorbed the Reverse Logistics Association and folded its returns conference into a pavilion at Retail’s Big Show. Relevant if you buy returns or liquidation stock by the pallet.
RL Expo 2027
Global Reverse Logistics AllianceBellagio, Las Vegas · Free expo pass (first 500) · $399 conference
Returns, recommerce, refurbishment and circular supply chains. The free expo pass makes it the cheapest way on this list to meet liquidation and returns suppliers face to face.
New York · See site
Billed as the first conference dedicated to the resale economy: talks, an expo, a vintage market and a startup pitch contest. Skews senior — two in three 2026 attendees were senior director or above — so it is where brand resale programs and the platforms meet.
Trellis Impact 27 — Circularity Program
Trellis Group (formerly GreenBiz)Moscone West, San Francisco · See site
The Circularity conference is no longer standalone; it now runs as a track inside Trellis Impact. Corporate sustainability audience.
Global Fashion Summit — Copenhagen
Global Fashion AgendaCopenhagen · See site
Fashion’s main sustainability summit, with circularity and resale a standing part of the agenda. Brand-side, policy-heavy.
Resale is still an in-person business
For all the talk of apps, the core of resale happens in a room. Placer.ai measured thrift store visits in Q2 2025 at 39.5% above the same quarter of 2019, against 9.5% for clothing retail overall, and put it plainly: thrifting “remains inherently experiential and in-person.” The events that matter most mirror that — they are places to buy stock, meet sellers and see what other shops do on the floor.
The practical return from a trip is usually one of three things: a sourcing relationship (a picker, a liquidation supplier, a dealer who calls you first), an operating idea you can copy on Monday (a markdown schedule, an intake layout, a payout policy), or a sale. Pick events by which of those you actually need this year.
Match the event to the job, not the hype
Shop owners get the most from NARTS and SMCo: small rooms, operators talking about operations, and — at NARTS’ fall seminar — store tours, which are worth more than any keynote. Online resellers get the most from platform events like eBay Open, where the Seller Clinics put you in front of the people who can explain a policy or a fee change directly.
Vintage fairs are buying trips first. Round Top, Brimfield and Manhattan Vintage are where you fill inventory and learn what other dealers price at. The recommerce conferences (ReCon, RecommerceBuzz, RL Expo) are for understanding where brands and liquidation are heading; a small shop goes to one of these for suppliers, not for the stage.
Buy at a fair like a business
If you are buying to resell, bring your resale certificate. Many states let a registered reseller buy inventory without paying sales tax, and dealers at the big fairs see certificates every day — but only if you ask before the sale is rung up, and only for goods you will actually resell.
Keep every receipt and record what each piece cost the day you buy it, not a month later. Cost basis is the number that decides whether that fair was profitable, and it is the one resellers most often reconstruct from memory at tax time.
How resale certificates workIf you take a booth, run it like a second register
Booths are real money on both sides: PoshFest charges $350 plus 20% of sales, and a fair booth adds travel, fixtures and two days of your time. Work out the sales you need to break even before you commit, and price the stock you bring to clear rather than to sit.
On the day, three things go wrong most often. You cannot take cards, so bring a phone reader and test it before doors open. The piece you just sold at the booth is still live online and sells twice. And nobody wrote down what sold, so the consignor split or your own cost basis has to be rebuilt afterwards. Selling from the same inventory system as your shop and your listings fixes all three.
Take card payments on your phoneDon’t overlook the meeting down the road
The most useful in-person meeting is often not a conference at all. A regional consignment owners’ group, a monthly reseller meetup, or a morning spent at another shop in a town two hours away gets you honest numbers — splits, rents, sell-through — that nobody says from a stage.
Whatnot’s pivot from a national summit to local meetups points the same way. If there is no group near you, starting one is cheap: a coffee shop, a group chat, and three or four owners who are not direct competitors.
Not every resale event is open to you. Goodwill’s conferences (Connect in Houston, Nov 7–11, 2026) are for the Goodwill network, and franchise brands such as Just Between Friends run franchisee-only meetings. If you are not a member, the NARTS and SMCo events above are the open equivalents.
Bringing it home
The trip is the easy part. The value shows up in the week after: the stock you bought entered with its real cost, the booth sales reconciled against what you brought, the consignor paid for the piece that sold at the fair, and the listings that sold in person taken down everywhere else before they sell twice.
That is the part ResaleOS is built for — one inventory across your shop, your booth and every marketplace, consignor payouts that follow each sale automatically, and a point of sale that goes with you to the fair.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main conference for consignment and resale shop owners?
NARTS, The Association of Resale Professionals, runs the longest-standing events for consignment, thrift and buy-outright resale shops: a four-day annual conference that moves city each year, plus shorter seminars. Its 2026 fall seminar, “Chart Your Course”, runs October 11–12 in the Winston-Salem/Greensboro area of North Carolina. For nonprofit thrift operators, SMCo Thrift’s National Training Conference runs March 22–24, 2027 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Is there still an eBay Open conference?
eBay replaced its single annual eBay Open conference with “eBay Open: On the Road”, a series of one-day in-person stops. In 2026 they ran in San Diego, Chicago and Dallas, with the final stop in Miami on October 15, 2026. Each includes a main-stage session, a seller panel, one-on-one Seller Clinics and workshops.
Which events are best for sourcing inventory?
For vintage and antiques, the big three are the Original Round Top Antiques Fair in Texas (fall show October 25–31, 2026), the Brimfield Antique Flea Markets in Massachusetts (May, July and September each year) and Manhattan Vintage in New York (October 16–18, 2026). For returns and liquidation stock, RL Expo in Las Vegas (March 23–24, 2027) has a free expo pass for the first 500 registrants.
Can I use my resale certificate at an antique fair?
Often, yes. In many states a registered reseller can buy inventory for resale without paying sales tax by giving the seller a resale certificate. Ask before the sale is rung up, carry the certificate with you, and only use it for goods you will actually resell. Rules differ by state, so check your own state’s requirements before you travel.
Is a booth at a resale event worth it?
It depends on the numbers. Add the booth fee, any percentage the organizer takes (PoshFest charges $350 plus 20% of sales), travel and fixtures, and work out how much you need to sell to break even. Booths pay best when you bring stock priced to clear, can take cards, and sell from the same inventory as your online listings so nothing sells twice.
Sources
Event dates, venues and prices: each organizer’s official page, linked from its entry above, read in September 2026. Goodwill conference dates: Goodwill Industries International’s conferences page. Thrift visit growth: Placer.ai, “Thrift Store Visit Growth Outpaces Apparel as Tariffs Loom”, September 2025.
