Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about one thing you can do to give yourself an edge over other resellers.
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1 Thing You Can Do To Give Yourself An Edge Over Other Resellers
Rob: What's up, Pro Flippers? On today's episode, we are talking about that one thing that you can do to give yourself an edge over other resellers.
Rob: So today we are chatting about one thing that you can do in your business that will set you apart from other resellers.
Melissa: And it's something that we have done in the last couple years, but it's not something that you've done throughout your whole flipping career.
Rob: No, and it's not that hard to do either.
Melissa: No, but it's a little intimidating. So what is that thing?
Rob: But it can take you to the next level and it for sure can make you so much more money by implementing this one tactic into your business. So, so what is it?
Melissa: Creating contacts in your business. So let's dive into what does that mean? What is that?
Rob: So contacts, this is where you want to create relationships. Connections, yeah, connections, whatever you wanna call it. You're wanting to set up those relationships with sellers. Sellers that are selling the items that you like to buy. You create that relationship with them.
So they are coming to you first to send you the items that they have. So therefore you're, you're getting dibs on items before they go to the flea market, before they get put out on the floor at the thrift store. Any of that stuff that you can create those relationships. So you're the first person in line to get those items.
Melissa: Yeah. And I mean, you get to the point where you can have people even texting you stuff that they have, which is kind of where you got to. And then you don't even have to go outsourcing because it's coming to you, which is a really cool place to, to be in. But a lot of, I feel like a lot of people don't think you can. That's attainable. Like I, but it's really not hard. Like it, you really only took, I think the biggest thing was being consistent. When we really started to dive into this business when we were like, all right, well this is like all or nothing. We've gotta make this work to feed our three little kids and do whatever.
We have to go in all in. You were at the flea market every single Saturday morning, and then usually Sundays before church too. Yep. Every single week. And it's a lot of the same vendors that you go and see the same people over and over again. And then we have thrift stores, the same thrift stores you'd hit.
You get to see the same people over and over again if you're consistent and you can get to know the managers and have conversations. And I think people are afraid to have some of those conversations. Yeah. Sometimes and get to know people. But our business has highly benefited from creating conversations.
Yeah. And creating relationships with people.
Rob: Yeah. One of our contacts has made us over hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that is no exaggeration. One of my contacts is a scrapper and he's got contracts with large companies all over central Florida, that he goes and picks up stuff, he sends me pictures of those items.
I'm able to buy them before he takes 'em to the flea market before he sells 'em to somebody else. I have a good relationship with him, so he's constantly sending me items that he gets and he wants to move quickly. His business model is to pick it up from a business and have it sold, whether that's selling it to one of his contacts or taking to the scrapyard and scrapping that item.
But he wants to move items within a 24 to 48 hour window. And that's his, his goal is to do that. Now, a lot of people are like, well, why isn't, if you're making all this money off him, why isn't he doing it? He totally has the potential to do that, but he chooses not to. His business model is different, is to make money quickly.
Yeah. And he'll get whatever he can get quickly for it and then that's it. So he totally knows what we do. Totally knows I buy it from him, I throw it on eBay and I sell it. He totally knows that, and that's one of those things that his, this just different than what his business model is. So we're able to help each other out.
I end up paying him quickly and then I'll turn around, clean it up, take some pictures, get it on eBay and get it listed.
Melissa: It's a little bit longer, but the payoff is worth it for sure.
Rob: Way, way worth it. So that's just one of the contacts we've created within the last, I would say ours started, eight years ago.
Melissa: Yeah. Really when we started, went in full-time.
Rob: But it started paying off within like the first year or two of having that contact. We've made, like I said, hundreds of thousands of dollars off of this single contact, and we have multiple contacts like this.
Melissa: But I think also it's, it's worth mentioning too, that he has his own contacts.
So like he's got companies, he's got people he's built relationships with and that's his business model. And it works like, it just works for both parties. And I think that is the thing to know too. It's like it has to work for both parties or it's not worth it for, you know, like we're not, nobody's taking advantage of anybody else.
It's worth, it's working for everybody. So, and when you can find that synergistic thing that you know, it works for everybody. It's a pretty cool place to be. So I, I even know, like some of the stuff he gets for free off the side of the road, he snaps a picture and sends it to you, hey, you want this? It's a hundred bucks.
And you're like, all right.
Rob: He, he's a scrapper picking stuff up out of the trash and he will take a picture.
Melissa: And you know, it's free.
Rob: A lot of times, and send me a picture when it's on the side of the road and asking if he should pick it up. And I'll either tell him yes or no, and he gives me a price and then he picks it up and brings it to me.
Yeah. So, one of those things that yeah is really, really cool.
Melissa: And I was thinking of also the time that we sold those Christmas lights. Yep. So one of the ladies that you bought from multiple times. Yeah. She had a pallet of, and that's another people have relationships with liquidation places.
So like we don't really have any either, but that's another place you could create relationships or know somebody who does get liquidation pallets. But that she got some from somewhere, I don't even remember. HHGregg, I think is where they came from.
Rob: I think it is too.
Melissa: Anyway, she bought some pallets and she brought 'em to the flea market and you bought 10, I think at one time they were the, the laser Christmas lights that were, that was the year they were brand new. Like nobody had seen 'em before and they were the coolest thing because you didn't have to do anything. You plug 'em in and they've got lights on your house. Like it was the coolest thing. Well she brought a whole bunch and I guess they were, you know, returned. Some people returned. You don't know why people return.
Sometimes they don't work, but a lot of times they just return them because they didn't want them. Yeah. So, you bought 10, came back I think like nine out of 10 worked. Only a couple didn't work. Yeah. When we got the big ones. But then you sold 'em. We sold 'them like on marketplace that day.
Rob: Because you couldn't buy them at any store.
When you put them on marketplace, you had people lining up to buy them.
Melissa: That was the biggest thing is they weren't in the store anymore. So, everybody wanted them.
Rob: They were sold out.
Melissa: And they were just, so we'd posted 'em on Facebook, 10 were gone in a minute. And you had her phone number, so you called her and said you're gonna buy a hundred and and we went and bought a hundred.
Rob: Yep. So she called her contact or got in contact with her contact and got more, and got a whole bunch more. And then we went and bought a hundred of them, and then we started selling them like crazy. So, but that's the power of a contact.
Melissa: I think we paid like $10. For the first 10, you paid $10 a piece and then the, when you bought a hundred, you got 'em for less, like $6 I think.
Rob: I think even less than that. It was $4 or $5 what we were spending on them, because we were buying 'em in bulk. So she gave us just a little bit more than she spent on them, and then we were able to make her money and we made money in the process. Yeah.
Melissa: And we sold them for like $30 or $40.
Rob: Yeah. That ended up making us like $3,500 in the matter of like in like three days a weekend.
We were able to do that. From right before Christmas. Yeah. And had we not created that contact, had I just bought one and walked away from the flea market, we wouldn't have been able to do that. But I had her number, I contacted her. We were able to work throughout the week and get a couple more items.
I mean, a couple more of those things.
Melissa: You didn't have to wait till the flea market the next weekend.
Rob: So, and you probably don't remember this, but do you know what else she sold us?
Melissa: I don't remember.
Rob: She sold us like a hundred, a hundred or 150 large screen, brand new large screen TVs.
Melissa: Oh, I do remember that one.
Rob: That were cracked.
So they got cracked in shipment. She sold us this. I mean, this was a, this is a long time ago. A whole storage unit of these things. It's true. And that might have been.
Melissa: You had to get a new storage unit for that, for those. I remember.
Rob: I did. So they were all cracked screens. It got damaged in shipping.
I bought them all brand spanking new still in the boxes. Never taken out of the boxes. And I bought them all. I don't remember exactly what I paid for 'em. We'd have to go back and look at some of our,
Melissa: I thought that one wasn't the best buy.
Rob: No, we made a ton of money on that. I had a guy outta Tampa come in, buy 10 at a time and he'd spent a couple thousand dollars.
I didn't spend thousands of dollars on this.
Melissa: No, you're right, you're right because he, he knew how to fix them, so that's right.
Rob: Well he pulled them apart and sold them for parts so the screen was bad. Some of 'em, you're right, he did fix, cuz some of 'em were the rounded ones. Oh yeah. So, but these weren't small TVs.
Some of these were like 75, 80 inch TVs. Yeah. And all the way down to like 45 inches. But a mixture of all of those. But another, just a contact that we had, this was the same lady who we bought the star showers from. And it's just a contact that you created.
Melissa: And it's just somebody that you've seen over and over at the flea market and they sell the kinds of items that you like.
And, you know, everybody kind of gravitates toward different things. Like maybe you gravitate towards collectors items. So you'd kind of go to those people, vendors that sell that stuff, or you know, sport, whatever equipment or whatever it is that you gravitate towards. Like, you get to know those people cuz they have that stuff regularly.
Yeah. So.
Rob: So you might be here going, okay, Rob, Melissa, I'm, I'm sold, I want to create contacts. How do I do it? Well, we'll give you the key, how to create a contact. So when you go to the flea market, when you go to the thrift store, you start either just being cordial with a, like a, a thrift store manager talking to them about something, maybe even asking them if they'll take less on a price on one of the items.
And then you start building that relationship. And like Melissa said, it's a consistency. Them seeing you a couple times a week, going to that thrift store, looking for items, knowing what you buy. And that's where you start to say, hey, by the way, you know, if you ever get another one of these in, could you just text me or, or can I leave you my phone number?
And you call me? And that's how you start the contact with say, a thrift store manager or somebody working in the thrift store that you create the relationship with.
Melissa: Because I would think like people would be turned off to a thrift store, like not wanting to like, let them know that you're a reseller, but they're in the local market.
So, it's just different than selling an eBay. And they, as a thrift store, they could totally sell on eBay too. But you had a good relationship at one time with the Habitat, like the manager there. Yep. And with Sleep Numbers you said, and the Sleep Number beds. He's like, you know, if you ever get any these in, let me know and I'll come get them from you.
And then, yeah, so.
Rob: Call me up when you get them in there and I'd go look at them and work a deal with them and then I would pick it up and take it. So they want to have, they want to move stuff, relationships with people who come in, pay and go. So that's the other reason that you can create relationships like that and they're willing to do that.
Melissa: So, and you probably could do it easier at like a small mom and pop thrift store. Yeah. Than like a, although that was Habitat. Habitat's big. Goodwill would probably be a little harder. Yeah.
Rob: But even with somebody who works there that sees you consistency, that's true. Consistently in there, they will, you know, you can start talking to them.
Strike up a conversation and ask them, even if you just ask them what you're looking for and ask them if they ever see that stuff or if they know of it, that's where you can start building that relationship. So, the flea market's a little bit different. All you have to do is go up and ask them if they, if you're buying something from somebody and you've seen that they have the kind of stuff that you like, all you have to say is, hey, do you have any of this or this or this?
Do you have any of that stuff that's not, maybe not here, but maybe at back at your house or a storage facility? And they'll either say yes or no, and then you tell them, hey, can I give you my phone number or can I take your phone number and let me know? Maybe tomorrow when the, the flea market's over and you're back, can I maybe hook up with you this week, so I can see it and maybe buy it from you?
They're not going to turn down money coming in during the week. That's typically when a lot of vendors are spending money on, storage auctions or thrift stores or buying stuff throughout the week to take to the flea market. Normal vendors, that's how they work. They're not gonna turn down, if they have an opportunity to sell stuff throughout the week to somebody, they're gonna wanna create that contact as well.
So, that's how it's very, very easy to create that contact just by asking them, hey, do you have this? Do you have that? By the way, can I leave you my phone number or can I have your phone number and message you so we can, you know, I can communicate with you tomorrow or Monday or Tuesday or whatever it is, so you can meet up with them and actually try to buy something else from them.
Melissa: Yeah, and there's, there's so many different places to like different ways to create contact too. And, and I remember, the, one of our members had a great contact with somebody that was at Dyson and they had a whole bunch of older Dyson vacuums and parts. Yeah, parts and stuff. And she would buy them from them, wholesale or whatever it was, and then she could sell them.
And so that was a great contact with her. She made thousands of dollars on that. Yep. And then I know Stacy had somebody had a whole bunch of leather stuff for a while and she would buy the stuff and then sell it, and then she had a Sleep Number contact too for a little while. And, you know, and one thing I will also add is sometimes you're like, okay, I created this great contact.
What happens if like they move away and I don't have this contact anymore? The good thing is to know is they're, you can always go make more contacts.
Rob: Absolutely. And don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't don't just assume that that contact's gonna be there your whole career, the whole time you're doing this.
Always be looking out for other, other ways that you can create the income on other items. Yeah. That's the safest thing to do. Don't put all your eggs in one basket and really bank on that one person because absolutely they could go away and you don't wanna deal with hey, all my income is right here with this one contact.
If it goes away, I'm screwed.
Melissa: So other people that are would be good. Maybe you can think of these people that you know already in your current friends circle or what, or people that you just may know of that are, maybe they're. People who clean do estate sales or people who clean out houses or people who are in the rental business.
And that the people move all the time and they need to get rid of stuff. So those are all good people to know and it, we've had people contact us before and be like hey, you know, this needs to be gone. You guys want it? Or whatever. Maybe we'll pay a little bit for it, or they just want it gone and then they give it to us, so, and then we can sell it.
So that's happened multiple times.
Rob: Melissa had a client, years and years ago when she did personal training, who was a rental?
Melissa: Yeah, she did vacation rentals. Like, no, no short-term rental. I don't remember.
Was it short term or long term?
Rob: She dealt with rental homes. Yeah. And sometimes people would leave and leave furniture and leave stuff in the house and before she'd called the company to clear it out, she would call us up and say, hey, this was left over in the house. I remember a princess bed she got with, yeah. Yeah. And she gave us a princess bed that was really, really cool. Had a big canopy over it. She said, hey, you guys want this? We can't do anything with it. It was left over in the house. We had to clean out the house. She gave it to us for free.
We actually went and got it. Sold it for like $500 or $600 yeah. Crazy, crazy money. But she just gave it to us because they didn't know what to do with it. And they had to get it outta the house. So we went and picked it up, took pictures.
Melissa: They were probably going to donate it anyway.
Rob: That's it. That's it. So, don't discount anybody.
Just think of people that you are in contact with or you already have as friends that might have access to be able to stuff.
Melissa: Realtors might be a good one if they're in houses that are, you know, getting, people are moving because they see that stuff too and they, they might have a way to get and they might need somebody to come clean stuff out and it might be something that, it would be interesting. Yeah. To you. So there's a lot of different ways and it definitely is smart. Obviously we still love to, you know, source out the flea market and thrift store, but to have that extra way to have stuff sent to you without even any extra effort. Yeah, it's pretty cool. And you also have created context through the app too.
So like if you, one way you can do that is if you're on, like, OfferUp or Marketplace or whatever, and you see something listed that is interested in, you're interested in, you can see what else that person has for sale. So a lot of times if they are a person, like a scrapper or somebody who finds stuff and just lists it locally for cheaper.
They might have more stuff, and if they do, they might be a good person to know. So absolutely. You've made some contacts.
Rob: All you do is click on their picture and typically it'll pull up the list of everything that they have listed. And it looks like they have multiple items. Typically, if they have one good deal on there, they could have multiple deals that are really, really good.
They're asking, not a lot of money for them, and you can, you can create a contact that way as well. So, yeah, amazing, amazing ways to create contacts. They're all over out there. You guys can find them. You just have to really be intentional with making that a priority in your business, and it totally will pay off for you.
Melissa: Yeah, and I think just, it comes back to just being a nice person. Absolutely. Like just being cordial, being nice to people, create relationships and, it, it's a lot easier than you would, than it, you don't have to, like, make it a huge deal. Just be nice to people and then start up conversations and then it goes from there and they, that can help a lot in your business, so.
Absolutely.
Rob: Guys, if you wanna learn more how to grow your flipping business, go check out this next video.