Rob and Melissa Stephenson, from Flea Market Flipper, share the tips that turned a $25 flip into $1,000 on eBay.
Check out our free training: https://learn.fleamarketflipper.com/free-workshop-registration
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleamrktflipper/
You can find us at: https://fleamarketflipper.com/
Rob: What's up, Pro Flippers! On today's episode we are talking about a $25 investment into $1,000 and a trick that we used or a tip that we used to get us to be able to sell this quicker and to the right buyer.
Rob: Alright guys, today we're talking about this flip that we just recently had. It was $25 into $1,000 and what was it? Pretty cool flip that we're going to get to in just a second, but we want to tell you guys kind of the surrounding conditions or what we use to be able to sell this quicker and to the right buyer.
Melissa: Yeah so there's something that you did a little bit different on this one than you do in some of your other listings and like so we wanted to dive in and share with you what those things that you could do to maybe get to the right person.
Rob: Absolutely. So I bought a box of these things and we actually was hanging we brought them home. And I decided that I was going to list them as a whole lot together. And I also was going to split pieces of them off and list them separately. So you might be wondering. Okay, what is it, Rob, what did you sell for a thousand dollars?
Did you pay twenty five dollars for? And it is a... drumroll prosthetic leg, knee joint, prosthetic leg and a knee joint. Somebody got these from a local storage auction. And there was a couple of them. There's two of them, with some other like, literature, some bags and some extra additions or attachments and stuff like to them. So somebody got them from a storage auction. They were a little bit grossed out at them and I had sold a prosthetic years and years
Melissa: ago. And I was just gonna say that was one of the. Really good money. That was one you got for $35 and sold it for a thousand dollars also And that was because I remember it because I posted it on my personal facebook book and all of our friends were like, that is the most random thing to sell.
And they thought it was really hilarious. And so it was an ongoing joke for a long time about selling a prosthetic. That was, well, that was before we even had flea market flippers. So that happened like 15 years ago.
Rob: Something like that. Yeah. But one of my first memorable flips was that prosthetic leg.
So, now we sold another one, paid $25. I think I paid $50 for the whole lot of everything. Had two of them in it and I sold one of them. But what I ended up doing to try and make it more desirable for the right person, which I had people reach out about them both together. And then I also separated them.
So I did three auctions total. One auction with everything together, both legs, attachments and everything. And then I separated the legs out separately and did, two different auctions for the separate legs. And not auctions. No, buy it now. Sorry. Buy it now prices. Exactly. Listings. I should have said two separate listings for the separate legs, to see if somebody was interested in one leg.
Or they were interested in both legs or whatever it was. So I did that. Now one thing that I will add to this, when you do sell something or you split something up and you do it as a lot and you split it up into pieces to see which one it is, I could have put them together and then waited for somebody to reach out and say, hey, I just want this one. But I wanted to do it so it was that much easier for the buyer to find it. Click buy it now, which they did hit buy it now and then it's done. And now all the only thing that I had to do is go back in and end the auction that had both of the listings together, or both of the items together both of the legs together. So make sure if you do do this that you actually go in and you stay on top of the listing that has both of them, whatever group together you pull that off and, you sell now I have to sell the other one separately. It's on eBay the same and it's going to be on there separately versus being together and selling them as a lot.
Melissa: Yeah, so that is one, if we get that question a lot, like should I, you know, list these together as a big lot or should I, you know, do them separately? And you can do both, which is cool, because as long as you make sure you pull the other listing down after it sells, but the likelihood of, like, two people buying at the same time is very unlikely, very slim, very, very, very, very slim.
So that could be a potential thing if you list one and they both sell at the exact same time that you'll get a ding from eBay 'cause you have to cancel one of the transactions. So that could be the only thing, but the likelihood of that happening, you know, is very, very slim. So if you just go in and cancel it, cancel the listing, then you should be fine.
Rob: Yeah. So we've had a lot of people reach out and ask about, hey, should I list this as a, a lot. And then maybe it's tools, DVDs, maybe it's VHS, they get a whole bunch of them together. This was a little bit easier than that for us because there's only really two things. And I wanted to make sure that I was appealing to whoever really wanted one of these.
But when you're dealing with a huge lot. And you pull apart, maybe you have a say, for example, a set of DVDs, you have a hundred DVDs, you list them as a lot and then you start pulling out a couple of them and do them individually. It can get a little messy. It gets a little tedious. Plus, once you sell one of them, you got to redo the lot that you said, unless you just go in and alter it and you take the name of the DVD that you saw.
Melissa: But still if you leave the picture and that's, you're looking for trouble because somebody's gonna be like, oh, I wanted that one. And it's not in here. It's not in the listing, but it was in the picture. So.
Rob: For us, it's easier to do it on the high profit items where we are having, where we're dealing with the high profit items because I don't have a ton of them to deal with if I do list something together. So, hopefully this will help you guys out. Like I said, this is what I did on these. I'm trying to think of another one that I have done this with, and I can't think of anything right off.
Melissa: You have two listings for?
Rob: Yeah, I do three listings. I do, them together.
And then I also separate them apart.
Melissa: You have the Absen stuff listed together and then don't you?
Rob: I do, but I don't have them separated apart, which I could do. Oh, you're right. The parts. You're absolutely right.
Melissa: We sold two lots of the 12.
Rob: I have. I sold three of them now. So, you're right. So, another, for instance on this is, we have some LED panels. Super, super expensive, grouped together. That I put everything together and then I started selling piece by piece of them out. But I don't think I really listed, I, I would sell them with the Absen, LED panels. But I had other hardware that I didn't put pictures of them in there. So that works for us.
I had other hardware that I didn't put in the original listing, but if somebody bought the original listing, I would give it to them with it. But I didn't, so I separated those out and I started listing, kind of individual hardware for hanging up those LED panels, which is cool. And we've sold, yeah, I think we're up to now almost three or $4,000 of, of these just small.
Do I have one in here? I do. It's back there, but the small little, panel hardware that actually holds the top of the panel and then you have, that's how you hang it up and you put them, in, into use like that. So, I've done it with other things, like I said, I'm always trying to think of outside the box, how we can make something
more desirable for a potential buyer and maybe you do the same thing. Think of a way that you can split stuff apart list a couple different auctions plus listen together You. Can do a couple different things to make it where the right buyer sees it all that I do is hit buy it now and they buy it and yeah. That's the cool part.
Melissa: I was going to talk a little bit about, you know, the prosthetic leg, like what makes it worth that much money.
And it's usually the knee joint, isn't it? Or is it whatever joint it is?
Rob: So this is not just a flat leg. It is a knee joint inside of it. So it actually, flexes and yes, it is a knee joint. And those are the ones that are more expensive because I've had another one that I believe I've sold a while back that was just a regular leg, without the knee joint. Yeah. And they're not worth near as much as what the knee joints are. So, for this one, I can't even remember. I don't remember the first one we sold was like an Otterbock. I think that was a brand. And I don't remember if that's what this brand is either. It's a, it might be a different brand.
But, yeah, so prosthetic legs are cool. When you can find them and find them for the right price, some people want a lot of money for them.
Melissa: But the thing is like, not even like, I don't think thrift stores will even take them. A lot of places won't take them as donations. So it's pretty cool that you can still reunite something that somebody needs with somebody.
Otherwise, it's just gonna go to the trash. And like the if the person didn't sell it at the flea market they probably would have just scrapped it or got absolutely trashed it because I mean, I don't know how many people are in the market for prosthetic like at the flea market. So.
Rob: And the guy that had it was a little bit he was disgusted about it. He's like, ah, I bought a storage locker and it was in there. So yeah, I'll do 50 bucks on them, but that's that's the case. So I was happy Melissa's right, we were we were able to reunite somebody. And this leg probably is over five to ten thousand dollars for somebody who had to buy it, if insurance didn't pay for it and somebody had to buy it outright. That's probably what they would have had to pay for us to give it to them for a thousand dollars, they got a heck of a deal.
We made some money on the deal. So it was really really cool to be able to reunite somebody versus just going to the dump. And getting thrown away because somebody didn't want to mess with it. So really really it's it's a cool situation all around.
Melissa: You do have to be careful when you're listing some medical stuff on eBay. So if they do flag you for certain things, then you don't want to keep trying to list that stuff and but you've never had an issue with these before.
Rob: No, typically prescription stuff.
So if something is medical and it requires a prescription from a doctor that's usually the rule of thumb that eBay will pull it off. We've had oxygen machines, or oxygen concentrators pulled off before. So yeah, just make sure if you are thinking about it, that you jump onto eBay or you find out in a forum or even ask the help desk if it's a, if you're able to sell it.
The other thing that you got to be careful of It's when you do do research on stuff that's medical, sometimes it will slip through the cracks. So somebody might list something and it sell immediately before eBay saw it. And you might see it and be like, well, somebody sold it. So it should be good.
Make sure that you're actually doing that extra research before you put out money to invest in something that you might not be able to sell on eBay. So, I've done that before with something called the vest. I've sold one on eBay because it sold super quick. I did and I bought another one for a really good deal and I went to sell it on eBay and it got removed from eBay because somebody didn't buy it quick enough. So.
Melissa: And if you get an item removed don't try to relist it because eBay will not like that and they could shut down your account really they can if you keep trying to list up that they're pulling down. So don't do that.
So if once you get one morning, like just stop don't relist it. So That's just a, a little tip, but.
Rob: Absolutely. Good point. Well, hopefully this helps you guys out when you're out there looking for different ways that you can get your items listed. If you have a lot of items, a lot, like a multiple items that you could sell in a lot together, think of that and then also think about pulling them apart.
I wouldn't be doing this if this was like a $10 or a $5 item. Yeah, yeah. These were expensive items. I had them listed together for $2,000, or I split them apart for a thousand dollars a piece, just so you guys know, if it's a nitpick or, yeah, that kind of thing, it's not really worth it that.
And I think more about VHS and DVD players or DVDs being sold like that. And really for us, if I found a big, a lot of DVDs, I would not pull. I pull when I wasn't out of them and I'd probably keep them. Or if there were expensive ones that I knew were expensive, I would pull those out and I try and sell those separately.
And then I throw the whole lot together and I tell it like that. So this is kind of a unique situation, but you might find yourself in this situation and this is the way to be able to sell it as quick as possible and get it to the right buyer.
Melissa: Well, thanks guys for hanging out with us. We always love hanging out with you guys.
Rob: You guys are amazing. Have an amazing day and we'll see you on the next episode.