Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about a $4,000 sale they almost lost.
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$4,000 Sale We Almost Lost
Rob: What's up, Pro Flippers! On today's episode we are talking about a $4,000 single sale that we almost lost. right on today's episode we're talking about a killer killer sale that we almost lost. We're gonna give you guys kind of the ins the outs what to do what not to do in a situation like this. And yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun to actually just recap this recent sale that we had.
Melissa: Yeah, sometimes it's a little bit of a roller coaster when you're like, oh $4,000 sale.
Oh wait, we might have lost it. Oh what you know. So we're gonna kind of go through that like what what happened and how we were able to salvage that sale sale in a roundabout way. That's it.
Rob: So first of all, what is it? This was an actual scooter, a motorized scooter. So it's a four wheel mobility scooter is what it is.
We've probably had it for, I don't know, six or eight months. We've had it for a little while. I got did you just list it? Or has it been listed for a little while? No, this one's been listed a little while and it's a little bit more specialty. It's not a really cheap one. It's more of an expensive one, so it takes the right person to do it.
And it's heavy duty. This one actually has an extra seat on it. It has a seat on it that will hold two people, like his and hers. It's a big, big seat that two people can sit in it, drive it. So it's a little bit unique. I knew it was unique, but the price was right when I got it, paid $150 for it. Now this is the catch on the ordeal. When I got it, I knew that there was when I actually listed it, I knew that there was an error code on the actual monitor. Now it happened. It worked when I first got it. Then I, something happened and I knew once I listed it that the error code had an error code seven on the monitor and I knew how to sell or fix it.
So on all of our listings on the larger items, we always do five day shipping. I thought perfectly that was enough time for me. Once I sold it, order the part, put the part in and do it. And actually this one, not the right case. A little bit different. So when I started doing some research on it, the part is hard to find.
And the only place that I could find the part, was over in Europe. So finding the right person to actually, it was the thumb, the actual throttle on this, they called a throttle pot. Not super difficult to change out two plugs and four screws, something like that. Really, really pretty easy to do it.
I Googled the error code seven that it was, it was throwing and I knew that's what it was. I also had thought that it could be the actual controller of it, so I actually bought a controller, replaced it. I did that first to see if that would work. Yeah. And I knew I could buy it off of Amazon and if it didn't work, I could return it to Amazon.
Crazy part about that is Amazon. I bought a new one and they sent me a used one and it was just crazy. I know. Have you get your money back on that? We're working on that , so, but that I, that was my first line of defense in this, trying to figure out what was going on with it. I knew that was the quickest I could get that part. I could get a part really really quickly. So that's what I tried first. They sent me used part the used part and I don't know if the used part didn't work in the first place or if and they sold it as new right? Yes, they actually sold it as new on on Amazon. So anyways, we returned that trying to find the other part. So this is like I said, I got five days to ship this thing out.
And it came down to the line, and I couldn't get it because all the parts that I could find were over in, UK, and to ship it, it takes a lot more time to do that, so the original part that actually, that I needed, I couldn't find. It's nowhere to be found, right? Could not find a new portion of it.
All I could find was a used one and it was over in Europe, so I couldn't get it that quickly, but it was a $100 part to do it. So, anyways, all this happened, we made the sale of the $4,000, and then, I'm communicating with the buyer. So, one of the over lining or underlining, overall lessons to learn out of this is have really, really good communication with your buyer.
Melissa: Yeah, if you didn't have good communication, you definitely would have lost the sale, so. Absolutely, so. And you thought you did lose it. You were like, you were yeah, you were gonna refund him. And then it was yeah.
Rob: So it was crazy that the whole thing played out. But I told the buyer in the first place, I told him that, when I pulled it out, getting ready to ship it, that the error code, was on there, and I needed to figure out what was going on with the parts.
So I told him about ordering the controller, putting the controller in, still have the same error code. I went this and I communicated this with a buyer, actually got his phone number and I got on the phone with him and actually talked to him. Sometimes I will do that for buyers and this situation made it so much easier to communicate and him to know what was going on for him to trust me and what I was trying to do.
And finally got to the point where he was trying to get this for, very quickly. You know, some buyers you'll get, they will say, yeah, no big deal. Once you get it replaced, get it shipped out, no big deal, it's not a big deal, but he was trying to get this for an actual event that he had coming up, and he said he needed it really, really quickly.
So. That put the pressure on me, but at the same time I was communicating with him and finally got to the point where I'm like, listen, I can't get this thing done. I can't get the part quick enough, to get it over to you. I'm happy to refund your money and I will go ahead and order the part and then I'll get it reposted and do that. And he's like, well, what exactly is it? And I started telling him the whole ordeal, what it was, what the error code was, and he's like, you know, what? I don't even know if he asked me that or I just told him no I told him that I would refund him. He still really wanted it because like I said, it's a unique chair. It's got a double seat on it.
So two people can ride on it. It's heavy duty. It's got four wheels. It's a heavy duty scooter, and so I just threw it out there and I said if you want it as is, I'll happily take more money off of it and i'll still ship it to you and he's like, whoa, how much are you thinking? And I I offered it for for three thousand dollars right off the bat. Now remember I'm going to lose a little bit of money on this, but I'm going to save a lot of time and effort trying to put this part in it and doing it.
It's a hundred dollar part. It's going to take me a couple of weeks to get it, all that kind of stuff. So I told him $3,000 he said, okay, let me do a little bit of research and I'll get back to you. And then I called him back and I real quickly. And I said, listen, I wanted to let you know what the error code, just make sure that you know the error code is this, if you're doing some research, that's what it is.
And he goes, you know what, will you do $2,500? And I said, will you split it with me because I got to pay to ship it to you as well. Will you do $2,750? And he's like, well, I don't know for sure that I'm going to fix it. I don't know this. It could be a paperweight. And I said, all right, no big deal.
I'll do $2,500. So we actually settled on $2,500 from $4,000. I took $1,500 off the deal, to salvage the deal. And to me, I paid $150 for it. And then I sold it for $2,500. Well outdid our 10 X on that. So I was happy with that. And how much to ship do you think it'll be? I've already done the shipping quote, and I think it was $170 to ship this from me to him.
So it actually will go out today. I'll put it on a pallet and get shipped out today. So that's one of those things that I will spend a $170. So all in on this, yeah, roughly $320 we'll have into it and then shipping it to him. And he's happy with it. He knows exactly what's going on with it.
I sold it with the stipulations that it was not running. It's not working as is, and it is, it has that error code on it. So. Okay. Cool. All that being said is, a couple of, like I said, underlining factors to this wholesale. Good communication. Great communication with your buyer. Let them know what is going on.
That is a key in this whole business, being able to do that. And just being honest, honest with what's going on with your buyer. Let them know the whole thing. And you, like, the only reason this guy actually took this is because he actually has worked on golf carts, which are very similar. And he knows controllers and he knows the throttle pots and he knows all these different things with them and what can go wrong with them.
So he was willing to take the, the chance that he could fix it with what I was telling him and everything else on the scooter worked perfect. You turn the key on, it had digital readout with a lot of different like temperature and a miles and all this kind of stuff. So it's a very, very expensive scooter that has a lot of cool options with it.
Yeah. Cool. But at the same time he's taking a chance with it, but he might not be able to fix it. Exactly, and that's what he was willing to do is go that much on it and it was worth it to him. Which, to be honest with you guys, out of the parts on it, it's probably$2,500 if I wanted to take the whole thing apart and start selling the parts off of it.
I probably could do the same thing, but that's not my mojo. That's not what I like to do. I like to make high profit flips on a single flip and then be done with it.
Melissa: So, I was gonna also add to that a big part of that too is that when you always talk about, under promise and over deliver, no. Yeah.
Under promise, over deliver. Under promise and over deliver. But you were, and you were honest with him. If you weren't honest and you were like, hey, this is still an amazing thing and it's working perfectly, like you're going to get a return. Absolutely. Like there's no point in doing that when you're up front and honest with somebody.
When you're up front and honest with them, what it is, you're getting what you're getting. Then he can trust you and then he's going to go, he knows he's taking a risk and it might not be able to be fixed, but he's not going to go and refund or ask for a refund because he knows exactly what he's getting.
It was my point. So.
Rob: No, absolutely. And it's huge. And me being upfront and honest and letting him know what was going on with it, I actually found out that he knew how to work on these and he knew things about these things because he's worked on golf carts, which worked out perfect because he's willing to actually try and fix it himself versus having me do it. And now.
Melissa: I won't. One more thing, that also came into play was your negotiating skills because you were able to salvage the sale because of your negotiating skills. And so you brought it up, not him.
Rob: Nope. I asked him. Absolutely. So I asked him if he'd be willing to take a reduced price on it and be able to, and still take it and try to fix it himself.
And he knows that there's no other ones in there. Like I said, there's none other one, no other, scooters like this, this heavy duty that are like this out there for sale. So that's one of the things that he took into account when he was actually negotiating the deal with me as well. He wants it. He wants to fix it and he wants it to be a good scooter for him
Melissa: Yeah. So there's always a way to figure out a problem and even if he what didn't go through with the deal, then you would have either fixed it or you would have sold it for parts. So there's definitely a couple different ways this could have gone down, but we're happy to get it sold.
Absolutely. And for me, it, and hopefully he's able to fix it.
Rob: That's it for me. It worked out the best. I didn't have to wait to get the other part. He's gonna take the scooter and order all the parts himself and get it all done himself. How much is the scooter? Retail, I don't know.
Because they don't sell it anymore, right? They don't, it's a, that's heavy, heavy duty, but it's probably well over, I would assume it's around $10,000. Well over $5,000 is where the range is on it. And it's, like I said, you can't find. I mean you probably could with a different manufacturer, but it's just a really really heavy duty I mean, I think it will hold a lot of weight.
Like I said, it's a double seat. So it's meant to hold two people in the seat that sits on the scooter and it's four wheels. Just really really heavy duty. So, yeah, he I mean at $2,500, he and there's no doubt in my mind if he orders the part and puts the part in that's the only problem with it, that he'll fix it. And I was willing to do that as well for me just to get rid of it for $2,500, ship it to him. I'm okay with that because I still made really really good money. I turned the product. I'm not storing the product anymore. So I turned the product over I can go buy new stuff and do it again. But at the same time if he wasn't going to take it I would order the part I put it on and it'd take me a little bit longer to actually get it listed back and get it sold. But at the same time that that is the other thing that was the possibility if he didn't actually want it.
Melissa: So when you get into a situation that could be like a, you know, before you freak out, like think about what could be the possible different outcomes that could come of it and always keep good communication and good business practices.
I think are if you keep those in your business, it's, oh, you're, oh, it's always going to be the better option. So I think that is overall underlying like you said overarching thing so.
Rob: Absolutely and right now guys if you are interested in getting into this high profit flipping biz, we are accepting applications right now to work one on one with us. It is just opened them back up. If it is something you want to do go to what's the link?
Melissa: fleamarketflipper.com/workwithus and it will take you to the application. You can fill it out and book a call and see if it'll be a good fit for you. So that's it. We can't
Rob: wait to actually chat with you and see if it's a good fit. If you guys jump in there, fill out that application. Thanks for spending some time with us today.
Hopefully this was helpful for you guys to actually walk through one of our deals. One of our flips that we did, giving you guys all the background of it, kind of knowing what's going into this business. This is definitely unique. This is not what always happens, but it's how we salvaged the sale. And it's it's something that we love to do in this business. So you guys rock. Have an amazing day and we will catch you guys on the next episode.