Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about five of their favorite places to source high profit items for your reselling business.
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5 Of Our Favorite Places To Source High Profit Items
Rob: What's up, Pro Flippers? On today's episode we are talking about sourcing, and more specifically five of our favorite places to find high profit items.
Rob: All right, guys, today's going to be a fun one. One of my favorite parts of this business, or I should even say my favorite part of this business is sourcing items, and we're going to talk about five places we use to source high profit items.
Melissa: I'm pretty sure anybody listening to this or watching this, one of their favorite things to do is source. So, absolutely agree. That is definitely the fun part of this business, but sometimes people, it is also a source of frustration when you can't find items that are worth something.
Rob: More specifically high profit items.
A lot of people don't know where to look and what to do for the high profit.
Melissa: Yeah. So we're going to dive into some of our favorite places to go. Some of them are basic, but we'll kind of give a little like how we do it type of thing. Right. So, so we're going to kick it off. Let's do it. Number one, let's start off with the flea market.
So, I mean, that, that is where we got our name was the flea market. Flea Market Flipper because you were going to, you've gone to the flea market your since your whole life years years so with your mom and dad and your whole life but when we had to, when we were kind of thrown into this full time or, you know, we had to make a decision, are we going to go full time?
You were consistent and went to the flea market every single week. Every single weekend. Saturday and Sunday. Yes. Every single week to find stuff to sell. And it paid off. Absolutely. So, yeah. Want to add about the flea market?
Rob: No, definitely. It was a consistent routine I built in the beginning of our business. Now, I don't go to the flea market every weekend now.
We're what eight years into our business, actually doing time. Yeah, full time flipping seven and a half, seven and a half years full time flipping and I don't do it every weekend. I don't need to do it every weekend. So that's one of those things that we built the routine and I did it religiously every single weekend I did it Saturday morning.
I got up early and went It's Sunday morning. I got up and went before church, came back and went to church with my family. But those were the two things that were non negotiables for me. I really, really got into them and we found so many great deals and we were able to really find awesome high profit flips at the flea market.
Melissa: And I think the consistency is super important because a lot of times you'll go and there's nothing and I think people sometimes get frustrated if you go and you're finding these items and then you can't find something so you're like, oh, there's nothing at the flea market and you don't go. So if you can't go once or twice and say it's not worth it, so I, I think that that's a huge point because you would go two weeks and there'd be nothing and then the third week you'd find $2,000 worth of stuff.
Rob: So, and I will give you one caveat on this. If your flea market has newer stuff that comes from China and it's not really like yard sale stuff or auction stuff, then you can go a couple of times and know that that's the type of flea market that you have right there and you will not be able to find the high profit stuff.
Yeah. Now our flea market has vendors that I built relationships with throughout the last eight years that they go to what are they called? Storage unit auctions every week. They buy stuff from storage auctions. They bring it to the flea market and they sell it out piece by piece. Now I know that and I know a handful of vendors do that every single week.
So I know it's going to be different stuff. And it could be anything, high profit items, low profit items. They're going to have different things that I get to pick from every single week. And they just want it gone. Yeah, so if you have a flea market, that is because we did have a flea market in Orlando years ago, sorry, I think it was Sanford, I think it was called Flea World, which they had a lot, they had a little spot where they had used items, but the majority of their stuff was like Chinese knockoff stuff that they would, you know, buy, from China and then they'd sell a little bit up on the price or a little bit of raise in the price and then they'd sell it there and they sold volumes of it and to be able to make some money.
But those are not the type of flea markets we're talking about. We're talking about literally the kind that sell yard sale stuff, sell used items that you can find some really, really good deals. So, definitely you have to see what type of flea market you have in your area. And it might not be the closest one to you.
You might have to drive a little bit longer to go to another one. But find that good flea market that has really, really cool used items.
Melissa: And a lot of times though, even if they do have the new stuff, there's usually a section that is used. Small section. And it's usually a section on like the outer side of it or that is, will have some used stuff and that's where we always gravitate to because that's where you can find the treasures.
Rob: Such a great point. So don't discount the flea market if that's all you know. Ask some people, some vendors in there, like Melissa said, do you guys have a section of this where all the used vendors that are selling used items. Do you guys have where, a spot where they're at? Cause some flea markets are huge and you might not be able to find it, but asking somebody, they might tell you where to go for that.
Melissa: Yeah. Cause we found that even, I mean, there's a couple of flea markets we'd go and it's like all new stuff, all new stuff, but there's still almost always a couple sections of, of the used stuff.
And that's where you'll find your treasures.
Rob: That's it. So flea market number one. Number two. Thrift stores. Thrift stores! Don't discount thrift stores. I love thrift stores. One of the places, yeah, we built in the beginning of our business, Habitat for Humanity, our local one. They would sell us really really good items.
Thrift stores typically get donations of items and then you can buy those donated items for, our, our local Habitat sold them for really, really good prices. They sold appliances, they sold furniture, they sold electronics, they sold all that kind of stuff, to where you could really, really go in and find some good deals.
Not only that, we had the Edgewood Boys Ranch as well that we found really, really good.
Melissa: You had the Salvation Army, where you started from, that was, they did the auctions off every week too.
Rob: They did. So behind our local Salvation Army retail store, they had so many donations, I'm not sure if they still do it or not, but they had a warehouse behind it for all the donations that they didn't have room to put in the retail store and they'd auction them off five days a week they would do that.
So I knew in Orlando they did, I don't know if they still do it in Orlando, but they did it in Orlando. They did it in Tampa. For the Salvation Army stores years ago, and I haven't checked in a long time to see if they still do that. But definitely, thrift stores are a great place to find high profit items.
Melissa: I would also add that usually the mom and pop stores are better than the chain ones. Like, Goodwill tends to have higher prices now. And they sell some of their stuff on eBay too. So they have a whole section they know and they list it and some of their stuff is higher priced. We still stop in just because it's fun to check and we'll still find stuff here and there, but that's not typically our favorite one. Habitat can, is usually pretty good. That my mom has a good Habitat near her so that's a fun one to go to they and they have loads and loads of stuff and we drove around, remember, we drove around the back to pick something up and the amount of stuff that they couldn't even fit in the back like, you know. There's a section of the shop where you shop, then there's a section in the back where they put stuff to go through and then they had more section in the back that was even outside because they had so much stuff. Yeah, so it was crazy, but they had some pretty good prices there.
Rob: So look for your local Habitat if you have not gone to your local Habitat for Humanity. They call it the Restore.
Look and see how far that is from you. Go visit that today. They might have some amazing deals that you can find some high profit items there.
Melissa: Yep.
Melissa: All right. Number three. Three is the apps. This is probably one of your top ones. Absolutely. I say these last three are going to be your top ones now.
Rob: So the apps are my place where I can sit in my Lazy Boy, watch a movie and scroll through the apps, make negotiations, send offers, and do all that stuff on the apps. Favorite app in order would be Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, and then Craigslist Those are my three favorite apps that I use there's many many different apps out there that you can totally use. But those are my three favorite now you might be in a small town that has a bigger Craigslist than it does Facebook Marketplace and take that into effect when you're out there sourcing, but look on those apps.
That's my favorite place to do it because I can sit in my house, I can negotiate the deal, and then I can set up an appointment to go pick it up at a later date or whatever it is. If I got to go pick it up later that night, whatever it is, you can totally do it from the comfort of your home. So that's what I've gravitated to really more than anything is going towards the apps.
Just because it's easier to do it, it takes less time, less of my time to be able to do it while I'm sitting there watching TV or watching whatever I want to do. Sit down, take a break. I can totally do that. And that's what I enjoy.
Melissa: Yeah. And I would add too that the reason why you can find really items that are worth a lot of money on Marketplace and the reason why you can get them at a good deal is because most people won't ship them.
And so these are the items we're looking for is the items people are not willing to ship. They're just trying to sell it in their local market and they're selling it for. Yeah, like, you know, example would be maybe a cooktop for like $50 or something that we can sell for $2,000. Like those are the kind of things we're looking for.
Somebody that doesn't know how to ship or they just don't want to, they're just getting rid of it, they redid their kitchen, whatever. You can find that stuff if you're willing to ship it. So.
Rob: Absolutely and you'll probably see on some of those items, they'll start out at $2,000. They'll drop it to $700, drop it to $500, and then they probably would even take an offer of $250, $150, something like that because they cannot sell it in the local market. For what they're trying to get out of it, they have to get it on eBay and people don't know how to ship, so they won't go to eBay. So that's where we're looking for those items that are too big for somebody to sell locally, but we'll bring them in. I mean, we'll go and we'll buy them and then we'll throw them on eBay and then we'll ship them anywhere in the country, to make the profit that we need to.
I mean, one that comes off the top of my mind is one that I shipped out last week, the cooktop. We paid $100 for that cooktop. It was a gas cooktop, a 45 inch cooktop. That was on the road trip, right? It was on the road trip. We found it on Facebook Marketplace. And the guy, I don't know, I don't remember what he had it listed for, but I negotiated him to $100. He said he would do $100 for it. We bought it, we brought it back. I sold it within two weeks once I listed it on eBay for $2,200. So it just gives you an idea of the local market versus what you can do once you actually take some of those bigger items from the local market and then put them on eBay and you get them to a bigger market looking for those items.
Melissa: Yeah, and one little thing I wanted to add to that is you can also make offers and you might not hear from that person for a little while, but that doesn't mean that you're out because sometimes things will sit and they'll be like, Oh, I just need to get rid of it. Fine. Come, come and get it or come and get it at this lower price.
Like the, was it the chiropractor table, remember? Yes! You did the chiropractor table, you offered, what'd you offer?
Rob: $350, he had $700 he was asking for it. I offered $350.
Melissa: And he said, said no, right? But then he wanted it gone, and then he wrote you back and said, If you can come get it, you can come get it for free.
And you were like, yeah.
Rob: Like a week and a half later! I don't think he responded to $350, but he left it. Or maybe he did, I don't remember exactly what it was. But a week and a half later, he wrote me and said, Hey, I need this out of my office. My new table is coming tomorrow. If you can come pick it up tonight, you can have it for free.
And I was like, oh, unbelievable, absolutely, I will come and grab that thing. And I couldn't do it that night, but I did it the first thing the next morning. And we did it, and we I think it was fun to move. I just, communicated with him and let him know, Hey, I can't get there tonight. But if I can do it first thing in the morning, I'll get there when you guys open up and I'll get it out of there. We used it, I mean we got it out of there and we sold it for, very quick too, not very long. Yeah, $2,200 or $2,400 and we got it for free. We didn't pay anything for it. Yeah. So that's one of those things that, yeah, totally, the new one was coming in and he needed it gone, so.
And he could not sell it because it was a larger item and somebody locally didn't need it, but somebody in another state did and we were willing to ship the item, which we did ship it. And got it to its new owner. So, definitely, yeah, one of those things, like Melissa said, yeah, well, like Melissa said, don't discount.
If you send somebody an offer, they say no, that doesn't mean no. That just means no right now. They might go a week or two and then really need to get rid of it and respond back and either give it to you or tell you, Hey, I'll take your offer if you can come still pick it up. You totally can do that. So don't discount them if they don't accept you right away.
Melissa: Yeah. All right number four. Number four. Which has been a fun one for us over the years and lately too, the trash.
Rob: The trash. Don't discount the trash. So and you guys might not know this Melissa and I are not trash pickers. We're not dumpster divers.
Melissa: We don't go out looking for trash days. You could.
Rob: You absolutely could.
And you could make a lot of money. People do make a lot of money. Absolutely. So, but one thing that Melissa and I built into our daily routines is we walk from our house to our downtown area, which is a mile away. We walk on this same path every single morning. And on the days it is as large trash or the night before the day before large trash pickup, we'll find stuff that people just throw on the side of the road that there might not be anything wrong with it, or there could be something small wrong with it. And I'll give you another example. Just what was it two weeks ago? I pulled a compressor out of the trash and gas powered compressor and there was nothing wrong with it. It was a little beat up. It was older, but there's still nothing wrong with it. I sprayed some fast starting fluid in the carburetor because I couldn't get it to start right on choke sprayed fast starting fluid in it. It cranked up it pumped up to the air come.
I mean the air pressure that it needed to like 120 or 150 PSI. It cut off and kept the motor running. So it was still running okay. There was nothing wrong with it other than it was old and beat up, pulled it out of the trash. We sold it in less than like five days on Facebook Marketplace, for $200 and that was just $200 sitting in the trash.
So nothing out of the way. I didn't take my truck to go, you know, look for dumpster dives or trash. We were walking and it was on our path, and I went back, I grabbed it, brought it to the house, cleaned it up, I actually didn't clean it up, sorry, I just cranked it up, got a video of it actually running, and that was it, that's all I did, posted some pictures of it, and it sold really, really quickly, locally.
Melissa: Yeah, we found, and we found lots of furniture in the trash over the years. We got that humidor you sold for $450. Yep. We found, remember those two cool chairs that were like rustic that looked like they'd be great outside? Yep. Those were free for $150, I think. Sitting next to a dumpster. $150. Yeah, there's just a whole bunch of furniture that we've gotten.
And so don't discount the trash. And we still have those table and chairs. We need to list on Marketplace too.
Rob: A teak table that we just pulled out of the trash. Yeah. A couple of weeks ago, but I haven't cleaned them up yet, to get them posted. So, that's don't discount the trash. And we're not, like I said, we're not going out there really seeking trash, but when we're walking on our normal routine, if we find something, I'll go and grab the truck.
I'll bring it back after we're done with our walk and our run, once we get back to the house, and then I'll pick it up and then we bring it back, take pictures of it, list it on eBay, list it on Marketplace, and we're able to sell it, so do not discount the trash, you can find some amazing deals in the trash.
Melissa: Yeah, and maybe the moral of this part is start walking some more. There you go! Add walking into your day, and see what you can find. Oh, I did want to add one more quick one that we just found recently that we, I don't know if we've talked about on the podcast, I know we've posted it on social, but the cork board that we found in the trash, this was a couple weeks ago, and we walked by this thing, it was right next to a dumpster, it was this I don't know.
It was somebody made it of like a piece of art that was for business and had music notes on it. They just made all these wine corks that look into this picture and it was really cool, but it was next to the dumpster. They were done with it or whatever and we walked by that thing every day for a week a little over a week Yeah, and it was still there.
I don't know why they didn't pick it up on trash day. It was like next to the dumpster. So I don't know if they just didn't see it or whatnot. But we walked by it, walked by it, and you're like, fine, we're just going to have to go get that thing. And, and somebody posted on social that we should go and sell the corks for crafts and stuff.
So I'm like, well, maybe the kids can do that. So the kids spent a couple hours pulling corks, pulling a couple corks off. And so far we had 1,900 that we've counted. We probably have double that left to still count.
Rob: Over 3,000. Yeah, definitely over 3,000 corks.
Melissa: We're at about, yeah, 3,000. So we'll see what they can sell them for on eBay for crafts.
Rob: So give you an idea. It was a four by eight sheet of plywood. So if you know how big a four foot by eight foot sheet of plywood is, it was big with that many corks. So really, really cool. But it was free in the trash. My kids took them off and pulled the glue that had, they were glued on with a hot glue, pulled the glue off and we threw them into bags of a hundred and that's how we'll end up selling them as bags of a hundred.
And we'll make who knows a couple hundred bucks on them selling them for crafts. But still it was just something in the trash plus I mean
Melissa: And the kids make some money. So that was a great way.
Rob: And the board alone. I use it for palleting. So I got a free board out of the ordeal that would have cost me $25, $30 that I can use for palleting, which is awesome.
Absolutely love that aspect of what we do that we can recycle stuff as well, so that's really, really cool. So number four is trash. Do not discount the trash. There's some cool stuff in the trash.
Melissa: And number five is the making, well, it's your contacts. So we kind of touched on how you went to the flea market every day, Saturday and Sunday, or every, sorry, every weekend, Saturday and Sunday for years.
And you created some good contacts because you did that because you were consistent.
Rob: It's hard not to create relationships with vendors who you see every single week and have cool stuff that you like to buy every single week. So I created a number of them, probably five, six contacts from the flea market that were buying storage auctions that were taking stuff out of the trash.
One of my contacts to this day that I still get calls every week from is a scrapper and he takes stuff out of the trash. He's got business contacts that call him to pick up industrial commercial stuff that when they buy something new, they have him come pick it up and he sends me a picture of it and I buy it from him and then I resell it.
So these contacts that I've made throughout the last couple of years have been huge in, accounting for a lot of the revenue that we've been able to make. And like I said, it's just being nice and it's hard to see somebody week in and week out and then not, build that relationship with them because you're just talking to them and you're being polite, you're being nice.
It's one of those things that you will definitely benefit from creating those contacts. And that's one of our, probably our favorite ways. I, I could be honest with you guys. I probably could not go to the flea market again, not use the apps again, with one of these contacts that I built. He would give me enough stuff to make over a hundred thousand dollars a year, just in what he's given me. At the beginning of this year one of our flips that I got from him 12 was a 12 stretchers 12 stretchers ended up making us, it's between $50,000-$60,000 just on 12 stretchers that we got from him.
And I bought multiple other items from him and he's always got cool items for me to buy. So just don't discount people creating relationships with people that really will pay off in this business.
Melissa: And a lot, and they all know what you do too. That's another thing is people are like, well, why don't they just sell it?
That's just not their business model. So a lot of times their business model is just get it gone as quick as possible. So they want it gone and we'll take the extra time to take pictures, make sure it looks nice and make them more money and ship it and ship it out. And it's just different business models.
So you, if, when you work together, it's pretty cool. I know sometimes he's on the side of the road, he just picked up something off in the trash and he'll call, he'll send you a picture and he said, was that? Autoclave? Was that on the side of the road? Piano. He sent me a piano. Oh, piano. He had to snap a picture from the side of the road.
Rob: Even before he picks it up. Do you want this for a hundred bucks? He'll send me a picture before he picks it up and sell it to me through a picture. And then if I don't want it, he'll leave it. And if I do want it, he'll put it on the back of the trailer, bring it to me, and negotiate with him. Yeah, so that's one of those things that, creating those relationships, even at thrift stores as well.
Melissa: I was going to add that too, the thrift stores, we've created relationships.
Rob: Yes. To where one of the managers at the thrift store used to call me when he got stuff that he knew that I liked and knew that I bought. He would call me up. I ended up building a close relationship with him where it was really, really cool that we were able to utilize that as well in our flipping business.
Melissa: Yeah. So those are the five places that we like to source and I know sourcing is probably something that is fun for you, but maybe you picked something up that can help you in your flipping adventure.
Rob: You guys rock. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today. We cannot wait to see you guys on the next episode.