Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about how to find free items to flip in your reselling business.
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5 Ways To Find FREE Items To Resell
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we are talking about not needing any money to start this business, and we're gonna give you five tips or five ways that you can actually do it.
Rob: All right, on today's episode, we are talking about five different ways that you can actually find items for free or get those items where you can turn around and sell them and make some cha-ching in your pocket.
Melissa: You really don't need capital to, or money to start this business. You can do it with items that you have for free or that you can get for free, and we're gonna dive into that because then that can start your bankroll, and then you can get to where you can start investing a little bit more. And when I say investing, we don't really invest a lot.
Like, we've have in the past on a couple items, but still, like, $50 is, $100, like, that's really for the higher value items. Like, if we're gonna spend $100, we wanna make $1,000 on the item. So, we're not investing a ton of money in our business typically.
Rob: No, absolutely not. That, I mean, we will every once in a while
Melissa: Every once in a while
Rob: find some cool stuff. I think about the last one, the most expensive one that I've spent in even the last couple years that I can think about is $1,000 I bought for that oven, if you guys remember. Oh. The oven we paid $1,000 for at a thrift store, and then we turned it into $15,000 on eBay.
So yeah, that's one of those things that.
Melissa: But you don't typically invest that much.
Rob: We don't, I don't like spending that much, but there has to be. But for that return ... there has to be circumstances where I know that I can make my money back on that, so, but.
Melissa: But we're giving you some free ways.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: That you can start this business now so that you can start making money. But I will say that the craziness, like, the amount that AI has gone crazy lately, like, I don't know, people have been coming to us and talking to us and want to get started with their reselling business again because AI is, like, either they lost their job or, they're worried that they're gonna lose their job, and this is something that AI won't take over anytime soon.
Like, when the robots start finding stuff in the trash, maybe, I don't know, like, when that's gonna happen. It's not gonna be anytime soon. So this is a great time to get into this business, so.
Rob: No, the basis of our business, people, there's so much stuff around. People get rid of it, they sell it, they get rid of it for free. Then we bring it back to the market where it's actually can be used in, again. Yeah, exactly, be used, and you can make a decent profit on these items.
Melissa: All right, so the first way to find items for free, I guess it's typically technically not free, but it's items in your own house. So it's items that you already own.
You did probably pay for them already, but
Rob: or somebody gave them to you as a gift.
Melissa: Or somebody gave them to you. Then you can start reselling with those that you already have, so.
Rob: Yep, that's a great place to start. You can start there. You don't have to go out anywhere else. You can just look inside your attic, your closet, your pantry, for those items that you might have not used in a year or two years, whatever it is.
You had great intentions when you bought it or somebody gave it to you and you didn't really want it. Let's start with those. Those are items that you do not have to go out any extra money, and you can start selling those items. So that is number one. And what do we have
Melissa: no, I was just gonna say, if you need some help, like, jogging your memory, we do have a list of, like, 47 household items that can help you make $100 this week, and we'll put it in the show notes below so that can just help you get some ideas of, you know, places to look. In the closet or in the garage or in the kitchen.
Like, don't get overwhelmed, but just a couple things that you can get started with. So that is the first way.
Rob: Absolutely. What is number two?
Melissa: Number two is someone else's house. So the first one is your house. The second one is someone else's house. So tell your friends, like, you're trying to start a reselling business or you're wanting to start selling on eBay.
Do they have anything that they don't want anymore?
Rob: Absolutely. This is a great place to start, because other people have stuff. I don't know how many members have told us that, I think about, one of the members cleaned houses. And people would give her the stuff that they didn't want before they donated it.
So stuff that people might donate, stuff people might get rid of, that is something that you can capitalize, you can jump in, if they're willing to give it to you and you're able to sell it. So you're not spending any money, but you're getting stuff from other people.
Melissa: Yeah. And people give us stuff all the time just 'cause they know that we sell on eBay, and they're not looking to get money out of it.
They're like, "Hey, just take this from me. I do- like, I don't want it anymore. You guys can sell it. It's not a big deal." You. That happens a lot now 'cause we've told, well, obviously, we tell people what we do 'cause we share it on social media. But, but yeah, if you just tell a couple people like, "Hey, I'm trying to start this. Do you have anything?" You'd be surprised at what people would give you to sell instead of going to donate it. They, they probably would. So.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: So that's number two.
Rob: ... friends and family. Yeah. Well, they'd probably rather you be able to sell it than donate it to one of the local thrift stores or places.
Melissa: They'd rather you get the money than the thrift store, so.
Rob: Exactly. Exactly. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So that was number two. What is number three?
Melissa: The free section on some of the apps.
Rob: Absolutely. OfferUp, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace. Most of them are built in with a free category that people can actually throw stuff in there, and you can get rid of stuff for free.
People will come and pick it up. That is a great place to look. I even think about, I mean, some of the free stuff that I have bought... I mean, I have, got in the past. The biggest one that sticks out, and we've talked about it before, is the ice cream machine. Yeah. That by far was the
Melissa: free one on the app?
Rob: Free on OfferUp. Somebody posted it on there. They did not want any money for it. They wanted it out of their storage room inside their ice cream shop. And I was one of the first persons to respond back. I said I was loading my trailer and going to get it. We went and got it. We sold it for $8,500, and we got it for absolutely free.
That's just one of them. We have probably 15, 20, 30 of other items that we have gotten free. I think about the, the bed. What was the?
Melissa: Which bed?
Rob: Chiropractic bed.
Melissa: Oh, yeah. But that wasn't listed for free. It wasn't. That was listed for $700 and you offered $350. Yeah ... and then he came back the next week and said, "Can you come get it for free?"
So that wasn't technically listed for free. But there are free sections on the app. Yes, that you can.
Rob: Sorry, I got sidetracked. For just free items that we've ended up getting.
Melissa: But you did get it for free. We did ... and you sold it for $2,200, so.
Rob: We did. They're out there. Yes. They're out there.
There's items, there are items out there that you can totally get for free, whether people list them for free, willing to give you, absolutely. But number three is on the apps, the free sections.
Melissa: And, and I would also add, you don't know... 'Cause people are like, "Why would anybody get rid of this when they know, when they know it's worth money?"
Like, you don't know people's situations. You don't know that they just need it gone. They don't wanna deal with it. They don't wanna list it on eBay. They don't wanna ship it. And they just want it gone. And so there's a lot of times that that instance happens, or they're moving and they need it gone right away.
That's happened a lot too. Yep. Like, people will list stuff, "Moving. Need gone ASAP." So you just never know. And there are, if you can help them get rid of it, and then you can sell it. So there's, there's a lot of free items out there.
Rob: Absolutely. So.
Melissa: All right.
Rob: Number four.
Melissa: Number four is curbside finds.
Rob: Curbside finds. This was one of our favorites, and I have found tens of thousands of dollars on the side of the road, not even going out not trying to dumpster diving. No. Or anything like that. Just on a normal routine that Melissa and I had. For years we would walk from our house to our local downtown, and then we'd walk on this trail.
But we'd walk through, it wasn't even neighborhoods. No. It was just the downtown area. Yeah. And I can't tell you how many items.
Melissa: It was, like, older homes probably made in, like, the 50... Like, built in the 50s, 60s. Yeah. Right? And just, like, smaller homes, but it was, like, a downtown area, so it was, it was a nice area.
But people would just put stuff out put for the trash. And if you know trash day, like, that helps, too, 'cause ours was on Thursday morning was large item trash day. So Wednesday evening or Thursday morning was always good to find stuff.
Rob: Find amazing, amazing deals. Tens of thousands of dollars we found on that one mile walk.
From our house to our downtown area, and we took the same road every time. It wasn't even like we were trying to go looking. No. For stuff. We just saw it on our walk, and then I would come back with my truck. Truck. After we got back, I'd pick it up, and I'd, go... I mean, just a couple items that I'll, I'll name off quickly.
The table and chair set that we bought.
Melissa: Table and chairs. That was, we sold a lot of the stuff on the side of the road we just sold on Marketplace, which I still don't understand why people don’t just list it on Marketplace.
Rob: Themselves.
Melissa: Because, like, the table and chairs we got $250 for. The other bed, the, the wood bed, we got $100, $150 I think for.
Rob: Humidor, like $500
Melissa: Oh, that was $450 we got. Sold that to a business.
Rob: The air compressor, sold on Marketplace for? Yeah $250, something like that?
Melissa: $250, yep.
Rob: Power wheelchair somebody pushed out on the side of the road. That one was actually crazy because I was like, "Why is somebody throwing this away?" And I think the batteries went bad on it.
They had it out on the side of the road for somebody to take on big trash day. I actually went to the door and said, "Hey, are you guys throwing this away?" They said yes. I said, "Can I push it back up to your garage, and go grab my truck, and I'll come back and grab it?" They were a little hesitant at first because they're like, "Are you really gonna come back?"
Yeah. And I was like, "I, I'm walking to grab my truck right now and trailer. I'll bring it back, and we'll push it up on that." And they let me do it. So, but just so many thousands and thousands of dollars found for free that people have just put out on the side of the road, and it still has life left in it.
All the stuff that we had, it still had life left in it to where it didn't need to go to a landfill. We were gonna make money on it by bringing it to somebody who actually needed it, but it didn't need to go to a landfill, because it wasn't dead. There was nothing wrong with it. People either moved, they got something new, and they were getting rid of it.
So just for those reasons, it's pretty cool to be able to find items out of the trash.
Melissa: Yeah, and that's another thing, like, to add. If you do, some people feel, feel weird, like, pulling stuff out of the trash if it's not like you don't know if it's really trash. Then you can always go up and ask people, so that is a nice thing to do.
Like, "Hey, are you throwing this away?" You know, "Is it okay?" And most of the time they are throwing it away. Yeah. You don't, you haven't asked everybody that you go pick the stuff up.
Rob: Bigger items it, I've-
Melissa: But some of the stuff,
Rob: Yeah, just to be nice and I feel weird going and taking something out of somebody's trash, I will go to the door, and I'll knock on the door and just ask them, "Hey, are you guys throwing this away? Is it all right if I grab it?" And,
Melissa: And nobody's ever said no.
Rob: Never have they said, you can't do it. Or they've never. They always tell me, "Yes, absolutely, take it."
Melissa: They've never said, "No, it's not trash." Yeah, yeah. Like, it's always out for trash, so. And
Rob: I know it is. But at the same time it just feels weird because it's on the side of the road right there.
But everybody's always been really, really cool when we've done that.
Melissa: Yeah. All right.
Rob: Number five.
Melissa: Number five is make a post on Marketplace or on your Facebook or somewhere on the apps, like, asking for items. So, and you would be surprised how many items you get. So this is, kind of along the lines of telling a friend of what you do, but only it's just to a different market.
Rob: And I'm gonna give you two examples of this because I used to do this a lot. We don't do it as much anymore because I feel like this was more... This might've... I don't remember. It, this has probably been over 10 years ago when I actually did do this quite a bit.
Melissa: You made signs.
Rob: I did. I made signs, specifically.
Like yard signs, like you see somebody saying, "Paint this," or, "Painted by," the house or something like that.
Melissa: That was, like, 20 years ago, not 10.
Rob: 20? Yeah. Woo, time flies, baby. So anyways, the two things that I did that I really, really enjoyed doing was hot tubs. I loved to get hot tubs. People would give them to you for free.
If they bought a house or they used the hot tub and then they didn't want to use it anymore, they would give them away for free. So I actually put listings, in, the newspaper and offer
Melissa: up. See, 20 years ago, the newspaper.
Rob: Well, any of the places that you could in the classified section of the newspaper, but in the wanted sections of the apps.
I did hot tubs and I also did jet skis because I love that. And I still remember one of my favorite jet skis ever, and I've had lots of jet skis. One of my favorite jet skis ever, somebody gave it to me. It was sitting in his yard. He bought it brand new, let it sit for, like, three or four years, covered up.
This thing was, like, in mint condition. And I put, that listing. He called me and said, "Hey, yeah, I have a jet ski. I'm not looking to get anything out of it. You can come pick it up for free." Jet ski and trailer, I got it. I actually cleaned the carburetor on it. We used that thing- Tons and tons of times before I actually sold it.
Had a blast with it. That was at the beginning of our marriage. Yeah. I remember that. So 19 years ago. Because that was in the little house, when we lived in a little house. Yeah. And had a blast with that thing. But he gave it to me for free and said, "Listen, I got, I got my money's worth out of this jet ski.
It's been amazing for me. I want somebody else to have it." And so we went and picked it up. I fixed it, cleaned it up. Actually, it was just sitting, so it was just cleaning the carburetor. That was all I needed to do to it. It was amazing. So all that from posting ads and listings of items, or posting ads and listings that you are looking for items, to pick up for free, or just even pick up.
Somebody might even want some money for it, or cheap money for it. You can do different types of listings and test different types of stuff in your local areas.
Melissa: Yeah, and even in, like, Marketplace, you can make a post in Marketplace and, you, if you don't want to share it with your friends, you know, you can say, like, hide from friends.
So, like, if you just wanted to share with other people, you know, looking for these kinds of items, if you have it, you know. And it just, you know, people are like, "Oh, okay, I'm, I'm I need to get rid of this." So, just those are some ways that you can find free items, not invest any money in this business, and start making money so that you can start making a lot more money.
And I remember, Stacy or one of our, our first member actually to hit $100,000 only ever invested 50 cents in her business. She bought a hubcap, right?
Rob: Yep.
Melissa: Hubcap from a yard sale for 50 cents.
Rob: 50 cents. Sold it for $80?
Melissa: It was $50 or $80. Okay. And then took that money. Rolled it. And never invested another penny of her own.
Only ever invested money from her business. Yeah. Into other items to buy and to resell, which is really cool, and she ended up hitting $100,000 I think in two years. It might, I think it was two years. So. I think it was two. It's crazy. Like, from 50 cents.
Rob: Yeah.
Melissa: So.
Rob: So I will add these are not theories. No.
Like we've said, we've had stories almost on all five of these things, and trust me, I have had. We have many, many stories that we could go into. But these have made us tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. These free ways to find items, the way that you can find these items for free, we have made money time over and over and over.
So this is not theory. This is something that actually works. You can totally do this right now, today. Go out and find these free items and be able to turn them into cash.
Melissa: I thought of one more. What is it? We can do a bonus one, that I didn't write down. So another one can be going to check apartment complexes during, at the end of the month when people are moving out.
You can sometimes find nice furniture or nice things that people have gotten rid of. Or at the end of a school year, like near, if you're near a college town. So those are two other ways to find free people just get rid of stuff like crazy because they, they're moving. They don't need it anymore, so.
Rob: Our school got rid of the ride-on things.
Remember those?
Melissa: Oh, the Wave.
Rob: The Wave, yeah. They're the ride-on floor cleaners. They had three of them, and then they had the Stacker thing, too. Yeah. The Stacker is the one that I sold. Yeah. That we got. I was in car line and saw them at the dumpsters at our school, and that was crazy because I had to go inside and I say, "Hey guys, are you getting rid of this?"
And it was at the dumpster. They said, "Yes, you can absolutely take them." So we actually pulled those things. The first one I sold.
Melissa: $7,500
Rob: Was it $75? $7,500, guys. I'm telling you. Tens of thousands of dollars we've made from free stuff that we found in these multiple ways that we're doing it.
Melissa: I think you did have to add batteries to that.
Rob: That one? Yeah.
Melissa: I think you added. So how much was that, to add batteries to the, the?
Rob: I don't remember. That was 24 volt, so it wasn't a lot. But still, I think our profit was over $5,000 or $6,000, after I did the batteries and the... I think that was all that I did. Battery fees. Maybe it was fees, shipping, and the batteries.
It was still $5,000, $6,000 bucks that we actually turned a profit from free, from nothing. So, like we said, these are ways that you can actually find these items, make some money today, if you need to go out there and find those items.
Melissa: Yep. So don't let lack of capital stop you. Start selling items and make that money, and we're excited to cheer you along the way.
Rob: That's it. You guys are amazing. Thanks for hanging out. Anything to add today?
Melissa: No. If you want to check out how we do our business model, it's typically larger items and higher value items. We typically try to stay around $1,000, $2,000 per item. You can check out our business model. We did a free workshop about it.
You can check it out at the link below, and we will love to see you later.
Rob: You guys are amazing. Have an amazing day, and we'll see you on the next episode.