Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about a recent $3,500 thrift store find.
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$3,500 Thrift Store Find
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we have a fun one, a $3,500 thrift store find that we are getting ready to flip.
Melissa: It's not something that we normally would buy, so we're excited to share it with you.
Rob: All right. So on today's episode, we are recapping a recent find at a local thrift store that we were super excited to find, for a couple different reasons, but it is not something that we typically would have done in the past.
Or something that we would even a normal flip for us to do.
Melissa: Now, this is actually happened, last week. So one of the days of pickup from school. We have pickups at three, four, and five for our kids. So it's kind of ridiculous to, and we live like 20 minutes away from the school, so it's kind of, you can't just go home and come back. It's ridiculous. But, so we have to be out where the school is and there's a couple thrift stores out there. So usually if we do have a pickup like that, we'll go and stop in at a thrift store, see if there's anything good, you know, just to, you know, see if there's anything good for us to buy to, for us to buy, to resell.
And you know, we obviously like to go stop there. So we went to one of those thrift stores after the first pickup at three o'clock and we walked around for a little bit and then we saw something that kind of caught. Did you see it first? It caught your eye?
Rob: Yeah, we walked around the whole thrift store.
Yeah. We didn't see anything else.
Melissa: I know. Nothing! Like we were just walking around. We were probably there for like 15 minutes.
Rob: Yeah. Yeah. Didn't see anything else. And we got to kind of walking back up towards the front. And then we turned the corner and we saw a whole bunch of pink boxes.
Melissa: Yeah, there's, they're actually right there.
We were gonna try to do the video behind us if you're watching this on YouTube. But they're all set up actually behind the camera right now. That's just stacks of boxes of.
Rob: Dolls. Crazy.
Melissa: Porcelain dolls, collector dolls. Somebody had donated. We actually talked to the people at the thrift store and somebody said, hey, I have some dolls.
Can I drop them off? And the lady said she thought there was like, you know, five or 10, but we counted about a hundred boxes.
Rob: It's over a hundred boxes of dolls. And these are porcelain dolls? Collector dolls, all different types, sizes?
Melissa: Yes. A couple different brands. Mostly the same brand. Yeah. Probably 75% of the same brand. And then a couple other different brands. So.
Rob: So this is not something that would be normal for us to do, although I do like large lots sometimes. Yeah. I don't wanna piece this out. But the more exciting thing about this that kind of caught our attention, my mom collected dolls growing up, so.
Melissa: That's why you actually kind of gravitated towards it.
Rob: Yes. My mom passed away a year, a year and a half ago, something like that. Two years. Was that? Yeah. And about two years ago, my mom passed away, so it reminded me of my mom when I saw all these dolls. I was like, if my mom was here, she'd buy this stuff. All of this stuff. And
Melissa: your mom's the reason why we started this whole thing.
Yeah. Like she got you into flipping. She did. So she started with baby clothes and she collected dolls. Did she sell the dolls
on eBay?
Rob: I don't think she sold. I think she just collected. She collected them. So I don't even remember what she did with all of her doll collection, but this is what it looks like.
Somebody passed away and this was their life collection, long collection of dolls. So it reminded me of my mom, which is pretty cool. But the second thing, that it did was, our kids have started really getting into flipping and doing stuff. Roxy did her first whatnot show, and listed some, what are those things called that she sold the Squishmallows.
She likes Squishmallows. So, what we ended up doing was buying it and first of all. They're priced pretty high. These dolls were, some of them,
Melissa: they're like 10 to $50 on at the thrift store.
Rob: Well, even at the thrift store they had, yes, they priced high. Some of them were priced at $50, some of them are $20 and $30.
So, what I did is went back to the one of the workers and I said, hey, if we took all of these dolls, everything that you have here, what would you do? Could you give us a better deal? And she's like, I don't have the authority to do that. Let me call my manager and ask my manager. So, we had to go back and pick up the other number.
Second one, other, other kid from school. So. We went back to get Lexi, and instead of coming back, I actually just called him and I said, hey, were you able to talk to your manager? And she goes, yeah, I did. And she said, $350 for everything. Now I counted before we left, and it was over a hundred dollars. So I was like, wow.
So that'd be roughly $3.50 a doll. That's a good deal. Because I know on average they would sell, I would say on average probably $20, $30, $40 each individually is what we could get them for. So I thought that that would be a good deal. So I told him, all right, we're coming back. We'll come back and take a second look and decide if we're gonna do it.
So we went back. And then we did it, we did it for $350 is what we bought all the dolls for. But my kids are going to actually go through itemize all these dolls.
Melissa: They actually have already gone through And did they, they looked them all up. They put names on all of them, which ones they were. And so they, yeah, they've already started to do the work.
So.
Rob: Which is cool 'cause it keeps them busy doing something, learning how to, they're, they're learning the skillset of creating income, off of stuff that we're finding out at thrift stores, yard sales, wherever we're at, flea markets. And it's cool to be able to do that. This is kind of, you guys know our model is going, we wanna make big profits.
So, it's kind of in a way still our model because we're gonna lump them all together and sell them as a lot and hopefully somebody will buy them, as a lot, versus having to go individually and make, you know, $20, $30 per doll, which is not what I wanna do. I wanna lump them all together and I feel like we'll be able to find somebody.
So we will list them. I'll probably list them for $4,999 for $5,000 for the whole lot,
Melissa: which is high, but you'll take an offer.
Rob: It is high, but it's. Still at that, it's around $50 per doll. Some of these dolls are worth a lot more than that, or were, retailed for a lot more than that. And these are all brand new.
They're in the boxes. Some of the box boxes are a little beat up. But they're brand new dolls. They have all the certificates with them. They have all that stuff with them. So.
Melissa: Great collectors items.
Rob: Yeah. So I will list them at. $5,000 and we will, hopefully somebody will be interested in them and we'll be able to get, anywhere between $3,500 and $5,000 for these dolls. What comes to mind even with this was when we were on vacation, was that last year? Two years ago, and we bought the foil stamp set.
Melissa: Oh yeah. That was that last summer? No, the summer before, I don't remember.
Rob: So roughly, probably two years ago, we bought a foil set of these stamps, these crazy cast iron stamps.
I think it's called emboss, where you stamped it into like a business card. And it was like a, it went into it and there were. Thousands of these stamps. Lots. Yeah, tons and tons of these with multiple machines to use them and stuff like that. We bought them for, I think the same price.
$300?
Melissa: Yeah. $300. Yeah.
Rob: $300. We paid $300 similar price. And I thought for sure we'd be able to sell them for $3,500. And we actually did, we sold them for $3,500. Similar thing where I
Melissa: could all a lot, you wanted to piece it or you thought of piecing it out, but instead it's just better as a lot, so.
Rob: Absolutely.
So we didn't piece it out. We put it together as a lot and we, we sold it. And same thing. So we're gonna do the same thing with this. The kids are going to, like Melissa already said, they itemized it. They, they got all the names of all the dolls and all the stuff together. We will have to help them set up some pictures.
Actually, I don't even think we'll have to help them. Roxy will probably take care of it all. Yeah. She'll be able to do it, get all the pictures and all that stuff done and they're learning the skillset. So it's gonna be so much fun to watch this whole process play out, to be able to sell these dolls.
Yeah.
Melissa: And we also thought they could be a good what not show too. It's possible. If they don't sell us a lot on eBay, then we will individual. We won't, we'll have the kids, the kids individually, list them on WhatNot in eBay, but if we're gonna try to sell them as a lot, and I, we've done that a lot of times, we, if you buy stuff in bulk, you can get such a better deal.
I think of the baseball cards you bought as a lot, you were gonna sell them individually as well and you're like, this is way too much. Yep. Do you remember what you sold them for? What you bought them for? That was a while ago. It was a big.
Rob: A pallet.
Melissa: Pallet. A pallet, full baseball cards of baseball cards. And you're like, man, there could be some good ones.
You know, 'cause we grew up, we collecting baseball cards and so it was, it was fun. But then you start going through and you're like, this is way too much. So no way. Absolutely. to go through it. So you sold it as a lot, I think like you bought it for like. I wanna say like $200 or $300 and sold it for like a thousand or something.
Yeah. So it was a little less than you wanted. Yeah. But you were just ready to get it done. 'cause it was a lot. You bought the stretchers 12 at a time. You bought the mattresses, 60 at a time.
Rob: 60 king size mattresses.
Melissa: Because you get so much better value per item when you buy in bulk like that. So
Rob: the bats, you just did the reel on the bats.
Yeah. The bats we bought from the flea market.
Melissa: We bought paid,
Rob: baseball bats.
Melissa: What did we say? Say we paid from like $2 or $3 per bat and sold them for, but it was a, as a lot. Yeah. So I can't remember what we sold them for. But but yeah, you can get such a better deal and then if you can sell it as a lot, there's a lot less work too.
So. Absolutely.
Rob: And that's kind of our, like I said, it's a mix of our business model and the people who do lots of volume. This is more volume, but at the same time, we're lumping it together. So it's one sale. So it still works in our favor. We're doing one listing, and then after that we're doing one shipping.
All of it's going, probably all these will go on four or five big boxes, that I'll put them all together. We'll ship them all out together. So yeah, kind of like we did with the foil stamps, we did the same thing. Ship them multiple boxes, but one address and we ship them all out together. Similar to that.
Melissa: Now my concern, like buying them, so I was think something that I thought of. Okay. Is there gonna be really a market for these? Because this is, has the people who wanna collect these, have they, you know, already passed away? Is there gonna be enough of a market? But I do think, I mean, we got 'em at such a, like $3.50, that is they are selling on eBay for $20 to $50, like per doll, depending on which doll it is.
So we know that they probably could sell individually. And I do think there are still people that with nostalgia, like even you probably bought them because of your mom. Like, you know, you thought of your mom and that's why you thought this would be a cool story or a cool flip. So I, I think there, there are still people that would do that for the nostalgia, don't you think?
Rob: Why we're talking through this? Yes. I absolutely, I, I had an idea.
Melissa: Oh, okay.
Rob: While we're talking through this.
Melissa: You got quiet for a second. I'm like, what's
Rob: going on? 'cause my mind's playing this out in my head. Now if you could see the boxes, behind the camera right now, you would see that. I
Melissa: mean, we'll throw some, we'll throw some, videos up if you watch it on YouTube so you can see it.
Rob: But I just had a cool idea of trying to, and I know this got big for a while, I don't know if it's still big or not, mystery boxes, instead of posting all the names of all the different dolls and all that stuff in there. If we take pictures of the boxes and show a couple different pictures of the dolls, and then it's a mystery to whoever buys it that they get to go through and they get to discover what dolls are in there, the more expensive dolls.
So I'm thinking maybe that's the, the way, that's the play that we will, we will end up going the angle. We'll go with these. And it might be more,
Melissa: we've never done that in the past.
Rob: We haven't, but it would be so cool that, 'cause you know, people automatically, it's, excuse me. It's like a gamble. You don't know for sure what's in there.
You might have a doll that's worth, you know, $3,000 itself, and you might have a doll that's worth, you know, $20, whatever it is. So that's the cool part about it. But anyways, I'm just thinking of, maybe we'll try that first way, to try to list it and not tell about the names, but we'll take multiple pictures of a couple of the dolls and say, hey, this is the brand of dolls.
This is how many dolls are gonna, a picture of, of all of them together. All of them together. And say, you get all these, every box will have a doll inside of it. But it is a mystery which ones you'll actually get.
Melissa: Wait, the whole thing's a mystery.
Rob: I say yes. We'll take a couple pictures.
Melissa: I thought you were talking about like maybe put like five in a box and do them like that.
No, but you're saying the whole thing.
Rob: The whole lot. Oh, the whole thing is a mystery. You don't know the names of the dolls. All the certificates and stuff are in there, so you have to take a couple pictures of each individual doll showing. A couple of them that might be in there. A couple that are in there, but not all of them.
And let the people, it's more of like Christmas. You are gonna get them, you can open them up and you're like, wow, these are cool. And you get, it's a, yeah, it's gonna be a surprise versus knowing exactly everything that's in it. So it could.
Melissa: People would like to go through them themselves.
Rob: Think, I mean, those mystery boxes that people did for a while.
You didn't know what was in it. You bought it, you paid a lot of money for it. This might be a similar thing for a doll collector to be able to go through their selves and find out all the dolls that are in them. Yeah. I think might be cool. So anyways, I just had that idea while we were talking.
Melissa: Well, that might be what we do.
We'll see. I think
Rob: that'll be fun.
Melissa: Yeah. Get them listed. Yeah. And we gotta get them listed soon though. We gotta get the kids to,
Rob: we don't have to. The kids have to get them listed soon.
Melissa: Yeah. We have to get some good pictures and get them on it. So that has been something that we found. We weren't really looking for anything. But sometimes, you know, they just. It was there. So we bought it. It was a lot to put in the car. I will say we almost barely fit in the car. But we made it work and got them all home at one time and yeah. Yeah, all the kids are gonna list them, so.
So that's it. That's exciting. We're excited. It's a mixture of a high profit, it's a mixture of a volume that we don't usually do, and maybe a mystery box who knows?
Rob: And mystery boxes. So all those three things together, we, we're gonna see what plays out from here. We'll keep you guys posted. But we've done this multiple times throughout our career, finding bulk stuff because I'd rather do bulk stuff than each individual box. I think it just, it's way better, it's way, way more worth your time and effort to be able to make a lot of money on these flips versus, you know, penny pinching or that's not the right word.
Like working a lot of time. Exactly. To make very, very minimal profits on these things. So, yeah. Awesome. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode, but it's something that's going on right now, in our lives. So we wanted to share it with you, kind of give you reasoning and maybe why you're out there sourcing.
Maybe you see a big lot that you can lump together and buy from a local flea market or a thrift store yard sale. Because
Melissa: you can get good deals when, when you lump stuff together. So.
Rob: I was very surprised. They told us $350.
Melissa: I was too, actually, I thought they were gonna say a thousand dollars.
Rob: I did too, because of, if you would've added each individual box up, they definitely would've been over a thousand dollars for what they had out there. But they sold as able to get stuff out of their store. They were happy, their room, they were very, very happy at the $350. So, yeah, really, really cool.
Cool to be able to do this. And actually we're going to bring this back to a collector, somebody who really loves dolls, like my mom did. Yeah. And somebody will get a great deal versus having to go out and buy all these for retail. Somebody's gonna get, get a great deal no matter what. Yeah. What we list them for, it's gonna be still, it's
Melissa: more for nostalgia than anything.
Rob: It is, but they're still gonna get a good deal.
Melissa: You don't really buy these anymore, so.
Rob: Oh yeah. Well, yeah. You're probably right. The only place that you could buy them on eBay, that's the other thing that we talked about. Or we should talk about is the only way that we're gonna make this money is because we're gonna list it on eBay and it will be worldwide.
We probably can do these since they will go in boxes, global shipping. Yeah, global shipping as well. So somebody worldwide will have the opportunity to get these versus at this thrift store, it's only the local market. In this little town is the only people who visit this thrift store. So that's how we'll be able to bring it from the local market to a large global market, and be able to make the money on them that they're actually worth.
Melissa: Well, thanks for listening in guys. We're excited to have the podcast back and we're excited that you're tuning in with us.
Rob: You're amazing. Have a great day. We'll talk to you soon.
Melissa: Bye.
Rob: See ya.