Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about how to source high value items to sell on eBay.
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How To Source High Value Items To Sell On Ebay
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we're talking about how to spot and find those high profit, high value items to sell on eBay.
Rob: All right, on today's episode, it's gonna be pretty fun. I mean, I say that about every episode, but it really is, it's a lot of fun, to dive deeper into this amazing career that we get to do every day reselling.
And we're talking about something that's very passionate to our hearts, which is finding those high profit items, finding those items that you can sell for a thousand, $5,000, $10,000 in a single flip. We're gonna talk more about that in today's episode.
Melissa: Yeah, and I think a lot of people, you know, think those higher dollar items, $500 to $1,000 $2,000 are, items that are unicorns, like they only happen once in a while, but we've consistently been able to find them and sell them. So we kind of wanted to dive into some of our, the way that Rob does it, kind of the thought process behind it and how he consistently can find these items, in the local market and how we're not taking much of a risk while we do it.
So.
Rob: For sure, and that is one of our favorite things in the local market, finding these super high value flips that we're able to do. Like Melissa said, we can do it consistently. We are able to find these items and how do we do it? We get that question all the time. People email in, they write in, they comment on social saying, you know, how do you, how do you guys do this?
How are you able to find these items? And, we're gonna dive into that. I wanna talk a little bit more about the in person when you're actually looking at local venues, thrift stores, yard sales, flea markets, and also on apps. When we travel, that is typically our favorite. Probably 80%, 90% of the items that we're finding, we're finding on the apps.
We're not actually stopping in thrift stores. Every once in a while if we hit it just right, we'll stop at a flea market or a thrift store. But the majority of them are sourced from the app. So give you guys a couple tips. And why this is not gambling. Back in the day when you started flipping, or when I started flipping, you were gambling, you were taking a chance on the item that you were buying.
Might not sell on eBay, might not be worth as much as you thought it was worth. And you had to gamble that back in the day. Now that's not the case. Everything that you buy, you can totally, totally make sure that you are not gambling on that item.
Melissa: Yeah. So you're not one for taking big risks on these items and pretty much anything that you get, even if it doesn't work or even if it ends up being in, like you, you buy it and it's not in great condition. You bought it for such a low price that you can still sell it for parts, so you're not losing your money.
Rob: Absolutely. So let's dive into some of the local arenas. That's where we'll, we'll start with first. The local areas, flea markets, thrift stores, yard sales, those local venues that you can actually look for high profit or high, high value items that you can resell on eBay. What I typically look for is I'm looking for something that has a high retail value, and you're like, how do you know that?
I don't know that, but typically I'm also not looking at small items. I'm not looking at a little vase saying, hey, I know that thing's worth $5,000. I don't know knickknacks. I don't know collectibles as much as I know when I see a big stainless steel oven or a big stainless steel range, or dishwasher or something like that.
I see something that's a little bit larger and it looks like the value of it. It looks like it has a high retail value. That's what catches my eye right off the bat. I'm looking for those items that look expensive, that look like they're worth a lot of money. And not to say that there's not small items that catch my eye as well.
It's gotta be something unique, small, that catches my eye. But I will find some of those items, but it's way, way easier in the local market to find those items that are a little bit larger. That look like they have a high retail value. Now, a couple things that I've known from the years of doing it is definitely brand names.
Like any appliance, I can go up to an appliance and I can know just by looking at it, this Viking, this Viking range, regular, like a 30 inch Viking range or a 36 inch VI Viking range retail on that probably was in the $10,000 to $15,000, when it was new. So therefore, I know I should be able to get some good money for it, if I buy it at the right price, and then I'm able to go ahead and sell it on eBay.
Melissa: We love going to the flea market thrift stores just 'cause they're fun to go to. But marketplace is really where you. Scored probably a lot of the items because people just basically get rid of stuff for, they want it gone.
It's bigger. Like you said, most of the items that we find are higher value are bigger, but people just want it out of their garage for the most part.
Rob: They do. They don't wanna store it. And that's another thing, working in our favor, if they have it, they put it in the local market. They can't find anybody in the local market who's willing to pay what it's worth.
So then they start slashing the prices. They start slashing the prices just to get rid of it. And a lot of things that we've done, we've even got, I mean, we've got free stuff from people that slash the prices and they need to get rid of it immediately. I think about, we've talked about this, I don't know how many episodes ago it was talking about the, the table, the,
Melissa: table?
Rob: No, the, chiropractic,
Melissa: that's what I said. Oh,
Rob: table, chiropractic table.
Melissa: Yeah.
Rob: We found one of those, and I offered the guy $350. He was asking $650 or $700. I don't remember. It was, it was a lot of money. I offered him like half of what he had it listed for. He didn't respond back. Seven days later, he responded back and said.
Come and pick it up, you can have it for free. I don't even, he didn't say anything about the offer that I sent him. He just wanted somebody to come pick it up. So that's not unlikely for people that don't wanna store it or don't have the room to store it. They will give it away for free and you can totally do that.
So.
Melissa: And the ice cream machine that you got for free on offer up was the offer up.
Rob: OfferUp. Yeah. She listed it. She did not want it in her storage room anymore at her shop. I think she had a coffee shop. She just wanted it gone. She didn't even start slashing the prices. She just said, free. I want somebody to come pick it up.
I wanted it out of here today. And that's where we went. We actually went and got it for free. Sold that thing for chiropractor table is like 2,400 bucks, something like that. Don't quote me on the prices. It's right around that, between $2,000 and $3,000 and the ice cream machine, what was that?
$8,500?
Melissa: Yeah. $8,000.
Rob: Between $8,000-$9,000. We got that. And we got that item for free. So that's why it works in the local areas is a lot of people, even at the flea market, if they're bringing something out to sell it at the flea market, and it could be a bigger item, they do not want to take that item back.
They want to get rid of it at whatever the cost is. And that gives us. A heads up or, I mean a, a thumb up or what's the right word I'm thinking of? I can't think of it.
Melissa: Head
start, I dunno.
Rob: No, it gives you a, a hand up. A hand up, leg up.
Melissa: Leg up,
Rob: a leg up or a hand up. It gives you, the advantage because they don't wanna take it back.
So you have, some negotiating,
Melissa: ability.
Rob: Yeah, ability because of that, them not wanting to take it back. So that's number one thing is you're looking for items that look like they could have a high retail value that's gonna be expensive brand names. And if you can find this in clothes and stuff too, that's okay.
I just don't know that. I've never
Melissa: You could really, in any niche, you can find those higher. Every niche has a higher brand, higher value. You know, the top name brands, even the other day when we were talking about strollers, like those have top name brands that are, that sell for a couple hundred to a thousand dollars.
So just looking for those top brands, the top models of those things, and knowing those. So then when you do see them. You spot them quick.
Rob: That's it. Now, what do you do when you find something and you think it might be something that's worth a lot of money? That's where you pull out this handy dandy, bad boy right here.
That you need is that cell phone? That's where you jump into the eBay app. This is where gambling, we are not gamblers. I do not go to the casino. I don't, I on the cruise ship. I mean even, I'm thinking the last time
Melissa: that I don't think you did gamble. We didn't At Vegas. At Vegas. You threw that,
Rob: did I? 20 bucks.
$20,
Melissa: yeah,
Rob: 20 bucks on the roulette table. That's all the money I spent. And it was gone. In Vegas when we were there for a conference, this was a couple months ago. We were at a conference in Vegas in one of the casinos. And that's all the money that I spent was 20 bucks. 'cause I don't like gambling. I don't like losing money or the opportunity or the potential of losing money. I don't like that. I want to make sure what I'm getting is worth money. So what I'm doing is I'm pulling out my phone, I'm jumping onto eBay and I'm looking up that item with the brand name. If I can find the model, I'm checking out the model as well.
I'm doing all that research before I even put an offer in. This is, remember, this is live. This is at a yard sale. This is at the flea market. A thrift store when I'm in live, that's what I'm doing. I'm, I'm finding that item online. I'm finding it on eBay, finding,
Melissa: and you might walk away.
Rob: I would.
Melissa: For a little bit and then come back if you think it's gonna be a good deal.
Rob: I'm not the reseller that stands and hovers right over that item and doing the research so the seller knows that I'm doing the research. I'm not that person. I'm actually looking at it, finding out what the model is, finding out what the brand name is, and then I'm walking away and if it's something that looks good, I'll walk back around and circle back around and I'll try and, you know, negotiate the, the deal right there.
So, but that is the key is taking,
Melissa: but you're checking where you're checking, you're checking Google,
Rob: eBay, you're definitely looking on eBay. You, that's my first go-to is going to eBay, finding out what the active listings are, if there's a ton of them that are listed and haven't sold, and then also sold comps if there's a ton of them that have sold and not have a lot of active.
Hey, that's a great deal for me. That means it's a hot item. It's selling, it's selling fairly quickly. And that's what you really, really want to be on the lookout for is the items that don't have a lot of current listings, but have a lot of sold comps. And then you have an idea of what they will sell for.
That's why we're not gambling, is we're doing all this research before we even buy anything.
Melissa: But if an item doesn't have any sold comps, you still don't always steer away from it. No. Because sometimes you like being the only person that has that item on the market.
Rob: Yeah.
Melissa: Like I would think of some things like that red.
Trash compactor that we just picked up.
Rob: Yes.
Melissa: Not that long ago. It's very unique in the color that it's red. There's not, there wasn't any red ones on there. Right. There weren't. So, but some, the right person will see it and want it. So have you listed that yet or?
Rob: I have. Okay. To me. When I'm doing something like that, I know I have the only one available for sale on eBay, which is way easier than competing with a hundred or a thousand of other people selling the same exact thing.
So.
Melissa: What are you gonna list it for right now,
Rob: I think $2,400, if I'm not mistaken. I might have done free shipping on it, but $2,400 maybe with $500 shipping. I don't remember exactly, but it's somewhere in that area between two and $3,000. We paid
Melissa: $125? No, $150 'cause you gave them $20.
Rob: I gave extra money. Yeah. So $140 or $150 for it. Turn around and we have it listed for, I think it's like 2,500 bucks, somewhere in that range.
Melissa: On marketplace. You found it on Marketplace.
Rob: On Marketplace. Bought it in the local market on marketplace while we were traveling, while we were at a conference, south of us. And I bought that. We brought it back up, we got it listed.
But that's one of those things that I'm looking for items that don't have a lot of competition on eBay for the active listing. So I'm also looking at sold and active. Those are the two things that I'm doing. Now, if I can't find anything on eBay with a lot of, you know, either sold or active, that totally doesn't turn me off either.
I want to go into Google and I wanna find out, hey, what is the retail on this item? Is this a $10,000 a $20,000 item? What is the retail value on this? And then I have a good idea if there is. If it is a high retail, but there's no active or sold comps on eBay, I, if I'm getting it for the right price, I will absolutely buy it.
And then I know I have the only one listed on eBay. So when somebody else is out there searching on Google or searching on eBay, I have that only item that they will be looking for and they'll buy it. That's the same thing like Melissa said, with this compactor, it's red. Very, very unique. Some people like to mix in appliances, colors of appliances, and they want something to stand out and pop.
And that's what this thing will do because it's the only one on the eBay, it's red. It's a unique trash compactor, so it'll take the right person who wants it. But I'm not, I'm very confident that it will sell and it will sell fairly quickly. I, I feel like it's older
one though, right?
It is. It's older.
It's a Viking. So
Melissa: it's a little harder to find comps?
Rob: Absolutely. It's older. I mean, it is harder to find comps, but I do know actively. And I probably could ask even a little bit more, but I still think 2,500 bucks is a fair price actively. The ones that are stainless steel, which those are plentiful, you can find more of those, anywhere from 15 to 25 to three grand, somewhere in that range, is what the stainless steel ones are selling for.
Well, this one's red. I probably could ask more. When the right person sees it, they're gonna have to have it. They're gonna pay whatever price is there, and we have the only one for sale right now. Currently as this podcast is being recorded, we are the only ones that actively have that. So I know I don't have any competition with that.
So that gives you kind of an overview of how we're looking for those items, but not only looking for those items, how we're doing the research on those items to make sure that we are not gambling. We wanna make sure, and this compactor that we're even talking about, since we're using this as an example, I, I know at $150.
I could probably pull one of the little drawers off or something like that and sell it for $150. I know I can get my money back with one or two of the parts. If it didn't work for whatever reason, or if I couldn't sell it, I know I could sell one of the parts off of it and make my money back. Which that's the biggest thing is I wanna make sure whatever I'm investing in.
I can somehow make my money back if it's broken, if it doesn't work right, parts wise, but this originally probably was over $10,000, this trash compact compactor. Originally I would say $7,000-$10,000 at least, retail, but it is older. It's probably, I don't know, 20, 30 years old. So you can't find active comps for it, like an active retail, value of it.
So, you're just going off of knowing that back in the day, it was super expensive and somebody will absolutely want it. So.
Melissa: It's funny because somebody, people are like, oh, it's so old. People don't buy. People love them and you don't, like they still sell the old because they're built so much better.
The appliances nowadays are built.
Yeah.
Not very good. So people still like the old stuff and they last, they just last forever.
Rob: There's, yeah, there's no computer brains. There's nothing on the old appliances. And that's what a lot of people are going back to because you have like Samsung, you have, lg, everything is computer.
It's these boards, all this stuff, you have to have to control it and one thing goes wrong and you have to replace the boards. You gotta replace all this stuff with this trash compactor. It's all mechanical. All you do is press a button, it lowers the compactor, raises it back up. It's pretty cool. So, thinking about that as well, looking for high-end old appliances is a great tactic.
That's what we really, really specialize in, or we make the majority of our money in or the old older appliances that are built really, really well.
Melissa: I, I wanted to add real quick before we finish, that we love going to flea markets. We love going to thrift stores. Facebook marketplace and OfferUp have been like, probably your best sources of items in the last couple years.
But one we can't knock is, auctions can also be really good. So I wanna make sure we talked about those just for a minute, because you can find some really good deals at auctions and a lot of these auction houses don't care what things go for. They just need them gone. Especially if they're, you know, have a lot of stuff coming through.
You can look in your local area. There's the government, local government ones like schools and stuff that get that, get rid of stuff. So look them up and you can find it online and bid. Just don't get too.
Rob: Buyer beware. Don't get, don't get sucked in. Don't get sucked in. Because I'd bid on stuff on auctions and I'd had my cap at a hundred dollars, and before I knew it, I was at $1,200 bidding on this item, going, I still can make money.
I still can make money. I know it's worth this much money. So just buyer beware. Don't get sucked into the bidding war back and forth and. So.
Melissa: And they've gotten better to where they give you, like, they give the next person five more minutes. Yes. And then they get, so it's super, you hate that, but
Rob: I do. But you can find amazing deals in your local area off of those auctions.
So do not discount auctions. Great place, like Melissa said, Facebook marketplace, OfferUp, Craigslist. All those are local apps. We love using those apps. Use the same principles that we're we were talking about in the local. It's just way easier because you can sit there and find something on Facebook.
You can jump immediately over to eBay, jump over to Google. You can do all that research before you even send out an offer, and then you send out an offer. You kind of negotiate it online, and then you go to it. But don't feel like if you negotiate back and forth without seeing it in person and then you get there and it's not what you thought it was and you don't think you have the abilities or to fix it or to clean it up or whatever it is, don't be scared to walk away from something like that.
So, 'cause we have done, in the past, I bought something that I have not, I should have walked away from and I didn't do it. So I've learned my lesson, but still it's very, just remember, if you negotiate the deal, you get there and it's not what you thought it was, or you know, it's gonna take a lot more time or effort to get it ready to sell.
Don't be scared to walk away. Your time is money. Know that you, there's so many deals out there. We live in a world of plentiful, plenty of plenty of stuff all over the place that people are getting rid of. And we can make money anywhere and everywhere you go. So, just don't be scared to walk away if it's not what you thought it was.
Melissa: I know we talk a lot about appliances 'cause that just has been what sells really well for us. But another one that I think of in the local market that does well is furniture. So you can't, some of those high-end furniture pieces, if you know furniture, you enjoy it like that. You can't get what it's worth in the local market, but you get it to a global market like eBay and somebody will want that.
So we've done a, we've done a fair share of furniture, absolute love furniture, furniture's great.
It can be a great one.
Rob: Yep.
Melissa: And if you wanna see kind of an example, like a actual run through of how Rob looks. At items in the local marketplace and then goes and does the comps. In our 90 minute workshop, we have a, he walks right through that.
So he takes you through an example of how exactly he looks at it. So we'll put a link in the show notes below and you if you wanna check that out. We'd love to help you find higher value items.
Rob: You are amazing. Thanks for showing up today. We can't wait to see you on the next episode.