Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about how much money is too much money to make on a flip.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - How Much Is Too Much Money To Make On A Flip?
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we are talking about money.
Melissa: We wanna dive into the concept of how much money is too much to make on your items.
Rob: All right guys, so we are excited to talk about money today. This is a huge thing and when Melissa and I started discussing it together, we realized, there are a lot of money, mindset obstacles that people have to get past. So I wanted to bring it to the forefront of our conversation, today we talk to you guys about it today.
Melissa: So this kind of spurred from, yeah, it spurred from one of our videos that just recently went it's kind of viral. It's almost at 2 million on Instagram and TikTok. And once a video goes big, like you get people like on all sides of everything, which is fine. Like the comments come out and it's fine.
It, it opens up discussion, although not many people are open to discussion, but that's another topic. But it brings out a lot of comments. Like, you shouldn't be making that much money is one of the comments, on an item you should be making a lot less than that. And this is particularly talking about the stretchers that we just recently sold.
We did a podcast and a video on that the other day on, we bought How many did you, you bought 12 stretchers. 12 stretchers for $2,200. And then we sold four of them last or a week and a half ago for $1,500 each. So people, some people got upset that we made that much money. Even though they are, how much?
Like $7,000 to $10,000?
Rob: I think they were over the ones that we sold. Yeah. At least $10,000 a piece.
Melissa: Yeah, so the buyer is still getting a great deal. And that brings us to kind of the point, like how much is too much money to make? Somebody commented, you should only price them at $250, and then you like, hmm.
Well, you have to think about, okay, I'm going to unload them, I'm gonna clean them up, I'm gonna list them. I'm gonna sit on them probably for a little bit, and then I'm gonna ship whatever ones, these actually went local pickup, but I'm gonna ship them if I need to ship them. So $70, is that really worth my time?
Absolutely not. So our.
Rob: So that's the question, how much is too much to make on items? And that's what we wanna break apart today is kind of the mindset of why only make $250, no $70, sorry, $70, or why sell an item for $250 that is if somebody goes and buys it new, they're gonna pay $10,000. What is the mindset on that?
How do you get past, okay, how much can I actually make on an item and still be doing a good service for myself to make money for my. And a service to the buyer.
Melissa: Your time is money. And so people, this, this has come up and if you're a reseller, you've dealt with this too. And I don't know like who some people are on social media.
You've definitely gotten these comments like, you know, taking advantage of buyers or sellers, but everybody wins in this situation. So the buyer, we price ours on average at 50% of retail, and this was actually lower than 50%.
Rob: To try and move 'em quickly. We dropped 'em down.
Melissa: You dropped 'em out, you took an offer.
Rob: I did. So, and they were listed for $2,300 and I actually took $1,500 a piece for them, and the guy bought four of 'em. So, that was one of those things that I wanted to move 'em quick. I wanted to get my investment back. We paid $2,200 for all of 'em, and $6,000 total for four of 'em. Heck of a deal for me.
Yeah. We still took way less than what I wanted to, but just to pay it back and be able to do that.
Melissa: So yeah. And he saved seven to $8,000 per, per unit stretcher. So like he's excited about that. He doesn't have to pay retail for that. And then the person you bought it from made their money quick and they know that you sell on eBay.
You're a repeat customer for them. They know you sell on eBay. They don't wanna take the time to clean and list and make more money. They just want it gone. And that's their business model. They want it gone quick.
Rob: So the funny part was, I had this discussion with the guy that I bought them from.
He told me, you're gonna sell one of these for how much I'm selling you all of these for. And I said, yeah, you're probably right, but I'm gonna sit on it. I might not make my money today like you are, you got them today, you're making your money today, that's your business model. You, you're doing that. But I might not do that.
It might not sell super quick for me. Take a weeks, a couple months, who knows how long I'll have to sit on these until I find the right buyer. And he was okay with that. He's like, yeah, you're right. I'm getting my money now and you're waiting for your money. So, yeah, you're doing a little bit more work on the issue.
So, I mean, on the item. So it's one of those things that, yeah, so that's the kind of discussion we had with the guy that we bought these from, which is a contact, we bought tons and tons of items from in the past thousand.
Melissa: Probably hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Rob: Well, we've made hundreds of thousands. I don't think we've spent, we've spent tens of thousands of dollars with him for sure.
Cuz he's, he's made us a lot of money. Yeah. Which is cool. So what is that, what's that magic number for people that is not too much, but it's enough? And most people listening to this, I mean, my take you it to make the money, you. Exactly.
Melissa: You need to make money for yourself. Like you're in it, you're supporting a family or yourself or whatever.
You need to pay your bills. Yeah. And you need to make the most money that you can. We don't, we don't advocate price gouging. We don't advocate, like we're selling about 50% of retail. And that's where we feel comfortable and that's where it sells. So that's kind of like, you can only make what it's worth.
Like you're not trying to sell the something else just sold. Sorry, I got distracted.
Rob: Oh, that's $6,000.
Melissa: Yes. Sweet. That's a good sale. Okay.
Rob: But yeah, you we're not price gouging. If we were charging 50% of this item, we should be about $5,000 per unit, $3,500 to $5,000. But guess what? We're not because of the market, what the market will allow us to do.
So the market is a little bit lower right now cuz there's more stretchers on eBay. The price, we were very competitive at the lower end of the item when we actually listed it. And then we took an offer for $800 off per unit that we did so we could move 'em quickly. So, we still feel like we got a good deal out of the thing.
We didn't price gouge anybody if we were offering $12,000 for this item. Yeah, then that's totally, totally different. But we're not, we're offering it way less than 50%. And these, these stretchers are beautiful. Yeah. I mean, they look like they were not used at all. They're in pristine condition, which don't, don't take it the wrong way.
Melissa: They won't say pristine.
Rob: I didn't list it that way. I didn't say immaculate, excellent, pristine. I didn't say any of that stuff when I went to sell it, cuz I want the buyer to be very happy, which he was, he was very happy with the stretchers that he got. Yeah.
Melissa: So I think another reason why we get these comments is because it is a medical, it's something with the medical, and that's another thing is you should donate those to the needy.
And it's like, well, okay, this needy is not buying these for one, somebody who is injured or do, have you ever thought of buying your own stretcher? Like any, if you've been hurt or have you ever said, oh, I need to go buy a stretcher right now? No, it's a company that's gonna be buying a stretcher, and that's who we're selling to is another business we bought, got from a business.
We're selling to another business because that's, and they charge the customer for coming to help them for services.
Rob: So, which they make their money back super quick with the stretcher that we sold them.
Melissa: So one time, one run with one stretcher, he paid for the stretcher. Yeah. So, it's just a different, it's just a different way of thinking and it's just interesting to see some of these come out.
And another thing of the donate, we've gotten that too, like you should donate some of these things back. Like we've sold prosthetics before, like, we've sold a couple legs, a couple knee joints, cuz the titanium knee joints are very expensive. And half the time, like when you get 'em from the flea market vendors, they don't even wanna touch them.
Like, they don't want, they don't want anything to do with them because they think they're kind of gross. Like, I don't wanna touch 'em. And like the one guy's like, almost like, take 'em, please just take it and right?
Rob: Yeah. Absolutely.
We bought two legs from a guy that, that's what he was like, I think he sold for me for like five bucks.
A ridiculous price. Yeah.
Melissa: And the one you got for $35 and sold for a thousand. Yeah. The knee joint. But you can't, that was the other thing. They're gonna go to the trash. So like if that guy didn't sell 'em that day at the flea market, they were not probably coming back out. They were probably gonna go to the trash cuz he didn't wanna deal with them.
And you can't donate most of that stuff either because thrift stores won't take them. So it's like now they get to go on a, a platform where somebody can buy them for,
Rob: it's the way, way underneath what retail is.
Melissa: Yeah. Way under the price And get it, and then they can get it for way cheaper. Yeah. Than they can get it normally.
Rob: So, so where does this money mindset come from? And Melissa and I talked about this this morning. We're trying,
Melissa: it's an interesting conversation.
Rob: Yeah. We're trying to figure out, and it really, I mean, it even stems back. We had we were at church yesterday and one of our pastors spoke about money mindset.
And it really comes down from kind of how you were raised, what your parents' outlook on money was and how they did it. Not that it's right or wrong or anything like that, but for me to swing differently than that exactly, for me to have a outlook that I have, that I'm providing a service, I'm getting paid for the service that I'm providing and I'm still offering the item at well, well under what it's actually worth.
I feel like I'm doing something in the right aspect of it. I'm providing a service and making money for my time at the same time. And like we talked about, we're not price gouging. It goes back to really surveying or, or thinking of how you were raised with your parents looking at money. Are you looking at money the same way or are you swinging the pendulum the opposite way and saying, okay, well this is how my parents viewed it and I don't want to raise my kids, or I don't wanna have the same view I want to.
I wanna look at it this way. It really goes back to that, which is kind of cool to think about. This is where we were like ingrained as a kid on money. It it, it's one of those things that it's kind of mind boggling, mind boggling to think of, but it's kind of cool to think of as well. And think of, you know, how can I change this?
How can I get my mindset around this the right way. So I don't have problems with making profits on my items. So I can do it but I'm still providing a service and I'm still, not price gouging people at the same time.
Melissa: Yeah. And that was on, I remember one of our members who was doing our sourcing membership, she was asking us, she's like, I just don't understand how I can buy this item for $40 on marketplace and sell it for a thousand, whatever.
What was it that, I can't remember what it was specifically. Yeah, it was like $800 or a thousand dollars. She's like, I just don't understand. Why is that person doing that. Like, and it's because most people don't wanna deal with it. Like they don't want, even though there is money to be made, either they just want it gone.
They just, they don't wanna deal with it. And if you're willing to do the interim steps to clean it, list it and ship it, then you can make some good money. So, but it is, and that was a mindset thing she had, that was a question she had about it. She's like, okay, well I don't, I just don't understand. Why wouldn't they just list it?
It doesn't make sense. So, but some, everybody's coming from a different Absolutely. Perspective Absolutely. Of what they're doing. So that's it. I think another good topic, that we talked about too was if you make more, you can give more, and it goes back to the to donate thing, like. Yes, of course we, and we donate, but you could donate some of these things, but how do you know they're gonna get to the right person?
Like, it is very hard to know. Like, that item is gonna get to the actual person in need. Like that takes a lot of legwork and a lot of time, and everybody's pressed for time. Like we're every, we're working, we're doing stuff with our family, like everybody's pressed for time. So, getting it to that right person is even hard.
But if you make more, you can give more to the charities, the, the places that you feel like absolutely you should be contributing to the things that you're led to, the what is it that I'm looking for? The causes that you feel led that are super important to you. If you make more, you can give more to them.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: So, and it's also your time too. I know you're way better at this than I am. Like I am more. , you're way giving of your time. A lot more than I, I am. Like he'll drop anything for anybody, like give him a call. He needs that. Somebody's broken down. Okay, I'm gonna go help you. Like, he'll just drop everything and go help.
And I think that's awesome. Almost to a fault that I've gotten into like, okay, you gotta, we got to get this done, we gotta get this done. He's like, oh, I gotta go do this. So that's, oh, okay. Cuz you, you have that's ingrained in you. Yeah. Like to be giving of your time.
Rob: So that's how my dad was too. Yeah. So, and that's how I feel for friends and people that are close to me.
If they need something, yeah. Then I'll drop anything and go help them at the spur, anytime. Yeah. And it is to some points it's a fault because I should be working on something else. But at the same time, that's just been ingrained into me that if you can help somebody, you do it, which is pretty cool.
So, but let's even take this a step further because some people, even we know you guys, if you don't know this, we have a course called Flipper University. We teach people to do this stuff that we do every day, and we get a lot of comments on it. Our course, our, our signature course is $997. It's a thousand dollars.
Could we charge less money for this? , absolutely. We could, we could charge $97, for this course. We could charge $400 for this course. We could do anything that we wanted to. What our goal is with this course is to get results. Now, Melissa even told me, we were talking about this this morning, she told me a story of a cleanse that she did. I mean.
Melissa: It's a nutritional like thing like. I think at 14 years ago is when I started, or 12 years ago. I bought this, like I wanted to do like this health reset. It was a cleanse that I did. I paid 180 some dollars for it. It was a nine day cleanse and I was like, okay, because I paid so much money for this, like I'm gonna stick to it.
And I did like it took, that was a lot of money. It still is a lot of money, but that is a lot of money, to spend, maybe not as much now with groceries, a lot more expensive, but it's a, it's a lot of money. And because I spent that much more money, I got the results from it. So I stuck to it and I got the results from it.
So if you invest more in yourself, like you will get better results, you will be more invested and you will see it happen. Like if you're gonna invest, you're not just going to like do it and then forget about it.
Rob: Exactly.
Melissa: Like, you're gonna make sure you sell.
Rob: It hurts. It hurts a little bit to put that money out.
But the other thing for the people who are selling, like us selling the course, we want you to get results. We have hundreds and hundreds of people that get results from what we teach. The other thing is it allows us to do more fun stuff for people who are investing in us to learn. We're allowed to do the Pro Flipper Club.
We're, I mean, it, it allows us to do that. Allowed to send, send shirts send mugs, send all this kind of extra swag for free to the people who have invested in us for learning. We're allowed to do the, the,
Melissa: I'm going to buy six plaques for a hundred K Pro Flipper Club members this week, which I'm so excited for.
Like that is six of 'em, like that. Now we need a new threshold. That was our top, yeah. A hundred k Pro Flipper Club was our top and now we need to either do 500 or a million. Yeah. Is the next, is the next one to reach. So that's really exciting though. We can do that.
Rob: Yeah, exactly. We would not be able to do that if we were charging $97.
We would not have the extra money to actually go out, celebrate these milestones with flippers that we absolutely love to do, and be able to do that if we charge the lower price for what we're doing. So, plus the results that people are getting with, with our teachings, with the stuff we do on a daily, uh, a daily basis.
The stuff that they get from this, it's just amazing. It's amazing to watch it and then be able to pay it back within the first month. Yeah. It's with one flip, one flip on what we're doing. So it's really, really cool. So, that our, our goal today was just to kind of get in front of you and talk about the money mindset.
Everybody has, they're coming from a different playing field. Whatever they were raised with whatever they went to college and studied and that kind of different things. It shapes what your mindset is on money. And Melissa and I feel like what we're doing, we're providing a service on both avenues of teaching people how to make extra money by flipping and by selling the items that we're selling to people who really, really need the items.
We just love what we do. We love both aspects of it, of being able to provide a service. People teaching them and being able to provide amazing items for people who really, really need them. And they're getting a huge discount off of retail.
Melissa: Yeah. We never jumped on the bandwagon of selling toilet paper during,
Rob: No, we didn't.
Melissa: Or upcharging for that kind of stuff. No, no. Nothing wrong if you didn't. No judgment. No judgment. No judgment. But I mean, we're, we're pretty much always, I mean, there's gonna be always collectibles that still go higher than, than retail, but for the most part, our stuff is still all at a good deal less than retail. Absolutely.
So anyways, this was just kind of spurred from a interesting, comments on a reel. So, and if you're on social media and you do a lot of stuff on social media, make sure you have thick skin because they, those people come out of the woodworks. So, but I know all you listening are not of that mindset, but just it's a good to good conversation to think about.
Rob: So, yep.
Melissa: You guys are awesome. So thank you so much for listening.
Rob: Thank you for listening. You guys rock. And go check out this next video.