Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about how to get free stuff to resell on eBay.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - How To Get Free Stuff To Resell
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we are talking about free stuff and more specifically how to find free stuff so you can resell it.
Rob: All right guys, so today we are talking about some cool things, how to find free stuff so you can resell it for a profit.
Melissa: Yeah, there is no shortage of free items to help you get started in your reselling business, and we're gonna dive into that today. So we get the question a lot, like, how can I get started if I don't really have a lot of money to invest in inventory and if you've been listening for a little while, you know that we don't even like to invest a lot in inventory
So, our goal is to, yeah, to make our money in our buy. So we're not spending a lot, but you can start for free. You don't need to have a lot of money up front to go buy inventory to resell. So.
Rob: So even just this morning, Melissa and I were running what brought it up, jog, with the kids. The kids were riding bikes.
We were jogging. We got one town over from us on this trail that we have and we came across two bar stools. They had a couple chairs out by the side of the road that were out for trash, two bar stools that were really cool. They were real wood. With claw feet and they were bar stools that had backs on 'em.
And I was like, man, those look cool. They look expensive. What do we do? We just ran here. We're two and a half miles from our town, three and a half miles from the house. So, I had a friend, a buddy who has an ice cream shop that's in the same town. And, I called 'em up and said, hey, if I pull these outta the trash, can I set 'em at your ice cream shop?
And then once I get back, come back with the truck and pick 'em up. And he said, absolutely. These chairs will, or, bar stools will probably be able to sell, I don't know, I would say at least 50 $75 a piece.
Melissa: You think a piece? I absolutely, they're really cool because the tops of the chairs were kind of messed up, but the, they had cloth feet, like they're wood, but they had claws and anytime they had, is that what they're called?
Claws?
Rob: Yeah. Claw feet. They look like claws on little round.
Melissa: So those are usually a sign that they're a little bit more, I don't know, more quality and you wanna actually, now you wanna redo them, don't you?
Rob: Yeah, I do. So the, they had like a wicker bench on top of 'em or a wicker seat. And I'll probably pull the wicker seat off.
And I have some slabs of oak that actually came off of tabletops and I have some of those. I might try and cut something out, trace it and cut it out and redo that to see what we can do with it. I don't know exactly what I'm gonna do yet. But they're cool and they'll be worth some money if I put a little bit of time into it.
They'll be worth some money, which is gonna be really, really cool. We got 'em free, didn't pay a penny for them, and probably turn 'em into about $150, maybe even more than that. The ones that I saw online that I'm, I was looking at a thousand dollars too. No, they're $2,500 for four of 'em, and we have two of 'em, and I could make 'em just like that.
They have claw feet, so they're really, really cool. Real wood claw feet. So.
Melissa: But you could easily just throw them on Facebook right now, Facebook Marketplace and sell 'em $50 to a hundred bucks, like as they are probably $50 bucks or whatever each. So there they are cool. But you, there is stuff and we've come across so much stuff in the trash and we just walk, we walk the same route every day and then we run two to three miles.
We walk a mile down to our downtown area and just the stuff that gets left by the side of the road. There was even one time, I think we started this in 2019 it was in January, we found a chair on the side of the road that was getting thrown away. It was a nice, like blue accent. Yeah, blue accent chair.
And then when we brought it home, we found there was one thing underneath it that wasn't,
Rob: little piece of wood was broken, so I turned it over. I fixed the wood, put it back together, a beautiful chair.
Melissa: I put it on marketplace for, and sold it for $50. So it was like one little thing, sold it for $50.
And then at that time we decided that we should do, we were gonna do a listing challenge. So we're like, let's see if we can find or not listing challenge, sorry, a challenge to see how much we could make from that free item. So we found the free item in the trash. We're like, okay, let's see what we can roll this into from nothing and see how much money we can make.
And so we, it was, the $50, then went and bought two more items. I remember these ones. This was the exercise bikes, the ex, the Schwinn. No. Yeah.
Rob: What's the one? One was a life fitness and the other one. Oh yeah. It might have been a Schwinn. Yeah.
Melissa: No, the Airdyne. That's fine. Yeah. Yeah. So one was an Airdyne and one was the exercise bike.
You bought 'em for $15 each
Rob: On north? No, $25. So we sold it for $50. Yeah. And then maybe I sold, it was $25 and $25. I'm pretty sure I bought those. And then we sold those but anyway, maybe was, it was under $50.
Melissa: We, we were under our $50 mark.
Rob: Yeah. So, so it might have been $15 and $35. Yeah.
But we had two of those for that $50. And then, yeah, we sold those for, $500 each a piece. And that put us to a thousand dollars from something free out of the trash. And we're not talking a long process, guys. This is like a week and a half, two weeks total to go from zero to a thousand dollars. And then we just started going buck wild.
And it was crazy.
Melissa: You were having fun with that. You're like, okay, I got a thousand dollars to spend. Where can I spend it? What can I roll it into? And so then we, we made it up to about $20,000 in cash.
Rob: In cash and over a hundred thousand dollars in inventory.
Melissa: Yeah, over a hundred thousand dollars in inventory, I think by like, April or May.
Rob: It was the first three months we did it.
Melissa: It was, yeah. And then it got really kind of confusing. We were trying to.
Rob: Because we do it as a business, so it was getting intertwined with our normal stuff and was, we were trying to keep it all in. It was separate and then we're like, oh, we still have to live off this money.
We can't make it separate yet. So, so it was a little hard and we kind of lost track of everything. It was, was so much items though.
If that doesn't show you what the potential in this business is, nothing will guys, we pulled a chair outta the. Sold it on marketplace. And then we just kept snowballing that.
And like I said, over a hundred thousand dollars in inventory, we picked up from that free chair after we sold it. And I think it was 20 some thousand dollars in, in cash that we made just by doing that in the first couple months. It was insane. So this business is really, really cool. And the, the, the stuff out there is endless that you can get.
I mean, we've sold tens of thousands of dollars that we've just picked up out of the trash, not even including what we're talking about right now, but, excuse me, just items that we've pulled out of the. and then we turned around 'em and sold 'em. Yes. So it's just awesome.
Melissa: Just recently, a coup month or a couple months ago now, you sold, that table in chairs, remember?
Yes. What we had it was a really nice solid oak table in chairs. Yes. Just like a simple, but a solid piece of wood. Really nice by the side of the road. So all we did was take it home, wipe it down and stage it, like, not like when I say stage it, I just put it to where there was nothing in the background. And put table, put those pictures, put a table runner on it, and then it, it sold for $200.
Yeah. So, and that was crazy.
It
Rob: was less in a week for something in the trash. And though I'm sure the people got a new table set and they didn't know what to do with the old one didn't wanna mess with it, so they put it on the side of the road. And we snagged it, we got it. So it was, it was awesome.
Melissa: We got a nice little table set.
Rob: So if you want to get into this business and you have no money whatsoever, there are a couple different ways that you can actually find these items. And we're not giving you tactics, of how to really go to the next level and how to sell on eBay. Yeah. This is really just getting started.
Yeah. And then you can go to the next level once you gets your bank roll built up, then you can start buying stuff and learning how to do eBay and all that other stuff. But these are tactical, practical, tactical things that you can do right now, to make money today. Absolutely today. Go out, find these items, get 'em listed and sell today.
Melissa: Yeah. And these are items, like the stuff that we found on the side of the road really are more items for Marketplace or the local market versus eBay. Like it really, it wouldn't be worth that. So that table and chair is the example. For $200 it's not worth for us to ship anywhere. So it's not worth us putting on eBay.
I mean, we could do local pickup and put it on eBay, but it's not worth the time. A customer's not gonna pay for shipping and we're not gonna eat the shipping, so it's just not worth it. Yeah. So you have to know kind of when is it worth to list on eBay and when it's not. But these can absolutely be quick local sales.
Yeah. So.
Rob: When you're trying to build your bank goal, Everything goes on Marketplace. You do it. Just get stuff, get it cleaned up, get pictures, get it on marketplace. Yeah. Get it cleaned up, get pictures, get it on marketplace. Just keep doing it.
Melissa: I would cross post on OfferUp too. Absolutely. I've done some well on that too.
Cause sometimes Marketplace does funny things, so I would cross post and Craigslist, do all three. Yep. And see where it, it lands. So.
Rob: So where can you find some more of these items? We just told you what we did. We, we don't even look, we're not like dumpster divers. We're not out driving around looking in the trash.
But on our normal walks, every day we go, we find stuff in the trash.
Melissa: But we also know that in that area, Wednesday night, Thursday is our large item trash day in that area. So we know Wednesday nights if we go for evening walk, we might find some stuff. So knowing your area or the areas around you, maybe you have a nice area down the road that you could go check out, find out their large item trash days, and then go check them out and drive around the night before they're gonna be picked up. So, that's one way to find out is just know the large item trash. So, absolutely.
Rob: So that's the first thing, is finding stuff in the trash in your local areas, in the more expensive areas around you. Yeah, just look, just find out what the trash days are. Go look what is the second way you can actually find free items to resell?
Melissa: Well, at the end of the month, a lot of times people at apartment complexes or condos, if they're renting, they end up having to move out at the end of the month. So then they don't know what to do with the stuff. So, people are constantly turning. And so if you go at the end of the month to one of those places, you can see you can get furniture, you can get a lot of different stuff that people just leave right there because they can't do anything with it.
They're not bringing it to the next place. Yeah. And that goes for the same thing for like schools, like universities and stuff at the end of the year. people give rid, they don't use it the next year, they don't hold onto it and they just throw it out right by the dumpster. So, yeah.
Rob: And especially amazing for anybody who wants to jump into furniture flipping.
Yeah. You can find dressers, you can find tables, you can find chairs, you can find some amazing cool stuff. You can repurpose them. You can exactly out in the trash at the dumpsters. You can do that. You can go and grab 'em cuz that's the only place people have to put 'em. They'll just go and stack 'em on the side of the dumpsters or throw 'em in the dumpsters.
And you can definitely check those local places around you.
Melissa: Yeah. And then also another way is to tell your friends and family what you do. We talk about this because it is, it's important, it's something I feel like maybe you didn't do as much in the beginning and then cuz you're kind of like, well this is my job.
I don't know, it's kind of weird. I guess you didn't care. Maybe I'm like, this is what we do. I don't know. But if you tell people that you're, you know, trying grow your side, hustle and sell on eBay. Do you have anything that you wanted to get rid of? That I could maybe sell or whatever? You don't know what people have you, we get tons of stuff like that, so.
Rob: Plus, and we don't even tell, sometimes we just get excited about what we've sold.
Yeah. People find out around us and then they're like, Hey, you guys sold that. I got some stuff in my garage. Yeah. I'm trying to clean out my garage. Do you wanna come and have the I'll give it to you for free. I'm just trying to get rid of it. And when people start doing that, you can take that stuff, turn it around, sell it, and make some money quickly.
Melissa: And there also is an opportunity for that sometimes is some people are like, well, would you sell this for me and make a commission? And we don't love that model now, like where we're at in our business, but just starting out, that can be really great, especially as you're trying to grow your eBay account.
You're trying to, you might not, you're not gonna make as much, but if you're like splitting the. But it's a great way to get started. Absolutely, absolutely. And a great and some of those things might be worth it to do on eBay and not ne just locally, so. Absolutely. So that's one another way. We get people all the time asking us, hey, I have this, could you sell it for me and I'll pay you a commission?
And, and sometimes it's not worth it, but, it's a great way to start.
Absolutely. So what is another way that you can find free items today to actually resell?
There are a lot of apps out there advertise free items, freecycle is one of 'em, but there's a lot too. And the, most of the apps have free sections in them too.
Rob: Yep. Marketplace, OfferUp, Craigslist, all of those you can type free into the search bar. People will list stuff in there. You can type in Curb Alert. A lot of people will see stuff on the side of the road or they'll put stuff on the side of the road, and put curb alert and then take a picture of it and show you what's there and then give you the address.
So definitely don't discount the apps. Get check all the apps all the time, for those free items. I found one, my biggest thing that I've ever sold that I got free off the app was an ice cream machine. Oh yeah. A lady had an ice cream shop. She bought a big machine. It was a three phase and she didn't know it.
When she bought it, she put it in the shop and they said it was gonna be way too much money to update the electricity on that to get it to run that. She threw it into the app. I think this was OfferUp and said, hey, first one to come. It's yours. I messaged her, I actually saw it 10 minutes after she posted it and said, hey, I'm on my way, but I'm about 45 minutes away.
Can you at least hold it until I get there? And she said, absolutely. So I got my trailer, I went up there and I got it. We sold it for $8,500. So something I got for free, free, sold it for $8,500 off one of the apps. And then we actually sold it on eBay is how we sold it. So.
Melissa: And she had to know what it was worth cuz she had an ice cream shop.
And yeah. So she just didn't wanna take deal with it, the time to deal with it and list it for free. And that's a lot of people's situation when they're trying to get rid of stuff. Yeah. So yeah, watch those, those free sections.
Rob: Yep. So don't discount the free stuff. Look in all the apps, all your local apps, and I'm sure you might even have some other apps in your area that we're not even mentioning.
Check those apps and see what people are listing for free.
Melissa: Yeah. And then another one is you can also put in some wanted ads. So you can put wanted ads on those apps. You used to be able to do it like in the classified is what we did. Way easier. But like for specific items, like maybe it's furniture that you're into, maybe it's something like whatever you kind of are your niches or just, I'm here, I'll help you clear out whatever items and then you can take whatever you want and then donate the rest.
You know, you, that's always an option. You used to put in wanted ads for jet skis. I remember.
Rob: I did. I did.
And we used to got some amazing jet skis from people who just wanted them out. Yeah. They had 'em sitting for so long they weren't running. So they call me and I can fix anything. So they would call me, with the help of YouTube too.
Oh, exactly. YouTube. You can fix anything too. So they would call me up, I'd go grab 'em, and then we would use 'em, play with them, I'd fix 'em, and then turn around and resell 'em. And that's how we did it. It was so, so, so awesome what you can actually do.
Melissa: Yeah. So you can put wanted ads, you can put in on pretty much, and you can, I don't know, like you have to probably pay some, I don't know what they cost to put in like a wanted ad right now, but you could, yeah. I don't know if you could do like a free post too. Yeah, I'm sure you could. Yeah, just like a, you did that, an OfferUp, I feel like you did just a regular OfferUp post.
Yeah, but it was like an ad. Yeah. So that for, for wanted.
Rob: Yeah. I think I've seen 'em in there in Facebook Marketplace too. I think I've seen 'em. But yeah, you can put 'em in there. There are some of the apps are getting smart in the, if you want you to pay for Yeah. They want you to pay for those ads, so just try and do it like I said, it's a way that you can do it.
You can just see if you can post in your, those whatever app you're trying to do and just see if it's available. Yeah. And they're not gonna charge you to do it.
Melissa: Yep. And then one of the last places to check is your own house. You don't know all the stuff that you have in the garage under the bed, you know, some of that stuff just, we've been rearranging the kids' rooms and just like we, you're selling some bunk beds, like we're, there's a couple hundred dollars just here and there like that we, you know, just to throw a marketplace and whatnot.
So, not whatnot. Whatnot. Not the app, whatnot, but just not the word. So, I'm sorry.
Rob: But what's in your attic, you guys? What's in the attic? What's in the garage? Just take a survey of what you guys have around you. We have so much stuff. I saw something the other day that storage facilities are up. Yes.
Like a million percent in the last. I don't know how many years because people, instead of getting rid of stuff, they're taking it to storage units and they're storing that stuff. So what do you have in your house? What do you have in your garage or even your storage unit that you can go and get and sell?
Those are the things that you can actually do right now without paying a penny to get the inventory and then turning around and making some quick money. No.
Melissa: Quick money. So don't let not having any money right now stop you from making money. Absolutely, because you totally don't need money to start and you can get started and make some money so then you can keep rolling it into it.
And that's the best part. If you can, if you really wanna do this business, you know, go make a couple hundred bucks from free stuff and then take a percentage of that and reinvest it back in your business and then just keep growing it. Keep rolling it, keep rolling, it keep, and you'll be surprised how much you can really grow in in a short amount of time.
Rob: Yep. So, so say you guys do this, you make some. And you wanna learn more about eBay, you wanna learn more about getting better and better at this profession? Where can you guys go?
Melissa: You guys can check out freeflippingcourse.com and we would love to help you out.
Rob: Awesome. You guys rock. We cannot wait to see you on the next episode.