Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about how to travel for free using your flipping business.
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How To Travel For FREE Using Your Flipping Business
Rob: What's up pro flippers on today's episode we're talking about how you can travel for free using your flipping business. All right guys, so this is a near and dear to our heart. We love to travel and we're talking about how you can travel for free when you really learn how to utilize this business.
Melissa: If you have been following us for any length of time, you know how much vacation is important to us. I mean, you, you almost work to get to the next vacation. Like, you're like, okay, what can we flip? What can we do? Let's go on vacation. Like, how, how many days can we actually, yeah. So, funny story, whenever I first met Rob when we were dating, I never took a sick day. I was never that, like, I worked all the time.
I'm a little bit more of a, you know, I don't know, but I never took a sick day. I just like, if I was like, I just don't need them. He's like, you have all these days, let's go do something like take them off. And so it's pretty funny, like just the different dynamics and you haven't changed any work is, that's why we kind of developed this business model of higher profit, lower volume, because you want to work as least amount of possible for the highest return and have more time to have fun.
Rob: Yeah. So we're going to take you on a little journey throughout this episode, because prior to our realization of being able to travel for free, we always, we would make money to go on a vacation. I still remember, Melissa and I went on a 14 day transatlantic cruise. And we had to make the money before we went on that vacation.
So, previously to like seven years ago, this is, so this is going to be the switch that turned in our brains to really
Melissa: Let's talk about that cruise real quick. I know we talked about it before, but.
Rob: Yeah, so it was a, we found a last minute deal for a $500 cruise. It was $500 a person, going from
Melissa: 14 day cruise, transatlantic.
Rob: Going from Florida over to Europe. We were going to Spain, Italy, and France. This was 2010. We did it, and we had to, I, Melissa told me when I approached her with this, because I love going on vacations. I love traveling. We got to see three other countries, four other countries. We went to Germany too, didn't we?
Yeah. So we got to see four other countries. And it was just an amazing trip, but prior to when we did this, we had to, I, I approached Melissa and she's like, if you can make the money flipping, go do it. I went to a couple thrift stores, I went to some yard sales, sold a couple items to be able to do it.
And these were high ticket items that we were able to sell. At that time they were high ticket, now it's, yeah, it's like a low ticket for us.
Melissa: They were like five or six hundred dollars sales pretty much, right?
Rob: Exactly, less than that. Two and three hundred dollars. Yeah, so they were a little, definitely a lot lower than what we do now.
But. This is pre before what we've found out recently we would have to go find these items to be able to pay for the, the trips that we wanted to take, which was awesome. It was really cool that it allowed us to do that. And that trip was amazing for us. We went over there, we flew back, we paid for it all with flipping items that we flipped, before we went.
So much fun. And then I remember the turning point. So, this was probably about seven or eight years ago.
Melissa: Yep, this was because Brody was little. He was under two. So.
Rob: So seven or eight years ago, we actually bought a camper, a big 40 foot fifth wheel camper. We were going to travel the country with the kids
Melissa: before they started school.
That was the plan. And it didn't quite work out.
Rob: There was a couple hiccups in the whole thing. We weren't making enough money to do it. And we got approached by a TV show who wanted to do a TV show on us. And just a whole bunch of things. The timing wasn't right. It didn't work right. So, but we ended up taking that 40 foot 5th wheel down to the Keys.
We love the Keys. We're in Florida. The keys we go to, I've been going for probably the last 20, 25 years, down there every single lobster season. Lobster season is August 6th, kind of religiously we go down there. So, we decided instead of doing the trip around the country with the fifth wheel, we'd go down there and stay for a month.
And what we did while we were down there was pretty cool. Since we were down there for so long, we actually looked up some yard sales while we were down in the keys, and we found some end tables, some really cool Victorian or,
Melissa: I found these, I think. I really liked them.
Rob: I think you did too, at a yard sale earlier down there.
Melissa: It was that little flea market. No, it was a yard sale. It was a yard sale. In a warehouse. I remember, yep, I remember him.
Rob: So, we actually went to the yard sale. We looked on Saturday morning. And we saw a sign or something like that. I forget, we were going south on the keys from Marathon. Saw this, and it was a little warehouse.
We went inside, and Melissa found these end tables and I probably would have walked right past them I probably did walk right past them and she's like
Melissa: That's funny because you like that kind of stuff.
Rob: It is. There.
Melissa: But I wanted to get into furniture. So.
Rob: They were really really cute end tables and they look like they were antiques And like I said, it was victorian or I don't know.
It was a really skinny legs, and just beautiful cherry wood. It was really really pretty very well built. And Melissa's like I bet we can make some money on those So I think we talked the guy down from like $75 to $50, for the nightstands I think they're nightstands Talked him down bought those brought them back put them in the back.
So our fifth wheel was big. It was a like I said, it was a toy hauler. We were able to carry them put them back and then we brought them back to Orlando. And then we sold them and we sold them we paid $50 for them.
Melissa: And so I wanted to paint them and you said don't touch them because they're perfect.
They're gorgeous. They're nice Okay, I won't touch them just like.
Rob: They were. They were in really really good condition So we ended up selling them and what do we get it for? $400 or $500. $400. $400. So we
Melissa: Plus shipping. Yeah, she paid for shipping.
Rob: So we paid, and I think she paid $200 for shipping. Yeah.
So we actually bought, bought, they went in boxes.
Melissa: They went, they did, we put them in boxes.
Rob: So we sold them, bought them for $50, sold them for $400. And that actually paid for one of our weeks that was down in the Keys. And that's where our switch got turned on. Maybe we can make money in this business
Melissa: while we're on vacation.
Rob: While we're on vacation. So that was a really, really cool thing. And then fast forward.
Melissa: 2020 was kind of the next one. I mean, then we had little kids and we're trying to make a business work. We're trying to do, you know, eBay. We're trying to make the online content stuff work. So it was a little busy. And then in 2020, after our brother in law passed away, we took, you bought a 15 passenger van cause he passed away in April.
And then we're like, okay, let's get everybody's minds off of like his wife and your nieces and your other sister and her kids and we're like, let's go on a road trip and let's just go see what we can do out west. Like it was kind of this last minute you bought a 15 passenger van for because there's 11 of us and, like let's go and see what we can do and we had to bring a trailer because everybody comes with stuff obviously. So and we're not, like we always almost always bring a trailer with us anyway, because we just have a lot of stuff. But we're like it'll be a lot easier.
We'll keep a cooler in the back. We'll have everybody's stuff in the back. Just bring a trailer and it'll make life a lot easier and won't be all crammed in the van. So we did that we brought the trailer. My niece even painted stuff on the trailer with different places we were going to go which was really cool. It was a it was a fun trip.
But, about halfway through the trip. We had the trailer you started looking at marketplace to find some stuff and like, okay, well, we're going to stopping at all these places. You're like, where are we going to go next? And, you were looking at stuff at the next stop that we were making. So then you picked up a couple of things.
Rob: We did. And that was kind of, we had, this was a couple of years, like Melissa said, we had kids, going through, raising kids, getting, I mean, if, if you guys have kids right now, you know, it's a whirlwind when they're young and you're going through all this stuff. So anyways, we did that, but then when we went on this trip, because of my brother in law passing away, we started finding these things, and I wish I had really gone on the trip thinking about this ahead of time, but we had forgotten, and we hadn't done it, and then halfway through the trip, I started looking the night before we got into a town.
I would start looking, and we ended up buying some cool stuff on that trip to be able to pay for that whole trip, and then that's when we got hooked again.
Melissa: Oh, we weren't doing it to try to pay for the trip. We weren't. We were just picking up stuff to see what you can get. I remember those game things you got that, what were they?
Dance Dance,
Rob: Dance Dance Revolution.
Melissa: I remember where we were. I remember the hotel you met the lady at to go pick them up. Me too. They were commercial, right?
Rob: They were commercial. Big boards. They were like I mean, they were tall. So for a commercial like arcade, big boards for Dance Dance Revolution, I think was the game that it was for. And I think she had fun. Oh, is it five of them? I think so. I think so. One in my shop.
Melissa: You have, you paid $50 each, so I think you paid, yeah, $200 or $250 for them. Yeah. And you got five, and you sold them for $500 to $600 each.
Rob: I, I did, and those.
Melissa: You still have one? Is it not listed?
Rob: I do, I have one in the shop that's buried.
Is it listed? It is not listed. One that's buried in the shop that I need to pull out and sell. But, but that was one of those things that we started finding stuff on it that was able to, I mean, that made us, four of them we sold and made over two thousand dollars. And that was one of the things we bought a popcorn machine. We bought a couple of other things that we're able to throw into the trailer with all of our stuff. And be able to do it and in the following year, that's when we were like, okay. There's something to this. There's stuff all around the country that we can go, yeah and pick up and bring it back and then sell it and make money to pay for our whole trip.
Melissa: So yeah, so I'm sorry, didn't mean to cut you off.
So the next year was a little more intentional. Like we brought our trailer knowing, okay, let's go see if we can pay for our trip with the stuff that we find. So it was pretty, it was pretty cool.
Rob: Yeah. And not only did we play pay our trip, we blew it outta the water. Yeah. We probably at least 2, 3, 4 XD what we spent on the trip with the stuff that we sold.
So typically we bring back anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 worth of stuff. Yeah. In the last two years that we've done it. And it's been amazing. And then fast forward
Melissa: and if it's 14 to 18 items Yeah. It's a lot items. It's not a lot items.
Rob: And our trailer's not big. I think our trailer's like a 12 or 14 foot trailer, an enclosed trailer.
So it's not monstrous, it's just the right size to be able to bring stuff back.
Melissa: You know what? You know what really started this? So that's really what started us going out west, because we'd never gone out west before and it was a cool thing like, oh let's go, and the next year we did make it to California.
The first year we didn't, but this next year we did and went all the way up to Washington, which was super cool. But you know what actually started those? What's that? The 127 yard sale. Oh, you're right. That's because we brought the truck and trailer and that's where we started with the kids. These kids have been traveling since they were little.
Man, they, they got used to it, but that was what it was. We started.
Rob: We did that before the camper?
Melissa: We did that, yes. Um no, we
Rob: did the camper first and then the 127 yard
Melissa: sale?
127 yard sale before the camper one year and then we did again after. So I have to look at the years the time just goes by so fast, but we did. We've done the 127 yard sale two or three times now.
Rob: Okay.
Melissa: The first time was really a cool like this is all brand new and then, so we started with our trailer. And because you I remember that you didn't bring you wanted to buy something that would not fit in the trailer and you almost came back to come buy it and you're like, I just need my open trailer and you're like, how can I fit it in the bed of the truck?
It was gonna be this super tall thing. I'm like, this is not gonna work. You didn't end up buying it. Yeah, but so that's really where we got kind of got the bug. So we've been doing this for a while, I guess.
Rob: And then even fast forward, just last year, you guys, we've done podcasts with it before talking about what our trip was last year.
We drove out to California. We took a 17 day cruise from California out around the Hawaiian Islands, excuse me, back to Mexico and then back up to California. Amazing, amazing trip. The best part about it was we were able to pay for that trip with one flip before we went. One item.
Melissa: Challenge.
Rob: It was my challenge. Melissa told me the same thing, flip something and let's pay for it. And I said, okay I'm gonna flip only one thing and be able to pay for it. We did it but the other thing we did was so we still took our trailer because we were going so far out of across the country that we wanted to be able to take the trailer and buy stuff on the way to. Same thing, we're able to buy a ton of stuff. When I say a ton of stuff, you know 10, 15 items that we crammed in the trailer brought them back.
Melissa: And we sold some of the cooktops. We did. Already like a couple we've made several thousand dollars. We'd have to add it up. But what
Rob: I can think of just the two cooktops alone we sold for $2,200 and $2,500 so over five thousand dollars just.
Melissa: Did you ever list that one thing that, it was it ended up getting water damage in it, or you didn't know if it would dry out. Do you remember?
He, you did.
Rob: No, I have not. It's a double oven. So that's something on my list to actually get listed. That is sitting over at my shop right now. So it will always, always stuff to list to the shop, but just two of the items that we brought back. And that's what I, off the top of my head, what I can think of where, where some cooktops that we brought back, we sold them and it was over $5,000 in just those two items alone. But you can imagine that's what we really look for is those high profit items. So.
Melissa: Just recently, one of our members, Jenny did it too. She went on vacation and I don't know if they brought their trailer. They did in the back. Okay. So they brought their trailer, she sourced an item and it ended up selling for $5,000, which more than paid.
I think they went on a two week trip, two week road trip, which paid for their trip.
Rob: So it's, it's got multiple items, but the one single, one of her single items sold really, really quickly and five grand. Yeah, absolutely.
Melissa: Disclaimer, we're not accountants or CPAs or tax experts. So don't take any legal advice.
This is not legal advice, but if you are doing a road trip and you are also working on your business this, some of it can be a write off as well. So, so that's a pretty cool perk to doing this business. So.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: So, but again, not a tax expert. So go talk to your local CPA and get that tax expert.
But it's a pretty cool thing because this is our life. We get to go and go find fun stuff and then go travel. And, and we love it.
Rob: So cool. And if you guys want to learn more about what we do, kind of our model, our high profit model that we do, we are taking applications right now to work with people.
We only, I think we have, what, 10, 15 people. 11 spots available right now if you guys
Melissa: maybe not when this is aired it might be less because this is airing in a couple days. So.
Rob: So there is a link below grab that application fill it out We'll jump on a phone call with you. See if you guys are a good fit. It's something that we love to do working close one on one with you, with ourself, with myself, with the coaches to get you the results.
If that's what you're looking to do is really, really scale your business.
Melissa: If you really want to add some of these higher value items to your business and gain the confidence, like a lot of times it really is just doing it and getting the confidence to do it. And then it's like that was not that hard to do.
So, so we want to help you. You can go to fleamarketflipper.com/workwithus and fill out the application and see if it's a good fit for you. And like we said, we have 11 spots as of recording this right now available. It's a smaller group that we want to help get started. And yeah, we'd love to talk with you and see if it's a good fit.
Rob: You guys are awesome. Thanks for spending some time with us here today. Can't wait to see you on the next episode.