Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about how they buy items for a low price and sell them for a high price.
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleamrktflipper/
You can find us at: https://fleamarketflipper.com/
How We Buy Items So Low And Sell Them So High
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode we're talking about how we buy so low and sell so high.
Rob: All right guys, so today we are answering your question. A question that somebody wrote into us about how we're able to buy so low. And sell so high.
Melissa: So i'm gonna go ahead and read the question the question comes from Joe. You always have items that you buy for a hundred dollars and sell for thousands. Why would anyone sell something cheap when it's worth thousands of dollars? And this is a great question. We've talked about this before but yeah, we're excited to answer it.
Rob: Absolutely, and this is our model is buying in the local market low and then selling it on a nationwide or a global market. And we sell for a lot more money.
Melissa: Yeah, and there's two reasons why this really works. It's one, the two different markets, like you said, buying local and selling it on a larger market, a bigger scale, which we'll dive deeper into in just a minute, but, and then the second reason is because we're offering shipping. So we're on that bigger market and it's not local.
We're offering shipping and we'll ship it to anywhere in the country. So.
Rob: Let's answer the question, why are we able to get these things that we're buying so low? And the reason is because typically they are larger items and they're only offered in the local market. So the items that we're finding at the flea market at the thrift store, at the yard sale, if you think about any yard sale that goes on, on a weekly basis, usually on a Friday, a Saturday or a Sunday, they might only have the potential of reaching 100, 500, you know, in that range of people that might visit that yard sale and see that one item. Now, if you take that one item from that market that has the potential of reaching maybe between 100 and 500 people and put it on a market that has the potential of reaching millions of people, then that's how we're able to ask more money for it.
Now, the person at the flea market or the yard sale or the thrift store that's stuck in the local market, they can't sell it on the global market or the nationwide market. They're selling it. Depending on the local market to sell it, which means if the right person doesn't see it out of that one to 500 people, then they're either going to, they're going to hold onto the item or they're going to lower the price on that item just to get rid of it because they're tired of storing the item.
Melissa: Yeah. And there could be that one person that does see the item that note that wants it and needs it. Like for us, we do a lot of appliances. We do a lot of kind of things that not your everyday person needs that like specific model or specific item, exercise equipment, they're not, you know, so it's things that are smaller pool of people that are looking for, but once you go to that bigger market, you definitely have a lot more.
And I have to add, we're still selling our items for about 50 percent retail. We're not, like, selling them for more than retail. We're selling them still for a good deal, and that's why somebody else will buy them. But we had this question earlier. Who was it that we met somebody up in Texas, up in Texas?
And she's like, I just don't understand, which is the same question. I just don't understand why is this person selling it for this cheap if it's worth this much money and you just, you don't know their situation. Most people don't want to learn how to ship. That's the biggest thing. They don't want to learn how to ship and some people don't want to mess with it.
They just don't want to take the time to either learn how to ship or to sit on it for a couple of weeks until it sells to learn eBay or they just don't have the time or don't want to learn.
Rob: And absolutely right. And some people have something in a storage unit that they thought they were going to use and then they have to get rid of it.
They have to get rid of it fast because they don't want to keep paying us for a storage facility. There's just so many reasons out there why we're able to find these good deals. And we're in a, I mean, we're in a decent area, populated area. But all over the country, we take road trips with our kids, usually through the summertime and find stuff in small, little tiny towns and we find stuff in big, big cities that we're able to really, really find great deals because they are out there everywhere.
If you're really looking for these items, you can find them everywhere you are.
Melissa: Yeah, and especially this time of year right now people are spring cleaning and people don't want to hold on to stuff. So right now it's a usually a decluttering phase. They just want stuff gone. They don't want to sit on it.
They just want to list it. Some people might list it on marketplace and try to get something for it and that's usually the when we buy it like well, okay, they're selling this for a hundred dollars. Like so many people redo their kitchens and get rid, they don't even know what to do with the old stuff.
We come across people who clear out people's kitchens because they don't know what to do with it. They just want it gone. And that's like thousands of dollars that you can get for free if you're one of those people. So. Yeah, the, it is, it's just a different mindset, different way.
If, if people knew that maybe they could still get another grand or two out of their item, would they learn eBay and learn shipping? Possibly, but usually people just don't want it gone and you just don't know their situation. You don't know if they're moving. You don't know if they just don't want to mess with it. Yeah.
Rob: Yeah, no, you can look on marketplace right now offer up craigslist and you'll see some larger items. Typically it is a larger item. That's what we're doing It's a larger item that people do not know what to do with and they do not want to store it when they're done with it. For whatever reason it is, but you can watch an item might start off at eight hundred dollars. I mean, I do sourcing for some of our students and you, an item will start off at $800 and then it'll drop down to $600 and then it'll drop it down to $400.
And people just don't want new, they don't know what to do, so they just keep lowering the price. The problem is not the price. The problem is the people that are able to see it at. Not a lot of the right people can see it when it is limited to that local market, but you'll see that time and time again of all these things. Typically that we're buying, they just keep slashing the prices because they cannot find the right person to buy it because they're limited. They're only the people that are able to see that are in the local market. When we take it to a global or a nationwide market to where we're shipping it anywhere, it makes it worth that much more money and it makes it that much easier to find the right buyer for that item.
Melissa: I also wanted to bring into this question, which is the same thing, like some of your contacts that you've made over the years, you've met a lot of vendors at the flea market. So you were able to get to know them. Sometimes they'll like take you to their storage unit or they'll send you stuff during in the week that they find. They absolutely could go they had the same like they could go open an eBay account and go ship the items. But that's not their business model and they would rather make a quick buck off of you and let you buy it and you deal with it it and make the bigger profit because their, their business model is to get it gone quick.
So. One of your guys even knows exactly how much you sell. He follows us on social. He knows exactly how much you sell it for. He's like, I'm going to just start charging you more. And then you're like, well, I just got to sit on it and make sure it's going to sell. So, but he knows that and he could totally go do the same thing, but he chooses not to. So.
Rob: He wants to make the quick money.
Melissa: It's the quick money. So get it gone, get it at a great deal, sell it and get it gone. It's just a different business model. So.
Rob: Yeah.
Melissa: So, also that goes along with the question, so, I know that when we show the items that we sell, we're selling a lot of stuff for thousands of dollars.
Last year was, our $2,007 per item, like, per item. Per item. We sold 46 items, I think for $92,000. And we've gotten to that point because we're picky now with our items. We're like, we're, you know, you kind of have that lower range of that you're going to sell at. Maybe it starts out at $5 because you're building up your feedback, then $10.
Now it's like, okay, I'm not going to waste my time with anything under $20. We've kind of gravitated to $1,000 is kind of our, maybe a couple hundred dollars, but more like $1,000. So we're just pickier with what we buy. And that's where we're at right now. But don't get intimidated by that. Like, don't let that stop you from getting started.
So I just wanted to say that you don't have to go out and make a thousand dollars per item to be successful at this business. No, you can grow into that. And we always encourage, you know, adding at least one of these kind of items to your monthly income. It's amazing, but I think that's all you can do, so I just wanted to add that two cents in.
Rob: Absolutely. Absolutely. You guys are awesome. Thanks for the questions. Keep writing them in. We're happy to answer those questions. And you can write them in at
Melissa: fleamarketflipper.com/question
Rob: Excited to answer these for you guys. Excited that you guys are here. We cannot wait to see you guys on the next episode.