Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about how they made over $20,000 on free items.
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How We Made Over $20,000 On Free Items
Rob: What's up, Pro Flippers? On today's episode we are talking about free items and more specifically how we were able to make over $20,000 in the last two years all from free items.
Rob: All right, guys today we are talking about free items and more specifically how we've made over $20,000 just in the last two years finding free items and even better how you can do it, too.
Melissa: So we are diving into this three part miniseries right now answering some of your questions and obstacles that you are facing in your flipping business and so, on the last video, we talked about three reasons why your flipping side hustle isn't profitable.
So we'll just do a quick recap and today we're going to dive into number three. So we just kind of barely touched on it. So the first one is that you haven't started yet. So analysis paralysis, you haven't started your flipping business. Obviously it cannot be profitable if you haven't started it.
So we wanted to help you get some confidence and get started.
Rob: So that is one very, very real obstacle. We faced it. I'm sure you have faced it. Even if you're flipping right now, you have been stuck with analysis paralysis. We want to help you guys grow past that with this series.
Melissa: Yeah. So afraid of the unknown, but we're helping you bust through that one.
Number two was, and we elaborated these on the other videos. So if you want to go back and check out that first video, it should, you should be able to go and locate that. The second one was being scared to lose money on shipping. And we went through ways that you don't have to lose money on shipping and things that you can combat that so you don't lose money on shipping.
So definitely go check that out if you missed it. And number three is you're spending too much money on inventory. So we want to talk about that because we are not in the business to spend $100 to make $150 or even $200 or even $500. Like we're not in it to double our money. Our business is to 10X and we average that every year. So.
Rob: And we want to give you practical ways that you can make a really, really good money in this business without investing a penny. Like we said, we just calculated how much for the last, and when these are just a couple of items that we remember. So it's probably way, way more than this. For the last two years, over $20,000 that we made on free items. Now we're going to give you some tactical ways to actually find locate these free items and then be able to sell them and make profit on these items.
Melissa: So there are three main ways that you can go out and find free items today. So that's really what we're going to talk about.
And then some of ours and I just scrolled social real quick to see some of our last ones for the last two years. And it's, it's fun. We, so we don't. Okay, the first one. We'll dive right into the first one. So the first one is finding items in the trash and don't be like, oh, I'm not going dumpster diving.
Like, that's not what we do. We're not dumpster divers. So you don't have to go dumpster diving to find stuff in the trash, but people throw stuff away all the time.
Rob: Absolutely. So a little bit more about us. We live in a downtown area. We walk downtown almost every single morning to where we'll walk downtown.
There's a trail like a 40-mile trail that goes right through our downtown. So we walk a mile to that downtown area. Yeah. We jog on the trail and then we walk back in that mile walk that we do almost every day. We see amazing things that people put on the side of the road for trash and we have made tens of thousands of dollars just on pulling that stuff out in the last nine years of our career in this business.
Tens of thousands of dollars that people have just thrown away. We've got it. We've sold it. We sell it quickly and then have made money on it. So the first way that you can really find a really good items is on the trash on the side of the road. And like we said, we're not dumpster divers, but this is built into our daily routine.
So consistently we walk and we see, and trust me, we have many roads that we could detour down to really look for items. And we don't, we take the same exact road every single time. Every morning we go downtown and these are the items that are on this. It's only this single road that we walk down.
Melissa: So some practical ways that you could apply this would be find out what day is your large item trash day.
Most communities, most areas have a large item trash day that you can put stuff out by the side of the road and that's it changes, you know, whatever area you're in, but know that. And then the night before drive around and see what you can find. And you can, you'll be amazed at some of the stuff that you can find.
Rob: And just because it's a large trash day doesn't mean all the items are large. I even thought of a couple that I don't think you have on there. Battery chargers for like golf cart batteries and a speaker, a base speaker that we got out. I mean, these are items that we've sold for hundreds of dollars, that have come out of the trash.
So even though we're saying large doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a large item, but that's when the bulk of trash comes to pick stuff up. Find out what days those are in your local area and then either take your car, take a walk, take your bike. Just make a trip around your local neighborhood or go into another neighborhood and see if you can find some really, really cool stuff on the side of the road.
Melissa: So you want to go through just a couple of them, so like the exercise bike we found, and sold this year. It was, you found it in the trash. It was just a little pedal bike that it's a desk bike.
Rob: It was made for a standup desk and you just rolled it underneath it. Not that big. It was small. It just had a seat on it.
And then you just sat there and pedaled and you could stick it right underneath a, a standup desk and you could exercise while you were working. Awesome. We saw that at, that was actually in our downtown area at one of the houses that we were getting ready to take off on our jog. And I saw it out of the corner of my eye, and I said, Melissa, we gotta go check that out.
Sure enough, we actually, walked back home, got the truck and brought the truck back and this was not very big. It would have fit in the back of it. Like I said, it's not a full size exercise bike. It's a very, very mini and we ended up selling it for $300. Pulled it out of the trash and sold it for $300.
Just sitting on the side of the road in trash.
Melissa: This one's one of my favorite things to find on the side of the road because people throw away furniture all the time. And that table and chairs that we found nothing wrong with it. Perfect table and chairs. We just threw it on marketplace. That was just on marketplace for $250 like, and all's we did was set it up.
I put a table runner on there to make it look nice and it sold really quickly within a day or two.
Rob: And you might be wondering why somebody threw away a table and chairs. They just bought a new set. They didn't know what to do with them, set them on the side of the road. They actually took the table top off.
There's four screws on it, set it up next to it, probably to get it out of the house and just had a leaning there on the side of the road. So we walked past it to go do our jog. Walked past it again to go back home and then I grabbed the truck, came back, threw it in the back of the truck and we sold that very, very quickly and made some good money on that.
Melissa: And the humidor was another really good one.
Rob: Humidor! This one was cool! It was like a commercial humidor that was sitting on the side of the road. I remember driving, this was when I was actually coming home from school with the kids, so we didn't do this on the walk, but I passed a house that had this humidor on the side of the road and I was like, whoa, that thing is cool!
And it was probably, I don't know, six foot high. It was all glass or glass on three sides, but one thing that was wrong with the humidor, it was, it was missing a piece of plexiglass on one of the sides. And that might've been why they threw it away, and I went down to the local hardware store, told him the measurement that I needed.
They cut it for me. I pushed it in there. We hooked the whole thing up and did it, but we sold that human or got it out of the trash. I probably paid like $20 for the plexi and then we, we sold it. $450.
Melissa: $450. Locally.
Rob: Locally. We sold that. So that was just a really, really cool. Another item that we pulled out of the trash, kept it out of the landfill and we resold it.
Reused it. Somebody got good use out of that humidor.
Melissa: And one of our largest ones from the trash was sitting by a dumpster And it was a lift that you saw sitting by a dumpster at a business And you went to go ask if they were getting rid of it. So.
Rob: This was really really cool So I I think it's called a pallet.
No, I don't know exactly what it's called But what it is is you stand on it drive it around a warehouse It's got a little thing on the front side of it.
Melissa: People kept commenting that they ride, ride them around at Target.
Rob: They use them. Okay. So they use them for restocking shelves and stuff. So it's got a little cargo area in the front, and then it lifts up to like 12 foot high.
So you can put boxes on that little stack in the front or the little thing in the front, and then you can lift it up to a high shelf and then you push it over. We got this thing out of the trash from a business. They threw it away. All it it needed was batteries. We actually got batteries, put batteries into it, and we resold it.
But the best part about this was. We, we made $7,500 on this flip from something out of the trash, a piece of equipment out of the trash. We had a lot of fun loading this up in the trailer. I remember this when we went to load this up in the trailer. It was such a bear to get it in the trailer because I didn't know this equipment very well.
It was a weird piece of equipment that I didn't know that much about. And there was a release on the break. I didn't know that. So Melissa and I are pushing this thing, as hard as we could up the ramp. And then we actually got it up. And then after I got it back to the house, I found out there's a little button you press and it releases the break and it just rolls wherever you want it to.
So, that was so hard. That was a lesson learned on this, but we made really, really good money from that. It was still worth it, even pushing it up the ramp. Absolutely. From that item that we, we got out of the trash. So, all right.
Melissa: So that is one way is go around on large item trash day and find out what it is and even go to nice areas like areas that you know, either they don't want to mess with donating or just nicer. They tend to have nicer things nicer furniture or nicer whatever and they throw them out. So, that that those are two things you can do to find it in the trash.
Rob: Real quick story before we jump on to the next one.
So one of my main contacts we've been in the business for a while guys one of my main contacts He's a scrapper. He goes into very, very nice neighborhoods on the trash days. He's knows what days they are and he will drive around the neighborhood and just pick up amazing things. I'm talking like washers and dryers.
I'm talking, he's picked up, I bought a piano from him before. So all this stuff, he, now he goes through these neighborhoods, snaps a picture, sends it to me and tries to sell it before he even picks it up. But it's all stuff coming out of the trash. Now I could go do that as well. But I choose not to. He does it, he sells so much stuff to me, just pulling it out of the trash, and then he sells it to me, and then I'm able to resell it and make money.
But that's not necessarily us getting it for free, but that's him getting it for free and making money, and that's what we're telling you guys where the potential is, just pulling stuff out of the trash.
Melissa: All right, the next way to find free items is on the apps. And this is another one of your favorite ways to find free items is scrolling through Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, Craigslist and looking in their free section and looking for stuff that's listed for free And it does go fast.
Usually free items tend to go fast. So you got to be there to pick them up but it's a great way. A lot of times people just get rid of stuff and you don't know why because that's a question we get commonly. Like, well, if this is worth a couple hundred dollars, why is somebody getting rid of it? You don't know their circumstance either.
They don't want to mess with it. They have to move. They have to be out. Like they need, they just need it gone. They are decluttering and they just are getting rid of a whole bunch of stuff. You never know what the situation is. They just need it gone.
Rob: One of the great stories to show that is there was a chiropractic chair.
It was listed in a local app on OfferUp. I messaged the guy. I think he was asking. I messaged him and asked him if he would take $350 for this chiropractic chair. It was, I think it's called a table where you lay down, but it was a special table. So you didn't just lay down on it. It actually went all the way up.
So you could stand up and then it would lay you down while you were leaning up against it. And it would lay you down. And I forgot what it's called an easy. I don't remember. But anyways, I offered the guy $350 for it. He did not respond back until a week later. He responded back and said, If you're still interested in this, you can have it today.
You can have it for free. Come and pick it up. Now, I just offered him $350 and he didn't take that. And then a week later he reached out. And the reason was, he had his new table coming tomorrow and he needed to get rid of it quick. So he was going to give it to a way to whoever could come and pick it up.
And I went there, I picked it up. We actually sold that for $2,300 and we got it for free. That was free money right there. And all it was, was finding it on an app. The guy needed to get rid of it quickly. And I was the first one that he messaged back and said, come get it if you want it for free. I'll even help you move it down and get it into your trailer.
Melissa and I went and grabbed it. We ended up not getting it that day, but the next morning I told him I would come that day, but it was later than his time frame what he could do. So he said, if you can be here first thing in the morning, we can meet up. We can get it out of here and I'll give it to you for free.
And I said, absolutely. So that was $2,300 that we got for that. Yeah.
Melissa: And the solo flex was another one that you got for free on the apps and you're just scrolling. Sometimes they do have a free section, right? So, some of the apps have a free section and some of them don't, but still some people just post stuff for free.
Rob: Free to good home. That's all that they try to do is to get rid of it so it doesn't get thrown away or doesn't go in the trash. They want somebody to be able to use it or make money on it. Whatever it is. They just don't want to mess with it and they want somebody to come pick it up. A lot of time free stuff people will tell you you can come pick it up and it's a porch pickup.
So they don't have to deal with you. They just leave it out somewhere where you can go and grab it and pick it up and do that.
Melissa: It's more of a convenience thing than anything else. So that, that you made $400 on. So.
Rob: On the solo flex. Yeah, that's it.
Melissa: And I forgot even to put on here, the Nordic Track you got for free on an app too.
And you tried to give the guy $20. So he's like, let me buy your lunch or something. Right. And he's like, no, I wouldn't take it. And you sold that for $350. Yep. So I didn't even have that one on there. Another one. Absolutely. And then the best, the best one on there from the apps that you've made was the ice cream machine.
Rob: Ice cream machine is awesome. So somebody listed this on OfferUp. They said free to good home. I want it out of my shop and I was actually scrolling the app when this popped up. So I got it within the first like 10 minutes that it came on. I messaged the lady and said, hey, I'm getting my truck and trailer.
I'm going to pick up my trailer right now. I can be up there in 30 or 45 minutes. She wrote me back really quickly and said, come and get it. Here's the address. We went and got it. Now this is the, the, the clincher. This is amazing that we were able to get this. But when I went up there, I asked her, so what's wrong with this?
She said, absolutely nothing. I bought it and I did not have the power in my shop to run this. And it was going to cost too much money to get the power run into the shop. So I just want to get rid of it and I got a little countertop ice cream, a soft serve ice cream machine. So she gave it away for free to me and I picked it up.
We actually sold this for $8,500 that I didn't pay a penny for.
And the guy picked it up locally too. Absolutely. It was a good one. So those are the apps.
Melissa: Alright, now the third way to find free items is to tell your friends what you do. So we used to not really, I mean we just did this on the side as a flipping thing. But then when I, I had a couple of personal training clients and I would tell them what we do and then just by word of mouth people start to like, oh you, you know, you flip stuff, here let me give this to you.
Here, do you want this to flip? And they know you're making money on it. Again, they just don't want to mess with it. So, we've made lots, hundreds, thousands of dollars off of people, friends that have just given us stuff because they don't want to mess with it. So, telling people what you do, you can even do like a Facebook post.
Say, hey, I'm trying to make some extra money doing this. Do you have anything that, you know, you want to donate or get rid of and that I could sell? And so, yeah, there's, tell them what you do.
Rob: Absolutely. The cool part about this is this is going to happen naturally as you start flipping and getting better at it.
You're going to be able to talk to your friends and be like, you guys are not going to believe. I paid $10 for this and I sold it for $300. You'll be just so excited about what you're doing, that people are going to just automatically know that you're doing this. And then they might not have anything, but they might have a friend who reaches out to them and says, hey, I want to get rid of this.
Do you know anybody who needs this or wants it? And then you'll start getting building that list of people who will just start giving you stuff for free. And you totally can start making really, really good money off of just people giving you stuff that they don't want, or their friends don't want, and you can turn around and make money, so.
Melissa: You made, $440 off that boat stove that, your friend gave you.
Rob: He gave me a lot of stuff. He, this was just one of the items that we sold. He was just clearing out a shed or something, right? Like a storage unit. Yeah. That he did not want to deal with it, he just started giving me, and he gave me multiple boat stoves, but one of them that we sold, And I even have another one that I need to list.
You just reminded me. It's over at the shop. It's not listed. But one of those we sold was $400 and he gave me a lot of stuff. I mean a refrigerator, a couple things, out of the, boat refrigerator and a couple things out of the storage unit. But this is just one thing and he knows what I do. It wasn't like he was saying, here, you can have this because you can use it.
He knows that I sell items and he gave it to me to sell. So $400 on that. Awesome, awesome to be able to take items that somebody gives you and then turn them into cash. That's, that's huge.
Melissa: The big one was the humidor for $1,000.
Rob: Another humidor! So this one was cool. This was actually small. The first one we talked about six foot high.
This is actually a small little, but the brand name was everything. And now I can't even remember what the brand name was. But it was a small humidor that one of our friends, one of our friends gave it to us. They did not want the humidor anymore. And they knew that we sell items or like here, I don't want to have anything to do with it. You, you can take it, sell it, do what you want with it. We sold it for $1,000 just somebody who gave it to us because they know what we do.
Melissa: Yep. And also the princess bed that goes back to one of my clients that I used to train. And like, I would tell him what the stuff, cause you always had some great stories of stuff you'd flip and they were always interested in, in the stuff.
And she cleaned, or she did a, had a rental was it rental property property rentals and she was managed yeah the management property manager and then people would move out and they'd leave stuff and so she had to get rid of it so she would call us a couple times and get rid of us to pick up stuff and we sold a princess bed for $550 from her. I think we did we get both of them from her?
Rob: I'm not sure because we sold two of the same princess beds.
Melissa: Yeah, for $550, you can get them for free.
Rob: Yeah, it was a metal princess bed. It had a big dome over the top of it. It looked like a carriage or something like that. Really, really cool. But I think we got two of them from her. But she would call us up, she would either have to pay somebody to come and clean out the house, or she could call us up and say, hey, are you guys interested in any of this stuff?
Come grab it before we actually pay to have the house cleaned out. And when she did that, yeah, we jumped on it. It was so much fun to be able to get those items. One thing I will note as well, if you do have people that are giving you stuff and you're making really, really good money on it, a good practice is to actually get them like a gift card. Not necessarily cash, but maybe a gift card to their favorite restaurant, or a restaurant that you know they would go and use.
Once you sell the item and make some money on it, that just keeps people happy and they're, they're happy. It's a kind gesture. It is. And they gave you guys something. We try and do that almost every time anybody gives us something for free. We try to reach out and do something nice for them as well.
Because it's very nice. They don't have to do that, but they do and want to give, give them a kind gesture back. Yeah.
Melissa: So that's, yeah, definitely. So those are our three favorite ways to do it.
Rob: So recap. Three, find them out of the trash, find them on the apps, or just tell your friends and family what you're doing and they will reach out with items that you can totally get for free and be able to sell.
Melissa: I wanted to give one quick thing for the apps. Can you set it for free to be notified for free?
Rob: Absolutely. So there are ways on multiple, multiple apps that you can set the word free. On there curb alert is another good one too. People will see stuff on the side of the road, snap a picture of it and tell you where it's at to go pick it up. So free curb alert you can do that and type that in the search bar. And you can totally go in and set it to anytime somebody lists it with those words, it will notify you first so you can jump on it first and be able to get access to it.
Melissa: All right, so those are showing you ways to find free items. We don't want you spending too much money on inventory, even when we do invest in our inventory, which we do we spend money. We're still not spending like we're 10Xing our investment.
Like that is our goal. If we're going to buy it for a hundred dollars, it's got to at least bring us in a thousand dollars. That leaves us enough room for any fees or shipping, or if we do added shipping or whatever we're going to do, it gives us enough profit to work with. And that is our goal. And that's what we've averaged for.
I mean, we've been really keeping track now for the last eight years on here. And that is what we average every year.
Rob: That's right. And you might be wondering how we do that. Well, guess what? Don't miss this next training. This next video, we want to show you guys how we take this business to the next level.
If you don't know our, our whole thing is high profit. We are looking for high profit flips and we want to show you guys exactly how we do that.
Melissa: And talk about that. Like these items too, we had 12 items that made $22,000. Like that's just 12 items. Like that's pretty cool. That's not a lot of transactions for over $20,000.
Rob: And that's what makes us a little bit different. So normal flipper to make $20,000 probably would have flipped hundreds, if not thousands of items to get to that $22,000. For us, 12 items. That is what we have. Free items. And that is what we have honed our, our, our skills on is really finding and flipping high profit items.
Melissa: So, so we are going to talk about that on the next video and, but we would love it if you would comment below any of your current obstacles or any questions that you have, and we'll make sure that we can get it tackled and answered in the next video.
Rob: Absolutely. And thank you guys so much for reaching out before this video.
Letting us know what your obstacles are. We love hearing from you guys. So please, like Melissa said, reach out, let us know any of your other obstacles or any other, any other things that you're facing right now in your business. We'd love to help you guys guide you through that as well. So thank you for spending time with us.
You guys rock. Have an amazing day and we will see you on the next video.