Rob and Melissa Stephenson, from Flea Market Flipper, talk about a flip that turned $100 into $1,900.
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How We Turned $100 Into $1,900
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we're talking about a $100 flip into $1,900. How we did it. How you can do it too.
Rob: Alright, on today's episode we're talking about a recent flip where we turned a hundred dollars into $1,900.
Who wants to learn more about that? Absolutely.
Melissa: No. So we were walking the other day on our, we were on our way home, on our walk, and I hear the cha-ching. I'm like, you know, our phone's are on, my phone's on silent almost all the time. Your phone's not usually on silent, but I heard it and he just kept walking.
I'm like, I heard the cha-ching. And he's like, what? And so I'm like, pull it out. What is it? And so it's always like he's pulling out of his pocket. Could be a hundred dollars, could be a thousand dollars. What are we gonna look at? And it was $1,900, $1,900. So that's.
Rob: That's it. 1900 bucks. Sweet flip. We actually bought this from the local flea market. Bought it from one of the vendors that I usually buy stuff from. He actually buys storage auctions and then he brings them out to the flea market and sells them piece by piece. We have made tens of thousands of dollars from the items that we have got from this gentleman. So excellent, excellent contact at the flea market.
I've actually even gone to his house and bought things from him before because I've created a relationship with him, have his phone number in my phone. So we're able to stay in contact that way. But we actually paid a hundred bucks for this at the flea market. Then we turned around, sold it on eBay for $1,900, including shipping.
So, yep.
Melissa: And we'll break down the fees in just a little bit. Yep. But I wanted to touch on what you just said about, you know, people ask us a lot, do we do storage units and we don't do storage units, but the biggest reason being is we don't do a lot of smalls for one, and we, you prefer to have your vendors do go do storage units.
So they go, they've bid on the unit and they can get all this stuff from it. Then Rob can go to the flea market and get, be selective of what he buys. So he wants to go get the stuff that, you know, to, sometimes it's larger 'cause people don't wanna ship it and in the local market, at the flea market it might sit so you can get a really good deal for it. But he only has to deal with that one or two items versus the whole locker that you have to get rid of, you know, for those one or two really good items. So.
Rob: And I don't like to sit at flea market for eight hours, two or three days a week. So I'd rather pick what I want. It's a different business model. It is. I'd rather pick what I want, throw it on eBay once I get it listed.
So Melissa and I figured out roughly probably about three hours total into this. Maybe even if you stretched a little bit, it could be four, but three hours totally start to finish from picking this thing up, from cleaning it up, from taking pictures, and then from listing it, and then actually shipping it out, roughly three hours.
Once where it's all said and done, we'll break down the, the profits and all that stuff, but it's a really, really good hourly wage, that's in it. To where I can, make that one time once I get it listed. Out there looking for a buyer. I don't have to do anything else. I don't have to sit at a flea market waiting for it to sell.
Yeah, I can just throw it on there and then wait for the right buyer when I have it priced at the right price. That's what we love about this business is being able to do that, and then you have thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory that is just waiting to be sold when the right buyer actually sees it.
Melissa: Yeah. I wanted to also touch on what you talked about relationships 'cause we've talked about relationships before and how important that is for your flipping business. But if you have, you're just starting and maybe you're like, oh, I don't have any relationships with anybody that I can, that can get me great deals.
We started with nothing as well. And I would say you didn't create these relationships till we went full time. Really? 'cause at that point, about 10 years ago. He started to be really consistent at the flea market. Before it would just be like, here, there, stop at thrift store, go to flea. You know, it wasn't very consistent.
But this started to be every Saturday for probably a year straight. Just about every Saturday you were at the flea market, sometimes Sunday mornings before church. You would go to the flea market. Yeah. And then. You go and you see the same people there. So of course you're gonna go and start to create those relationships.
You talk to them, you see the vendors, you know, that kind of have, they know what you're looking for. So it just really helps both parties 'cause they know he sells on eBay. They don't wanna mess with it, they don't wanna mess with the shipping, so they're like, he's our, a great buyer for us. So it, the whole wheel system works together.
But yeah, don't get. Overwhelm not, don't feel like you can't do this too if you don't have relationships 'cause you can go create those. Where are other places that can create relationships?
Rob: Thrift stores. I've created relationships with local thrift stores with the managers who know what I buy.
They would actually call me up and let me know once something got donated that I could come in and buy it if I wanted. Those are another great place to create relationships are at thrift stores. It's a little bit harder when you find stuff on marketplace. You can for the right people, you can create relationships if you know the business that they're in, like if you find a scrapper who's selling you a cooktop or a range, or they pulled outta the trash, they come into different things all the time.
That's where you can create the relationship, exchange phone numbers and say, Hey, if you come across more of these, I'd be interested in buying them. And then he knows, or she knows that, hey, if I come across something else, I can call them up and let them know I found it and I can sell it immediately and make more money than if I was scrapping it.
So you just have to keep your eyes open and be thinking about those relationships that you can, that you can make. My best relationships that I made at the flea market were a couple of people who constantly went to storage auctions throughout the week. They'd bring all the stuff to the flea market.
They always had new inventory every single week at the flea market. And then I started relationships with them, finding out what they did. And then I just created that relationship. And then one of my other ones who's made me hundreds of thousands of dollars is a scrapper. Met him at the flea market.
That's where he started selling his stuff. That he would bring it to the flea market and then if he couldn't sell it, he would scrap it. But he was a scrapper. And then as I've known him throughout the last probably 10 years, he's got better and better contacts himself with bigger and bigger companies.
So now he's getting crazy, crazy cool stuff, that once he calls me up. Yeah. Some of the equipment that he's getting.
Melissa: We don't need more inventory right now.
Rob: Some of the equipment that he's getting is tens, if not 20, 30, 40 thousands of dollars, that the inventory is worth , and that's one of those contacts that paid off dividends.
Definitely just by being nice and making a, a contact with him. Yeah.
Melissa: Just being, you know, friendly. I was gonna say one the other, one time we were walking, in our little downtown area and you saw a truck and trailer go by this truck, you know, like it's a scrapper. You can kind of tell like when people, the stuff that they have in the back of their truck or a trailer that they're pulling, you can tell that they're a scrapper.
He's like, I need to get that guy's card. So that is something too, you see somebody be like, hey. What kind of stuff you normally pick up? This is the kind of stuff I look for. And if you just exchange phone numbers, you never know, like little, little things like that, what those can turn into. So yeah,
Rob: you can actually go to your local scrap yard and look outside of your scrap yard for people that are coming in and seeing stuff in the back of their truck or their trailer and find out if you can buy it from them 'cause scrap prices are nothing compared, to what you can actually sell these things for on eBay. Set those, and a lot of times stuff just ends up at the scrap yard or in the landfill when there's nothing wrong with it. Somebody gets a newer model or they update their kitchen or they do whatever and they don't know what to do with it, and they'll take it and, ship it to the scrap yard or send it to a scrapper who will take it to the scrap yard.
So a lot of times there might not be anything wrong with these items that we get, and I'm sure there's a lot more out there that there's nothing wrong with them. You can get them and you can test them or not test them and then resell them for parts or resell them as a working condition. You can do all that.
There's many, many different options in this business.
Melissa: Yeah. Alright, so what was it that you sold? What's our breakdown? We didn't even down, well, we didn't tell. Did we say what you sold?
Rob: I don't think we did.
Melissa: No. 'cause I remember you. I remember you got at the flea market. I remember you pulling it on the dolly.
It's the white one, right? Yep. The white. And it looks, what is it exactly?
Rob: So it's a pizza dough press. When you have the balls of dough before you actually make your pizza pie. You throw the ball of dough on there, you push it down, it heats it up, spreads it out, and makes it into a pizza crust before you actually do it.
Melissa: So it's not very big.
Rob: It's not, I mean, it's not huge.
Melissa: It's gonna go on a pallet, but it's still not, it's like, I mean, how big it, it's like a little, it's a pizza kitchen equipment. Yeah. It's not super big.
Rob: No. It, it will fit on. Like if you think about the top of your, range or your cooktop, it will fit on the top of that.
Like you, it's a, a piece of equipment that will sit right there. It's not huge, so it'll go on to, and I didn't even measure it yet because I'm shipping it out today. It might even go in a box. I'm not a hundred percent sure if I'm gonna use a pallet or a box. Could you heavy for a box? I don't know. I think it's right on the verge of that.
So we'll see. Once I get it out of storage, get it ready to go, I'll know which way I'm gonna ship it, whether it's gonna be in a box or on a pallet. If I do do it in a box, you better believe I will use like two inch styrofoam around the whole thing because it is a little bit heavier. Yeah, I think it weighs probably a hundred, 120 pounds.
Melissa: Okay. So, and you can still do that as long as the dimensions are still
Rob: Yep.
Melissa: Underneath there.
Rob: So what are the breakdowns?
Melissa: All right, so, it was $1,900. You bought it for a hundred dollars.
Rob: A hundred bucks paid for.
Melissa: Sold it for $1,900 on eBay. $1,900 on eBay. Shipping costs should be, we haven't done it, we just we're doing this podcast before you shipped it, but it should be around $250.
Rob: And if I ship it in a box, it will be a lot less than that. It will be roughly a hundred to 150 bucks. If I ship it into a box, it, ship it in a box.
Melissa: It's a little bit more risky shipping it in a box. It's 'cause it can get damaged easier.
Rob: But this is not a lot that could get damaged on this. So it's not that risky.
It's a heavy piece of equipment. As long as it is padded and done the right way, it could get damaged because people do throw boxes around, the employees. But we have insurance, so if something does happen to it, we'll totally be covered under insurance. So I don't know yet. Between a hundred, a hundred and a hundred say a hundred dollars to $250 is roughly what shipping will cost on it.
But I'll find out today.
Melissa: Yeah, so we'll do $250 is the higher one. So, 'cause it would be a small discount pallet and we use,
Rob: we'll use that for the numbers. Deducting $250 off of it. Yeah.
Melissa: So eBay fees were $257 for eBay.
Rob: $257. And a lot of people will bark at eBay fees. Guys, I sold this, bought it from the local market.
We bought it for a hundred bucks and we were able to sell it on the global or the nationwide market, for $1,900. That is the only way I could sell this for the price that I got for it, unless I listed in a local market typically. And to believe it or not, I think I did have this listed on marketplace in the local market.
Oh, you did? And never got a response from anybody. So that's one of those things that it shows you the local market versus the global or the nationwide market. That's how, why it's worth that if I did not have eBay at my fingertips, I would not have been able to sell this. So is it worth the 200 and some dollars I spent on eBay fees?
Absolutely it is. I mean, nobody, once you see what the profit is at the end, you'll agree with me.
Melissa: Nobody wants to pay fees. But like you said, this is the cost of doing business and the cost of getting in front of more eyeballs. And we live in a pretty busy area. So for you to list on marketplace, like there's a lot of restaurants, there's a lot in our, you know, they would want it. Radius that could, that could potentially want it, but nobody saw it.
Either they just didn't see it or whatever it was. Yep. For it to be worth it. But on eBay, there's a lot more eyeballs in. So it's worth it for the fees. And you don't have to pay them before you, you pay it after it sells. That's the best part. So it's not like, you know, we have total cost into it is a hundred dollars and then the rest comes after.
'cause we don't pay any fees to insert fees for whatever. We don't pay any of those. So,
Rob: but even how I grew up, when you listed something in the classified section, oh yeah. You had to advertise that listing, that item, before you actually got the money back. So it wasn't like, list this, if it sells, you pay out afterwards.
You have to pay before to get it seen and to get it listed. eBay, we do not have to do that. We list it for free and then we pay on the back end once we've already been paid for the item.
Melissa: Yeah. And then you did have a promotion on it.
Rob: I did. Which is crazy because I didn't, you didn't think you did. I didn't think I have any promotions in my store right now?
Melissa: You're gonna go back and look at your listings.
Rob: I didn't. I definitely didn't do what eBay recommends because right now they'll recommend anywhere from 10% up into like 25%. No, don't do that. Promotion fees, don't do that. And I was just talking to one of our friends yesterday and he, is new on eBay and he, I think his son listed it, which his son's.
I think I wanna say like 12 years old. Yeah, he's 12. His son, he gave this stuff to his son to list. He sold it for $5,000. It was some lock, basketball court, something weird. But he listed it and sold it for $5,000. Sold it really quickly. And come to find out, when they asked about the promotion, he just clicked the button. And I think it was like 12 or 15%.
Melissa: E they, eBay suggests this percentage says usually it pops up right as you're listing it. So, so.
Rob: He clicked it and sure enough, out of that $5,000, I think, I wanna say it was like $650, $700 of that were promotion fees. So don't get caught up in that. When we do promotions, you can, the lowest that you can actually advertise it with the promotion, which you don't pay it out front, you pay it after it sells, but the lowest you can do, the thing is 2%.
It used to be 1%, but now they'll allow you to do 2% is the lowest that you can do. So this one, I'm sure if I had a promotion on it, then I did it at the two, the 2%, and that was an extra $40, $40.
Melissa: $40. So brought your thing to $297 was for eBay fees.
Rob: So just under 300 bucks to be able to sell this thing on the global market, which is not that bad.
We paid a hundred bucks for it. We have eBay fees of roughly 300 bucks. And then, and then
Melissa: profit was $1,253,
Rob: $1,250. That's actually factoring in the shipping as well. So we figured
Melissa: it's factoring in shipping and the hundred dollars
Rob: cost. Cost. Yeah, so cost of good. We estimated shipping at $250, which like I said, is between $100-$250
Whether I use a box or whether I do a pallet, I will find out that today, but still over $1,200 in profit on that. When you break down the hourly wage on this, it's gonna be, say even if you said four hours. Still over $300 an hour to be able to do this business, which is insane for what we are able to do with this is not rocket science.
It's not that difficult to do. Anybody can do it. To be able to make $300 to $400 per hour that you work on these items. Insane. That's insane return on your investment and your time that you're spending on these items.
Melissa: Yep. So that is the breakdown and awesome. Yeah. Thanks guys for hanging out with us.
If you're interested in learning more about our business model, which is lower volume, higher profit items, so we're shipping out fewer items every year. The check out our free workshop, so there'll be a link in the show notes below. You can check that out if you would like to join our community and business model.
We'd love to see you there. But other than that, we'll see you on the next episode.
Rob: You are awesome. Have an amazing day, and we'll see you on the next episode.