Rob and Melissa Stephenson, from Flea Market Flipper, talk about their first time visiting the Goodwill bins and what they found on their visit.
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Our First Visit To The Goodwill Bins, What Did We Find?
Rob: What's, up Pro Flippers? On today's episode, we are talking about the Goodwill bins and more specifically, our first visit there.
Melissa: Our first ever experience at the Goodwill bins we had this summer.
Rob: Alright, so we are talking about the Goodwill bins. This has been something that's been around for a while.
A lot of bins in these sentences. It's been around for a while and we have never been to a Goodwill bins before. But we went down to see some friends, south Florida. Yeah, the center. And they took us to a Goodwill bins and it was very interesting. It was very cool. But we figured we'd talk a little bit more about that if you had not been to a Goodwill Bins yet.
Melissa: So yeah, this was our very first experience. We've heard a lot about it. We actually talked about this with, Kristin from a rural squirrel. It was episode 81. We dove in 'cause that's where she likes to source her items and talked to her about it. And we talked to, the Nashville Flippers on episode 90 of about the Amazon bins, which is a whole other experience, I feel like 'cause Amazon deals with a lot of, you know, returns. Yeah. And that kind of thing. So that's a whole different thing. This is more used items at the Goodwill bins. So yeah, we were like, okay, we have no idea what to expect. Let's go and see what this is all about.
Rob: So really, really cool. Walked in and of course you saw these bins that were up in the air that you went through.
I will say I didn't take gloves and it was very, by the time I left, I did feel a little grungy, a little,, grimy.
Melissa: Take gloves next time.
Rob: So you could take gloves or just make sure you have sanitizer, hand sanitizer, wash your hands after you're done. But anyways, that was the biggest thing that, yeah.
Melissa: I was just gonna say, when you walk in, like you walk in and you see these lines of bins and I don't know if they're all set up the same way, but this is how this one was.
And from what I've heard, a lot of them are very similar. So they have lines. This one had like four or five different lines of bins. They're all lined up together. Then at some
Rob: probably 60 foot long. Yeah.
Melissa: So then they take those line of bins. If it's however you know, eight bins maybe in a row. In one line, they'll take them away.
Then they refill them, and then they bring them back out all full, only there's a yellow line on each side of the bin. So you cannot cross that yellow line and look for, look like rummage through stuff until they tell you you can. So once a new line of bins comes out, I don't know how often do you think they did it?
I, I mean that probably three of them came out in our 30 minute, 45 minutes there. I don't know, but so they're in there restocking them and they pull them out so they're make sure everybody, they're, and they're strict like you, I think one of our kids was over the line and they're like, get, get behind the line.
So you have to stay behind the yellow line. And then once they tell you go, it's a free for all, and everybody can just go and jump in to see what they can find.
Rob: And people were pulling stuff out, not even knowing if they wanted it, but they were pulling stuff out, putting it in their cart.
Melissa: They put it in their cart and then looking it up.
Rob: Yeah. So they can look at it, look it up, and then throw it back into the bins if it was something that they did not want. Very strange way of doing business, but at the same time, it was cool. It was definitely something cool. And it's more towards smalls.
You guys know we don't do smalls a lot. We do more of the larger items. Yeah.
Melissa: And they had some furniture there. They did. That could have been, we almost weren't sure one of those Ekorne chairs was there. Yeah. And but I don't think it was one when we looked at it. And that could have been a good find.
Rob: I will say the larger items that they did have, they weren't in the bins. They put them off in a section on the side. Yes. And they priced them very, very cheap. Yes. Like the chair that had a really nice leather. It looked like an Ekorne, but it wasn't, but it was only price priced for like $10. So, their stuff that they had, the bigger stuff they wanted, they want to move it quickly.
Yeah. So they don't put high prices on it. They had strollers, they had some other, bigger stuff over there on the side that was priced very, very reasonable. So, if you are trying to source, I mean, and this is South Florida, so this wasn't close to us, but I would've made a trip back, if it was closer to us, multiple times just to check out what they had in their larger areas.
Melissa: I feel like we have one here in Orlando. I have to, we should check it out and see.
Yeah. Good. So like, as far as a sourcing place, it can be a great place to find cheap inventory 'cause they sell it like per pound, different categories or like however much per pound.
So it's not like per item , so it could be a very good place to source if you, you know, know a couple different niches or categories of items that you sell, like maybe fashion or electronics or something, you know how to look for those things and spot them quickly. It could be a great place to go.
Would you do that on a normal basis?
Rob: If it was close to the house, I think I would. Yeah, I think I would go and check it out, just because I like looking at stuff. Like the kids yesterday picked up the kids from school and there was a thrift store that I had never been to before that was by the school that Melissa and I saw yesterday morning.
Yeah. Was it yesterday morning?
Melissa: It was closed when we went there.
Rob: It was closed when we went by it. And I took the kids after school, picked them up and took them back to the thrift store. And it was a really cool thrift store. We bought a couple little knickknacks and a couple little Disney things that the kids had been looking for.
Got a really good deal on it. And Roxy actually found a pretty cool purse, that I think she paid like $3 and 50 cents for.
Melissa: I think she should get like at least 50 bucks for it.
Rob: I mean, I'll have her list it for a hundred bucks. So from $3 and 50 cents to, it was a name brand purse. I don't remember the name, but it was
Melissa: a vintage purse too, and it was really, and it's in good shape, so it's cool.
Rob: She found it and I was like, dude, that's pretty cool. It was marked at $7 and it had like 50% off, or 40% off. Ended up getting it for like a little over $3 after tax, maybe four bucks, spending on it. But like, Melissa said, yeah, $50 to a hundred bucks. I think we'll list it for a hundred dollars and maybe take an offer for a little bit less.
But it's really cool. Not a lot of comps out there for it. Yeah. So it was a cool thing. But anyways, yes, I probably would go back to the bins if I knew where they were close to our house. If they were close to our house, I'd make another trip back there. It was pretty cool. It was a cool experience to go and do it.
Melissa: I mean, you're fight, you're like standing there waiting. Everybody's ready to jump in. So like the atmosphere is kind of fun, I guess. Yeah, if you're like jumping in and ready or, but if you don't want to deal with that, you know, I mean, it's just a different personality. I feel like.
Rob: I'm sure at different times of the day, like maybe first thing in the morning, they might have a line out the door for people coming in.
I don't know, because we just went, this was later in the day. I mean, they were,
Melissa: they kept bringing in new bins, so they must do that all day long. So you can tell we're not experienced bins people, so, but if you haven't been, go try it out. I think it would be fun. And if you have been, share your story with us.
Like, let us know. Say, you know, I listened to you guys, talking about the bins. I love the bins, or I don't like the bins. Let us know your experience. You can reach out on Instagram, shoot us an email. Yeah, we'd love to hear your story from the bins. So we do need, we should find out if there's one in Orlando.
Yeah. That you can, yeah.
Rob: I'm sure there is. We just haven't gone to it. So, yeah. I like to sit in my La-Z-Boy and source.
Melissa: That is your favorite place to source.
Rob: The thousand to $2,000 items versus going for the $50 items or $20 items. So, yeah. But it's so cool. I, I enjoy, so I, I, I like most of you listening to this,
Melissa: you enjoy it.
Rob: I enjoy thrifting. I enjoy looking for those deals no matter where it's at. It's just fun to do so. Absolutely. So even the smalls in the little one. Absolutely.
Melissa: And I will say that we don't like Goodwill thrift stores. We don't typically find a ton. We find some stuff. We'll just stop in, just to stop in. If we're like trying to kill time waiting for the kids for school or something and we just drop in.
We found a couple things there, but it's probably not our favorite. I prefer the mom and pop thrift stores for sure. I feel like they have either better deals or sometimes they like some of the thrift stores that have better, what is it, nonprofits that they're raising money for. I don't know.
I just, I prefer to go to those ones and
Rob: yeah.
Melissa: Help them raise more money. Yeah.
Rob: That was the one that we visited yesterday. She put me on the, whatever it's called, where they give that, rewards. Oh, she signed me up for the rewards, which is cool. Every dollar you spend, once you spend $50, they give you like 10% off on anything that you buy in the store and something else.
Melissa: They had a nonprofit that went to a?
Rob: It was definitely a nonprofit. I forget the name of it, but it was, it wasn't a big, big thrift store like Goodwill or Salvation Army. It was actually just, a regular one that was nonprofit dealing for helping people out. So, really cool. So some of those causes, like Melissa said, are cool.
I mean, you can definitely stand behind what they're doing, and helping them out by buying some of the stuff and then reselling it. So, no, it's good. It's for sure good.
Melissa: And this is non-related to this, but kind of back to your story of going to the thrift store with the kids is we are gonna, this is like a sneak peek.
I, we're gonna start documenting and the kids want to get into live selling eBay, live selling. So, we'll, we will talk about it. We'll do a whole episode talking about that. That's not something that would work for our business, but totally would work with the kids if, for the stuff that they have found, so we'll keep you posted on that.
Rob: Absolutely. It's a little teaser coming up in the future. Definitely the near future, within the next couple weeks we will be doing a live sale with our kids. Yeah. So it should be fun. So.
Melissa: Yeah, we're gonna learn all about it 'cause that's not something we've ever done. Nope. 'cause typically people who are buying ovens or cooktops are not like.
Like sitting there waiting for them to go on auction, so, but it'll be fun to do it with some of their, absolutely. Some of their stuff. And then, to round this out and close it out, we are, do hosting a live four week workshop coming up. What? So yeah, we're excited. We haven't done one of these in a long time.
It will be like live Zoom calls once a week for four weeks starting Thursday, September 4th. So we'll put the link in the show notes below and check it out. We're gonna, it's more of a beginner, so it's a beginner workshop if you haven't got started on eBay, we want to help you get past that hurdle, get on eBay, get some things listed, so get to get started.
So it's a beginner 'cause that is something people see eBay as this mammoth and it's scary and it's like too many things to try to figure out. We want to help you figure those out so you can get started, hit the ground running and go.
Rob: Grab your seat while they're still available and we can't wait to see you at that workshop.
All right guys. Thank you. You guys are amazing. Thanks for spending a little bit of time with us today, and we will see you guys on the next episode.