The Pro Flipper Show

The Best Time To Source Items Is Now!

Episode Summary

Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about why this is the best time to source items!

Episode Notes

Flip It For Christmas Challenge

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Episode Transcription

Reseller Hangout Podcast - The Best Time To Source Items Is NOW!!

Rob: What's up, guys? On today's episode, we are talking about sourcing- the best time to get out there and find those amazing deals.

Melissa: And why it's the best time.

Rob: All right guys, today we are talking about sourcing. When is the best time to get out there and find those amazing deals?

Melissa: And right now the end of the year is an amazing time and we're gonna dive into why. And sorry that. I'm losing my voice. So it's that time of year, I guess.

Rob: Wrapping up 2022. Super excited for the deals that are gonna be out there. So if you haven't guessed by now, guess what guys? This is the best time to be out there shopping for that inventory. Find that inventory to get your inventory list up, up, up, up, up.

Melissa: And why is that going up?

Rob: At the end of the year, people are needing more money to pay for Christmas presents.

Or just at the end of the year, people are willing to let stuff go a lot cheaper because they want money at the end of the year. One of those things that you can definitely find some amazing deals, and I'll give you an example. Just yesterday, my buddy picked up an oven that is a I think it's a 10,000, just over $10,000 oven, commercial oven.

Picked it up for $500 yesterday, he had to drive three hours south of us to pick it up three hours back, so we got six hours of time into it. But he has $500 into that oven. He's gonna keep it for his restaurant. But if he was gonna turn around and sell it, he'd have no problem probably getting between $5,000, $6,000,, $7,000 for this oven.

And he sent an offer, the gentleman was asking a thousand dollars. He sent an offer for $500, not thinking that the guy would take him seriously.

Melissa: Didn't you tell him to send that offer?

Rob: Yes. I told him to go 5,000 or $500. Sorry. He wanted a thousand. I told him to send $500 and see if they, I was serious about selling it.

The guy wrote back super quick and said absolutely so that's one of those things that he offered half of what the guy was asking and the guy jumped on the deal. So it just goes to show you, and this is just one of the examples right now that happened yesterday. This happens all the time. At the end of the year, you'll be able to send offers out to people, and be able to make, I mean, get some really, really good inventory that you can actually get it listed on eBay, get it listed on marketplace, whatever you're gonna do.

You can get that inventory list up and up and up so you can make some more money.

Melissa: And that really lasts probably until the beginning of next year. So you probably have a good month. I mean, you can find stuff all year round. We do it all year round, but it's a really good time because of people needing extra money.

So they're gonna let stuff go for next to nothing. And then also in January, people are paying off credit cards and then need the money or they're decluttering and just getting rid of stuff for next to nothing because they just want it gone.

Rob: Yep.

Melissa: So you've got those scenarios. So it's really a good time to kind of be on the lookout for those items that you could resell.

And I mean, if you've been around here for a little bit, you know that we do a little bit larger items, typically higher profit items. So they're not quite your typical items that you're finding in the thrift store. We're doing a lot on marketplace and offer up. Those are kind of our favorite places to source items.

Would you say that's your favorite?

Rob: Absolutely.

Melissa: Auctions are, are fun too, but you don't really do those as much anymore?

Rob: Nope. It's definitely marketplace, OfferUp, and then some of our local contacts that actually send us stuff throughout the week that are trying to sell us stuff. So those are really our best places, our favorite places to get stuff.

Yeah, for sure. But Melissa makes a great point. In the beginning of the year, people are going to be decluttering. That's one of the ways why you're gonna get amazing deals and people are gonna have to pay off those credit cards from buying Christmas presents. They're gonna want to sell stuff to do that.

Be on the lookout for some amazing deals in January as well as the end of December.

Melissa: And also you have return pallets too that are in January from Christmas. So you have a lot of that. And half the time returns are just, somebody doesn't want it, it doesn't mean that it's not working, it's just that they didn't want it and they returned it.

So, we don't do a lot of those, but we buy from vendors at the flea market who do a lot of those. So we can kind of pick and choose. Like if they get an item, it's a return. Like to them, they're just trying to move. Fast so they have more volume. And for us, we can be like, oh, that's worth something. Let's go, let's buy that.

Rob: So, such a great point. And that brings up another story of one of the items. How long ago was this? Like five years ago? Three years ago?

Melissa: Five years ago. It was like a $3,000 Christmas bonus on that I, those items, it was a. Those star shower lights I think we talked about on the podcast before, but those star shower lights that, the first year they came out, the very first year they came out and we were, we really just started documenting for, so it must be like 2016, I think. 2015, 2016. And one of your vendors got a pallet of them, right? Yeah. And you bought I think 10 of 'em at first and he brought 'em home. We checked them cuz on returns, you don't know like if they work or not. So we checked them and we ended up selling, we kept two, I think, and sold the rest like that.

Rob: Super quick.

Melissa: Super quick.

Rob: So it was like a marketplace. Sell them on marketplace.

Melissa: Well, and then we started listing on eBay too. Cause we still had enough time. Then it was marketplace, it was like the day, it was Christmas Eve or the day before Christmas Eve and we're just selling. Cuz you went back and bought a hundred of them, right?

Rob: We bought a hundred like twice. Oh, so, so we bought the first pallet after we bought the 10. I went back and I think I bought 25 or 50.

Melissa: Didn't you message her, like you have her phone number I think now.

Rob: Yeah, that was one of my contacts. I went back and bought 25 or 50 more. We sold those within the next day or two.

Melissa: That was crazy.

Rob: I called and bought when, and then I think we bought more than that. I think it, the last, shipment that we bought was like a hundred of them. And we sold them out. It was a couple thousand dollars.

Melissa: Because they were sold out in the stores too, so that they were sold out everywhere.

Everybody was going to like CVS, Walgreens, Walmart. You could not find them anywhere. So we just sold 'em for at price. So we sold 'em for what they were selling for in the stores. And we weren't like price gouging or anything, although people were going nuts over them. They were like so hot that year. And, and yeah, so we had some, we sold 'em really quick and sold a couple on eBay at first when we could get 'em out right away and shipped them like that same day as we.

But it was like at least a $3,000 Christmas bonus right at Christmas, which was really cool.

Rob: So, so be on the lookout for return pallets. That's what that was, is one of the vendors had a contact where she was buying stuff from the return whatever it is, the, return agencies or whoever gets ahold of those return and that was what she was buying is pallets full of those things.

Melissa: Do you remember what we paid? Was it $10 when we bought the 10? And then Was it less when you bought more?

Rob: Yeah, I think I got her down to $4. A box. A box, yeah. And we sold 'em for 30 to $40 a box, a light. Yeah, so, so we were selling 'em like crazy. It was a lot of fun. We went through a lot of stuff.

Melissa: You did have to check them all. That was some work. Like it was not just passive like sitting there and selling 'em cuz you don't wanna sell 'em to somebody and they don. So, yeah. We did check all of them and, you know, plugged 'em all in, check all the lights. Some of 'em were like, oh, this is only red, this one's only green. Or this one has both.

But I would probably say, how many out of a hundred? Probably like 10 didn't work.

Rob: Probably, 10%. Yeah. Something like that.

Melissa: Not a huge number, yeah.

Rob: Oh, for the most part. They all were, I mean, the majority of them worked. We definitely made money, so we did not lose money. We made pretty good money on the whole deal.

And it was a blast. It was cool time at the end of the year during Christmas time, that we were able to find this amazing deal. So be on the lookout for stuff that is out of stock. You can't buy in stores. It's a hot item. Be on the lookout for those return pallets that you might be able to buy the whole pallet.

Or you might be able to find a vendor at a local flea market in your area, even on marketplace. It'll sell you multiple that's how we did it. We bundled a lot together and got a better deal on it. You might be able to see, find those at the end of the. But definitely don't discount what people are getting rid of.

Another thing to be looking for at the end of the year to grab for the beginning of next year is gonna be exercise equipment. Oh yeah. You can definitely sell it on marketplace. You can sell it on eBay, you can sell it all over the place. It's hot in the beginning of the year, beginning of the year.

People do those New Year's resolutions. They're wanting to get back into shape. They're wanting to get their health and fitness. Yeah, exactly. Back up so you can find some great deals at the end of the year when people are looking for money. Turn around and sell them in January and make some good money on them.

So be on the lookout for that stuff for sure.

Melissa: We have done a lot of exercise equipment over the years.

Rob: We love exercise equipment. It's so much fun to do those.

Melissa: We, and you've shipped them on pallets. We've sold some locally, but done a lot of shipping everywhere, anywhere from like those bowflexes to, we've done a lot of treadmills, and quick, like key to that is it really needs to be a commercial brand. So.

Rob: Well, for shipping, well, if you're gonna ship it, like if you're sell, if you get for nothing and you can sell it for like two or $300 thing, that's great.

Melissa: But if you're gonna ship, it really has to be a commercial brand because it's gotta, the money has to be there, the profit has to be there.

Rob: It has to make sense.

Melissa: Yeah, it has to be worth at. You know, $800, $1,000, $2,000 to be worth it to ship. So, yeah. And the commercial brands are like, some of 'em they last forever. So, yeah. So just make sure that it's worth that to ship it. So.

Rob: Yep. And anything you can get on commercial brands and you can get 'em for a song if you can, 'em really cheap no matter what.

If you don't know how to ship, you can list them, locally and be able to still make some good money in the local. If you do know how to ship, that's the time that you get 'em listed on eBay and you do shipping with them. And they will sell really, really good in the new year. People are making those resolutions that they're gonna want to be able to exercise for sure.

Melissa: Yeah. So, so we also wanna come on here too, like, we're kind of like not really recapping the year yet because we'll do that in a few weeks. Once we're at the end of the year, we'll go through some of our sales, kind of recap the year. But we did wanna come here and tell you that we are gonna take a little bit of a break from the podcast for the next few weeks because we're just gonna kind of spend time with family, enjoy the holidays, obviously take care of ourselves cuz any sickness and stuff. So, and yeah, just it's been a busy year and I think it's great when you can find those things like the Christmas lights.

That was really awesome for us to make that extra three grand like right at Christmas. Like that was amazing. But then you also have to know to like your health too. Like when, when is it okay, it's q4, I need to just keep working, working, working. Or when do I need to take a step back and, you know, evaluate like, okay, I, it's okay for me to take a break. Because for me personally, if I didn't have him, like, it would be really hard.

Like I'm very much an achiever, like, we need to keep working all the time. Go, go, go and so it's hard for me to take a break. So he's more like, no we just take a break. It's okay. So I think knowing that and knowing where you're at I, I, if you wanna keep looking for items, it's a great time to source, but it know that it's also okay to, you know, maybe take a little break from your business for a little while. So that's always okay.

Rob: Yep. And although we won't be doing a podcast for a couple weeks, we're gonna spend time. If you guys don't know, Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love Christmas. I love everything about Christmas.

Melissa: We play like Christmas songs in June.

Rob: We, we do. And movies. We've started watching movies already, probably over a month ago, two months ago.

Yeah. I, I love Christmas. So we're gonna spend some time with family. That's what we're gonna take some time doing. We still will be sourcing, we'll still be doing some stuff. If you wanna see back scene, behind the scenes stuff, follow us on Instagram. I think that's probably the best place.

Melissa: Yeah, we do some more stuff on Instagram and we'll have to be redoing our floors in our office now because we had a nice little leak in our refrigerator that's actually on the back of this wall, and it leaked into our office and now the other day there was water everywhere soak. And the carpet was soaked and we tried to put one of those air dryer. What floor? Three floor dryers in here. It didn't really work. So we're ripping everything up and redoing, but now it's for sound and we gotta figure out the sound cuz the carpet's in here.

So do we do carpet hardwood? I don't know. We'll see how it goes. So, that's another thing that we have to figure out over break.

Rob: So, but we did wanna tell you guys we will be taking a couple weeks off. Hope you have an amazing Christmas, a happy new year. Wish you guys the best, wish your families the best, really enjoy the season. That's what we'll be doing with our family. Want you guys to do that as well. And then January, we'll be kicking it again, get back to our normal schedule, where we'll be doing three podcasts a week. So we can get you guys the best information we probably possibly can. Get some more interviews in and get some more great tips for you guys, in the new year, 2023.

So excited about that.

Melissa: Yeah. And so, yeah, definitely connect with us on Instagram, DM us. We love to hear your wins, you know, what you're struggling with. Let us know, and follow the adventure over there. But we will be back not too long, cuz it won't be that long. And maybe we'll even have a couple, we have a yard sale coming up next week, so we decided to throw that into Christmas because you know, why not throw a yard sale into it?

Yeah, make it a little extra cash. I mean why not? And we have a lot of stuff for the kids to clean out. They accumulate so much stuff in the year, and so like before Christmas, they're like, you need to have a yard sale. Get rid of this stuff. Best time to do it. Make some extra cash. And they're like, well, do I get the money?

I'm like, you get the money for your stuff, that's fine. Like if you're gonna sell it, you can get the money. So they'll make a little money. And we'll make some money and it'll be fun. So we'll definitely share with that. Yeah. On the other channels too.

Rob: And if you guys want some help sourcing throughout the next month, two months when those deals are gonna be out there, definitely check out sourcingmembership.com. We have a membership program that we actually help you find those items. Amazing deals on items. If you guys wanna learn more about sourcing

Melissa: higher profit items so that we find in your area, we look in your area, throw you a couple of different leads that you can go get. Our goal is to get you at least 500 to $2,000 a month is our goal.

But you can check it out, you know, you could do it for a month, two months, or, you know, and cancel. Yeah. Yeah. You could try it out or not, you know, but it's just something that we do like to offer when people are trying to get into those bigger items, so. Yep. And we have a lot of fun and that was kind of our way too, since sourcing is your favorite thing to do.

So you could still source but not have to buy stuff because we already have a lot of inventory that we need to get listed. Yep. And so you could still get your inventory listed, so absolutely. It's a lot of fun. So we hope you guys have an amazing Christmas break and are able to take a little time off too, and rest, relax. Reflect on the year and ready to. 2023 hard. So we're excited about next year. Yeah, that's it. Any final words for?

Rob: That's it, guys. Like we said, have an amazing Christmas, a happy new Year. Cannot wait to see you guys in the new year. And yeah, hopefully it's an amazing holiday season for you.

Melissa: Yeah. Thanks for spending your time with us. We always appreciate you very much. And we'll be back in January and we would. Appreciate anytime you leave us a rate and review, subscribe, rate, and review, we totally appreciate that. You don't understand how much we appreciate you, so we can share our message with more people and hopefully help more people make some more money in their flipping business.

So that's the ultimate goal.

Rob: That's it. You guys rock. We will see you soon. Talk to you later.

S ee ya!