Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about the flips that almost didn't happen in their reselling business.
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The Flips That Almost Didn't Happen
Rob: What's up, Pro Flippers? On today's episode, we're talking about that flip that almost didn't happen.
All right. In today's episode, it's gonna be a fun one. We're gonna talk about a flip or maybe even multiple flips that almost didn't happen and why and thank the Lord that they actually did happen.
Melissa: And they all might have a common reason why they didn't happen. So we're gonna dive into it. Don't give it away yet. All right. So the one that really stuck out to me, that we almost didn't do was one of our very first, bigger flips that we did when we first went full-time. So, that was 10 years ago.
So we had to make the decision. I, probably some of you have heard the story that we were about to ... I was stopping my personal training on the side because we had three kids, about to have our third kid, and it was crazy. So then, and he lost his health insurance. We're like, okay, well, let's ... Do we go all in or what do we do?
Do we get another job? What do we do? So we ended up going all in on flipping. And so now he's like, "Okay, I gotta make a lot more money to support our family of five." So that's kind of how this one came about.
Rob: Yeah. And what was it? It was a, actually a parking lot security tower, from a local auction. I was able to see it.
I was able to do some research on it before I actually bid on it. And then after that, we actually did buy it. But the reason why it almost didn't happen was because Melissa didn't want me to buy it. So that was one of those things that she's done this quite a bit. But for good reason, it was more money than we have really ever spent on a single flip before.
Yeah. But on my side, I realized what the profit potential, what the margins could be on this. And I even think I sold it lower than something that I actually could have ... I think I could have got almost double what I actually sold it for. So, you might want to know the numbers. What are the numbers if you're new around here?
We sold this, like I said, it's probably nine, 10 years ago. We actually bought this and flipped it. Sold it fairly quickly. It was a parking lot security tower, so it was on a trailer. You put it on the back of a truck, like a, a trailer that you could pull on the back of the truck, you put it on your hitch, you pulled it around, and then it had a, like a, if you think about like a guard gate shack, it was on the back of the trailer that you could get into it, and then it had a, a generator on it.
That would lift that guard gate shack like 20 feet in the air, raise it way out.
Melissa: It's parking lot tower.
Rob: It is. You raise it way up and then you can see all around the parking lot.
Melissa: Security tower. Yeah.
Rob: Exactly. So that's what we ended up buying. We spent
Melissa: $5,000. And I was very not okay with it because I'm like, "That is a ton of money, especially when we have to be really careful because we're trying to, you know, make this work."
And so anyway, so he, I was like, "No, we're absolutely not spending $5,000."
Rob: So in my defense, I did it probably when she told me not to do it, but I knew what the retail on this was. So it was very hard to find any eBay comps, nobody had comps, nothing about it. Man, I've seen a couple of these since then and I didn't jump on them because people were asking a little bit more money for them.
But I should have. I probably should have got another one.
Melissa: We bought it at an auction.
Rob: We did. We bought it at a local auction. But I was able to see what the retail was, not the actual eBay comps because nobody had sold one on eBay that, that I could find. So the retail on it, I believe it was, if I'm not mistaken, it was about $125 or $160.
Somewhere in there, around $150,000 is what the original retail price on this was. So I knew if I could get it underneath $10,000, that I would be doing okay. And I don't know if I would have gone more on it than $5,000, but we actually did. We bought, bought it for $5,000, and then turned around and sold it fairly quickly.
Melissa: It was less, like a month or less, I feel like. Yeah.
Rob: Sold it on eBay and, yeah, we sold it for $25,000. So that was a quick flip from $5,000 to $25,000. And like I said, I probably could have got $50,000 for it, but we sold it fairly quickly and $25,000 off of $5,000 was a good flip to me, definitely our highest flip that we have sold on eBay.
It was really, really fun.
Melissa: I'm always grateful once it sells, so I'm like-
Rob: Very much not wanting me to do it.
Melissa: Don't do it, don't do it. We can't do it. We can't afford it. But then-
Rob: But then looking back, she's always appreciative for it. Another one that we did that almost
Melissa: Wait, don't get off the, don't get off this one yet.
Okay. I wanted to talk about it for a second. So it was the parking lot tower. They ended up coming to pick it up. Yes. We did. And so we didn't have to ship it. So somebody, he had a driver come pick it up,
Rob: Which I was willing to ship it. Yeah. I would have, I would have hired a company to actually pull it up to the buyer anywhere in the United States.
I would have had it, had it pulled to, at their expense, not mine, but I would have arranged it so they didn't have to worry about anything and get it pulled up there.
Melissa: If you were to do that one exactly again now, not, knowing that there's no EBA comps, but knowing that retail was $120,000 to $150,000, what would you list it for?
Rob: Probably at least $50,000, $49,999. I would have done $50,000. Somebody might have come in at $35,000 and offered me, yeah, $35,000, maybe even $40,000, try to low ball me and take $10,000 off. Knowing what the comps were, I mean, I easily would have taken it because we only had $5,000 invested in it. So I would have listed it for more.
I was a little bit nervous, like I said, because this was more money than we had ever put out and had the potential to make a lot of money as well. So I probably would have held onto it a little bit longer if I had to, to find that right buyer for it.
Melissa: And my comfort zone for him purchasing items, and really your comfort zone for the most part is, you know, around $50-$100.
Like that's usually our going rate to find stuff, to buy stuff. That's what I'm typically comfortable with. But this one had a little funny story. We've done a podcast on this a long time ago. We don't have to dive into the full thing, but this one had a funny story because this was back when eBay still used PayPal.
They didn't have managed payments and it wasn't even right away. It was like a week later after the funds went and, or they were already there, PayPal froze the funds and froze the account. It was craziest thing. So we ended up having to go through that ordeal because it was a big, it was a large transaction, so they were thinking it's suspicious, but they were going to hold it for six months.
Rob: Yeah. And then they had the right, they said in their fine print that they could hold it another six months for up to a year. And I'm like, "That's not right. You can't do that. " So we actually, we figured out how to get it released. We had it released within three days. Yeah.
Melissa: We ended up writing a letter or having a letterhead from our commissioner or something like that. Like we looked it up online and found this one website, told us to do it. So we're like, "Okay, we'll try it. " And then within three days ... So obviously they knew they did something wrong. They shouldn't have been holding the money. Yeah. So they, but they could have holded it for six months. That's just crazy.
Yeah. Even the guy called them and said, "I have my thing. I'm happy with it. We're good. I'm not coming after them." But
Rob: Yeah.
Melissa: They were scared it was a large chunk of money,
Rob: so- The biggest thing is they're taking the risk. If the gentleman that got it, he used a credit card to pay for it. Yeah. If he, he had up to six months to get a refund on it and they were worried about if he came back within the next six months, to get the refund.
But the thing that they, they didn't, I, I mean, that didn't add up was I actually got the guy who bought it on the phone, because I told him what was going on, and he got on the phone with me and a supervisor at PayPal and said, "Listen, I'll sign it, I'll sign something stating I'm not coming back.
I'm happy with my purchase. I will not come back after this buyer." And they still said, "No, sorry, we can't do that. " So they just wanted to keep the money and hold it for six months so they could invest it and make more money on it. But we got it done. We got it taken care of. And they, they released the funds.
We were able to get it.
Melissa: We still use PayPal. Yep.
I mean occasionally. We don't use them as much anymore.
Rob: Not as much, but we still use PayPal. Yeah. So it's good, but it was a crazy story and it was because the transaction was so large. So if something like that happens in your personal account or I mean your business account or something like that and it's not used to taking that much, like for now, for us, anything that goes over, I want to say the last thing we had frozen was about $7,500.
Typically anything under $7,500, eBay will put into our account within like 24 hours. We get, we get access to it, we can use it for shipping money or whatever we want. Anything over $7,500, they kind of, it throws up a red flag and eBay, they hold it until-
Melissa: Not six months though. They weren't phrasing your account.
Rob: No, this is eBay, this is not PayPal. They hold it until the buyer receives it. So until we ship it out, the buyer receives it and I think they have within like three days that the buyer can say, "Hey, I received it and it's in good condition." Give me positive feedback or I can see an email. Once I see it's, it's shipped and they received it.
I can, I can call them, I mean, I can email them and have them say, "Hey, yeah, we received it. Everything's okay." And then eBay will release the, the funds to you. So, your, in your case, individually, it's all individually in your case, if your accountant is not used to receiving high transactions, your threshold might be at like $1,000.
It might be like $500.
Melissa: But it can raise it'll raise as you start doing more and more. If you do add larger transactions into it, it'll get higher and higher, so.
Rob: Yeah. So that's one of those things that, and if we started training, if we started doing more transactions at $10,000, $15,000, it would raise our threshold as well.
So it's one of those things that, yeah, you just have to do, you have to talk to eBay, you have to get them on the phone, let them know, what's going on. I mean, that's just communication with eBay, that you're selling stuff. So it's a little bit more-
Melissa: It's just creating that relationship with eBay- It is.
and then getting to know that you're a good seller. So that's even, yeah, starting out, you know, you have a threshold of you can only sell up to $500. So, but that increases fast as you start to become a good seller. You show eBay that you ship your, out your stuff on time, you're not trying to scam people and that's the biggest thing they're concerned about.
So-
Rob: And the feedback. If you get, you're getting feedback on $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 items that you're shipping out and you're doing it in a timely manner, the people are happy with them, you're getting that in the feedback. eBay knows that's what you're doing, you have a business doing it. So, they actually, yeah, will start to raise the restrictions on your account.
And you can get it, like I said, you can do it very quickly. As you start selling items, you can get up to that level really quickly.
Melissa: So what was the other one, the other item that you were thinking of then?
Rob: The next one I was thinking was the jet skis.
Melissa: Oh.
Rob: Who wouldn't love to buy some cool jet skis?
Melissa: They're like three grand.
Rob: Yeah, we did spend, I think it was 3,500 bucks. So we spent 3,500 bucks on those jet skis, turned around and played with them, used them on the chain of lakes, had some fun with them and then turned around and sold them pretty quickly. And I think it was $17,000?
Melissa: $17,500, I believe.
Rob: $17,500 we sold. It was a set of jet skis. Got a killer deal on them. Yeah, crazy, crazy deal, that we were able to get those, clean them up a little bit and then use them and then also sell them. Melissa did not want me to do that. We absolutely
Melissa: It's a lot of money to invest. I did not want to do that.
Rob: We absolutely did it and, I'm trying to think of another one. Anything that is usually over a thousand dollars. The last one that I did, which I didn't really even tell you, I just went and did it. Yeah. ... was $1,000 and we sold it for $15,000.
Melissa: Yeah.
Rob: Was that what it was? The oven?
Melissa: Yeah, yeah.
Rob: So we've talked about that one and we bought it when we were out of town on a conference.
Melissa: Last fall, yeah.
Rob: Yeah, we, we talked about that. I paid $1,000 for it, talked to the, the store manager down, to a thousand. I think he wanted $1,200, got him down to a thousand bucks, picked it up, sold it really quickly. I think we sold it within 30 days, maybe, maybe 45 days, because we shipped it out when I went back for the next conference. So it wasn't super, super long, but, another thing, we spent $1,000 on, sold for $15,000. That person was so happy and excited. She text me a couple months after, I think it was two months afterwards and said, "Thank you so much." And I have the text, "Thank you so much. I greatly appreciate it. Most stuff on eBay is crap, but you're a great seller and we greatly appreciate that you didn't sell.
Melissa: And she wanted another one, right?
Rob: She did. She, she said, this was really a great unit and I'm very happy with it. So, just a really, really nice text. And it's nice to see that you're making a difference in people. This was a business owner, who had the opportunity ... If she wanted the oven, she would've had to gone out and spent $30,000 to $40,000 on this.
It was brand new. This brand new oven has never been hooked up. And we gave it to her for 15,000 dollars, so she was very appreciative. We got it for $1,000, sold it for $15,000, so we made great money on it, and then she saved a ton of money. The store we bought it from, got it for free, made 1,000 dollars on it, because they're in the local market and they couldn't sell it.
Somebody else had reached out through social and said they had sold the oven in the place where we bought it.
Melissa: Like a month or so.
Rob: And they saw it for months in that place that they couldn't sell it. So we came in and we actually bought it, brought it to somebody else, nationwide and then we were able to ship it, to somebody and make some great money on it.
So I'm trying to think of any other ones, whatever. Sleep number beds. Sleep number beds. Yeah, you are definitely not in on that one. And that was because our second child was being born when I bought those. And I had to go.
Melissa: Well, you were at the hospital and then you left the hospital.
Rob: Yeah. I had to go from the delivery room after she was born to pick up 20 of the 60 king size sleep number beds.
Melissa did not want me to do that, but we ended up clearing, I think, $30,000, $40,000 on that deal.
Melissa: We spent $3,000, $3,600 on them.
Rob: Oh, $3,600 on all of them.
Melissa: That's what we spent on them. Yeah. But then we made, it was like $30,000 to $40,000 on them.
Rob: Yeah, crazy, crazy money. We ended up selling them as whole pieces and then we actually broke them down. Parted
them down.
Sold them down, made double the money just by parting them out, so that was another one that you didn't want me to do. The majority of them huge flips that I've done, she does not want me to do them and, she's very, very hesitant, but
Melissa: And then you go back and usually ... So we have a really good relationship.
Like we don't just go and typically do something that the other person doesn't want you to do. Like we have that good relationship, but then there's also the business side that he knows like I'm not comfortable, but he also knows he's not taking a big risk. So that is the biggest thing I think through all of these. Yeah.
is you're not gambling with your money. You are taking a calculated risk, you're making an investment in something that you know is gonna sell. And even if it didn't sell for what you were hoping to get for it, you're not gonna lose your money. No, you can get your money back out of it. You're definitely gonna get your money back out of it, but you're, you're taking a small risk because you're making an investment, but you're not gambling with your money.
Rob: Yeah. So you, I'm not going and throwing it in the roulette table or the craps table or blackjack. I'm not doing that. I'm actually taking a very educated ... and sometimes I can't find the comps on eBay, but I'm actually taking what I know to be actual the retail value of the item. So, very educated when I do those risks and especially at a high number, I wanna know that I, the risk that I'm taking is a good risk.
So, yeah, I
Melissa: Cause you, I would say you don't, you're not really- No. ... a huge r- you're not a huge risker typically. Like you're not.
Rob: Even the majority of the items we sell, I mean, even thousand, $1,000, that's on the higher side of something that I would invest in. And when I bought that oven for $1,000, I was hoping that I could get $5,000 until I started doing more research and I found out that it was not used and I was like, wait a minute, if you think things are $30,000 to $40,000, and this was after I bought it.
So that was my thing is I paid a thousand, I was hoping I could get $4,000-$5,000, because that's what I think the comps were on eBay. I had no idea that I could get $15,000. And then I started doing more research and I was like, wait a minute. And I think I had it listed for $20,000 and she offered me $15,000 and I'm like, I paid $1,000.
I'll take $15,000. Come on. Let's go all day long. I'll do that. So, yeah, that's one of those things that we're looking at it typically if I'm spending $500, I wanna, I really wanna make sure that I'm 10Xing my investment. I want. That's your goal. ... to make $5,000 on that. And that's typically what we do. But yeah, it's, it's fun.
It's amazing. Where else can you have so much fun taking risk, but not really taking risk because we're educated in what we're doing. So, we have so many tools at our fingertips right now, that makes this a lot easier.
So when we started this, back when I started this, I had to take a guess that a NordicTrack ski machine was wor- worth more than five or 10 bucks, which is not a huge risk at five or 10 dollars. $5, but ... But it paid off.
And then once you do that one time, you know, any other NordicTrack you see, you can spend a little bit of money on it and you can make money. So sorry guys, I have a cold, sinuses, so, yeah, if that's what it sounds like through this podcast, sorry about that. We're, we're, I'm trying to get better, but anyways, so all these, all this is pointing at, yeah, we do take risks, but we take very, very light.
I feel like they're not super
Melissa: Risky.
Rob: Risky risks. Thank you. That's what I was looking
Melissa: for. It's more of an investment. It's like- It is. ... you know, you're taking this amount of money, it's gonna be tied up for a little bit, but your, the goal is to 10X and that's pretty much what we end up doing with the items because that is the whole point of the business, right?
Absolutely. Absolutely. It's make the money, is to make a profit in your money because you can't really have a business if there's not enough profit there. And that's why we've stuck to this business model because it makes the most sense to us and for the time that we have. And if you're interested in learning more about our business model, we have a free workshop if you wanna check it out.
It's in the show notes below. And thanks so much for hanging out with us.
Rob: You guys are awesome. Have a great day. We'll see you on the next episode.