Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about the one life hack that has served them well in their flipping business.
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This 1 Life Hack Has Served Me Well In My Flipping Business!
Rob: What's up, Pro Flippers? On today's episode, we are talking about a life hack that has served me so well in my flipping business. Alright guys, today we are talking about a life hack that has totally served me so well in the flipping business.
Melissa: We're Rob and Melissa with Flea Market Flipper and we are diving into something that has really served you well and it's not just your flipping business, but it's definitely helped in your flipping business too.
So it's something completely opposite of the way I think. So our, our brains, I don't know, however long you've been listening to us or been in around our world or watching any of our videos. But we are completely opposite in a lot of the, a lot of things that we do. Opposites attract. A lot of things we do and think.
So, so what is the one thing that has served you so well?
Rob: So, and we've talked about this on previous episodes too. I don't remember which ones they are right now, but it is the, the thought that if somebody else can do it, I can do it too. And it's a little dangerous to have that type of mindset.
Melissa: You said if one person.
And if just one person has done it before it can be done and I can do it too. So.
Rob: I don't know why I'm wired that way, but I just have to know that it is accomplishable. If I know that, then I know I can work towards it and do it. And I even just think of, we've talked about Roger Bannister.
Is that the guy who broke the four minute mile? And that record stood for, I think, years and decades that nobody could beat it. And once one person beat it, do you know how many more people came and beat it? Yeah. Right after it so that's kind of how my mind is wired I wish I had a good story like Roger Bannister that I could throw in here.
But we have a cool one that I feel like it definitely pertains to this business. But that's really cool for my, my, my mind to be wired that way. And Melissa's is the opposite. So.
Melissa: Yeah, I don't know. Like, I see people do it and then sometimes I'm like, well, they can do it, but that doesn't mean I can do it.
So, I have more limiting beliefs where it's more beneficial to think the way that you think, because then you're going to go run the four minute mile or less than four minute mile. You know, you're going to actually go accomplish these things. You're going to do the things that you want to do. So I have to work through that in my own mindset.
So.
Rob: And I've never run a mile in under four minutes. So it's not a great example, but. What is your fastest? You know, six. Two miles and six minutes a piece. So 12 minutes for two miles. That's what you had to do for soccer, right? And high school soccer. That's what I had to do. So it's kind of cool, but, and there's no way I could do that right now.
But back in the day, that's what I could do. So, but yeah, so one of the stories that it really is cool in our business. And pivotal for our business. Definitely had this not happened, we wouldn't be where we are today with what we do on the high profit, the large items, we wouldn't do it. And yeah, go ahead.
Melissa: No, I was just gonna say, so some of you may have heard this before because it is kind of like one of our biggest defining aha moments of why we do the larger items.
And, we were at a time where, well, I had just had Brody, our third child, and I was like, I'm not personal training anymore, like, I can't, we have three kids, three and under, it's just insane, I have to stay home, I was doing personal training, I had backed off to part time a little more, I still had clients, but I'm like, I just can't right now. And you were still doing homeowners reports, and we're like, it's okay, we'll do the reports, and we'll flip on the side, and I'll help you with the flipping part, that made us most of the money anyway, we didn't really make, a lot of money with your reports.
We just had it for insurance. So, we made the most money and I was like, okay, I can help you with flipping. So we did that. And then, your work tells us a month before we're due that you're losing homeowner's insurance. Or, I'm sorry, health insurance. And we're like, well this isn't good, we're having a baby.
And health insurance ends on, on March 31st. That's our last day and we were due April 1st. And I'm like, well that's not good.
Rob: And I called and said, hey, if she has the baby since we've had insurance, if she has it on the first, is it still covered? And he said, no, it's he he's got to come before the 31st to be covered on your insurance policy, or you guys are gonna be responsible for - they literally told us a month before - tens of thousands of dollars.
Melissa: I feel like that wasn't enough time frame. No, it is kind of crazy. He was born before, we didn't have to do any, like, we were spoiler alert! He was born before the first, so we were lucky there, but anyways. So now, okay, we had to decide, like, well is it even worth it if we don't have health insurance? Really, that's the whole reason you're doing this business, so do we keep doing this or do we go all in with our flipping business? And that's that's when we went all in. That was the our pivotal moment of that going all in but then there was still another issue. We had to still make more.
Rob: And this time we were not doing freight shipping I was doing the larger items that I had I was selling them on marketplace. But I was still limited to who would buy that stuff on marketplace, because it's a smaller market. You can't reach the people you need to reach on marketplace to be able to sell it for what it really is worth so. And that was when we bought a dining room table and chairs. This was a huge set. At an auction. An expensive, huge set. I think there were like 10 chairs. I think there were a buffet behind it. A big like buffet that held silverware and held the leafs in the back of the buffet for the table.
It was beautiful. Beautiful expensive table. We got it for $350. I tried to sell it on marketplace because that's what we did at the time. I tried to sell it on marketplace for $700, I think it was $700 or $750. So $750 could not get anybody. No bites. Nobody wanted it. Nothing to do with it.
No responses or anything like that. So I started looking on eBay because we were selling on eBay, just not, but not the high profit items. High profit items. Well, you were doing some higher profit, but not like, not huge. So, this would be a big pallet if I threw it onto a pallet. So, I started doing some research on eBay, looking at some other tables, and this was a name brand table, so I actually found other tables and saw the retail on the table, and it was a lot of money.
Rob: So I started looking and what I was noticing was everybody who was selling on eBay and offering shipping. They were actually selling these dining room sets and that's when I thought well if they can do it, why can't I? And I didn't know how to do it I'd never done it before and that's when I was like, alright, I'm gonna jump in and do this I think retail on this table in which hindsight 2020 this whole thing looking back I mean the retail on the table the chairs the buffet, well over like $10,000.
I think it was like $14,000 somewhere in that area because it was super, super expensive. And I thought I was stretching when I listed it for $2,200. I was like, I listed it for $750. I can't sell locally for $750, so how am I going to get, you know, $5,000 for it? Something like that. So what made you list it for $2,200?
I don't even remember because of the mindset of. Like you saw the comps that I listed around there? Well, like I said, the retail on the table was definitely over $10,000. I don't remember exactly what it was. But now you would have listed it for more. At least $5,000 I would have done it because I know the potential of it.
So remember, this is all us just working out this trial and error of okay, is this going to work? Let's throw this against the wall and see if it sticks. And it did! It absolutely worked. So instead of selling it for $750, I thought the craziest number I could think of, $2,200, if I got that for it, I'd be super excited and I put it on there, sold it in less than a month, but the best part is I sold it for $2,200, but we also charged an extra $500 on shipping.
Now, any of you guys have known us, you've seen us, we can ship stuff anywhere in the country, even that table, now that I know how to do it, I could ship that table for like $200. Not then I had to figure it out. So I put that high price on a free shipping as well, and we figured it out. We learned how to do it.
We made more money on eBay, selling it on eBay and shipping it freight. And we couldn't make the money anywhere on marketplace.
So that was a pivotal moment.
Melissa: It launched us into the whole new, like we just a whole new world opened up of things that we could sell on eBay because we could offer free shipping and it changed our business. So.
Rob: And the one thing that I had to see was somebody else was shipping stuff and they were doing it and they were doing it well. And then, you know, that put me on my exploration of, okay, how do I get better at freight shipping? How do I package better? How do I ship? How? I mean, it just the whole thing.
And then it's been years and years of trial and error with everything you can think about for freight shipping. And now we've done hundreds of freight shipments all over the country and the world too. We've shipped out of the country, freight shipment. So it's one of those things that that has served me so well to see.
Somebody else do it and then know if it's possible, then I can do it too. So that's that's really my life hack. And like we've said, Melissa is the opposite. So she balances me out. She balances me out a little bit and says, hey, this might not be possible. And I'm like, they did it. We can do it.
Melissa: It is possible.
He is really a big dreamer, but it, you know, like having that mentality, like sometimes you, you just push yourself so much farther because you think you can do it. And then, you know what, even if you don't do it, one time, maybe this time you did it, like, and so your percentages of, what am I looking for doing the thing are a lot higher than if you don't think you can do it at all, and so you don't even try absolutely.
I have to yeah.
Rob: So and like we said it was it cost me I think $450 almost $500 to ship this table, but now if we had done it $200, it would have been so much cheaper, but that's what we've learned. We, we got our feet wet, we learned how to do it and then we got better and better and better. So once you try it, you succeed, you're going to get better.
You're going to learn the shortcuts. You're going to do this and that and get better at it and more efficient with it.
Melissa: So even if you're scared, do it anyway, right? And so maybe we can be those people for you, or at least Rob can, or one of our members can be that person for you, that one person that did it, got it done and you can do it too.
And we do have an upcoming challenge coming up. It starts November. 13th, which might be when this is airing. So it could be today that we're starting or it's Monday and no matter what go grab your go grab your ticket to the flip it for Christmas challenge because we want to help you make your first $500 with your flipping business.
Rob: Yeah guys, we feel like we're doing a disservice if we don't tell you about this. It's gonna be an amazing event. You're gonna learn how to make money immediately, quickly. That is our goal. It is a five day event, five day, five day event. And we're going to walk you through tactics, tactics of how to make money. And this is going to be an amazing event.
Like we said, flip it for Christmas. You guys, if you don't know, Christmas is my favorite time of year. I look. That's the holiday I look forward to every single year. I love it and I know it can be stressful for some people, having to come up with extra money to pay for presents, to pay for holiday festivities and stuff like that.
So we want to try to help you alleviate that. And this is a, it is $7. It costs you $7 to register. You will totally get your money's worth. I'm telling you right now, you will get your money's worth and we're hoping that you make $500. We're going to show you how to do it. You just have to take the steps to do it.
We're going to give you the action steps to do it.
Melissa: So flipitforChristmas.com. Go check it out. We'll put the link below and we hope to see you there.
Rob: You guys rock. Have an amazing day and we'll catch you on the next episode.