Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about the strategy that helped them turn $100 into $5,000 in their reselling business.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - Rob & Melissa On The Strategy That Turned $100 Into $5k
Rob: What's up, guys? On today's episode, we are talking about the one strategy that helped us turn $100 into $5,000 and how you can implement it into your business.
Rob: All right guys. Today we are talking about the one strategy that helped us turn $100 into $5,000 in how you can use the same strategy in your reselling business.
Melissa: That's a little better than, 10 x than that one.
Rob: Yeah, I love it.
Melissa: We like to 10x, but that was a really good one.
Rob: Yeah.
Melissa: So what was it that we sold for $5,000?
Rob: So it was an autoclave. If you don't know what that is, they use it in medical offices. I didn't know what it was. They use it in medical offices, to sterilize, sterilize medical tools, whatever it is, scalpel, scissors, whatever they, yeah, whatever they stick in there, gets it up to a super, they gets it up to a super high.
It's like an oven, a super, super high temperature. Yeah. And then it burns everything off of it and sterilizes it. So, we got this, from a vendor, from a guy, bought, paid, a hundred dollars. He actually sent me a text of, a picture of this. And I started negotiating with him. Didn't know that much about the unit, but he sent me a picture of it.
So I did have the name and I was able to do a little bit of research. I negotiated the price with him, through text, and then I went and picked it up.
Melissa: Didn't he send you the picture from the picture on the side of the road. He was getting it from the side road.
Rob: No, this one was not.
Melissa: I thought he got it from.
Rob: No, this one was not.
This one he got from a business.. Exactly. Okay. So this one actually came from a business and he sent it to me, and I negotiated it. When I got there to pick it up. I was very, very surprised at how heavy it was and how big it was way bigger, than what I expected. So, which was cool because I like, like I said, I didn't have a model number or anything like that. When I'm negotiating deals through text, sometimes you don't get the option to do.
Melissa: Go take a picture of that model number for me.
Rob: Yeah.
So I could look it up. I don't like to do that. So it's one of those things that I got the picture and I saw the name and that was what I, that's what I did the research on, was the name and found out that it was an expensive unit autoclave, it was an expensive one. So, but there's all different sizes.
They make little ones and then they make big ones. And this was a big one. So, super excited when I actually went to pick it up. Got it. And then we cleaned it. I tested it and put it on eBay. We sold it fairly quickly for $5,000 and it was over, I think it was like a $15,000 machine. Very, very expensive.
Melissa: And that's one of the things that when people think here, like what we're selling for, we don't, we're not selling over retail. We're typically at around 50% of retail. That was even less than that. Yeah. So, but we were able to get it at such a good price. So, cause he got it for free.
Rob: Yeah.
Melissa: And made a hundred bucks on you right away.
Rob: So. Absolutely. And he would've taken it had I not bought it he would've taken it and, sent it to the scrap yard and got probably the same price on scrap.
Melissa: Yeah, he could've brought it to the flea market?
Rob: Paid it for, it's possible he taken it there. But that this is a very, very unique item that would've been a hard sell at the flea market.
He probably would've taken it to the scrap yard and scrapped it. So, so you guys might be wondering, okay, what is this strategy? You got me hooked. You took a hundred dollars and you made $5,000 out of the deal, so what is the strategy? Guys, this is huge. This, when we realized this in our business, it took us to the next level, definitely to the next level.
And you guys can implement this strategy as well when you're doing stuff.
Melissa: We talk about this often, it's.
Rob: We do.
Melissa: It's super important in our business.
Rob: So even just yesterday, I went and picked up a couple items, from, so a, another story. We just recently, week had a meeting, with our team.
We had our team come down to Florida, rented a big house and had a great time with them. Had. And it was really, really cool.
Melissa: We were looking for a whiteboard. And you were searching on OfferUp or Facebook?
Yeah on Facebook, I think. Looking for a whiteboard.
And then he noticed that... you got sidetracked by something.
Rob: I did. I, I always, when I'm looking at items, I look at the seller, I click on their face. You can do this on OfferUp, you can do this on, Marketplace. You cannot do it on Craigslist. But you can use it on those two apps. I know you can click on the seller's name or picture or profile, whatever it is, and it will pull up everything else that they have.
Well, when I jumped in and looked at this whiteboard, I was excited about the whiteboard. It was a decent deal. I was gonna offer him, he wanted a hundred bucks, I was gonna offer him $50 on it. Then I had started looking at the other items you had listed, and it had a cappuccino or a espresso machine, and it was a commercial one.
It was a, it, it was a big one. So I forgot about the whiteboard, and then I started negotiating on the espresso machine, cuz I looked it up, found out that there was, he wanted $450 for it. And I found one comparable on eBay that was like $9,500. So $450 to $9,500. I'm like, okay, this is killer. So I shot him an offer just out of, just wondering if he was gonna take it, which I do this a lot of times.
[00:05:00] I sent him an offer for $250. I don't like to go out $450, unless I know, and I don't know how quick this will sell either. So, but he said it worked. It was in an office. They had to get rid of the office, so I kind of figured it was a cappuccino machine in somebody's office. They closed down the office and they were getting rid of it.
Or espresso machine. Sorry, not cappuccino. I think it does cappuccino too. Think it both. Yeah. So, yeah. Makes a couple different things. But, so I sent him the offer of $250. He wrote me back in like two minutes and said, yes come pick it up. So I'm like, sweet. So then I'm starting to look. Look at other items that he's got.
Listen, and he is got some other really, really cool stuff. So I'm like, all right, well note to self, bring more cash, so we can try to make some more deals while I'm there picking up the cappuccino machine, he probably has some more stuff to get rid of. Went and did it. And, he gave me the story that they, they sold the office that they were in.
They had to get rid of all this stuff. They had other stuff, that was in there that they wanted to. So I ended up getting a couple things that day. What else did I buy?
The jackhammers.
Melissa: Jackhammers.
Rob: Yeah. Some, a pneumatic jackhammer, super, super expensive ones with hoses and, got those for paid $250 for the cappuccino.
When I saw the jackhammers, he, I asked him how much he wanted. He said $200. And I said, let me see how much is in my wallet. I'll give you whatever's in my wallet. And I had another $121. I had a, a $1 bill and twenties. And he goes okay, I'll do it. So sure thing sold me two jackhammers.
Melissa: They're trying to get rid of everything.
Rob: They are.
They're trying to liquidate it. So two jackhammers and, two hoses, for $120. The jackhammers are roughly $500 to $700 a piece, hoses roughly a hundred, $150 a piece, so that was it. That's what I loaded in the car we bought. I took the guy's, no, I didn't take his number, but he had some other stuff in there, another cappuccino machine that was taken apart.
And he told me, hey, I, you, you can have this for $50. And I was like, all right, well I don't really have any more room and I'm outta cash, so let me think about it and then reach out to me, you know, in the future. And let me know once you guys have to get it outta here and I'll see if I can do something.
Well, he reached out to me yesterday, which was what, about a week? Yeah, a week. So week after we bought the original stuff. And he is like, cappuccino cappuccino machine is going to the, this is not the one we bought. This is one he had in there that was taking art.
Melissa: You] almost got.
Rob: I almost did.
Melissa: At that point, but we didn't need any other projects now.
Rob: And I didn't have any other money either cause I used all the money in my wallet. So he messaged me yesterday and says, hey, that cappuccino machine is going to the trash today. If you wanna come pick it up, you can have it for free. And I found a whole bunch of attachments to the jackhammers.
The jackhammers. I had found all the attachments to it and I was like, okay, yeah, I'll be there later today. I went and picked it up. And I, I got there jackhammers, he's probably got over a thousand dollars in jackhammer attachments. These are big pneumatic jackhammers, so they weigh probably a hundred heavy, 150 pounds a piece, but all the attachments for chiseling, for drilling, for all kinds of crazy stuff.
Melissa: And he gave those to you, right?
Rob: He gave them to me for. With the jackhammers that I already bought from him. So I got those for free and then I got the cappuccino machine that I'll end up selling for parts, but I got that for free.
And then they're also trying to give me a floor vacuum, or not a floor vacuum, I gotta go back and pick up cuz you don't trash vacuum and some other stuff. And so, and, and I got the guy's phone number this time, and he is like, yeah, we're gonna go outta town tomorrow, but we will be back, next week or something like that and we'll call you and let you know.
And they're to the point where they don't know what to do with this stuff. So they're calling me, telling me, hey, you get it. Have this stuff. They also gave me a copy machine.
Melissa: Oh yeah.
Rob: A huge laser copy machine that it worked and they said it worked and it was low on toner, but they had a brand new toner that just needed to be put into it.
So I'm like, all right, I'll take that for free. And I looked and it was selling on eBay for, they actually, you were selling on eBay for like $500. So they gave that to me for free. So you guys are like, all right, Rob, give me, tell me what's going on. I get all this cool stuff that you're getting.
So how do you tie all this back to this strategy? The one thing that really has helped us in our business is creating contacts, really creating relationships, with sellers, with, vendors at the flea market, people that you see at thrift stores, supervisors, people that you're gonna meet on OfferUp or Marketplace, that might have some more stuff for you.
This is what's changed our business.
Yeah, and
Melissa: I would say you didn't do this right away. Like, so this was something that like you basically never told anybody what you did. You like. We would go to the flea market, go through the stores, just stay quiet, like not tell anybody what we did. And then I guess this was kind of the same time we were jumping in full time and you were being a lot more consistent at the flea market and more thrift stores and more sourcing.
And that's a huge part of it is being consistent. But you started to talk to more people. We go to the same flea market every single Saturday. Yeah, you went religiously. Every single Saturday you're gonna get to know the same vendors that you buy from, like, you know that certain vendors, a lot of them at our flea market, they buy storage units.
So they're buying storage units. Then they just bring the whole lot to the flea market and then Rob gets to go through and see what he wants. And so typically some of the same vendors do that. So you go and you look at their stuff. So now you just create those relationships and then, like they start to know what he's looking for.
So they're like, oh, hey, I have this in my storage unit. Do you wanna come check it out? We've been to other people's storage, like we've gone back with them. You have a couple people that you gone to their storage units and then you get their phone number and then they start texting you, hey, I have this. So in the midweek, when they get something that they know that he likes to buy this random stuff, that not everybody will buy at the flea market, that you're probably a better candidate to buy it than somebody at the flea market.
Rob: Yep.
Melissa: And maybe they can sell it before they even get to the flea market. So it's a win-win for everybody.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: And you don't even have to go sourcing anymore because you get texts to your phone.
Rob: So. Absolutely. So one thing that Melissa definitely hit on was the consistency. You can't build relationships if you're not consistency consistently at a thrift store.
If you're not consistency consistently at a.
Melissa: Say that 10 times.
Rob: Yeah. Yard sale and flea markets. If you're not consistently doing this, you're not gonna see the same people over and over and over to build those relationships.
Melissa: Yep. And I, I was just gonna add too, like even, one of our friends and members Beau, he does shoes and he has a thrift store he stops at on his way back from work a couple times a week. Once a week. I don't know how often he did it. Yeah, a couple times. Like they got to know him, then they would give him the senior discount or they would give him, you know, every time you buy something, every time.
So what if it's like on Wednesdays it gets whatever, he would just always get the best discount cuz he was consistent and built a relationship. Yeah, build relationship with the, with thrift store owner stuff.
Rob: Yeah. So back to the autoclave story. This is one of the vendors that I met at the flea market, probably like five or six years ago when we first really went full time into this business.
And he knows that I resell stuff. It's not like I hide it from him. No, he knows it's, that's what I do. I buy it from him and then I resell it. I make money on it, but it's one of those things that I built a relationship with him. He really has unique, crazy items. To be honest with you guys, I've made over hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars with the stuff that he has sold me.
Melissa: And he gets a lot of stuff for free.
Rob: He does.
Melissa: People call him. He's got contacts. That's another thing. It's like he's got contacts when a business goes outta business out. That's how he got to autoclave. Like they call him to come get it and then he calls you. So it's like it's those contacts. He's created contacts with different people across our area and they know to call him.
Rob: So, Yep. And that just creating those relationships with the people who are in the industry that you really want to be able to get stuff in. It's really huge. And it does boil back down to, like Melissa said, consistency, being in the business, working in the business but it also comes down to I have relationships with thrift store, owners and managers around us that I stop to consistently.
I stop, they start to know me, start to know what I buy, got my phone number and they start sending me messages. But thinking about the difference between this and this will kind of bring it all to a head. The guy at the flea market, that I actually started, I created a relationship with, and I have many people at the flea market that have the same relationship.
But instead of me having to wait to go to the flea market on Saturdays, I get texts all week long from multiple vendors who are like, hey, we just picked this up at a storage auction. Are you interested in it? I ask them the price. I do the research cuz I have the picture, I have the, usually the name of the item that I can go on and do some research on.
And I get first dibs on it before having to compete with hundreds of people that are at the flea market on Saturday. So you can see how this can snowball and you get a couple vendors like this, that you can build these relationships with. And it doesn't have to be at the flea market. It can be somebody to yard seller, just like I said with this guy.
Pick something up off of Marketplace who's got my phone number now and he's getting rid of more stuff and he's gonna call me and he's gonna get me more stuff. It's just creating those relationships.
The thing that I will add about the guy that we just went to yesterday to pick up the fax machine.
Melissa: All the stuff that's in the truck right now.
Rob: The hammer, the hammer drill bits, all that stuff, is he asked me what I did for a living and I was like, to be honest with you guys, I love buying this stuff. I try to fix it and then I'll resell it. So I'm a reseller. He knew that I was a reseller and that did not, They were actually resellers too.
They were, yeah, they were trying to resell stuff and it got too much in a storage unit and they had to get rid of it because they store, well, it was like an office, so they sold the office building and they had to get the stuff outta there but they knew exactly what we did and it did not stop them from calling us and asking us.
Wanted to take it. Absolutely. So, that is the strategy that we want you guys to start thinking about. Keep that in your mind while you're out there sourcing, even if it's on the apps, if it's in person, whatever it is, start thinking about, hey, this person might have some multiple items or be in. The business where they're getting that other guy who I got the autoclave from the contact, he's a scrapper.
So he finds he's got contacts with businesses that he gets stuff for free, and he finds stuff on the side of the road and then he'll take it to the scrap yard. So he's in this business and when you start to find people like that, create the relationships with him, be cordial, be nice, build that relationship, I'm telling you it will pay tenfold in your resale business for sure.
Melissa: It doesn't take years to do. Like, you don't just be consistent for a few months and you can make those relationships and it can happen fast.
Rob: Huge.
Melissa: I mean even and looking when you're scrolling and you find something that you like, definitely always check cause you've done that multiple times. You check and see what else they have listed and a lot of times they will have other stuff listed that is interesting.
Yep. And that you wanna go get to.
Rob: Typically if they're cheap or they're willing to negotiate on the stuff, then yeah, that might be a good person to build a contact with for sure.
Melissa: You've met a couple of scrappers too, that way.
Rob: Absolutely too. Absolutely.
Melissa: I remember, also, oh, you're walking one day and down the road we saw a scrap guy with this big old truck, like he had a whole bunch of stuff in the back of the truck.
He's like, I need to go, I need to go get a hold of that guy and meet that guy.
Rob: Ask him if he'll sell me some of that stuff, and then build that relationship. It's the same thing. So.
Melissa: And you could bring business cards and tell people what you do like at thrift stores or even, you know, flea market or whatever.
And, that could be a good contact too. But you've always just gotten their phone number. They've gotten your phone number and you've exchanged that way typically, but you could.
Rob: Yes. Some people feel funny about telling people that, hey, I'm buying this to resell it, and that's not the information that I offer to every single person that I meet.
Right? If it does come up in conversation, I will tell them, but if it doesn't come up in conversation, I'm not just offering that as, hey, I'm taking this and I'm gonna make a thousand dollars off of you, because I know how to sell it and I know how to ship it. That kind of stuff. We, that's not information that we want to give out, but if it does come to a conversation and they ask me, I'm not gonna lie to 'em.
I'm gonna tell 'em exactly what I'm doing. And if it's a deal breaker for them, then it's a deal breaker. But a lot of times people just wanna get rid of that item. They need to get rid of it, They wanna get rid of it, they're gonna make a little bit of money, whatever it is. So you just have to remember that.
Melissa: So, and a lot of 'em don't even. Or a lot of 'em know that you sell on eBay, they don't wanna mess with eBay. And so they do that. Even the one guy found us on Instagram not that long ago, and now he knows what, what you sell it for. Yeah. He still sells you stuff, so it's not, it's not a deterrent.
Rob: So yeah, I got a call from that guy, one of our contacts on a flea market and he sees our TikToks and he found us one night and I, in the middle of the night, it was like 11 or 12 o'clock, I'm like, what is this guy doing calling me? And I didn't answer the phone. I called him back the next day and he is like, you don't ever try and talk me down. And he's joking with me, but he's like, don't ever try and talk me down.
You're making so much money on this stuff. And I'm like, his is what I do. I make money because I ship it. He still knows it and I still buy tons of stuff from him. Yeah. I still sell, do stuff though all the time. Absolutely. Cuz he knows what we do. He wants his money fast. That's his business model.
Melissa: It's just different. It's a different business model.
Rob: Moving quickly, moving the the merchandise quickly and we'll, we're willing to. Yeah. And take a lot less for it and we're willing to put it to the right market and then sometimes sell it quick and sometimes we'll wait on it a little bit if the profit is there and there's a high profit with it.
Yeah. So that is your biggest strategy guys. Start thinking about how you can make contacts, create relationships with people. And I'm telling you, it will pay off tenfold.
Melissa: I know like we're closing this out, but I thought of one other thing too with as far as relationships and telling even friends and family what you do, like you already have those relationships if you tell them like, hey, I'm, you know, trying to make some extra money if you have some stuff that you want sold. And just by people knowing that, like a lot of my I was a personal trainer and a lot of my clients knew that he sold on eBay. I, we got so many calls and texts still to this day. Like, I, so funny stuff. I gotta, I have good, I had good relationships with them and kept up with them for a long time and they're like, hey, do you want this?
Like, does, does your husband want this? And , So like, we still get those messages and be just because they knew what you did.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: And they don't want to mess with it, and they just want it gone. So we've gotten tons of stuff over the years just by letting people know that what we do.
Rob: Such a great point. Tell your friends, tell your family.
Let people know that you're trying to make a little bit of extra money, and that's definitely will help you as well to create this context.
Melissa: You never know what people have, they just want gone.
Rob: Absolutely, Absolutely. Awesome. So guys, if you have not grabbed your seat yet for The Reseller Summit, go do it right now. It's gonna be an amazing event.
It's coming up very soon. And TheResellerSummit.com. You can go and grab your ticket. We want you guys to totally free. If you wanna upgrade and get some extra bonuses, you can do it, but you can grab the ticket, your seat for total, it's free. You just have to register.
Melissa: So we are gonna have such a fun time.
We kick off with our welcome call, welcome party call on a Monday, October 24. And where we're giving away a hundred dollars Amazon gift card to somebody who's watching live who shared the event. So if you share the event with your friends, give us a little snapshot of where you shared it on Instagram or wherever you share it.
And yeah, let us know and we'll put you in the drawing.
Rob: So, so exciting. Over 20 resellers. Guys, it's gonna be so much fun. Phone flippers, plant flippers, business aspects of it. It's just gonna be a whole bunch of amazing people presenting at The Reseller Summit. We're so excited.
It's our second annual one. Super excited to, to be a part of it.
Melissa: Just to go down. I guess we just did this the last time we went through all the people that we had, but like, it's gonna be cool. Go check it out. Go check out all the speakers cuz we got some really cool people that you probably already follow on YouTube and we got some amazing presenters. Yep. So definitely check 'em out.
Rob: Go grab your seat. We will see you guys there. Have a great day.