Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about buying a billboard.
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We Just Bought A Billboard
Rob: What's up, pro flippers. On today's episode, we are talking about how we just bought a billboard.
Rob: So we bought a billboard. What?!
Melissa: Against my better judgment, not wanting to do this. We are now proud owners of a billboard.
Rob: So you guys might be like, all right, what are you advertising on a billboard?
Are you buying and selling a billboard? What are you doing? So it's pretty cool. We actually bought the parts of a billboard, a electronic or a digital billboard that you might see.
Melissa: Are they LED screens, right?
Rob: Yes. So they've been popping up for years now, all over the side of interstates and stuff like that.
So they're LED screens. Multiple different advertisers can advertise on these billboards. And yeah, so we got the panels. The cool thing about it is it's not like this huge 20 sign by a hundred foot sign that you have to do. Billboards are created by small little panels and these are 12 by 12 panels is what it is.
12 inches by 12 inches. And we bought, hold on, let me figure out how many exactly. Bought 260 for the one and I think over 60 for the other one. So what is that? 320, roughly 320 panels that are 12 by 12s.
Melissa: Yeah. So the trailer comes rolling home the other day, with a tarp over it. What is, what is underneath this trailer?
I walk out, what did you buy? That's pretty much how the day goes a lot of days. What on earth did you buy? So.
Rob: So we have a couple different ways to lean into this. We want to show you guys some cool lessons, lessons out of this whole ordeal. But yeah, we did get a billboard, parts of a billboard. And.
Melissa: But is it enough for a full billboard, right?
Rob: It is enough for a full billboard, but it does not have the components. You have to have the electronic, the, I'm assuming the, like the receiver that plays the different things. You have to have the cords that connect all the different,
Melissa: so this is just the panels.
Rob: Panels. All it is is the panel. So that's all that we bought and that's how we're selling them. They are gonna sell them as. Untested for parts or repair. That's one of the things that we do for items that we can't test before we sell them. And we do sell stuff like that. We've sold stuff in the past like that, which is cool. We'll talk about that in just a second as well, but yeah, there's a couple lessons throughout this whole thing about the whole process. So, okay.
Melissa: So first of all, you come rolling out home with the billboard, but how did you find this billboard? Was it on marketplace? Was it on at the flea market?
Yep. Like where'd you find it?
Rob: Such a great question. So this is actually one of my contacts. You guys know if you've been here for any amount of time.
Melissa: We talked, we recently dove deeper into contacts on our recent episodes. So.
Rob: On the podcast, yeah, we definitely preach contacts will change your world if you can start creating those contacts and those relationships with people that are reselling stuff, it will change your world. And this is just proof of it. This guy that I, met at the flea market years ago, I started slowly but surely building a relationship with him. Now I go to his house, pick up stuff, he gets stuff all the time, sends me pictures of stuff throughout the week, and I can do that.
And he shot me pictures of these, which is pretty cool. He started out at a thousand dollars for these LEDs that he had and it, like I said, around 320 single pieces that he had all in boxes. He had them all and he started out at a thousand dollars and I didn't take it at a thousand dollars.
He asked me after a week, he didn't have anybody else he could sell to and he asked me, hey, what will you pay for them? And I said, listen, I'll give you $500 for them. And he said, okay, come get them. So I talked him down to $500. Got them. And we have the one billboard listed for, or the one matching panels because they're two different sets.
60 of one and the other one has 260 if I'm not mistaken.
Melissa: So it a small billboard and a large one, or it's just parts to a billboard. For the second one.
Rob: It's, I think, parts for interchanging. And I think the second one is more of interior stuff. So LED panels right now, they're different types.
They're, they're types, that you can only see a long distance away and it's clear that way. Or they're the ones that you can stand five foot from and it actually is like a TV screen. It.
Melissa: Like the screen yesterday we played on for, at the games. Yes. Was one of the close ones.
Rob: Close ones, okay. So the one that made are made up for billboards.
The LEDs are a little bit further apart on the panels and it, it's made so you can only see stuff if you're far off and looking at it. So but the, the, the interior billboards that they use for like, video walls and stuff like that, that those are a little bit different. That's what this one, 60 panel is, which will make still a nice, video wall.
It would still make a nice wall.
Melissa: Which you wanna do, you
Rob: absolutely.
Melissa: If you wanna make a Pacman or, or some kind of game with it, that would be pretty fun.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: But that's what somebody would do with it, right?
Rob: Absolutely. It's for interior, the interior use versus the other ones that are made for exterior use for something like that.
So, we paid $500 for all of them. The first set we listed for $10,000 just for the parts. And like I said, all it is is the panels. It's not the cables, it's not the receiver, it's not any of the other stuff that goes with it. So somebody will have to actually get it, test it, make sure everything's working properly, and then they'll put it into use.
But they'll somebody who has the capabilities of doing that. So. A normal billboard like this is $400,000 to $500,000 just for the, the billboard itself, not for the panels, for the billboard, for the connections, all that stuff. That's what you would have to pay if you wanted to buy the billboard and all the components with it.
$400,000 to $500,000. This one, $10,000, a very small price to pay for these LEDs to be able to get them, repair them if they need to be repaired, get the components, put it all together. So that's what we did. The other set I had don't have it listed yet. I have it pictured, but I just haven't done it. The listing yet, for the 60 that we have roughly, I'll probably list those for half the price for $5,000.
So we spent $500, we have $15,000 of inventory on that $500 investment that we have.
Melissa: So I wanted to ask more about the parts of repair. So, cause I legitly have these questions too. So when you go and you list the the for parts of repair, somebody knows they're for part, so they know that there's a possibility they don't work.
You can't test them. They might not work. Some of them might work, some of them might, might not work, but it's worth it to somebody to spend that much money and they might know how to repair. So it's somebody who probably knows how to repair this stuff. Yes. And they know like, if this part's wrong, then I need to replace this or whatnot.
So, and they just need the extra parts.
Rob: Absolutely.
And say that there's, there's a couple cool things to listing stuff for parts of repair. Typically when you list something for parts or repair, the buyer has no recourse on you. They know that this is not a working unit, or they're buying it knowing that it's not a working unit, it is being sold for parts.
So that's one cool thing. You don't have a lot of repercussion for somebody buyer coming back and saying, hey, I plugged this in. It didn't work. Guess what I told you? I didn't test it. I don't know if it works. So I'm not gonna be held for that. I, I don't have to take a return on something that I clearly state has not been tested and it's being sold for parts or repair. So that's the first cool thing about it. The second thing is, yeah, absolutely. We were unable to test this, this stuff. It could work, it could not work, but I have no idea. I don't have the capabilities of, and normally I can't test a lot of stuff. I will test a lot of stuff before I sell it.
Melissa: Appliances, you'll test.
Rob: Yes. These have a, two holes in the back with tons of little pins in it, and you have to have the proper capabilities to be able to hook them up, test them to see if they actually come on. So I don't, I just, I physically can't do it. Now, I could probably pay somebody, I could go find in somebody to do that, but that's just a little bit more work.
Yeah. Yeah. Right now, I'd rather just turn a really good profit and give somebody a good deal because, these units probably would be, the 260, I would assume would be in the area of a hundred thousand dollars if you're just gonna buy, that's not worked, working, ready to go brand new. That's probably in the, in the the area that it would be at or around that, that's what I would assume would be about $100,000, maybe even a little bit more. So at $10,000, somebody's taking a risk on it, but somebody who knows how to repair, check these, check them out, and all that kind of stuff, it's not that big of a risk at all.
It's a really, really good deal for them.
Melissa: So they might want, they might want certain parts that this one, absolutely. That work on this one and don't, don't work on the other one side.
Rob: Which leads this into another point I can't ask. a ton of money for these, being that I don't know if they work, there's a possibility they couldn't work and there's a possibility they can, but I don't know anything about them.
So that's one thing that you, the buyer's taking that risk, but at the same time, they're getting it for, you know, pennies on the dollar of what it actually would cost to actually buy the new ones. So.
Melissa: Yeah. And then listing for parts or repair also protects you as a seller. If somebody were to come back and say, well, the, it doesn't work.
Well, it, it was listed for parts or repair because I don't know if it works. It's just for, it needs to be repaired. Yeah. Like that's the whole point of parts or repair. It's so that you can use the parts that do work on it or, you know, it needs to be repaired and fix something. So.
Rob: One of your big questions you might even be thinking about right now is eBay has the 30 day money back guarantee for buyers.
Will this hold up? Absolutely. We've had this hold up before. For us, when we do list it for departure repair, somebody can not come back and say, hey, this doesn't work. Guess what? It was sold for departure repair. You guys can clearly see that when you're looking at the item.
Melissa: Some people don't read the entire listing is the problem, but.
Rob: But this is actually the category.
So I know you're listing it in the category and you're stating it in the description as well. Right. So there's plenty of information out there, knowing
Melissa: It's on them if they still buy it, and then they thought it was in good working commission.
Rob: Yes. So this is one way to get around eBay is a lot of people are like, I don't like taking returns.
I don't like have to do this. This is one way to get around it is you, if you list it in the category, make sure you don't, you have multiple categories you can list it in refurbished new, I think new other. Yeah. Used, I think it starts out with new, used refurbished, or departure repair. Those are typically, a lot of the categories have those four options that you can choose.
This is where you wanna make sure the category is, or the, the option is for departure repair because it is being sold as untested.
Melissa: Yeah. And we've, yeah, like you said, we had, have had that happen and people just don't, I don't know if they don't read or what, but we've also sold a lot of things that people were perfectly fine with and for parts of repair because you don't, you don't know who is buying that. How many times do you know, like you were going on for parts, like people just know need something. Yeah. They have a working machine and they need. One part off of that machine or something. So, they'll buy it for parts. And like you said, you can't list it for as much money.
So like we have some people also our members, you know, we do a lot of appliances and cooktops and whatnot, but they some of them don't want to or they can't test and they haven't set themselves up to test, but they can still sell it untested. You know, you can say that it came out like the previous owner said it was working.
Yep. You can state all that, but you can still sell it as untested. And you just have to sell it for less. So.
Rob: Absolutely. You're not gonna get as much as you could as if it was in working condition and you we were able to test it and show that it was working. Yeah. So, so.
Melissa: Yeah. So yeah, I was trying to think of the, we've sold those water heaters was like a $5,000 purchase. A lot at the time, right?
Rob: We did. I think we sold six or eight of them in one shot. Shipped on a pallet to somebody. Yeah. Four parts or repair. Because I did not test them out. I had no idea if they were working. He actually came back for a return, on those because he said that they didn't work after that, and I won the actual case because, we sold them for departure repairs.
So he opened up the case, couldn't win it through eBay. And then after he lost the case through eBay because of how we sold them, he went to his credit card and had his credit card open up a case. eBay came back and said, listen, we can't win this with a credit card. I think eBay's a little bit lazy on the backside of when they need to fight credit cards for sure.
Melissa: That was when it was still PayPal though.
Rob: So still it's, they're a little bit lazy on the, yeah, I don't know why they couldn't win it though. I don't know if lazy is the right word, but they have all the information to win a case. And they chose not to provide the credit card, all the information that they needed to, and I don't know why they do this, but they wrote me and said, hey, we had to pay this money back to the guy.
The guy said it was a fraudulent charge, which is just insanely, and you had going back and forth a whole bunch. So messaging from him when you bought it, you back, you had all the proof that you could win this super easy. So anyways, eBay wrote me and said, hey, this did not go in our favor. We had to pay the credit card back, but we're not charging you because we, you already won the case through us. So that was like five years ago. It was, it was a while back. And so they're, they just let me know, hey, we had to pay out all this money to, to pay off the credit card, but you're still scot-free. You didn't do anything wrong and all that kind of stuff.
So, but that's one of the perks to selling them without testing them and for parts or repair. And like I said, these were sold for a lot less money probably he got six or eight of them for the cost of one new one because they were sold for parts or repair. So if, if somebody could repair them, if they needed to be repaired or test them, I had no idea how, what kind of condition they were in and that's how he bought them.
Melissa: That's, I don't wanna scare anybody for selling stuff parts and repair. People don't always come back for returns. I, that's probably the one that I can think of that was sold for parts or repair. That was a, a big return.
Rob: Most people have an understanding of what they're getting and they know why they're getting it for pennies on the dollar.
Melissa: Was the ice cream machine, parts or repair because you couldn't test it. The big one, the three phase one.
Rob: No, I actually sold that one used. I don't think I did parts or repair on that.
Melissa: But you didn't test it? You said it.
Rob: I didn't, but that actually the buyer picked it up in person.
Right. And inspected it before he got it. Okay. And I listed that one as this the previous owner told me there's nothing wrong with it. She just didn't have the power in her facility for it. So no. No issues with returns, no asks for returns, but I don't think I sold it for parts of repair. He just bought it as.
Melissa: The pool pump you did parts or repair.
Rob: Pool pump. I did. $2,000? $2,000 and that guy I shipped that one to I think I went to California, from Florida to California and it went and the guy never picked it up as far as I know. A month later, the terminal called me and said, hey, where's your buyer? He never picked this up.
And I said, hey, I have nothing to do with it. I got it too. I got my payment for it and I have nothing to do with it. But never came back. I never had any requests, return requests, but that was sold for parts and repairs as well.
Melissa: I'm trying to think You've sold a lot of things for parts and repair.
Rob: We have, and we've, we're just telling you the ones that we're thinking about that actually had something come back and they say it, but we still won the cases, so it's.
Melissa: But there was a, there you've sold a lot and then nobody ever says anything, so. Yeah, absolutely. I'm trying to, I don't know. There's a lot. But if you can't test it or it's only parts, like people do need parts. And this is a little bit off topic because you don't know what people need and they, they're looking for, and eBay is usually the place to find it.
What people buy one shoe. Like I didn't know, like this is like, you can list one shoe and it can sell. I remember because the dog ate one of those nice shoes. Yeah. That I, he chewed it up and I posted it in the group and Beau was like, you could, people have, some people have one foot and you can still sell one shoe. I'm like, wow. Like you don't know what, don't worry about that. You don't know what people will buy. Absolutely. So what people need, they need a part. You have the part, here you go. That's it. So that's it. There you go. So anyways, awesome, so thanks guys so much for listening. Hopefully, yeah, you found some of our stories helpful.
We got a billboard and now it's time to sell it.
We'll keep you posted. When that bad boy sells, we will do another story, another podcast episode on it. For now, it's $10,000. Absolutely for now that's where we're at. So you guys rock. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today, and we will see you on the next episode.