Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper share what they flipped in April to make $8,420 in sales on eBay.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - April Recap
Rob: What's up flipping fam. We are stoked to talk about April sales in today's episode.
Melissa: We're going to dive into what we sold to make $8,420. And of course, we're gonna dive into all the shipping costs, eBay fees, and of course the profits.
Rob: So today we are super stoked to dive into what we sold in April, to make what was our total? $8,420.
And the coolest part about this was it was only eight items that we sold.
Melissa: So if you're new around here, listening to the podcast or any of our videos or anything, our business model is high profit, low volume. So we don't sell , a lot of items, we just try to sell the ones that are worth a little bit more.
So it just makes more sense for our time involved. And we actually have not spent a lot of time on our flipping business lately.
Rob: We have not, but at an average, over a thousand dollars per item, when we sell eight items, that's a killer deal. We absolutely love those averages. That's what we try to strive for. When we buy something we're actually striving for 10 times our investment back on these items.
And typically we do hit that, sometimes we hit way over that and sometimes we'll hit underneath it, but the majority of it, that's our benchmark that we try to shoot for is 10 times our investment is what we're trying to sell the item for.
Melissa: So one of the coolest things, before we dive into each one, is that our money out of pocket for these eight items was only $117.
Rob: So that is $8,400 in revenue. And we only had to take $117 out of pocket.
Melissa: That's not including all our fees that we have to pay, but that's out-of-pocket what we had to invest in inventory to make that.
So, all right.
Rob: So some of you that don't know how it work, which I think everybody does. What we're saying is we only had to invest that much money into the items.
We didn't have to pay any of the eBay fees, shipping or anything like that until the back end, until the items sold. And until we got paid for it. So out of pocket, $117. Love it!
Melissa: I mean, that's a really big piece of it too, which we're going to talk about too, because getting your items at the lowest cost is so important for your business and it's getting even more important, which we'll touch on it just a little bit.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: You want to dive in?
Rob: Let's do it.
Melissa: All right. So the first one was the stainless valve. This is the second one you sold, right?
Rob: This is the second one. So we picked two of these bad boys up at our local flea market. $10 a piece. I saw them. It's a big, I think it's some type of gas, water, air valve, something like that. But I saw two of them.
I saw they were totally solid stainless steel, looked like they are super expensive. So I walked away. It had a name brand on it. I walked away, did a quick search on it, found out that they were pretty expensive. The ones that weren't stainless steel were worth like $1,700. The guy only wanted $10 a piece for them.
So, quickly walked back, paid him $20 and walked away. Killer deal on that. We paid $10 for it. Sold it for $900. Yeah. So retail on one that wasn't stainless steel, like I said, $1,700. I think the stainless steel ones were over $2,500. So we gave somebody a really good deal at $900, killer deal on that.
Melissa: You had no idea what it was when you saw it, and that happens a lot, but you knew like just the stainless steel in itself was worth money, even if you scrapped it. Right?
Rob: Exactly. A big chunk of stainless steel like that definitely was worth over $10 and it also had a ball valve on it to turn it on and off that was stainless steel.
I knew that alone was probably like $50, $60, at least the ball valve. So even worst comes to worst, I could take that valve off and sell it for probably $40 or $50, make my money back on my $10 investment. But like I said, I did all the research before I knew this was an expensive item, not something that would fly off the shelf because it is very unique. And it took me a little while to sell two of them. This was our second of the one that sold, but still $900. And $1,800 total on this flip that we only pay $20 for. We love those types of flips.
Melissa: And a lot of this stuff has been selling more because of all the back orders and shortages and things taking six months to get.
So people want to get it. So they're turning to eBay to get them.
Rob: Absolutely.
So total numbers, we paid $10 for that boy.
Melissa: Fees were $127.
Rob: $127, what we had to pay eBay to list on their site.
Melissa: $9 for promoted.
Rob: Oh yeah. This was one of our promoted. So we actually had this promoted. It sat on eBay for a little while, I hit on promotion and yeah, it actually sold from promoted listings. So, which is pretty cool.
Melissa: And shipping was $48.
Rob: $48 to ship it. Grand total?
Melissa: $715.
Rob: $715 profit. I love it! Number two?
Melissa: The rear view mirror.
Rob: So we didn't pay anything for this. We recently bought a, well, I say recently within the last, what six, eight months, bought an Excursion.
They had a rear view mirror, that the previous owner bought and he was going to put it in the car. He didn't do it. They gave it to me.
Melissa: Because we don't buy new cars, definitely a previously owned.
Rob: Exactly. So, they gave me the rear view mirror. It was one that has a little screen on it that does the backup camera. Instead of installing it, I didn't want to screw with it. I actually just threw it on eBay. We actually sold it for $115 on eBay, didn't pay anything for it. It was a freebie and then
Melissa: $12 to ship and $12 in fees.
Rob: $12 to ship, $12 in fees. So $91 in profit for something that somebody gave to us, like I said, they just threw it in with a deal.
They didn't have to do that, but they did. They didn't want to mess with it. I didn't feel like messing with it. So we just sold it. Made some good money on it. That one sold really quick to.
Melissa: The Airdyne.
Rob: Number three, this was a Airdyne Schwinn Airdyne exercise bike. I forget what model it was.
I can't remember. I won't even quote it, but it was the one with a smaller wheel on the front. So not their real huge Airdyne. And we sold this sucker, picked it up on our road trip.
Melissa: Last summer.
Rob: Last summer, and had it listed and we sold it for $600. $599 is what I had this bad boy listed for. So sold it and I was going to ship this. The guy who bought it was local. He was only roughly, it was an hour and a half away. Around an hour and a half away. And I started pulling it apart to put it in the box. And realizing that I was pulling quite a few pieces off of it. I let the guy know that before he even bought it, I put it in my listing that it would be taken all the way apart to ship.
I didn't think it was going to be safe to ship that way because of, I figured, FedEx or UPS would probably damage it. And he was only an hour and a half away. I arranged drop-off on this bad boy. So he, shipping was included in this, item for $600. So I ended up just driving it down, meeting up with him, giving it to him.
He was happy with it. It worked out in both ways. Plus we picked up some stuff while we were an hour and a half away. We made the most out of the trip and brought back a paint mixer, that we paid. How much did I pay for that?
$75 or $80. $80 for it. And I'll be able to sell it for a thousand dollars. So, made the most out of our trip down to south Florida and yeah, it was cool.
Killer deal on that one.
Melissa: Have you listed the other one yet?
Rob: I have not. Total numbers on that one we paid $75 for it.
Melissa: The fees were $77.
Rob: $77 fees and shipping?
Melissa: Nothing for shipping. And you could argue that we've had gas money, so maybe four, but we also pick something up. So it was a split.
Rob: Yeah. So not a big deal, but. So I didn't count any money on shipping. If I had paid FedEx or something like that, we would put that in there, but we didn't. So yeah, nothing between the two to pick one up and that's it. And $448 profit on the Airdyne. I love it.
This is number four.
Melissa: Water valve.
Rob: I'm drawing a blank.
Oh yeah. Somebody gave me this. Somebody gave me a lot of, water, these are like water mains. So something you would see outside a water main valves. One of my buddies, rented a lot somewhere and he had a whole bunch of these water main valves that had been changed for whatever reason and they wanted to get rid of them.
And I said, man, let me take them out boys and sell them. So this was like my third or fourth one actually sold, got it for free. He just gave me all these and I still have multiple huge ones, that I need to get listed. They're not listed, but, pick this up for free. I ended up selling it for $400.
$400.
$400. We sold this bad boy retail on and over well, over a thousand dollars. So it gave somebody a great deal. And this one still had a tag on it. I don't think this one was ever installed, but I don't know for sure. We took pictures of it. Like I said, it still had a tag on it. So, killer deal on that. We paid zero for it.
Fees were $52.
$52 in fees to eBay.
Shipping was $98.
$98. Now this was heavy. I think this thing was almost a hundred pounds and I still put it into a box. I debated whether or not shipping it. And I always do the comparison for something like this, whether it was going to be cheaper to ship it on a small pallet or throw it into a box. On a small pallet, cost me roughly $120, box under a hundred dollars. So that's the route that I went with it. So yeah, killed a deal on it. Total profit for that $250. $250 for something somebody gave me. I love it. I totally love it.
Melissa: I was going to add with that bike. I was trying to think the bike that we sold the Airdyne.
Yeah. A lot of people had posted when we picked it up. They you'll never sell that. It's not worth whatever, but, it is an older style bike. It's like the wind, but a lot of people still like it. Like even the Nordic Tracks that we sell, they sell a lot of people still like them, this guy, particular, this was his third one that he had, he already had two and loved them.
So you were trying to tell him something about putting the pedals on and he's like, oh no, I understand. I know it was a manual. You printed off the manual to give to him. And he's like, I got it. I know how these things work. This is my third one.
Rob: And he pointed, he goes, one's over there in the garage. And he had another one sitting in the garage just like it.
So I was like, oh, you got this down. I don't need to tell you anything. You got.
Melissa: So it's just interesting, like, you know, he loves that model. He loves how it rides. I think he's rode a couple of hours a day. Doesn't he? Something like he's an exercise, but anyways, it was just so you never know, like some people just like it, they might not want the newest, best, newest thing.
So they like the groups. So you never know what people, what people love. That's it. All right.
Rob: Number five.
Melissa: Number five was the tortilla grill.
Rob: Picked this up on the road trip last year as well, a killer deal on this. Paid $25 on it. It was either Facebook Marketplace or OfferUp. We bought it on one of those.
Yeah, I did. I picked it up and it was dark. Really, really cool deal. Really cool deal. But only $25 invested into this bad boy. And we sold it for $1,100. Yeah, $1,100 and yeah, there was only one other one that was listed on eBay and they wanted $999 plus they were charting freight on top of it, which was probably another $400 or $500.
So we were cheaper than them beat them out, sold it. Sweet, sweet deal on it. What'd we pay on eBay fees?
The fees were $181.
$181, and this one actually did sell on promoted as well. So we had this one that was promoted.
Melissa: So $39 of that was promoted listings.
Rob: So we had this one on promoted, sold that a total fees with including promoted was $181.
And then how much did we pay to ship it?
Melissa: $93.
Rob: $93, which this actually went in a box. It was a big commercial oven, or sorry, big commercial tortilla grill. And we were able to put it into a box, surrounded by styrofoam. So killer, killer deal on that. Love, love the sale on that.
Melissa: Yeah, it was $801 total profit.
Rob: Sorry, $801 total profit on that.
Yep. Yeah, $181 to eBay, $93 to shipping and then total profit minus, all that stuff was. $801.
Melissa: The baby scale.
Rob: Baby scale. Second, go around on this bad boy, we sold this one. And it would not go from, kilograms to pounds kilograms. It was on kilograms. I didn't think it was a big ordeal.
I sold it the first time and the buyer got it and said, listen, this won't go to kilograms. I felt bad. We actually did take the return on this. I refunded the buyer back.
Melissa: You tested it and it worked but you didn't know that it had to be, couldn't change it.
Rob: You couldn't change it back. So we took the refund, brought it back.
It sat in our office for probably two or three months. And I didn't relist it. Once I relisted it sold in like a week. And I put the note that I put the note that it was in kilograms. I'm sure somebody from Europe bought it who loves reading in kilograms, and they were not upset about it. Shipped that bad boy out, paid $7 for this one.
I actually bought this at our local flea market, and paid $7. Ebay fees were?
Melissa: We sold it for $145.
Rob: Oh, sorry. $145 is what we sold it for. eBay fees were?
Melissa: $19.
Rob: And shipping? $21. Total profit on it?
Melissa: Was $98.
Rob: Just shy of a hundred bucks. So not bad for $7 investment. Love, love the deal for sure. So I think this is number six or seven?
Melissa: Ballast.
Rob: Ballest what was this one? Oh, GE ballasts.
Melissa: You've sold a lot of them.
Rob: I have because of stuff that's on backorder. People can not get these there. They must not be manufacturing them or they're way back ordered. And recently we have made hundreds, I think, over a thousand dollars on these ballasts. The cool thing about it was we did not have to pay anything for these.
We were given a box of these probably I think there's 20 in the box. Given these from one of my contacts, who actually got pallets of these things, and he gave me a box to go get some more, I think he sold the rest of them to somebody else. Yeah, he gave me a box of them to see what we could do with them.
And we sold, like I said, this is probably our 12th or 13th one that we sell actually just sold another one yesterday that I have to ship out. So, but killer deal, they're something, some type of balance for GE lights. I don't know exactly what they are. I had a model that like exactly. So, we sold, somebody bought two of those together.
The total sale was a $160?
Melissa: $160.
Rob: $160 on that we paid how much in eBay fees?
Melissa: $33.
Rob: $33. This was another one that went on promoted. So I'm seeing a trend here, promoted listings, and I don't do it on all my listings, but every once in a while, if sales get a little bit slow, I'll jump in and do a couple of promotions, not always listing a ton of percentage to eBay, but maybe 1% or 2% I'll do it.
And, and this last month, we actually sold three of our eight items, went for promoted. So something definitely worth taking a note. So zero money paid for it, $33 in eBay fees. And then shipping was $14. So total profit on that was? $113. Total profit $113. Love it, absolutely loved the deal on that.
Melissa: Another note on promoted listings, because that is something that if you are seeing slow sales, it might be something that you want to start doing because, it's, eBay wants you to do it, so it might be worth it. But that also comes into where you need to make sure that you're getting your items at enough with enough profits.
Rob: Okay. Exactly. This is where it goes into something that we always preach here is your money is made in your buy. Make sure you are getting these items as cheap as you possibly can. If you're not finding those deals, don't try to get the items that you don't have a lot of profit on because you want to have the capabilities of being able to ship.
And you want to have the capabilities of, if you have to promote it, you can get a little bit more money to use to make the sale. So, yeah, you definitely want to think about that when you're actually out there sourcing those items. So, and number eight.
Melissa: The last one was not sold on eBay. So the last seven were sold on eBay.
The last one was a local sale. It was two jet skis.
Rob: Five thousand dollars, our biggest one of the month, which was $5,000. I actually sold this to my nephew. My nephew wanted it. These jet-skis that somebody actually, I have no money into these jet skis. Somebody gave me, another one of my friends, gave them to me.
They needed a little bit of work. He wanted to get rid of them. He bought brand new jet skis from the dealer. Brought them over, gave them to me and I had to fix them. Now, this is the caveat on this sale. So we sold them for $500 to my nephew, sorry, $5,000. My nephew paid me for them. And then it took me a week to try and get them fixed. And then it turned into two weeks. And then I felt like there was this cloud looming over my head with all the other stuff that I have going on with Melissa and the kids. So I ended up giving my nephew half of the money back and I have not decided yet if I'm actually gonna they're, these jet-skis are worth more than I sold them to him.
He's my nephew. So I gave him a good deal. They're definitely worth more than I sold to him. So I'll either part them out or we'll fix them and sell them again. But I didn't like the cloud looming over my head of these jet skis that I sold before they were ready to go, but I told my nephew pay me and then I will jump on and get the work done on them.
So, this caveat is, yeah, we still working on it. We are, we don't know exactly how this will play out yet. But as of right now, we did sell them to my nephew. He paid us for them. And then we'll figure out what we're going to do with that. So.
Melissa: You're going to finish them?
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: Got a little a fire to get them done?
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: Now we have a couple more to sell too.
Rob: But that's it! Eight sales guys. That's what we did to generate this $8400 in sales and total profits on that were?
Melissa: $7,516.
Rob: $7,516 if you minus out even the jet-skis, if you want to say, hey, I'm going to do something else with the jet-skis we'll throw them into another month. What was our total without that?
Melissa: $2,516.
Rob: $2,516..
So $2,516. You gotta remember this is eight sales. None of these actually were pallet ships. So, this stuff was fairly easy for us to do very, very minimal hours invested into the business, the flipping business, this last month. Killer deal. We love it. No matter what, it's fun.
We absolutely love what we do and we make good profit at it. So love it.
Melissa: I think too, a big thing, like we say, like lately, we really, you haven't been spending a ton of time in the flipping side of the business. We've been doing a lot with the coaching. We just opened up a coaching group that you're doing like one-on-one coaching now.
So you've been spending a lot of time doing that. And so a lot less time spending, but stuff still sells because you've built up so much inventory on eBay. It sells when you're least expecting it. So we might have another sale coming in today.
Rob: We're working on a big one right now for something else that we got for free and then put a little bit of money into it, fixing it.
And yeah, I've been negotiating a deal on that. So that might be in the next month's podcast, statement.
Melissa: But, yeah. So making sure that you have your inventory up, like items listed in a monetary amount listed that can really help your sales and maybe promoted listings if you need to. So if you need to get some sales moving, that might be a good solution.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: All right. That was it.
Rob: You guys rock have a wonderful day. We'll talk to you soon.
Melissa: All right. See ya!