Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper share what they sold in April to make just under $2,000 with a 70% profit margin.
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Rob: What's up, pro flippers? Guess what last month's numbers are in? And boy, were we surprised.
Rob: So today we are talking about last month's numbers and we were very, very much surprised at what the sales came in at.
Melissa: I wouldn't say really surprised because you didn't have, you didn't list, so, and we, we were doing a lot of other stuff, so we knew that probably sales would be a little bit lower.
Yeah. And we were coming off a pretty high month and typically like three months typically. You list, fulfill, like it's a circular. Yeah. And then you fulfill, and then you got a list again and you didn't do that second part or that third part or whatever it is.
Rob: So, so the good news is our profits are through the roof, which we love a 70%.
What did you figure? Around 70%.
Melissa: Around 77% profit margin.
Rob: So, which is amazing. We love that when we're able to do that in business, most businesses are running on very, very low profit margins. We're up 70%, which is amazing. We love that.
Melissa: But after coming off a $19,000 month, last month, we're gonna go with that.
We went with about a 10th of that this this past month. So we're at $1,975 for the month, and that was four items that we sold. So we're gonna dive into. What we sold.
Rob: Absolutely no, still four items. That's not bad. Love it when we can sell four items and make almost $2,000 and like I said, at a 70% profit margin.
That's amazing. That is totally awesome. So.
Melissa: And one cool thing is we only went $15 out of pocket for all the four. $15. Because one of 'em we got for free. So the first one was what we paid $15 for, and that was the stroller that you got at the flea market, for $15. It was a, a jogger, but an older kind of jogger.
But it was a, the way the wheels detached and it was a different.
Rob: It was made for speed. Yeah. So they make newer joggers that have swivel wheels. This had a fixed front wheel, and I think it was a baby jogger from,
Melissa: for people who are serious runners that are running with a stroller.
Rob: It was fast with a stroller, it was all aluminum.
Melissa: I don't like the fixed wheel when I run.
Rob: Super, super light. It was a very, very nice stroller. So, and it was old, but it, it definitely a vintage store. I would assume from like the nineties. Which is not really vintage, but you know what I mean.
Melissa: It is vintage.
Rob: Is it really? Yeah. So, you know, 20, 30 years old, but still in pristine condition.
Very, very beautiful stroller. Got it for $15 at the flea market. Sold it, it did sit for probably a couple months on eBay. But it was a higher price. We, we sold it for $500? $500. $500, paid $15 for it, sold for $500. I knew the value was there when the right person came along because it was a very nice stroller.
And yeah, we just waited till the right buyer came. And totally, yeah, it is a sweet stroller, so killer deal as well.
Melissa: And eBay fees were $68 plus $11 promoted listings. So you had it on promoted listings.So total profit was $316. So, oh wait, sorry. Shipping was $90, so that was a good chunk to ship.
So it was sometimes, it almost cost as much as it going on a pallet.
Rob: It does, and I kind of estimated on this, I figured it was gonna be about $50 or $60 on shipping, because we did do free shipping on it. Yeah, and I figured that, but I think this one, if I'm not mistaken, it went from Florida and I think it went to up in California or Washington, somewhere up there.
So it was by far the furthest away. Had it gone to any of the closer states, yeah, we definitely would've been $50 or under, but that's the, the luck of the draw. Sometimes you take that risk when you do flat rate shipping or you do free shipping. You take that luck of the draw and still, we, I, I knew I had profit, we knew the profit was there, so it would be okay to be able to do this.
And yeah, it still is a, a sweet, sweet sale for sure.
Melissa: Yeah. Alright, number two. The next one was the humidor.
Rob: Humidor.
This is really cool. It's a cool humidor, which I had no idea until I got this how expensive humidor can really be. They can go on the upwards and this wasn't a big one, a very small one in the upwards of thousands and thousands of dollars for humidors, depending on where they're built, how well they're made.
But totally, totally. It was a cool humidor and we didn't pay anything for it. Helped a person move some stuff around and do a little bit of work at somebody's house. And I was able to, they just, they had stuff they wanted to get rid of, so they wanted to get rid of it. And they said, hey, do you want this?
And I said, absolutely. So we got it. We listed it and yeah, we sold that for a thousand bucks. Got it for free. Sold it for a thousand bucks.
Melissa: eBay fees were $135 and shipping was $30. It was a small one, so very small, $30 . So profit was $835 on that one.
Rob: $835. Love it.
Melissa: Look at what would be something that makes a humidor more expensive versus another one?
Rob: I think the way they're built.
So and, definitely brand name and I, off the top of my head, I can't remember what brand name this was. Do you remember? Did you write it down? No, I can, no. Okay. But anyways, yeah, it, it, it was built really, really well, very well constructed, very good wood laminated on the tops. I mean, it's just a beautiful humidor, but very small wasn't that big at all.
So, yeah, and we can put, a, a link in or notes to the brand because you can look out for these brands. I just can't. Yeah, we'll put it in the description. In the, yeah, I just can't remember the name of it, but definitely if you find them for a good deal, they're worth some money. And some of 'em, like I said they have, they, they make bigger ones like this and thousands and thousands of dollars.
Sometimes people will pay for them and it depends on the design, depends on the, the type of wood, the finish and all that kind of stuff. But definitely you can go in and find some comps before you buy one. Make sure that you're gonna be able to make some money on it, but still killer deal for us.
Melissa: You have another one that's a bigger one that's not worth that much.
No, but it's, it's not because it's just the quality and?
Rob: It is definitely the quality of the wood. And it's not an actual brand name humidor, so it is a lot bigger. It actually is on legs. So it's almost like a little table, piece of furniture. Yeah. Yeah. So that one is not worth as much. I have it listed for the same price, but if it was apples to apples, this thing would be probably a $4,000 or $5,000 humidor versus just selling it for like $500, because it is a, a less quality than the one we just sold.
So. Interesting.
Sweet number three.
Melissa: The Stryker attachment.
Rob: So the, so when we, you guys might remember Yeah. The, our first three months killed it on those Stryker stretchers. Still have one left, but it's not listed right now.
Melissa: Oh, so that's why we didn't have a sale this month. Exactly. It's not listed.
Rob: It's not listed. So, but we got a couple of those Strykers we sold without any attachments on them. Then they came with attachments, so I pulled some of the attachments off so I could sell them separately. This was just a little tiny bag. I mean, this thing went into a little tiny padded envelope, and that's how we sold it.
But Stryker stuff is expensive. No matter if it's a stretcher, no matter if it's a, a brand named bag, if it's an attachment. So they have IV attachments that go on them. They have alt air, oxygen attachments that go on them. So all those things, they're worth a lot of money when they're brand labeled Stryker.
So, like I said, I pulled a couple of those off of the Strykers that we sold without, any attachments on them, and we sold one of the bags and sold for $175. $175?
Yeah. Cool. Sold for $175. So no money into that. Yeah. Pulled it off of, I mean, we, we, we, 10 times our investment on the Strykers. Even more than that.
Melissa: Yeah.
We already counted that money for what we spent on what we spent on the other one, strikers we didn't like. Yeah. So this would just be free.
Rob: Yeah. This one didn't have any money coming off of it. So free, like I said, just a little tiny bag. We pulled it off. We sold for $175. Killer deal on that as well.
What were the fees?
Melissa: eBay fees were $22 and shipping costs $14. So it was just a small little one went into a little envelope, so, yep. Killer deal. And then the last one was the bicycle that we got from the trash. So.
Rob: Bicycle out of the trash. Not a bicycle, a exercise bike, sorry, the exercise bike.
So this was pretty cool. We were on a walk and typically, I mean, these can go both ways. You can look at it and can be be a piece of junk, to where it's not a super expensive exercise bike, and this could have gone either way. I looked at it and it was a weird design, so I thought, and it was really made, they're made for like, standing desks, like what's in front of Melissa and I right now.
So you can work at your desk, sit on the pedal thing and pedal while you're working. That's what it was really, set up for small compact, but you can slide it underneath the desk and just sit there and work while you're at at work or at the house, whatever, wherever you wanna use it. So it has a, that capabilities.
I was super surprised when I got it. Melissa definitely had her reservations thinking that it was a piece of junk and it wasn't worth that much money. But when I got it, I found the brand name. I thought maybe $50. You'd get $50 on Facebook. It's kind of what it's like. All right. I mean, which you can't complain about $50.
Yeah, absolutely. $50 in the trash. Absolutely. So, but we did. Yeah, we'll talk about that in a second. But we did get it. I checked out the brand name and I think it was like a $500. And it was an Amazon brand, so it wasn't even like a life, fitness or commercial brand by any means, but it was an Amazon brand and they were selling for five, five, $500 new, $500 new.
So I listed it, what did I sell it for? $300, $300, $300. So $299. And I included shipping in that. But yeah, that was the biggest thing is yeah, we got it for free. I cleaned it up. Oh, I did have to do a little repair on it, so I think that's why the people threw it away. Underneath the seat there's an adjustment on the seat.
It would go up and down. And that adjustment was broken, so, I ended up having a piece of, a plastic, like a scrub brush that I had. I cut the handle off of it, painted it black and stuck it up underneath it. Put a washer in there. Yeah, put a washer in it. Got it in there, got it worked. Works perfect.
No issues with it. Put it all back together. And yeah, that was the only repair that I did do to it. Not, it didn't take me super long with it, but I did it and we were able to sell it for $300. So something out of the trash didn't cost me any money. I had, like I said, it was an old scrub brush, a plastic scrub brush handle is what I used.
I just cut it off with a saw and, rounded the edges so it looked nice and painted it black. Painted it, yeah, paint painted it black. Had black spray paint here. So I didn't have to go and buy anything. And we were able to sell it for $300. So, what were the total, total numbers on this one?
Melissa: eBay fees were $40.
Shipping was a little more, it was $120. So that ate into our, it did costs a little bit.
Rob: So it got me on that because I was expecting that I could pull the pedals off cuz it's a very narrow bike. So I was expecting I could pull the pedals off, get it into a tight box and not have any issues. And I figured, I figured roughly $50, maybe $70 at tops.
And I think this is another one of those, the ones that went across the United States. Again, we've been selling stuff to, California and and Washington like crazy. So I have a feeling that one, that also went very far and that's why it cost me more money on the, the shipping as well.
Melissa: So profit was $140 when we probably could have just sold it locally for like $150 and, and it might have sold for $150 locally.
Rob: Well, we tried to sell it. I think I even had it listed on market. I had it listed. I know I, well, you had to list and we tried to sell it at the yard sale and I was trying to get $50 for it in the yard sale, and I couldn't sell it for $50. It's true. It's true. So I put a little bit of work into it.
Well, I had it fixed at the yard sale too, but it caught, I mean, it took me a little bit of time to ship it out. I had to create a box and that kind of stuff. So, absolutely. I mean, it still for $140 worth time. Absolutely.
Melissa: So, yeah. And so don't negate stuff that's on the side of the road. We've found thousands of dollars on the side of the road.
Yeah. And they don't always need anything like, I mean, we've, bed frames furniture, like that's perfectly good. The other day we were walking home and I saw, the garbage men were putting in like a dresser. And I'm like ugh. It just makes me sad that it's like crunching up the dresser. And I know like it could have life.
Somebody could give it absolutely a new life, but cuz the stuff does go to the landfill people, some people on, social media, you know, gotta love social media get, they're like, oh, you're, you shouldn't be taking, I don't know, people get mad about everything. Yeah. So, but if you can really give it new life and you know, make some money in the process.
Rob: Why not keep it out of the landfill too? So that's an amazing portion of our business. So, yeah, we gotta pull a couple things out this month. And the cool part, like I said, profit margin, roughly 70% profit margin. Let me talk, let me, so go ahead.
Melissa: So our total was $1,975, just under two grand. Cost of goods was $15. Woohoo. eBay fees were $265. And then the $11 for the promoted listings. Okay. And then shipping cost was $254, which, which brings our profit to $1,430, so just under $1,500, which I, I looked at the correlation. So last month, we did a video on there too and a podcast episode.
It was $19,000 that we sold and about $15,000 profit, which is right around that same, in the same, same, yeah profit margin only. It was 10 x, so it was 10 times. It's a lot more money or, or 10%. But so we're, we stay around hovering on that seventy, that that profit margin. Yeah. Which is pretty cool to just see that and the like.
It's almost the same numbers, just add a zero.
Rob: Well, the exciting part about this month too, guys, to be honest with you, to create this $2,000 or $1,500, I spent definitely less than five hours this last month just working on the business. We haven't listed anything other since January exactly when we did those stretchers, those were the last things we listed and I just sailed on that and I mean, you're talking what, 40, 50?
I don't remember exactly what the revenue is, but it's, it's crazy revenue for the last three months of just having to fulfill what I actually listed then you just took a break. Absolutely. Took a break. And, well, we work on podcasts, we work on videos, we do other stuff. So yeah, we focused on that a little bit.
Exactly. So now I gotta jump back into getting some stuff listedI gotta get some more stuff, listed so we can get some more sales coming in. Create some more. So it's just a circle of life. It's pretty cool. But like I said, I didn't have to work my butt off to create this income. Very, very low time spent towards this, which is amazing that we're able to do that and we're able to even focus on the other things that are important the last couple weeks for school.
We're coming to the end of the school year for our kids. Man, we feel like we live at school. We're at field day, we're at awards day. I mean, we're at school almost all day with the kids doing stuff, chapel every week. And we have the freedom to do that because of our business. It's very, very cool to be able to do that, still make money while you're doing that, so, absolutely.
Melissa: I think a big key to that though, too, like one takeaway, from that is because, you are able to make that without listing anything this month or since January. Really? Yeah, because you have a big, you have a lot listed. So compared to a volume seller, we don't have a lot listed.
We have a lot monetary listed. Yeah. What would that be the right word? We have a lot of money listed, but what inventory cost wise you have around a 80 to a hundred is what you try to keep at your items are item wise, but that's close to.
Rob: I think we're hovering around $200,000 in inventory. Yeah. So that's what, that's working for us.
Melissa: I think. So what some people get stuck on is, especially if when you're starting out, so you go and you list something, like you list 20 items maybe. And I mean, that can be a lot. You list 20 and then you just wait for those things to sell and you just wait, but you just gotta keep adding on to that.
Just keep going. And the more you do, you build up that inventory stuff will start selling. Absolutely. And then you just build out, like a, Stacy says in our group, I, I'm listing for this month, what my payday's gonna be next month and like you just build up and then stuff will sell. That has been listed for a little while.
Yeah. Because, yeah. So I don't, I think it's just important to keep growing that inventory.
Rob: Absolutely. And you have to remember too, once you get something listed on eBay, eBay will take some time, but they'll start to get that stuff put into Google searches. So people will be out there Google searching something that you have.
And if it's items like we do, they're high profit items, high dollar items, typically. But people will do a search on Google and eBay will throw the link in there or throw that picture and that listing in there on Google, so somebody can go from Google. But that can't happen overnight, right? Sometimes it might take a couple weeks before Google actually gets it registered into the, I mean, eBay gets it registered where it starts to gain that headway of SEO. I don't even, yeah, we shouldn't even talk about that. But it's just, it gets some headway after it's in there for a little while.
Melissa: Not talking about, because you're not sure, like all the?
Rob: No, I don't it out. I, I know it's called seo, but at the same time, I, I know it's algorithm stuff, which, that's what I use a big word that I have no idea really what it is, but something on the back end of the eBay that calculates stuff.
Anyways, all that being said is sometimes you have to have stuff listed for a little while before it can get to the right people. So, definitely don't get frustrated if you get 20 things listed and you're like, all right, I gotta sell one of these things before I do anything else. Right. Keep going with it.
The more that you get consistent with your listing, the more consistent your, your paychecks are gonna come in.
Melissa: Yeah. And eBay does love the activity. Even just, so yesterday, I, I haven't helped the kids. We haven't done anything with the kids account in a long time. There's just been stuff there.
I haven't even logged into that account. And then I was worried, it's supposed to go to my email, and then I'm like, what if I missed a sale? And I did, like, I haven't turned it off. There's like 10 things listed in there. And then I've, I didn't have the notification since my phone went swimming last, a month ago, I haven't had eBay notifications.
I'm like, crap, what if something sold? And I didn't know. So I logged in because I wanted to actually buy something. I bought something and the next day one of the items sold. And I'm like, all right, well I guess good thing I have the notifications on for one. But, but yeah, I mean, just eBay loves activity. That thing has been listed for a year at least.
So, and then it's sold after I go in and I buy something. So they definitely love activity. I mean, that's not a very, like, it's not cut and dry. No, it doesn't always happen. It doesn't always happen. And I'm not saying like, you're gonna go list something and or buy something and you're gonna go sell something.
Yeah. But they do like activity. Yeah. And it does, it does show. So, absolutely. So anyways, awesome. So that was a total for last month. Yeah, we, I mean, yeah. For what, for the amount of work you put into it. So now I gotta list and then get ready for summer. That's it. So, so yeah. So. Thank you guys so much. Absolutely. For listening. We would absolutely love it if you could take a minute to leave a review as we try to grow the new name of the podcast. And we do appreciate some of you have sending some amazing messages to us that you love to listen to each episode and we love get seeing those, and we just hope that we can leave you some tidbits to help you grow your flipping business.
So.
Rob: Absolutely. You guys rock. We cannot wait to see you on the next episode.