SUPER stoked about this 2018 Flea Market Flipping Challenge! This idea came to me last weekend and I ran with it.
I get new ideas every day or sometimes every hour, but this one stuck for longer than 24 hours so it’s got to be a great one. 😉
This idea was to find a used item for $25 or under, flip it on eBay (or other online sources), and then take the flip money, reinvest it and flip it again. Keep doing it (and don’t touch the money) until the end of this year!
For example: If you find an item for $15, then list it and sell it online for $75, you then take that $75 and re-invest it into something to resell. This process continues until the end of the year. How awesome would it be to end up with an extra $5,000-$10,000 by the end of the year?!
I had this idea last weekend, and hopped on a Facebook live on my way to the flea market to see who would like join in on the Flea Market Flipping Challenge fun! (and what could be a potential extra savings account).
I went into the flea market with $25 to look for my flipping challenge item, and almost left empty handed. It wasn’t until the very last aisle that I found it! This vendor had two tow lights by TowMate. I briefly looked them up and saw they were worth a little bit, so decided to purchase them. I got both of them for $5!
It turns out that one of them retails for $470, and the other for $245! That’s retail price, not the price I can get for resale, but I can still make a lot more than $5 on them! Both are missing a piece for the wireless part, but it could be purchased separately if someone wanted to. Here is a short video I did on them.
We listed them on an auction starting at $0.99, and at the time of posting this, one was at $80 and the other at $23.50. They still have a few days to go so we will see what they sell for. Then it’s onto the next find! I’m getting pretty jazzed about this challenge – I am ready for these to sell so I can go buy something else and make even more! 🙂
So are you in for this Flea Market Flipping Challenge? We had a lot of great responses from people who are joining in and doing it too! I can’t wait to see what everyone ends up with! If you are interested in joining in the fun, drop us your e-mail here and we can help each other stay accountable for the year.
If you are new to flipping on eBay and don’t know where to start, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Selling on eBay eBook to help you get started!
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We love it!
Hi Rob,
I’ve been “flipping” on Amazon for about 10 years. I’m always keeping a eye out for posts like your’s. Never know when I may pick up a new tip or idea.
I do report my taxes just as you described in this post – including the sales tax. Thanks for all the good blogs. I will surley keep reading.
Sandy
Thanks Sandy! We have never done Amazon, but been on eBay for 22 years now! 🙂 If you are looking around the site today, things are a little weird because we are updating it.. should be all better tomorrow night. 🙂
Having trouble getting a handle on the tax implications of “flipping.”
One accountant told me that it’s just like any other resale business. In other words, sales tax is payable on each individual transaction (flip) whether profitable or not, and then in terms of profit there’s income tax on the net profit at the end of the year (or if you have a loss you can write it off against your “day job” income.
Net profit is Sales Revenue minus the sum of Cost of Goods Sold (what you’ve paid for things you flipped and any costs for cleaning or fixing them – plus Operating Expenses.
Net Profit = Sales Revenue – (Cost of Goods Sold + Operating Expenses)
In other words, you can’t scale this flipping game up very far before you’re just a reseller, with all that entails. It’s impossible to make a “hobby” out of flipping stuff, except maybe as something you just do now and then.
I am not a tax expert or accountant, so I’m not qualified to give legal advice, but I can tell you what I do and have done. For years this was a side gig for me, and I just reported it like that. It was it’s own separate business on our tax form for a supplemental income. We do have a CPA that we go to so she helps us make sure we are reporting everything accurately. When you work a business out of your home there are some more operating expenses that you use that you can report.
For example, we use our truck to pick up items often, so as long as we record our miles we are good. We also have a home office (you have to have a designated space for your business) that we can write off.
As far as sales tax it’s my understanding that you only have to pay sales tax for items sold in your own state, not those out of state. Since most of our sales are on eBay, many of them are out of state.
Are you thinking about getting into flipping as a side gig or hobby?