Is anyone else experiencing how fast time is going? Or is it just me?
I am sitting down to write up last month’s flipping totals, and the Christmas season is already here!
Christmas music has been on in our house now since the end of the summer, so I guess everyone is finally catching on. 😉
If you are new around here, we wanted to let you know why we post these reseller income reports. If you are part of the flipping fam already, you can scroll down to see this months flips.
We decided to start posting our income reports here from Flea Market Flipper for several reasons. The first one is to keep ourselves accountable. I have been a flipping items for profit and selling on eBay for over 20 years now, and had never kept track of what I made.
It was always a hobby – but one that came in handy when finances were tight. Once we decided to take this more serious – like a business – we started keeping better records. It has helped us tremendously keep track of what is going in and out each month.
Another reason is to provide encouragement to people who want to get started flipping items for profit and selling on eBay as a part time or full time income.
It is pretty popular in the blogging world for bloggers to post their income reports, and we always found it encouraging to read those. They help us keep going when sometimes we would rather be doing other things, so we are hoping to help the reseller out there to keep going!
Lastly, but most importantly is to provide value and information to our readers. We have students and readers who are doing flea market flipping (or thrift store and yard sale flipping) as a side hustle or main hustle and we want to provide information to help them become successful.
On to last month’s flips!
We sold 5 items for a gross of $4,130.
Not a huge month for us, but we spent part of that time in Texas at a conference and focused more on the blog and revamping our Flipper University course than selling on eBay. (We are super stoked for several updates coming out in the next few months!)
One of the first sales was this commercial Slurpee machine. I bought it for $100 from the flea market, and sold it on eBay for $1,500. I sat on this one for a while, but I was happy with what I made on it.
The next flip was this door handle. I actually bought several of these from a flea market vendor. They were hotel sample door handles to show potential hotels how they worked.
They still are perfectly functional high-end door handles that can still be used.
The third sale was a set of 15 umbrellas that I bought at an auction. I bought them all for $115, and sold them for $1,500. This is a stock photo, because I didn’t end up taking good pictures for them. I sold them to a contact who bought patio furniture from me before and I knew he was looking for more things for a few houses he owns.
This is a perfect example of why keeping good relationships with vendors and customers is good idea. 🙂 I am a repeat customer to my flea market vendors, and then I also have a few repeat customers that buy certain items from me.
The next thing we sold was an electronic piece. I honestly don’t know what it does (this happens fairly often), but it had a brand name and a model number so that’s all I really need to know, then I can post and sell it on ebay.
So I guess that’s part of my secret sauce for selling on eBay: Google search. (Ssshh, don’t share this secret weapon that no one knows about.)
You don’t have to know a ton about so many different types of items. The internet contains so much great info to make flipping items so much easier.
I bought this electric piece from the flea market several months ago for $10 and sold it for $80 on eBay.
The last thing we sold for the month was a set of volleyball poles. We got them for $20 from someone who was clearing out a warehouse. We sold them on eBay for $850. Someone on Facebook commented and asked why someone would pay that much? I responded that they retail for $2,000, so the buyer actually got a great deal on some barely used volleyball poles. He was happy, I was happy, and the person getting rid of them got them off their property without any work (because I hauled them away).
October recap:
Slurpee Machine – Paid: $100, Sold for $1,500, Paypal and eBay fees: $195, Profit: $1,205
Door Handle – Paid: $8, Sold for $200, Paypal and eBay fees: $26, Profit: $166
Umbrellas – Paid: $115, Sold for $1,500, no fees, Profit: $1,385
Electric Piece – Paid: $10, Sold for $80, PayPal and eBay fees: $10 Profit: $60
Volleyball Poles – Paid $20, Sold for: $850, Paypal and eBay fees: $111, Profit: $719
Total investment: $253 Total Sales: $4,130 Total Fees: $342 Total Profit: $3,535
One difference you may notice between us and other people selling on eBay is we like items with large profits. We don’t have the time to mess with items that will make us $3. Some of those resellers do awesome on their sales, but they work for it. Personally I am a fan of still having some free time. I don’t think life was meant to work all.the.time.
A minimum of $50 profit is usually what we require to make it worth it. At this point many of our items bring in a lot more than that, but we used to buy more items that were around that profit margin. We now have a large inventory and are more picky with what we buy.
Two of the items from this month cost me about $100 to purchase. That is a little on the high side for my investments, but those typically have a good return. A 1,500% ROI is good in my books.
I had another higher investment purchase yesterday, but I think it should have a great payoff. I bought $375 worth of electrical meters and found out they retail for $42,000! (Holy buckets Batman!)
I am hoping I can sell them for half of retail. Talk about an awesome ROI! Check out the Facebook Live video I did yesterday. (Melissa didn’t know that I purchased these… We are supposed to be on a liquidating phase.)
Pretty cool right? How can you pass up something with that much potential profit?!
You can’t.
So, if flipping items for profit sounds like something that would be a good fit for you, don’t forget to jump in our free 5 day intro e-mail course.
And if you are completely new to using eBay and it seems overwhelming, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Selling on eBay to give you a quick jump-start. 🙂
We want to hear from you!
Do you love going to flea markets and thrift stores? What are some treasures you have found? Comment below!
Related Posts:
How I Quit My Job to Flip Flea Market Stuff Full-Time
How to Cut a Box Down to be the Right Size for Shipping
How We Made $1,305 in ONE Weekend of Flipping Flea Market Items
Almost believed this article until I saw they were selling a book or an email list or something at the end… the internet is full of fake and smappy articles like these 😂
I’m sorry that you think it’s fake. We are just putting out there our day-to-day work, whether you believe us or not is fine. (Our eBay account says otherwise).
Just because we have a book we sell for more information doesn’t mean the information provided is untrue. It just means we are creating an online business to help others do what we do. We spend thousands of dollars each year on our blog that gives away both free and paid info.
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howdy! 🙂
How do you go about making receipts for items you by and resale?
I have records of my eBay transactions. As fas as receipts for things I buy – I have them from thrift stores and auctions, but not from things like OfferUp or the Flea Market. I keep good records, but can’t get receipts for those things.
Great flips! I believe my Hubby and i will get into this soon! We have sold a few things in the past. One item he tripled his money on! It seems interesting and we would love to work from home! God bless!
thanks!! You should start it on the side and see what can happen! 🙂