How I Made $1,200 in One Day Flipping Flea Market Stuff (And How You Can Too!)

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I quit my ‘real job’ as a home insurance inspector, and was able to focus more time on my business of flipping flea market stuff.

We have accumulated a lot of fun items over the years, and realized I hadn’t posted all of them. So I decided to put a little more time into posting more items which in turned a regular day into a great profitable day! a $1,200 day to be exact.

Two items made up this profit: a pitching machine and a Cadillac subframe.

The pitching machine I picked up from a yard sale for $30.  It wasn’t posted yet because I really wanted to keep it for future fun with my kids.

But since the three of them were all 3 and under at the time, we decided we could sell it. I posted it on eBay and in 24 hours it sold for $600 (which included the shipping).

flea market flipping

Pretty cool right?! Wouldn’t you want to keep it too? Melissa reminds me regularly that I am in the business of selling – not keeping – so bye bye nifty pitching machine, hope someone has a lot of fun using you!

The Cadillac subframe was one part of about 10 that I bought from a vendor at the flea market.

He is a guy I buy from regularly who buys his items from unpaid storage units (like the show storage wars).

Some people ask me why I don’t buy items from storage units.  I think it can be a great way to make money, I just don’t want to go through the hassle of selling all the little things that aren’t worth as much.

He sold all of the parts to me for $100, so I ended up paying about $10 for this piece. It sold for $800 (including shipping).

flea market flipping

The shipping totals were just over $150, so I made over $1,200 on these two items. All-in-all one great flipping day!

How to Start Making Money By Flipping

The best thing about this side hustle is anyone can do it and you can start TODAY.

You don’t need any fancy equipment, you don’t need a college degree, and you certainly don’t need a lot of money to get started!

The total made was over $1,200 with the two items above by only investing $40!

But you don’t even need any money to get started.

Seriously. 

Check out the following steps to get started making money TODAY!

1.Go through your closet & check under the bed

I know this seems simple. But that is the beauty of this business! You can start making money right away because it’s not crazy complicated.

Go through your closet and grab any clothes, shoes or accessories that don’t fit anymore or that you haven’t used in over a year. (Chances are if you haven’t used it in over a year you never will).

Check under the bed for any items that you have just been storing and never using.

Might as well have the cash instead of the dust!

Just check out this bread maker that has been sitting in our pantry for 5 years now.

Melissa had every intention to make bread, but she used it a handful of times and it has been sitting collecting dust for over 5 years.

She decided to list it on Facebook Marketplace and eBay and sold it on eBay for $80.

$80 can do a lot more for us than a piece of metal with a dust layer on it can!

2. Pick out 3-5 items you can part with

I know it’s easy to get attached to some items, but how much nicer is it to free up some clutter and have cash in hand instead?!

So pick 3-5 items that you can part with and set them aside to sell.

Don’t get too ambitious to start – you don’t want a huge pile staring you in the face that ends up paralyzing you from starting.

You can always repeat the steps. But start small.

3. Clean up your items

They may just need a quick wipe down or wash and they are good to go again.

Just be sure you clean them up a bit. A little elbow grease can make a difference in selling an item or not.

4. Take good pictures

No matter what platform you use to sell, you want to have good clean pictures of the item.

Pick a plain background and a well lit area. You don’t need a fancy camera or lighting set to take good pictures. We use our

phones all the time to take pictures of our items. We have one wall in our place that we use as the background to take pictures of most of our items.

5. List on eBay, Facebook Marketplace or other platform

Everyone has their favorite places to resell. For some it’s Poshmark, for some Mercari, for us it’s mostly Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, and eBay.

We sell about 80% of our items on eBay and the other 20% on Facebook Marketplace or OfferUp.

eBay allows us to reach A LOT more people than a local market so our items have a better chance of selling.

6. Start investing (not a lot!) in inventory to start making more money

Selling stuff from your house is a great way to get started with reselling.

But if you want to really make a significant income you have to start finding items to flip. But it’s not as tough as you think and you don’t have to spend a ton of money to do so.

(Remember the $40 it took to make $1,200?)

Start visiting a few local thrift stores, flea markets or use your local apps to find some great items to resell.

Your money is made in the purchase, so only buy items that you know are a great deal

It’s not worth buying something for $10 to make $15.

Our goal is 10x our profits. So if we invest $10, we want to make $100 from it. That’s a fairly typical flip for us.

Having a higher profit business model allows us to free up more time to spend with our family which is a huge priority for us!

Now time to go out and make some money!

Do you enjoy going to flea markets, thrift stores, and yard sales? Have you have ever thought about making an extra income from flipping used items? If so check out our FREE intro workshop to see if this could be a good fit for you!

I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Do you love flipping flea market stuff? Comment below and tell us what you love to sell!

Further Resources

Make Your First $100 Flipping In 7 Days (Free Video Course)

Free Workshop How To Turn Your Passion of Flipping Items Into A Profitable Reselling Business

Flipper University

Related Posts

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How This Single Mom Went From Working Two Jobs To Making $5,000/Month On Her Flipping Side Hustle

How This Couple Who Adopted 6 Kids Made $26K Last Year With Their Flipping Hobby

How This Mom Of 6 Made $3,187 On ONE FLIP By Gaining Confidence With Shipping Large Items

How This Stay-At-Home Mom Makes $1,000/Month By Flipping Items

 

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Robert Stephenson

I grew up in Central Florida and have lived here my whole life. I first got into buying and selling items when I was 16 years old, and have been hooked ever since. It has mostly been a hobby that makes some extra cash, but sometimes it serves as my main income as well. I don't plan on stopping any time soon. I find too many fun toys for my family (or myself), and just love the whole process.

24 thoughts on “How I Made $1,200 in One Day Flipping Flea Market Stuff (And How You Can Too!)”

  1. Hello Robert

    I find this totally interesting and fun. I often thought about selling online, however the shipping fees always stopped me. I am in Canada and would like to learn more about shipping to the US and still be able to make a profit. Any advice is great. Thank you

  2. I love what your doing. I tried eBay with no success, creigslist, nadda.. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. I even got so frustrated and felt like I couldn’t pay people to take the things I was selling. I finally hired someone to sell my things for me and so far she has sold $80.00 worth. She didn’t sell enough for me to pay her? Any suggestions?

    1. There are several factors that make things sell better. First things to look at are are you priced fairly? Do you have good pictures? How much feedback does your account have? (If you don’t have a lot of feedback you can go buy a few things to build it up in the beginning.)

  3. Hello! Awesome story. I’ve just started and was wondering if there is any advice? How do you know what is valuable? Is there an app that you use? Thanks!!

      1. We’ve been flipping for years ……..made over $2,ooo this week-end alone. And still selling! Items being picked up today…….no cell phone, And no intention of buying one!

  4. Robert I just wrote to you I’m the person that is 77 and needs help. I hope you can help me I also hope your not a scam.. Please I singed up for Tuesday at 11am but I don’t know if you got it’s done I don’t know how to find out. Please let me know ThanksM

    1. Hello!
      We are definitely not a scam. Just flipping as our business and helping others do the same. Are you talking about the webinar? You should receive a confirmation link before the webinar starts. 🙂 Let me know if you don’t! Thanks for writing us!

  5. My bf and I combined 3 houses when we moved in together. On top of that, he’s a bit of a hoarder. We have furniture, kitchen items, and he has more clothes than all clothing departments in Walmart!
    I could use some advice on 2 Etienne Aigner purses I found at the thrift store. Do I spend the $ for the shoe polish to cover the truly minor rubs or should I just wipe them iff and sell as is?
    FYI… as much as we love baseball, that putching machine would have been sold… and shipped the same day for that kind of profit!

    1. Haha, yea Melissa calls me a boarder-line hoarder sometimes. I say it’s inventory. 😉 Personally I would probably just take good pictures and state in the description that is has some scuffs and minor rubs. Do you sell on eBay a lot?

  6. I could absolutely use some tips. I’m a borderline hoarder my husband says… the garage is an obnoxious pile of STUFF…
    inside my home my issue is clothes I need to sell off… I often want to donate all the clothes but my bills want me to sell them to help pay down debts. Any tips would be fabulously appreciated!

  7. Hi Robert,

    I think what you’re doing is fantastic!, and it has encouraged & inspired me to continue my pursuits in my gift of thrifting.

    I’m retired and have been thrifting for close 45 years. Now that I am retired, I think purchasing & selling
    thrifted items has the potential for a teriffic income with great flexibility.

    I have a talent for picking great items (right now, small furniture pieces), for the cheap and upcycle them, it’s a great passion of mine. So, why not buy low, update with my creative talents, & sell high.

    Will you please share with me, some of the better sites to list my items that are free, or with minimal fees.

    I am considering some suggested apps; such as, Offer Up, 5 Miles, & Let Go. Haven’t researched the apps yet, but, I was told they are pretty good, with little or no fees.

    Any feedback will be appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Janis

    1. Hi Jan! Thank you. I am so happy to have encouraged and inspired you! here are several free apps out there. Currently one of my favorites is Offer Up.
      Have you ever considered joining in on our flipping university course? I would love to work with you and help you make this a good income for you while you are retired!
      This is currently my family’s primary income stream, and I love it! Hope to talk to you soon. You can email me at [email protected] as well.

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