Today we are going to share the most embarrassing flip we have ever done. We have a lot of stories in this business and this one you are going to enjoy.
We often come across interesting or weird items while we’re out finding treasures, so we wanted to share the most embarrassing flip ever along with some other unusual ones.
Weird Flips
I love the weird stuff. I love the stuff that I don’t know what it is and it catches my eye and then I find out it has a high retail value. I like it because I get to learn about new items as well.
One of the first weird items I remember picking up was the prosthetic leg. I went to the flea market and got a prosthetic leg for $35 and it sold on eBay in less than 24 hours for $1,000. It was a tiny little flip but it opened my eyes. I didn’t even know what it was when I first saw it at the flea market. It had titanium and it said Ottobock. It was the knee joint that was expensive.
We also flipped a lobster tank that you would see inside a restaurant where people pick out which lobster they want and they go boil it. That was before we did freight shipping so I must have sold that one locally. What was fun about that is we go to the Keys every year and get lobster; we bring back 80 to 100 lobsters when we go.
The Harley Davidson sign was a weird one too because it was 12 or 14 feet long and 8 feet tall. I bought it for $200 and sold it for $7,500. We also charged $1,000 flipping. We love odd type of flips. The bus wash was another weird one. It was a portable bus wash with wheels underneath it and super tall. You walk around the bus and this brush spins and cleans the buses while you walk around it. It was really cool when we sold that one.
Another recent unusual flip was the stretchers we got last year. A hospital was upgrading and we got 12 stretchers for $2,200 so a little over $180 each. We haven’t done the total yet, but we’ve made somewhere around $50,000 off the investment.
Finding The Most Embarrassing Flip
Alright, let’s dive into the story about the most embarrassing flip. We were walking around the flea market and I walked up to one of the vendors I had bought stuff from and saw a gold lounge chair that was weird looking. It looked puffy, like a blow up chair.
I found a tag on it and tried to look up the brand name and I think it was coming up as a yoga chair with a $700-$800 retail. It was a $10 investment for me, so it was a no brainer to buy it with a $300-$400 profit. We sell our items for about 50% of retail costs.
I paid him and then I had to take the kids home because we were in the SUV and it was a lounge chair so it was longer. When I got back with the trailer the vendor told me it was an expensive chair.
Researching The Most Embarrassing Flip
When I got home I started doing research on this bad boy. This is the crazy part. It’s a yoga chair, but what I didn’t read when I checked it out (I saw that high price tag and got excited), was that it was a sex bondage chair. Now, Melissa and I are pretty wholesome and this isn’t something we would’ve picked up had we known what it was. It’s embarrassing for us to talk about this. But I had already paid for it and I couldn’t throw the thing away, so we listed it on eBay.
Before it got listed, my friend stopped by with his son, who was seven or eight years old. I was like, “Guys, you aren’t going to believe what I got today.” I folded down the back of our enclosed trailer and his son jumped in and said, “Cool, a couch!” He jumped on it and sprawled out on this chair because it looked really inviting.
I was like, “You’re never going to believe what this thing is. It’s a bondage chair.”
They screamed so loud at their son to get off of this chair because it had been at the flea market and that’s what it was. So, anyways, super, super embarrassing story.
It actually sold pretty quickly $334, plus $100 for shipping. But the buyer was local so I got to deliver it instead. No surprise, they didn’t answer the door when I dropped it off. I messaged them to let them know it was there and took pictures of it at the house. Nowadays, eBay requires you to scan a QR code so the buyer can’t claim you didn’t deliver it. This was prior to the new eBay procedures though.
The whole experience was just funny and awkward so we wanted to share it. This is an interesting job that we have. We’d love to hear your fun, embarrassing, or unusual flipping stories too. Message us on social media or leave us a comment to share!
Show Notes
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