We are going to share how we flipped $45 into $1,500 with one sale this week.
We purchased this item at our local flea market. Melissa actually spotted it and I walked right by it. She said we should look it up because it looks expensive. I thought it looked like a cheaper brand, but she was right and the retail on this item if purchased new is between $2,000 to $3,000.
What is the item we flipped for $1,500? It’s a panini press. It’s a Star Pro Max panini press. The vendor offered to let me plug it in and try it but since I had seen him before I took his word on it. We picked it up for $45.
It is a commercial press, one of those ones you’d see inside a sandwich shop. It presses the sandwich and cooks them. The press has a lower and upper heating element so it cooks from both sides. We took it home, cleaned it, listed it, and sold it within two weeks on eBay.
Finding The Right Buyer
People always ask us how we find the right buyer. We didn’t find them, they found us. All I did was list it on eBay and eBay found the buyer because the buyer was looking for that item. That’s why this business model works.
We get asked why the vendors we buy from don’t just sell the item themselves. It could be many reasons such as they don’t have an eBay account, don’t want to deal with listing and shipping, or they just want their money immediately. I might not get my money immediately. I have to wait for the buyer and then ship it out. It could be a longer process than it is for someone at the flea market or at a yard sale. They are just different business models.
When I list it on eBay, I could potentially reach 135 million users if I wanted to ship internationally. When you have a bigger pool of people, you have more buyers looking for your item.
Why Can You Sell Older Appliances
Another question we get on social media is why are you able to sell older appliances for so much money? We recently sold a range that is about 20 years old and the reason that range sold is because if manufacturers discontinue anything, people have a harder time finding that appliance. If they’ve used an appliance for 20, 30, 40 years, they might look for something similar and they’re going to look for it secondhand on eBay. They also made appliances better 20, 30, 40 years ago and they just lasted longer, so people who have used them know they are quality products.
Panini Flip Recap
On this item I did not charge extra for shipping because I built it into my fee. I sold the panini press for $1,499.99 and it’ll be about $100 for shipping and $195 for eBay fees. I didn’t promote it but I did use my offer strategy.
I sent an offer to my watchers, but someone else bought it at full price. What is the offer strategy? When I first list an item, I don’t say I take offers; it’s just buy it now pricing. Then people end up watching my listing. Once I get to a certain number of watchers, I will send an offer for a couple hundred dollars off.
We made over $1,000 in profit on this item with just about two hours of work! If you want to learn more about flipping appliances, check out our course www.applianceflipping.com.
Show Notes
Check out Appliance Flipping: https://www.applianceflipping.com/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleamrktflipper/
You can find us at: https://fleamarketflipper.com/
FURTHER RESOURCES
FREE Workshop How To Turn Your Passion of Flipping Items Into A Profitable Reselling Business
Download These 47 Household Items To Resell TODAY!
RELATED EPISODES
The 2 Things That Might Be Holding You Back
