Let's Flip Stuff for Fun and Profit!

[Lex DeVille]

I was late to bid in the pallet auction this morning. Apparently my brain didn't fully process the remaining time because the auctions ended before I checked the site. On a bright note, the site shows the final bid for items, which helped give an idea of what to expect from different kinds of lots.

Items that were clear winners were bid up much higher than pallets that had a lot of unknowns, especially when those unknowns are large and not easily movable. Like these metal stairs (2 stair cases plus 6 rolls of plastic wrap) for $25. Probably one of those plastic wrap rolls is worth $25.



Here's a metal staircase on ebay that sold within the last 24 hours.




Anyway, I ended up selling 3 knives for a total of $140. Shipped them out yesterday. I've got a watcher on a $70 necklace that I picked up for $14 at an estate sale.

Took a chance on a couple of items at the landfill thrift store today. They had a bin of free stuff, so I grabbed a couple items out of it too. One is a college text that sells for $20 - $40 (pretty good considering I got it free).

There's another pallet auction place a bit closer to me. Their auctions end on a different day of the week, so I'm keeping an eye on both places now.

Looks like the average ending bid prices were between $200 and $500 with some outliers that were much lower or much higher.

 

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[AmazingLarry]

I could see this being really fun. I sold a bunch of "junk" a few years ago when my grandfather died and it can be surprising what things people find valuable.

He had an old school print shop with manual printing presses and had boxes of old lead slugs (strips). Apparently there is a community that likes to melt these down and mold their own bullets.

I ended up selling hundreds of pounds of this stuff on eBay. I was packing flat rate boxes with perfect efficiency, and the workers at the post office hated me haha.

You never know what random things you might come across that could sell easily if you do some quick research.

 

[KJFast]

Haven’t started looking again yet as been busy trying to slowly shut down my last biz. Headwrecking having so much stock and wanting it all sold asap!

Going to download temu when home and see about those easy flips you recommended lex. Something like that within my price range and online would work well

 

[Lex DeVille]

Going to download temu when home and see about those easy flips you recommended lex. Something like that within my price range and online would work well

I 100% did not say flipping stuff from Temu will be easy.

I said it could be a source of low-cost inventory online.

Haven’t started looking again yet as been busy trying to slowly shut down my last biz. Headwrecking having so much stock and wanting it all sold asap!

Even if you buy low-cost inventory from Temu...you still have to sell it.

 

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[KJFast]

I 100% did not say flipping stuff from Temu will be easy.

I said it could be a source of low-cost inventory online.



Even if you buy low-cost inventory from Temu...you still have to sell it.

True true, well going to check it out as a source anyway. Never used it before but know what it is

 

[403burnout]

True true, well going to check it out as a source anyway. Never used it before but know what it is

In my experience Temu is just a marked-up, more normie-friendly version of Aliexpress.

And Aliexpress is just a marked-up B2C version of Alibaba that lets you purchase things in smaller quantities.

 

[Bounce Back]

Another trend I've seen with sites like Aliexpress/Temu, etc. from watching Flippa businesses for sale:

If you can make a rock solid long form one page sale site even if the product is all over ebay/Amazon it seems to be a viable seasonal business around the end of the year with the holidays that traditionally give out gifts. Basically the one product "gift idea" type ad catches the eye for people who have been trying to figure out a gift. Typically you find these sites for sale right after the peak season as they don't want to wait a year and want to sell while the numbers look good in Stripe still but there doesn't seem to be much to it.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

LOL, I sold one item and in 1 day got immensely irritated. Apparently this is just normal morons being morons because they need to click click click...

I love Facebook Marketplace. But can Mark Zuckerberg please fix this one thing?

I love Facebook Marketplace. It's the best part about Facebook. But there's one thing about it that really annoys me. Can we please get it fixed?

www.businessinsider.com

 

[NervesOfSteel]

LOL, I sold one item and in 1 day got immensely irritated. Apparently this is just normal morons being morons because they need to click click click...

View attachment 54948
View attachment 54949

I love Facebook Marketplace. But can Mark Zuckerberg please fix this one thing?

I love Facebook Marketplace. It's the best part about Facebook. But there's one thing about it that really annoys me. Can we please get it fixed?

www.businessinsider.com

If this was my app, and I was dependent on investors, and educated from a remarkable university, I would still value the buyer and happily provide him the "is it still available" option!

But I am not!

Nor am I in the West!

So I can only imagine why it is so hard to understand ----> customer is where the market is!

Vise Versa is possible after burning millions of dollars ... in customer(buyer) acquisition in the seller-deprived market!

 

[Nav94]

Flipped a lot of Microwaves, Most of the time people just want to get rid of microwaves that don't work (I mean everyone needs a hot food every time you want to eat) So I get a microwave that doesn't work and all they need is a small fuse (90% of the case) Now you can sell it for $100-$120 .

 

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[NervesOfSteel]

Flipped a lot of Microwaves, Most of the time people just want to get rid of microwaves that don't work (I mean everyone needs a hot food every time you want to eat) So I get a microwave that doesn't work and all they need is a small fuse (90% of the case) Now you can sell it for $100-$120 .

been there, done that during college days! Most of the time the microwaves required a cord change! LOL!

 

[Lex DeVille]

A few wins to start the week.

Sold a baseball bat (made about $7 on it). Sold a Craftsman battery charger with no battery that I got for free for $20. Currently pending pickup on a ring for $29. The ring cost $1 and all 25 pieces of jewelry that I bought that day cost around $26 total. I sold a bracelet from that set that was $1.5 for $8 on eBay, so assuming the ring picks up, anything that sells after that will be all profit.

 

[Lex DeVille]

For March I earned a total of $341 flipping items.

Still have a lot of inventory out there. Still getting almost daily interest. The most surprising item I've listed is this old hammer.

I spent $0 on it. I found it by running over it with my lawn mower at my old house. Listed it for $10. One person offered $15 if I would hold it until morning, but he didn't show. Now it's pending pickup for $10 again this morning.

 

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[Bounce Back]

For March I earned a total of $341 flipping items.

Still have a lot of inventory out there. Still getting almost daily interest. The most surprising item I've listed is this old hammer.

I spent $0 on it. I found it by running over it with my lawn mower at my old house. Listed it for $10. One person offered $15 if I would hold it until morning, but he didn't show. Now it's pending pickup for $10 again this morning.

The laugh reaction is the hammer story - that's great!

So is March the first official month in the books? Off to a great start I'd say. Each person who bought something got value from what you did.

 

[Lex DeVille]

The laugh reaction is the hammer story - that's great!

So is March the first official month in the books? Off to a great start I'd say. Each person who bought something got value from what you did.

Yeah, not bad for the first month. The most time-consuming part is getting stuff listed. Once it's out there, I mostly forget about it until I get a message. I haven't decreased the price on anything. Seems like things eventually sell if they're out there for a while. I could probably improve these results quite a bit if I spent more time listing items, and also listing them in multiple places. Most of my focus has been on Facebook Marketplace with a few items listed on ebay.

 

[Eurojanek]

Local business makes water boilers. Not all bottom parts come out of press in perfect specs for futher production. So I buy the scrapped ones, weld them up and sell locally. They are more expensive as your usual market quality ones, but are made from 3mm sheets of steel, super heavy duty and I give 5 years warranty. So far about 20 sold at 50 dollars profit a piece, no advertising used, just word of mouth.

 

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[KJFast]

Hey, in honesty I haven’t taken action.

Over this weekend I’m very busy but going to look for quick selling flips that I could make a little profit from. My money situation is dire, everything I have I shill out for driving lessons. I’ve been avoiding this too much but having taken a step back, realised flipping is a potential really good way to bolster short term income.

Grappling a lot lately with shutting down my old biz, I can’t sell the stock so have been trying to put out deals. It sucks because I want to sell it all asap and get it over with so my focus can shift.

When I make a purchase or any progress flipping related I’ll log here.

 

[socaldude]

Saw these Levi’s jeans on sale for $10 at Nordstrom Rack. I thought of this thread when I saw them. Someone can easily turn around and flip them for 2-3X the price. At Macy’s next door the same Jean retails for $59.99.

 

[Ing]

View attachment 55204

Saw these Levi’s jeans on sale for $10 at Nordstrom Rack. I thought of this thread when I saw them. Someone can easily turn around and flip them for 2-3X the price. At Macy’s next door the same Jean retails for $59.99.

Flipping clothes can be hard. I think that colour still hangs there for a reason.

 

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[Oso]

Final update because I'm being told I'm spending too much time with this :-(. I went on a 3 day flip trip.

The 40k deal on the VR-4 fell through. I messed up information on the title and the guy didn't want to wait. Whoops. Anyway, it ended up selling to someone else for 52k. I immediately ditched everything I was doing, and started car shopping.

Turns out, specialty/collectible cars are easy money if you have capital. "Cash is king" is still the mantra. Idk, I had fun.

Pick-ups:

* 1991 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4
* 2004 Dodge Viper SRT-10
* 1994 Toyota Supra Turbo
* 2004 Dodge Neon SRT-4

This is about where I may or may not have realized my state has a lot of laws regarding car sales, and I immediately stopped doing what I may (or may not) have been doing... Whoops x2.

I'm back to my TCG company, hah. I definitely think I've found what I'll be doing post-retirement, though.

Cheers!

 

[Bounce Back]

* 1664 Toyota Supra Turbo

That's the one where they sprinkle something mysterious into the horse's feed right?

 

[Oso]

That's the one where they sprinkle something mysterious into the horse's feed right?

Bruv. They were hydrogen-powered back then! The Amish are wild!

Cheers .

 

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[Oso]

By the way, if anyone has a bit of money to spare, and doesn't mind sitting on something for a while (read: probably ~10 years or so), buy yourself low mileage Chrysler Crossfires.

You can buy "special editions" with sub 20k miles for 7k-12k. Given the bang for their buck, reliability, etc., I have no doubt they'll be the next gen of cheap/collectible/sport cars.

~12k today can easily be 40k+ in 5-10 years.

Cheers.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Haven't reported much lately. Very few flips in April due to extra college classes, being on-call for body removals, and focusing on my ecom site.

The latest pallet auction ends in a couple hours.

I bid $50 on one of the lots, but someone outbid me up to $300 on Tuesday. Yesterday, I watched the lot and it didn't go up any further, so I think it's just one bidder.

Auctions on the site are kind of like Ebay. You can place a maximum bid and let the system auto-bid for you. I'd like to get the lot for under $500, so I'm going to place a last-minute bid just before the auction closes and see if I can snipe it.

The lot is for around 700 pieces of jewelry, so even selling at $5 each, I'd make a nice profit. But usually I sell jewelry for $15 - $30 (FB Marketplace) or $50 - $150 on my website.

It will take time to sell, but I'll spend less than $1 per piece (usually I spend around $1.50 - $2.50 per piece) and it will be a nice stash of inventory for the upcoming holiday season.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Haven't reported much lately. Very few flips in April due to extra college classes, being on-call for body removals, and focusing on my ecom site.

The latest pallet auction ends in a couple hours.

I bid $50 on one of the lots, but someone outbid me up to $300 on Tuesday. Yesterday, I watched the lot and it didn't go up any further, so I think it's just one bidder.

Auctions on the site are kind of like Ebay. You can place a maximum bid and let the system auto-bid for you. I'd like to get the lot for under $500, so I'm going to place a last-minute bid just before the auction closes and see if I can snipe it.

The lot is for around 700 pieces of jewelry, so even selling at $5 each, I'd make a nice profit. But usually I sell jewelry for $15 - $30 (FB Marketplace) or $50 - $150 on my website.

It will take time to sell, but I'll spend less than $1 per piece (usually I spend around $1.50 - $2.50 per piece) and it will be a nice stash of inventory for the upcoming holiday season.

@MJ DeMarco I gained a piece of valuable info about the pallet auctions just now.

Apparently, you cannot simply snipe bids at the last minute. If you place a bid with under 2 minutes remaining, the countdown timer resets for 2 additional minutes.

I won the auction, but spent more than intended. $675 to pull the win. Bids kept coming in during the final 2 minutes.

At $675 + fees, I'll still turn a nice profit, and won't need to purchase any new jewelry for a while. I'll have the experience of completing a pallet auction to report back on shortly.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

@MJ DeMarco I gained a piece of valuable info about the pallet auctions just now.

Apparently, you cannot simply snipe bids at the last minute. If you place a bid with under 2 minutes remaining, the countdown timer resets for 2 additional minutes.

I won the auction, but spent more than intended. $675 to pull the win. Bids kept coming in during the final 2 minutes.

At $675 + fees, I'll still turn a nice profit, and won't need to purchase any new jewelry for a while. I'll have the experience of completing a pallet auction to report back on shortly.

Very cool, I look forward to hearing about how it turns out.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Just got back from the auction warehouse. Huge building. Not great instructions about where you're supposed to enter. I think that little door on the far left next to the open one is where you go in, but I went up the ramp on the far right.

Once inside, you cross the entire warehouse to reach the customer service area on the other side so you can pay (unless you paid online), get an invoice, and get help to locate your lots.



I only bid on one lot, and it was a small package. For big pallets, they have staff onsite with forklifts and/or pallet jacks to help move them out to your vehicle, and they help load vehicles too.

After opening my package and reviewing the items, I found that some of the jewelry was about the quality I expected, while some of it is much higher quality and will sell for a great price.

Overall, I was in and out in about five minutes, super easy, and I feel confident that it was worth the price, even at a slightly higher bid.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Just got back from the auction warehouse. Huge building. Not great instructions about where you're supposed to enter. I think that little door on the far left next to the open one is where you go in, but I went up the ramp on the far right.

Once inside, you cross the entire warehouse to reach the customer service area on the other side so you can pay (unless you paid online), get an invoice, and get help to locate your lots.

View attachment 55854

I only bid on one lot, and it was a small package. For big pallets, they have staff onsite with forklifts and/or pallet jacks to help move them out to your vehicle, and they help load vehicles too.

After opening my package and reviewing the items, I found that some of the jewelry was about the quality I expected, while some of it is much higher quality and will sell for a great price.

Overall, I was in and out in about five minutes, super easy, and I feel confident that it was worth the price, even at a slightly higher bid.

View attachment 55850
View attachment 55851

Thanks for the report. I'm curious if some of the bigger lots work out, like are the vacuums and coffee makers defective? They take a lot of returns from big box stores.

Will you keep a running total for cost V profit on the entire lot?

I'm curious if you can get a 100% return.

Also, isn't jewelry a hard resell? Where to sell? eBay? Poshmark?

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Thanks for the report. I'm curious if some of the bigger lots work out, like are the vacuums and coffee makers defective? They take a lot of returns from big box stores.

Will you keep a running total for cost V profit on the entire lot?

I'm curious if you can get a 100% return.

Also, isn't jewelry a hard resell? Where to sell? eBay? Poshmark?

The auction site says a lot of their products come from shipments that never reached the customer, so they are not necessarily defective or returns (but some are).

Last month I sold $932.55 in jewelry with $782.58 coming from 14 rings purchased from Temu.com for between $1.00 and $2.00.

I'm certain I can sell more than 14 rings from this lot at the same prices ($49 - $55) on my website, so I know I can get more than 100% return. This lot has over 600 rings and around 40 necklaces.

I'll mostly resell these through a website, but I'll list select pieces on Facebook Marketplace, and Ebay.

Reselling jewelry without value skews is difficult. So I have to figure out the value skews that will make it worth it.

• Which pieces will appeal to which niches?
• Which pieces can I wrap a unique story around?
• Which pieces can I bundle?
• Which pieces should I offload for bottom dollar?

 

[Ing]

In my job I drive 1-2 hours a day.
I watch workshops and construction sites along the way and sometimes I se something lucrative.

Some months ago I saw a shed; better hangar made from pu insulation plates. They changed some damaged ones.

I stopped and talked.

In the end two days later I borrowed a truck and removed their waste- 300 m2 of 100mm PU insulation (sandwich) and deposited it at a friend s farm.

I thought about building a big shed or garage and rent it out or use it. But well, no place.
Than we thought about extending his workshop. Not possible tax wise.

Now, after 2 months I decided to sell it all and got 2600€ for it.

Now I m looking for the next one.