AI transcript
0:00:03 This is $1,000 flips.
0:00:06 It’s one thing to be able to source thrift store or garage sale items
0:00:09 and make five, ten, fifty bucks, a hundred bucks per flip.
0:00:12 But it’s another thing entirely to be able to do that consistently
0:00:14 with big, big profit items.
0:00:15 What’s up? What’s up?
0:00:17 Nick Hulper here. Welcome to The Side Hustle Show
0:00:19 because there is profit everywhere, if you know where to look.
0:00:22 Now, this is the show that helps you uncover those profitable ideas
0:00:25 by shining the light on how other people are getting it done.
0:00:29 And one of my all time favorite profit finders is back in the studio
0:00:31 for the first time since 2018.
0:00:34 If you can believe that makes a full time living from part time work,
0:00:37 buy and low and sell it high from fleamarketflipper.com
0:00:40 and Flipper University, Rob Stephenson.
0:00:41 Welcome back to The Side Hustle Show.
0:00:43 What’s up, Nick? I’m so excited to be back.
0:00:45 We always love chatting with you.
0:00:48 So thank you so much for inviting us back to talk to you today.
0:00:50 I am pumped as well.
0:00:52 We’re going three rounds with Rob today,
0:00:56 counting down some of his best/most profitable/most memorable flips
0:01:00 with the criteria that they made over $1,000 in profit.
0:01:01 It’s not about who sells the most stuff.
0:01:04 It’s about selling the right stuff with high margins.
0:01:05 This is something that I can be about.
0:01:07 Round two is donate a business idea
0:01:09 and stick around for the triple threat in round three.
0:01:12 This is a marketing tactic that’s working right now for Rob or his students
0:01:13 in Flipper University.
0:01:17 This is a new or new to him tool that him and his business partner, Melissa,
0:01:21 are loving right now and his favorite book from the last 12 months.
0:01:23 I want to start off with these $1,000 flips
0:01:26 because you guys consistently are able to find these items.
0:01:29 Where on the one hand it’s like, why would anybody let it go?
0:01:30 If it was really worth that much,
0:01:32 why would somebody be letting it go for way less than that?
0:01:34 But you do it over and over again.
0:01:37 I think we first recorded in 2014, 2015.
0:01:39 You’ve been doing it long before then and ever since.
0:01:42 So maybe kick us off with these like ambulance stretchers.
0:01:44 This was last year’s big win.
0:01:45 Absolutely.
0:01:47 And a lot of people think that these scores that we find
0:01:49 are once in a blue moon or a needle in a haystack.
0:01:52 And we have done it time and time again.
0:01:55 Last year, our totals were $92,000 for the whole year
0:01:56 with only 46 items.
0:01:58 We only sold 46 items the whole year.
0:02:00 Average just a little over $2,000.
0:02:01 But the important part is the profit.
0:02:05 And we’re over $73,000 in profit on that $92,000 gross.
0:02:06 So, so, so cool.
0:02:08 We’re able to do it year in, year out.
0:02:09 And we just keep doing it back to back to back.
0:02:12 So you can do, anybody can do it when you know what you’re looking for.
0:02:13 Yeah.
0:02:15 Now, the stretchers that Nick is talking about,
0:02:17 which was an amazing, amazing flip for us.
0:02:21 One of my contacts that I met at the local flea market,
0:02:23 I met him, I don’t know how many years ago, five, seven years ago.
0:02:27 I got his phone number and then we do deals outside of the flea market all the time.
0:02:30 He comes into great, great items that he actually throws my way.
0:02:34 And he came up with 12 stretchers that he got from one of his contacts.
0:02:36 And he sent me a picture of him and I was like, oh, those look cool.
0:02:38 I think I can make a little bit of money on them.
0:02:41 I showed Melissa and I said, hey, he wants $2,200 for this.
0:02:45 And that’s pretty high for our, I mean, I don’t have a very high threshold
0:02:49 that I like to invest in a lot of money out on top of the items that we’re doing.
0:02:51 I just don’t, I don’t feel comfortable investing a lot of money.
0:02:55 And this was definitely on the top of it, but $2,200 for 12 of them.
0:02:58 I bought them, I told Melissa, she told me not to do it.
0:02:58 Yeah.
0:03:00 And I said, I really have a good feeling about this.
0:03:03 And we actually bought those $2,200 and we sold them.
0:03:04 I think Melissa wrote it down for me.
0:03:09 I think $35,000 we made on those 12 stretchers that we sold.
0:03:10 Yeah, that’s just crazy.
0:03:12 And he was making money on the deal too.
0:03:15 So there’s like even opportunity at the wholesale level, basically,
0:03:17 to find other people like you.
0:03:18 Absolutely. Yeah.
0:03:19 He always is making money on us.
0:03:23 And then we’re actually taking it to a nationwide or a global market.
0:03:25 And that’s how we’re able to make our money is because the majority of the stuff
0:03:27 that we sell, we’re just bringing it to a bigger market.
0:03:32 So $2,200 worth of investment into $35,000 worth of sales.
0:03:34 And that’s just one example.
0:03:36 But that was a big chunk of the revenue for the year, for sure.
0:03:37 Yeah, absolutely.
0:03:39 And I was super excited when I got those.
0:03:42 But still, we are able to find a lot of other stuff.
0:03:44 We really hone in on these high profit items.
0:03:45 That’s what we really love.
0:03:46 We have three kids.
0:03:47 We have a growing family.
0:03:50 And we want to be able to spend time with my wife and our kids.
0:03:51 And this is what allows us to do it.
0:03:55 I mean, you throw this up on eBay and all of a sudden they’re worth, you know,
0:03:59 so much more just because you knew there was some inherent value in them
0:04:00 way beyond the $2,200.
0:04:03 So the cool thing about eBay is they’ll give you an actual record
0:04:05 of the last 90 days in sales.
0:04:08 So when he sent me the picture of them, they were yellow stretchers.
0:04:09 And I jumped on.
0:04:10 I saw what the brand was.
0:04:12 It was a striker jumped on to eBay.
0:04:15 I checked out what they had sold for in the last 90 days.
0:04:19 And I didn’t know the exact model, but I had a stretcher and I had striker
0:04:20 and I knew kind of what they looked like.
0:04:23 I jumped on and looked at the active listings and the sold listings
0:04:26 and saw that I was going to be able to make money, which we sold one
0:04:30 for double what I paid for the whole lot of 12 of them.
0:04:31 So that just gives you an idea.
0:04:34 But there’s always a way to do the research before you go out the money.
0:04:37 Yeah. So who bought up like other like EMT, like ambulance companies
0:04:38 or like hospitals?
0:04:42 It’s funny, I sold one to Puerto Rico.
0:04:46 And I think the majority of the people who bought them were transportation
0:04:51 companies that had ambulances or they redid ambulances for transportation
0:04:53 companies that were they go and pick up patients and stuff like that.
0:04:55 So I feel like that is who we sold them to.
0:04:58 But the first ones that I sold, I sold way, way too cheap
0:05:00 because I was trying to recoup my investment back.
0:05:03 Some guy locally wanted four of them and I sold them for way too cheap.
0:05:05 I think I the first four I sold since he bought four of them.
0:05:07 I think I sold them for like fifteen hundred dollars a piece.
0:05:10 OK, but still recouped my whole investment on those first four.
0:05:12 And then I started asking a little bit more money.
0:05:13 We made a lot more money on the other ones.
0:05:15 Yeah. OK. Interesting.
0:05:19 So this was just through a contact of yours by showing up at the local
0:05:23 flea market, telling people what you do, the kind of stuff that you’re looking for.
0:05:25 Yeah. So somebody I met, he had cool items.
0:05:28 It wasn’t like the first week that I found him.
0:05:30 It was more of I had gone consistently to the flea market.
0:05:35 Back when we started our business, I went consistently every Saturday and Sunday morning.
0:05:39 And I started finding those vendors that were doing or selling the kind of items
0:05:40 that I liked. Yeah.
0:05:43 And then I started creating relationships after I saw them week after week after week.
0:05:45 And then I started creating that contact with them afterwards.
0:05:48 Yeah. And the contrast here is these one off.
0:05:52 We’ve called them random items, these niche specialty items,
0:05:57 sometimes commercial equipment where there’s absolutely people who can make it work.
0:06:01 You know, making 10, 15, 20 bucks a flip on Poshmark and stuff like that.
0:06:05 But the volume that you need to make up for one stretcher sale in this example
0:06:08 is quite a bit more work.
0:06:11 He’s like, yeah, there’s going to be a little bit more logistics in packing
0:06:12 and shipping something that’s larger.
0:06:15 But I think the argument is going to be made that it’s it’s more worthwhile,
0:06:18 at least, you know, versus, you know, throwing a throwing an article of clothing
0:06:20 in the mail and making that 10 bucks.
0:06:23 So next one on this list I have is a turbo chef commercial oven.
0:06:24 Tell me about that one.
0:06:26 So this is a really cool story as well.
0:06:29 We were traveling when I found this turbo chef on.
0:06:32 I believe it was offer up was the app that I was on.
0:06:37 And it was in Salt Lake City, somewhere up there, somewhere a long way away from us.
0:06:39 We were traveling and I found this from the hotel room.
0:06:41 We actually got in the hotel for the night.
0:06:44 I’m laying down in bed and I’m trying to source in the area.
0:06:47 So in the next morning, hopefully I could go pick something up.
0:06:48 This is your version of doom scrolling.
0:06:51 Like, what else, what’s for sale nearby?
0:06:52 Yes. So I’m doing that.
0:06:55 I’m laying in bed trying to go to sleep and I’m looking and I find this turbo chef
0:06:59 and the guy had, I believe it was, he might have been asking like $650.
0:07:01 I don’t remember exactly what he was asking for it.
0:07:03 I reached out and asked him if he would take $500 cash.
0:07:07 And the problem was when I reached out to him, he didn’t write back for me.
0:07:08 And we were only in that area for that night.
0:07:11 The next night we were going further west, but he reached out to me
0:07:15 like a couple of days later and we were already over in California or Idaho.
0:07:18 But when he wrote back, he did say, yes, he would take $500.
0:07:20 So I said, hey, we’re coming back through.
0:07:22 And it was another three or four days.
0:07:22 Would you be available?
0:07:25 And then I set up the appointment and on our way back, I met up with him.
0:07:28 And when I got there, he said that he had three of these.
0:07:32 Now, my problem was I only had $800 in cash on me.
0:07:35 And this guy was just meeting me to do this delivery.
0:07:36 And he had three more.
0:07:39 And I said, by chance, if I took two, would you go $400 a piece on them?
0:07:41 And he said, yes, I will.
0:07:42 And I’ll go back in right now.
0:07:44 And he brought it out on a cart.
0:07:45 The first one out on the cart, he was waiting for me.
0:07:46 He helped me load it into the truck.
0:07:49 He took the cart back in and got the other one.
0:07:53 So I ended up getting two of these bad boys and we paid $400 a piece for him.
0:07:54 So $800 total.
0:07:58 And then we sold them on eBay for $7,500 and then $10,000.
0:07:59 Wow, incredible.
0:08:03 I think the favorite part is that, like, you were turning all of this, you know,
0:08:07 family road trip time into, like, business mileage right off.
0:08:10 Like, oh, I’m sourced it over here, even if I’m halfway across the country.
0:08:15 And now was able to score some inventory while we’re there, paid for the whole trip.
0:08:15 And then some.
0:08:18 Yeah, that’s one of the things that we’ve really kind of turned the corner on
0:08:21 is how can we make every trip that we do?
0:08:23 How can we pay for it by flipping and get some right off
0:08:25 because of what we’re doing on the trip?
0:08:27 We were just down in the keys, man, it was probably a month ago.
0:08:29 Beginning of August, we go down for lobster season.
0:08:32 And on the way back, I wanted to be able to pay for our trip.
0:08:33 So I looked for something.
0:08:35 I found an oven for $120.
0:08:36 We actually just sold it.
0:08:38 I shipped it out last week and we sold it for $3,000.
0:08:43 So that’s kind of my game is when I travel, what can I find that I can buy
0:08:46 while we’re out and then I can bring it back and sell it and pay for the trip?
0:08:49 Yeah, as long as you’ve driven to the trip, you have some means to, like, bring it back.
0:08:51 Yeah. And our business, I always have the means.
0:08:53 So I’ll either take a trailer or I’ll take an exchange.
0:08:56 I take something knowing that I might be able to find something
0:08:57 and then I’ll bring it back with me.
0:09:00 I guess the same question is, like, people are letting go of this stuff
0:09:01 just because they don’t want to.
0:09:07 They don’t either know how relatively simple it is to sell on eBay or they don’t.
0:09:08 They just don’t want to deal with it.
0:09:11 And we did a recent episode with a guy who was doing like a similar business
0:09:13 with what he called like junk land parcels.
0:09:17 And it’s like they have title issues or they have maybe they don’t have sewer
0:09:20 or maybe they need some sort of variance or easement or something to, you know,
0:09:21 make the plot buildable.
0:09:23 He’s like, I’ve been doing this for decades.
0:09:24 I don’t mind dealing with City Hall.
0:09:27 I go through that red tape or, you know, to 10 X my money.
0:09:30 But he’s like, I tried by from what he called don’t wanters.
0:09:31 They don’t want to deal with it.
0:09:32 Maybe they inherited it.
0:09:36 They just add they let it go for way, way, way less than it’s worth.
0:09:38 Yeah. And the same thing, exactly.
0:09:43 I also feel like one of the big common denominators for us is people are
0:09:45 selling in the local market.
0:09:47 So where I’m buying something, it’s typically on Facebook Marketplace.
0:09:50 That’s only going to reach that local market to where, you know,
0:09:53 in Facebook Marketplace, a larger item, they’re only going to show it within,
0:09:57 you know, 10, 15 mile radius, sometimes more.
0:10:00 But for the majority of you’re only going to reach, depending on the app,
0:10:04 maybe 25, 40, 50,000 people have the opportunity that are shopping
0:10:07 for that exact item to where when you get it and throw it onto an app like eBay,
0:10:11 that’s got over 130, 235 million registered users.
0:10:13 You just have a bigger pool of people looking for that specific item.
0:10:15 So you can sell it quicker and ask more money for it.
0:10:19 Yeah, I’ve been in the same boat where it’s like, I don’t want to bother
0:10:20 with shipping this.
0:10:24 So I know that I’m limiting myself to, you know, whoever happens to see it on
0:10:25 Marketplace, but come take it away.
0:10:26 I need it out of the garage.
0:10:28 You know, maybe somebody else made some money on that.
0:10:29 And that’s how a lot of people are too.
0:10:30 They just want to get rid of it.
0:10:31 They’re going to be done with it.
0:10:34 And that’s where we swoop in and we will go the extra mile
0:10:35 to actually make the extra money on it.
0:10:38 Fair enough, fair enough, especially if the returns are there.
0:10:42 Like in, like in these cases, the other thing that that showed up
0:10:47 while I was trying to dig up some of your best flips was this autoclave.
0:10:49 And I had to even look up like what this is.
0:10:54 It’s some sort of like scientific cleaning, like sterilization type of device.
0:10:58 Yeah, that was another one from the same guy that I got the stretchers from.
0:10:59 Sold me the autoclave as well.
0:11:02 I believe I paid 100 or 120 bucks for that.
0:11:06 And if I’m not mistaken, it was around three to $5,000 that we sold it for.
0:11:10 But same deal, this guy who gets paid that I met at the flea market,
0:11:13 created the relationship with, he gets paid to clear out businesses.
0:11:15 Businesses go out of business for whatever reason.
0:11:16 They get rid of equipment.
0:11:18 They get rid of a lot of stuff and he goes in and gets it.
0:11:20 And then he snaps a picture, sends it to me.
0:11:22 And I’m able to buy it from him where he’s making money.
0:11:24 Typically the stuff that he gets is free.
0:11:28 It’s all free what he’s getting because he’s getting paid to get rid of the items.
0:11:31 And that was the deal with this autoclave is I got it from him, put it on eBay.
0:11:34 We actually shipped it out and we made some really, really good profit on that.
0:11:41 Yeah, my notes say $100 acquisition price into $5,000 or $5,500 in sales price.
0:11:44 Minus out eBay fees, minus out shipping, or I don’t know, do you tack on shipping?
0:11:47 It didn’t seem like this was a huge, huge item.
0:11:48 Yeah, it was heavy though.
0:11:52 It was a size of a large microwave, if you think of it about that size.
0:11:53 But it was heavy and I don’t know.
0:11:57 It’s a commercial piece of equipment that they put in tools like operation tools
0:11:59 and stuff to sterilize them.
0:12:00 That’s what it was.
0:12:01 I didn’t even know that.
0:12:03 All I knew was the name of it, like I told you from the beginning.
0:12:06 I’m not the smartest guy, not the smartest crane in the box.
0:12:09 I know the name, the model, and then I do all the research to see what it’s worth.
0:12:12 And when he gave me the name, now this guy that sends me pictures,
0:12:14 he takes a picture of the name, the model.
0:12:17 He knows that’s what I need to make a decision on if I’m going to buy it or not.
0:12:18 But yeah, this one, it did go on a pallet.
0:12:23 So actually was shipped on a pallet, but we made from $100 to $5,500 absolutely.
0:12:27 And eBay fees are pretty, I mean, when we actually do the whole breakdown,
0:12:28 we tell everybody how much we pay eBay.
0:12:32 We tell how much shipping and all that stuff is for everybody who watches in on our stuff.
0:12:37 And eBay fees typically are about 13% until they cap that at $2,500.
0:12:43 And then after $2,500, it drops down to, I think it’s like 2.3 or 2.7% for everything over $2,500.
0:12:46 So when I’m selling some of these items that are $7,000, $10,000, $20,000,
0:12:50 they actually bring the fees way, way down and makes it that much easier
0:12:51 for us to be able to sell them on their platform.
0:12:53 Yeah, that’s kind of crazy.
0:12:55 What was the most expensive thing that you’ve ever sold?
0:12:56 This is a really cool one.
0:13:00 So, and it was another one at the top of the bracket that Melissa.
0:13:01 Melissa is my wife, if you don’t know.
0:13:04 But Melissa, it made her very uncomfortable for this one.
0:13:09 And I told her I knew the profit was there, but it was an actual parking lot tower.
0:13:11 Like a security watch tower.
0:13:12 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
0:13:17 Yes. So this thing raised in the air like 20 feet, 30 feet, something like that.
0:13:20 It was on a trailer, so you pulled it anywhere you want to do, you parked it.
0:13:22 Then you got inside of it, cranked up a generator.
0:13:25 It lifted you all the way up so you could see over the whole parking lot.
0:13:27 But we paid $5,000 for it.
0:13:29 And that’s a lot for me to spend on an item.
0:13:30 And I have to know that the return’s there.
0:13:33 But before I bought it, I looked at what the retail and I couldn’t find any comps.
0:13:34 Nobody was selling these.
0:13:36 I hadn’t even seen any other one for sale.
0:13:40 But the retail on this was like 125 or $135,000.
0:13:43 So I said, if I can get this thing for $5,000, I know I can make money.
0:13:46 And we sold it in less than 30 days for 25,000.
0:13:48 Wow. Wow. Yeah, that’s a nice, a nice ROI.
0:13:52 In a given month, what are you sitting on in terms of inventory?
0:13:54 Like, do you think about it in terms of turn rate?
0:13:55 Do you think about it in terms of like storage?
0:13:57 Like, where do I keep all this stuff?
0:13:59 Like, where am I going to put a parking lot security tower?
0:14:00 That’s not going to fit in my garage.
0:14:02 Like, where am I storing this stuff?
0:14:06 Yeah. So what we do at the scale that we’re at now, that we do have to have a storage.
0:14:07 We have a storage facility.
0:14:11 I have a building, I believe it’s like 1,400 square feet.
0:14:13 So it’s not monstrous, but it’s big enough.
0:14:15 And I have some outside parking and stuff like that.
0:14:16 So you do have to.
0:14:17 And we grew into this business.
0:14:19 When I started the business, I lived in a duplex.
0:14:21 The only thing I did was I used my spare bedroom.
0:14:22 I had a spare bedroom.
0:14:23 That was my office.
0:14:24 That’s where I stored everything.
0:14:26 That’s where I created boxes.
0:14:27 That’s where I did everything.
0:14:30 But as we grew and I saw what the profits are, yes, we do have a warehouse that we have
0:14:31 stuff stored in.
0:14:34 I have places where I can park stuff outside, inside, whatever I need to do.
0:14:40 And yeah, typically we sit on $500,000 worth of inventory, but it’s not like somebody who
0:14:41 has a lot of smalls.
0:14:44 I mean, that is a lot, a lot of smalls in that inventory.
0:14:48 For ours, our average sale price, like last year, our average sale price was $2,000 per
0:14:49 item.
0:14:51 And some items are more and some items are a little bit less.
0:14:54 But on average, that’s kind of what we go with.
0:14:55 That’s not your acquisition cost.
0:14:57 That’s like your expected resale value.
0:15:02 On gross, that’s what we kind of, on what we sold last year, we did $92,000.
0:15:04 And that was in 46 items that we sold.
0:15:05 So it was just over $2,000.
0:15:08 But like I said, and profit-wise, after eBay fees, after shipping, after everything we
0:15:13 paid out, it was still over like 70, I think it was 73,000 in some change on the profit
0:15:14 side of it.
0:15:15 Yeah.
0:15:20 So you could source nothing for years and slowly sell down this thing and still have
0:15:23 several hundred thousand dollars worth of profits there.
0:15:24 Absolutely.
0:15:25 I’m really good at finding deals.
0:15:27 And sometimes the deals might need a little thing.
0:15:28 They might need something.
0:15:30 So I’m really good at finding and buying them.
0:15:32 But I’m not the greatest on getting them listed.
0:15:38 So I do have probably $300,000 worth of stuff that is sitting in my warehouse or sitting
0:15:43 in my garage, I have a detached garage as well, that I have not got listed yet for whatever
0:15:44 reason it is.
0:15:45 But that’s money that’s not making me money.
0:15:46 Yeah.
0:15:49 That’s, nobody’s going to find it if it’s not, if it’s not online.
0:15:50 But that’s the challenge.
0:15:54 It sounds like, and kind of a common challenge, like I love the treasure hunt component of
0:15:55 it.
0:16:00 I love the thrill of making that sale, but then like the photography component, the writing
0:16:05 the product description, some measurements, even sometimes the seller or the buyer interactions,
0:16:09 especially Facebook marketplace is the worst, like where, you know, just so many random bots,
0:16:10 I don’t know.
0:16:12 I assume they’re bots who just ask you, is this still available?
0:16:15 The pain that goes into it, but the pain is where the profit comes from.
0:16:20 So the next one that I have on my list is these Air Force floodlights from like Cold
0:16:25 War era floodlights, like looking for, like searchlights, looking for planes.
0:16:26 Yeah.
0:16:27 This was a really cool one as well.
0:16:31 So if you haven’t found the like thing with our story is I love weird stuff.
0:16:35 I love stuff that nobody else sees value in for whatever reason, or yeah, that’s what
0:16:36 I really, really hone in on.
0:16:37 I try to find stuff like that.
0:16:43 We bought six of these huge spotlights and when I say huge, the light itself was probably
0:16:48 six foot tall and then it sat on a military trailer, just a beast of a light in it, the
0:16:49 light bulb.
0:16:51 It’s not like a normal light bulb that you would think of.
0:16:55 It actually had a hole, a tube going through the light mechanism itself and it would run
0:16:58 radiator fluid through it to cool it down.
0:17:00 This is how bright these things are.
0:17:04 You were not allowed to turn these on within a 10 mile radius of an airport.
0:17:05 That’s how bright they are.
0:17:06 Oh my gosh.
0:17:07 But did they work?
0:17:08 Yes, they did.
0:17:09 So they absolutely worked.
0:17:13 You had to have a special generator since they were, I don’t quote me, I’m not a hundred
0:17:17 percent sure, but I think they were manufactured in the 70s, 60s, or 70s.
0:17:21 They had military generators that were on a different frequency.
0:17:23 That was the only thing that could run them was that frequency.
0:17:25 So you had to have a generator to do it.
0:17:28 The first guy that we sold one to, he actually had the generator, he brought it down.
0:17:33 He cranked the sucker up and we saw like the bat, the bat light.
0:17:37 This thing just went to heaven on how bright it was, but it was insane how bright it was.
0:17:39 So to give you an idea, they used them in the war.
0:17:40 They got rid of them.
0:17:45 And then they actually, I think they either NASA bought them or somehow NASA got their
0:17:46 hands on them.
0:17:50 And they used two on each side of the runway at NASA, a 10 mile runway.
0:17:54 And that’s how they lit up the runway for the space shuttle to come in and land or with
0:17:55 these lights.
0:18:00 And don’t ask me how they ended up at an auction that I was at, but they ended up at an auction
0:18:04 and we ended up paying, I think it was like 360 or $370 per light.
0:18:08 And then yeah, we sold, we were selling them, I think it was between $7 and $10,000 per
0:18:12 light when we actually, when we actually sold them, one went out to, if you’ve heard of
0:18:16 Burning Man, a guy out there bought, I think the first one went out there and then he bought
0:18:17 a couple more after that.
0:18:21 So yeah, just a crazy, crazy story, but really, really cool item that we got to come in contact
0:18:22 with and then get it to somebody.
0:18:23 All right.
0:18:25 So I’m hearing local auctions.
0:18:30 I’m hearing contacts at the flea market, offer up Facebook marketplace, finding a guy who
0:18:34 gets paid to clean out businesses where they go out of business, like all of these different
0:18:40 sourcing methods and then looking for those bigger, bulkier items that other people are
0:18:45 a little bit hesitant to touch, but you know, there’s got to be some inherent value there
0:18:46 to the right buyer.
0:18:47 Absolutely.
0:18:48 I mean, you hit the nail on the head.
0:18:52 All these different places were able to do it and we’ve just been doing it for so long.
0:18:56 I’m looking for those unique items that a lot of people won’t say, Hey, I’m going to throw
0:18:57 that on a pallet.
0:18:58 I’m going to ship it.
0:19:00 A lot of our items do do that, but a lot of them also go in boxes.
0:19:04 So we still ship them FedEx or UPS, but it is, it has to be that right item.
0:19:05 Yeah.
0:19:09 And we’ve heard from people who really have honed in on a flipping niche, like I focus
0:19:16 on shoes and maybe even specifically like men’s dress shoes, flipping used cell phones.
0:19:21 And we’ve talked about like flipping domain names and it’s like everybody’s got a niche
0:19:26 and if there’s a way to describe your niche, it’s just big, big profitable stuff.
0:19:27 Absolutely.
0:19:30 We’re looking for those big, big items that yeah, we can turn around and make a profit
0:19:31 on for sure.
0:19:35 This comes to mind here on this $1,000 plus lip list.
0:19:39 I know we’ve talked about the bus wash in the past, does that one qualify?
0:19:40 Absolutely.
0:19:44 So we actually sold two bus washes, bought one locally at an auction and then on a road
0:19:48 trip, I think it was two or three years ago on the way back from a road trip, our last
0:19:54 stop was the outer banks and we actually found a bus wash while I was in the hotel again.
0:19:56 And I think it was the last night we were there.
0:19:59 I found a bus wash, got it for $500.
0:20:01 This thing was like brand spanking new.
0:20:02 We had to actually drive home.
0:20:05 I had an enclosed trailer, so I had to drive back home, outer banks.
0:20:09 Yeah, I think if I’m not mistaken, it was like 10 hours from us, but the profit was
0:20:10 there on this bad boy.
0:20:14 So I went home, I got an open trailer, we came back up the next weekend.
0:20:17 I secured the deal with a guy, I came back up, picked it up the next weekend, paid $500
0:20:21 and sold it for, that one was $14,500 that we were actually able to sell it for.
0:20:22 Oh my gosh.
0:20:25 Yeah, I’ll take a 10 hour road trip.
0:20:26 Okay.
0:20:30 And because you’d sold a previous one, you’re like, oh shoot, I know I could do it again.
0:20:31 Fascinating.
0:20:33 Any other ones that make sense to highlight here?
0:20:37 A smaller one that I just sold a week and a half ago is a Panini press.
0:20:42 We were at the flea market about a month ago, maybe a little less, and I was walking down
0:20:44 the aisle and Melissa goes, hey, look at that over there.
0:20:47 And I had already seen it because I usually pick up stuff really, really quickly.
0:20:50 And I was like, yeah, it’s a Panini press, but I thought it was a cheaper one.
0:20:53 I thought it was, you know, one of the ones that you can get off brand and $300 or something
0:20:54 like that.
0:20:55 And she goes, check it out.
0:20:56 I pulled it up.
0:20:57 It was a star brand.
0:20:58 I forgot the model that it was.
0:20:59 Yeah.
0:21:02 It was like, they’re $2,500 to $3,000 new.
0:21:03 And I was like, whoa, that’s a good deal.
0:21:05 And he was only asking $50 for it.
0:21:07 So I was like, ah, that’s a great deal.
0:21:08 Let’s go back and talk to him.
0:21:11 I offered him $40 and he said he would take $45 for it.
0:21:12 I didn’t plug it in or anything.
0:21:13 I asked him if it worked.
0:21:14 He told me, yes, he guaranteed it worked.
0:21:16 So he paid him $45 for it.
0:21:19 And then we sold it within like two weeks and sold it for $1,500.
0:21:21 That’s another one that, yeah, we’re looking for those.
0:21:22 That was not very big.
0:21:23 It went into a box, shipped it.
0:21:25 I believe that was FedEx that I shipped it with.
0:21:26 But yeah, we see those.
0:21:28 I mean, those are not that hard to find.
0:21:30 $1,500 bucks for a Panini press?
0:21:31 Yes.
0:21:35 Like my 20 year old George Foreman is still working just fine.
0:21:36 I don’t know.
0:21:37 But that’s crazy.
0:21:41 So being able to do it over and over again, those deals are out there.
0:21:44 It’s just a matter of kind of making yourself available and open to them.
0:21:45 And I love, oh, I found it.
0:21:49 Well, it’s just, you know, scroll in marketplace, scroll it off or up, sit in the hotel room.
0:21:52 So much more profitable than just dinking around on TikTok or something.
0:21:53 Yeah, absolutely.
0:21:54 It’s so much fun.
0:21:55 I’ll give you one more real quick.
0:21:56 This is a quick one.
0:21:58 It’s a soft serve ice cream machine.
0:22:01 And I don’t think I told you this last time we had talked because it’s been quite a few
0:22:02 years since we have talked.
0:22:06 I found an ice cream, a soft serve ice cream machine on offer up that a lady posted for
0:22:07 free.
0:22:09 When I messaged her, I saw it after it came on offer up.
0:22:12 I was like, it was like five minutes and I messaged her and said, I can come pick it
0:22:13 up right now.
0:22:14 She messaged me back and sent me the address.
0:22:16 I jumped in, got my trailer, went and picked it up.
0:22:21 We sold that for $8,500 and she gave it to me for free and she told me there’s nothing
0:22:22 wrong with this.
0:22:23 Wow.
0:22:24 That’s not anything about power.
0:22:28 It was three phase and her ice cream shop didn’t have three phase act accessible to
0:22:29 them.
0:22:32 So that was why she bought it in haste and then she couldn’t use it and she’s like,
0:22:33 I don’t want to deal with it.
0:22:34 It’s big.
0:22:36 Just somebody come and pick it up and get it out of my shop.
0:22:37 That’s what we did.
0:22:38 So we picked it up for free.
0:22:41 Didn’t pay a penny for it and actually sold it for $8,500.
0:22:42 So these deals are out there.
0:22:43 You just have to be looking for them.
0:22:48 In a case like that, do you go back to her afterwards and like sprinkle a couple of Benjamins
0:22:49 in the tip jar?
0:22:50 It’d be like, hey, thank you.
0:22:53 Thank you for, you know, paying our bills for the next couple months.
0:22:54 Yeah, absolutely.
0:22:55 We try to take care of it.
0:22:59 And most of it has some like a property manager who calls us and gives us stuff as well that
0:23:03 somebody moves out and they ask us if we want the items inside the house or something like
0:23:04 that.
0:23:06 Whenever we do that, we always try to take care of people who take care of us or we give
0:23:08 them a gift card or something like that.
0:23:11 Just to show them our gratitude, thank you for thinking about us and stuff like that.
0:23:12 So absolutely.
0:23:14 It never hurts to be over generous with people.
0:23:15 Totally.
0:23:16 Well, make sure to follow along.
0:23:20 Robin Melissa, some of my favorite follows on Instagram because they’re posting stories
0:23:23 like these all the time, source, you know, creative ways to source while they’re out
0:23:28 on family road trips, you know, turning these vacations into write offs and finding creative
0:23:30 ways to offset the costs, even pay for these.
0:23:33 Hey, this was a profitable trip for us now.
0:23:36 Instead of most people taking time off and having that cost them money.
0:23:40 So I love all these stories and I know you’ve got, you know, we could feel hours of airtime
0:23:45 with all of those, but we’re going to be right back with Rob for rounds two and three, including
0:23:49 donate a business idea right after this.
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0:25:08 Being an entrepreneur and being able to work remotely definitely has its perks.
0:25:14 I’ve recorded podcasts everywhere from Vietnam to Italy, drafted newsletters from Japan,
0:25:17 hosted mastermind meetings from Spain, ended up being the middle of the night to get to
0:25:22 US business hours and outlined courses in Mexico.
0:25:25 The common thread of all of these trips though is Airbnb.
0:25:30 We love being able to get exactly what we’re looking for in a place to stay and have a
0:25:34 more local experience than staying in some giant hotel chain.
0:25:38 And you know me, I’m always thinking about the next side hustle idea, the next income
0:25:39 stream, right?
0:25:44 And one that’s at the top of the list is hosting our place on Airbnb while we’re traveling.
0:25:45 That way the house doesn’t have to sit empty.
0:25:50 We could use the income to help pay for the trip and we’ve heard from several successful
0:25:52 Airbnb hosts on the show.
0:25:56 And what’s interesting is a lot of them started with almost that exact strategy, running their
0:26:00 place or even a spare room while they’re out of town.
0:26:04 Taking inspiration from that, you might have an Airbnb right under your nose.
0:26:07 In fact, your home might be worth more than you think.
0:26:15 You can find out how much at Airbnb.com/host, that’s Airbnb.com/host to find out how much
0:26:18 your home is worth.
0:26:23 All right, we’re back with Rob from fleamarketflipper.com for round two, donate a business idea.
0:26:26 This is something that you might start yourself if you had more time.
0:26:28 This is something that auto exists in the world.
0:26:30 This is something you think listeners could start and run with.
0:26:33 So Melissa and I have recently got into pickleball.
0:26:36 We play almost every single night in our local town that we’re in.
0:26:37 They congregate.
0:26:38 There’s like 70 people there.
0:26:45 I totally would start a e-commerce pickleball swag, whether it’s shirts, paddles, grips,
0:26:46 balls.
0:26:51 I feel like this pickleball has been around for decades, but it is taking the country by
0:26:54 storm just with how many people are playing it and how much more we’re seeing of it right
0:26:55 now.
0:26:58 And I think it is going to be kind of like the next bubble for sports is pickleball.
0:27:02 So that is exactly what I would do if I had more time, I would open up an e-commerce store
0:27:04 and really start leaning into this sport.
0:27:07 Is there that much equipment involved like you got a couple of paddles, you got a couple
0:27:08 of balls?
0:27:09 I feel like you’re set.
0:27:10 Or is there that surface level?
0:27:14 Nick, you got to go once you’re serious about this, like there’s way more.
0:27:16 You don’t have to have a lot of stuff and you don’t have to have a lot of expensive stuff.
0:27:21 We started out with paddles from Walmart and they are like $20 or $30 paddles.
0:27:27 Slowly as we started getting better and upgrading to $100, $200 paddles, it is night and day.
0:27:30 How much better your game will get with the right equipment.
0:27:31 Really?
0:27:32 Yes, absolutely.
0:27:35 I loved it because I had this paddle that was worn down to almost nothing.
0:27:39 And then I jumped in and played with somebody’s like $200 paddle and I was like, what have
0:27:40 I been waiting for?
0:27:41 This is ridiculous.
0:27:45 How much the difference is on different carbon fiber and graphite paddles, they make all
0:27:46 different types now.
0:27:50 It’s not a lot of stuff, but there is still paddles, gloves, a swag where you’re having
0:27:51 shirts and shorts.
0:27:55 And there’s a lot of stuff that you can enter into it and really, you know, go after people
0:27:56 in this market.
0:28:00 I had no idea you could go that high end on a pickleball paddle.
0:28:05 And so maybe that’s the play, like if you’re going after the $20, $30 Walmart paddle type
0:28:09 of people, like that seems really crowded, that seems really, really competitive race
0:28:10 to the bottom.
0:28:13 But if you’re going after the $200, $300 paddle people, like all of a sudden, hey, similar
0:28:16 to the flipping business, I don’t have to make that many sales to make it interesting,
0:28:17 to make it worthwhile.
0:28:18 Yeah, absolutely.
0:28:22 And that’s the biggest thing is in not just one area, I feel like showing people that
0:28:25 you have a lot of different things for the pickleball community.
0:28:29 I feel like that’s where you can actually go in and I think it would be something that
0:28:30 would kill it, a business that would kill it.
0:28:35 I came across one, I think it was called the Dink or Dink, like it was like a pickleball
0:28:40 newsletter business where it had kind of risen the rising tide of interest.
0:28:42 They said, hey, we’re going to follow the piggyback principle.
0:28:46 We see that this is a rising tide of interest and we want a part of this trend, right?
0:28:50 So we’re going to ride this trend and maybe still are doing really, really well with their
0:28:52 pickleball newsletter.
0:28:55 And so this is one of the broader, you know, even if it’s not pickleball, like for people
0:28:56 tuning in.
0:29:00 And what else do you see around you that has just a rising tide of interest that you could
0:29:02 somehow capitalize on?
0:29:06 Could you be the person that sells shovels into that gold rush instead of, you know,
0:29:08 being the prospector yourself?
0:29:13 We had, and we recently reared this episode with Russ Perry from Design Pickle.
0:29:17 And we first recorded, it was 2017-ish, 28, I don’t remember.
0:29:21 And he was like, because of the name tie-in, well, we’re a design pickle, we run this
0:29:22 design agency.
0:29:26 We sponsored this little like up-and-coming national championship in this little sport
0:29:27 called pickleball.
0:29:30 And he’s like, maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t, but, you know, it’s gaining
0:29:32 a little bit of popularity, gaining a little bit of traction.
0:29:33 So we wanted to be like the title sponsor.
0:29:34 Who knows if this is going to pay off.
0:29:38 And I was like, when we reared that episode this year, 2024, we’re like, hey, you know,
0:29:40 I wonder how much that sponsorship costs now.
0:29:43 I wonder if they’ve kept that going over the course of several years, because obviously
0:29:46 there’s a ton more interest in pickleball now.
0:29:47 That’s awesome.
0:29:48 All right.
0:29:54 So donate a business idea, the pickleball, e-com, swag, and equipment type of store there.
0:29:55 And I like that.
0:29:59 So the broader, broader idea would be find a gold rush, you can sell some shovels into
0:30:02 obviously pickleball is big gold rush going on right now.
0:30:03 Round three is the triple threat.
0:30:07 And we’re going to start off with a marketing tactic that’s working for you right now.
0:30:09 This could be on the flipping business side.
0:30:12 This could be on the flipper university side.
0:30:13 What do you see?
0:30:14 What’s working for you these days?
0:30:15 Yeah.
0:30:20 So on our coaching aspect of our business, we use a software called ClickFunnels.
0:30:24 And ClickFunnels has a 2.0 version that they’ve been upgrading and getting really into.
0:30:27 And it’s amazing what we’re able to do on the marketing side of our business for the
0:30:28 coaching business.
0:30:31 So we use it every day with all the stuff that we do emails, marketing and all that kind
0:30:34 of stuff that’s been amazing for our business, amazing help.
0:30:38 Anything specific that has changed over the last six or 12 months with that new tool in
0:30:43 terms of customer acquisition or blow or what, how are you using it?
0:30:48 They just opened up inside the software of 2.0, the affiliate portal to where it will
0:30:52 make it that much easier for us to be able to communicate and work with affiliates in
0:30:53 our coaching business.
0:30:54 Okay.
0:30:56 So that allows you to tap into affiliate marketing.
0:30:59 If you’re not familiar, I know we’ve talked about it on the show in the past, but from
0:31:02 the affiliate side, this is helping other people sell their products and services.
0:31:06 Now, from the business owner side, from Rob’s standpoint, this is, well, how can I recruit
0:31:08 an army of performance-based sales agents?
0:31:10 I don’t have to pay them until they make a sale.
0:31:14 And when they do, I’ll just pay them a commission on everybody they referred to me.
0:31:18 So kind of a win-win for all parties involved there or a low-risk marketing channel.
0:31:23 And so I’ll chalk that up as the marketing tactic that is working right now, this new
0:31:27 ClickFunnels-powered affiliate portal, which will allow you to go out and recruit some
0:31:31 affiliates that are personal finance adjacent, that are flipping adjacent, that can send
0:31:33 people your way and into your world.
0:31:34 Does that make sense?
0:31:35 Absolutely.
0:31:36 Okay.
0:31:38 So I’m going to put that down as the marketing tactics, affiliate marketing.
0:31:43 I’m going to assume ClickFunnels 2.0 as this new tool that you’re loving right now.
0:31:44 Yeah.
0:31:45 It’s amazing for us.
0:31:46 I’m not in the digital aspect of our business.
0:31:50 I’m more of, hey, I buy this, I pick it up, I sell it, I do that.
0:31:52 Melissa does the back in and she’s really amazing at it.
0:31:55 And she is absolutely loving all the features inside of 2.0 right now.
0:31:56 Well, very cool.
0:31:59 It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at ClickFunnels and maybe it had, maybe it was
0:32:00 due for a 2.0.
0:32:02 It was a little bit clunky in some ways.
0:32:06 So maybe this upgrade has addressed some of those issues.
0:32:07 So very cool.
0:32:08 ClickFunnels 2.0.
0:32:09 We’ll link that up in the show notes.
0:32:13 And last, but not least for round three is your favorite book from the last 12 months.
0:32:15 So this is the triple threat.
0:32:19 So I’m going to give you three books that have changed my life and our business.
0:32:24 Now, once it goes back to the actual owner of ClickFunnels, Russell Brunson, dot com
0:32:27 secrets, expert secrets and traffic secrets.
0:32:29 That’s his trilogy that he wrote in the marketing world.
0:32:31 They are amazing, amazing books.
0:32:33 I have listened to them many, many times.
0:32:38 I’m not a very dyslexic, so I don’t read very well, but I do listen to audiobooks while
0:32:40 I’m running, while I’m exercising all the time.
0:32:43 And I have listened to all of these books multiple, multiple times.
0:32:46 And every time I do, I get new golden nuggets out of them.
0:32:49 So if anything, these books are amazing in his trilogy.
0:32:52 I’ve got a couple of those on my shelf as well.
0:32:57 And maybe it was expert secrets where he talks about the perfect webinar structure.
0:33:00 And it doesn’t even have to be webinar or workshop, but it’s like, the big thing that
0:33:04 stood out to me was like, your audience is coming into these, into your world with some
0:33:10 preconceived notions about what is and is not possible, what they can and cannot achieve.
0:33:14 And it’s really your job as the business owner to really kind of like break down some of
0:33:18 those limiting beliefs and say like, no, you can make this happen.
0:33:23 And Jacques Hopkins from Piano and 21 Days have said the same thing, like your marketing
0:33:25 material needs to accomplish a couple of things.
0:33:28 It’s like, first of all, convince people that they can do the thing.
0:33:31 And secondly, that you’re the person to help them bridge that gap, that you’re the person
0:33:33 who can help them get there.
0:33:35 So that was one thing that stood out from expert secrets.
0:33:38 I know I’ve got a couple of these on my shelf behind me as well.
0:33:44 And Traffic Secrets was an attempt to be timeless in the age of social media algorithms
0:33:45 constantly changing.
0:33:49 So you kind of breaks down what do these platforms really want at the end of the day?
0:33:50 What do they want and value?
0:33:55 And how can you feed your content into those such that you go find people in their natural
0:33:57 habitat, find people where they already are?
0:33:58 Yeah, absolutely.
0:33:59 And they kind of break it up.
0:34:01 DotcomSecrets was his first one that he actually did.
0:34:05 And yeah, all three of the books they tie in together, they really, it is marketing.
0:34:08 It’s marketing genius for what he has written and put together in those books.
0:34:10 So absolutely amazing books.
0:34:11 Well, very good.
0:34:12 We will link those up in the show notes as well.
0:34:17 I’m sure there is a free plus shipping funnel that you can get yourself inserted into through
0:34:20 ClickFunnels or through Russell’s masterful marketing for all of those.
0:34:23 But we’ll link those up in the show notes for this episode.
0:34:26 FleaMarketFlipper.com, where you can find more about Rob.
0:34:31 Check out the free workshop, sidehustlenation.com/fmf, FleaMarketFlipper.
0:34:35 We’ll get you over there, their on demand workshop webinar on how to start your own
0:34:36 flipping business.
0:34:37 Big thanks to Rob for sharing his insight.
0:34:40 Thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone.
0:34:45 As always, you can hit up sidehustlenation.com/deals for all the latest offers from our sponsors
0:34:46 in one place.
0:34:47 That’s it for me.
0:34:48 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:34:52 If you’re finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend.
0:34:56 So fire off that text message to that, you know, deal hunter bargain lover friend of yours
0:34:59 and say, Hey, you already love looking for this stuff.
0:35:00 Maybe turn that around.
0:35:01 Look, look for some of these profitable finds.
0:35:03 I’ll think you’ll get a kick out of this episode in any case.
0:35:06 Until next time, let’s go out there and make something happen.
0:35:08 And I’ll catch you in the next edition of the Side Hustle Show.
0:00:06 It’s one thing to be able to source thrift store or garage sale items
0:00:09 and make five, ten, fifty bucks, a hundred bucks per flip.
0:00:12 But it’s another thing entirely to be able to do that consistently
0:00:14 with big, big profit items.
0:00:15 What’s up? What’s up?
0:00:17 Nick Hulper here. Welcome to The Side Hustle Show
0:00:19 because there is profit everywhere, if you know where to look.
0:00:22 Now, this is the show that helps you uncover those profitable ideas
0:00:25 by shining the light on how other people are getting it done.
0:00:29 And one of my all time favorite profit finders is back in the studio
0:00:31 for the first time since 2018.
0:00:34 If you can believe that makes a full time living from part time work,
0:00:37 buy and low and sell it high from fleamarketflipper.com
0:00:40 and Flipper University, Rob Stephenson.
0:00:41 Welcome back to The Side Hustle Show.
0:00:43 What’s up, Nick? I’m so excited to be back.
0:00:45 We always love chatting with you.
0:00:48 So thank you so much for inviting us back to talk to you today.
0:00:50 I am pumped as well.
0:00:52 We’re going three rounds with Rob today,
0:00:56 counting down some of his best/most profitable/most memorable flips
0:01:00 with the criteria that they made over $1,000 in profit.
0:01:01 It’s not about who sells the most stuff.
0:01:04 It’s about selling the right stuff with high margins.
0:01:05 This is something that I can be about.
0:01:07 Round two is donate a business idea
0:01:09 and stick around for the triple threat in round three.
0:01:12 This is a marketing tactic that’s working right now for Rob or his students
0:01:13 in Flipper University.
0:01:17 This is a new or new to him tool that him and his business partner, Melissa,
0:01:21 are loving right now and his favorite book from the last 12 months.
0:01:23 I want to start off with these $1,000 flips
0:01:26 because you guys consistently are able to find these items.
0:01:29 Where on the one hand it’s like, why would anybody let it go?
0:01:30 If it was really worth that much,
0:01:32 why would somebody be letting it go for way less than that?
0:01:34 But you do it over and over again.
0:01:37 I think we first recorded in 2014, 2015.
0:01:39 You’ve been doing it long before then and ever since.
0:01:42 So maybe kick us off with these like ambulance stretchers.
0:01:44 This was last year’s big win.
0:01:45 Absolutely.
0:01:47 And a lot of people think that these scores that we find
0:01:49 are once in a blue moon or a needle in a haystack.
0:01:52 And we have done it time and time again.
0:01:55 Last year, our totals were $92,000 for the whole year
0:01:56 with only 46 items.
0:01:58 We only sold 46 items the whole year.
0:02:00 Average just a little over $2,000.
0:02:01 But the important part is the profit.
0:02:05 And we’re over $73,000 in profit on that $92,000 gross.
0:02:06 So, so, so cool.
0:02:08 We’re able to do it year in, year out.
0:02:09 And we just keep doing it back to back to back.
0:02:12 So you can do, anybody can do it when you know what you’re looking for.
0:02:13 Yeah.
0:02:15 Now, the stretchers that Nick is talking about,
0:02:17 which was an amazing, amazing flip for us.
0:02:21 One of my contacts that I met at the local flea market,
0:02:23 I met him, I don’t know how many years ago, five, seven years ago.
0:02:27 I got his phone number and then we do deals outside of the flea market all the time.
0:02:30 He comes into great, great items that he actually throws my way.
0:02:34 And he came up with 12 stretchers that he got from one of his contacts.
0:02:36 And he sent me a picture of him and I was like, oh, those look cool.
0:02:38 I think I can make a little bit of money on them.
0:02:41 I showed Melissa and I said, hey, he wants $2,200 for this.
0:02:45 And that’s pretty high for our, I mean, I don’t have a very high threshold
0:02:49 that I like to invest in a lot of money out on top of the items that we’re doing.
0:02:51 I just don’t, I don’t feel comfortable investing a lot of money.
0:02:55 And this was definitely on the top of it, but $2,200 for 12 of them.
0:02:58 I bought them, I told Melissa, she told me not to do it.
0:02:58 Yeah.
0:03:00 And I said, I really have a good feeling about this.
0:03:03 And we actually bought those $2,200 and we sold them.
0:03:04 I think Melissa wrote it down for me.
0:03:09 I think $35,000 we made on those 12 stretchers that we sold.
0:03:10 Yeah, that’s just crazy.
0:03:12 And he was making money on the deal too.
0:03:15 So there’s like even opportunity at the wholesale level, basically,
0:03:17 to find other people like you.
0:03:18 Absolutely. Yeah.
0:03:19 He always is making money on us.
0:03:23 And then we’re actually taking it to a nationwide or a global market.
0:03:25 And that’s how we’re able to make our money is because the majority of the stuff
0:03:27 that we sell, we’re just bringing it to a bigger market.
0:03:32 So $2,200 worth of investment into $35,000 worth of sales.
0:03:34 And that’s just one example.
0:03:36 But that was a big chunk of the revenue for the year, for sure.
0:03:37 Yeah, absolutely.
0:03:39 And I was super excited when I got those.
0:03:42 But still, we are able to find a lot of other stuff.
0:03:44 We really hone in on these high profit items.
0:03:45 That’s what we really love.
0:03:46 We have three kids.
0:03:47 We have a growing family.
0:03:50 And we want to be able to spend time with my wife and our kids.
0:03:51 And this is what allows us to do it.
0:03:55 I mean, you throw this up on eBay and all of a sudden they’re worth, you know,
0:03:59 so much more just because you knew there was some inherent value in them
0:04:00 way beyond the $2,200.
0:04:03 So the cool thing about eBay is they’ll give you an actual record
0:04:05 of the last 90 days in sales.
0:04:08 So when he sent me the picture of them, they were yellow stretchers.
0:04:09 And I jumped on.
0:04:10 I saw what the brand was.
0:04:12 It was a striker jumped on to eBay.
0:04:15 I checked out what they had sold for in the last 90 days.
0:04:19 And I didn’t know the exact model, but I had a stretcher and I had striker
0:04:20 and I knew kind of what they looked like.
0:04:23 I jumped on and looked at the active listings and the sold listings
0:04:26 and saw that I was going to be able to make money, which we sold one
0:04:30 for double what I paid for the whole lot of 12 of them.
0:04:31 So that just gives you an idea.
0:04:34 But there’s always a way to do the research before you go out the money.
0:04:37 Yeah. So who bought up like other like EMT, like ambulance companies
0:04:38 or like hospitals?
0:04:42 It’s funny, I sold one to Puerto Rico.
0:04:46 And I think the majority of the people who bought them were transportation
0:04:51 companies that had ambulances or they redid ambulances for transportation
0:04:53 companies that were they go and pick up patients and stuff like that.
0:04:55 So I feel like that is who we sold them to.
0:04:58 But the first ones that I sold, I sold way, way too cheap
0:05:00 because I was trying to recoup my investment back.
0:05:03 Some guy locally wanted four of them and I sold them for way too cheap.
0:05:05 I think I the first four I sold since he bought four of them.
0:05:07 I think I sold them for like fifteen hundred dollars a piece.
0:05:10 OK, but still recouped my whole investment on those first four.
0:05:12 And then I started asking a little bit more money.
0:05:13 We made a lot more money on the other ones.
0:05:15 Yeah. OK. Interesting.
0:05:19 So this was just through a contact of yours by showing up at the local
0:05:23 flea market, telling people what you do, the kind of stuff that you’re looking for.
0:05:25 Yeah. So somebody I met, he had cool items.
0:05:28 It wasn’t like the first week that I found him.
0:05:30 It was more of I had gone consistently to the flea market.
0:05:35 Back when we started our business, I went consistently every Saturday and Sunday morning.
0:05:39 And I started finding those vendors that were doing or selling the kind of items
0:05:40 that I liked. Yeah.
0:05:43 And then I started creating relationships after I saw them week after week after week.
0:05:45 And then I started creating that contact with them afterwards.
0:05:48 Yeah. And the contrast here is these one off.
0:05:52 We’ve called them random items, these niche specialty items,
0:05:57 sometimes commercial equipment where there’s absolutely people who can make it work.
0:06:01 You know, making 10, 15, 20 bucks a flip on Poshmark and stuff like that.
0:06:05 But the volume that you need to make up for one stretcher sale in this example
0:06:08 is quite a bit more work.
0:06:11 He’s like, yeah, there’s going to be a little bit more logistics in packing
0:06:12 and shipping something that’s larger.
0:06:15 But I think the argument is going to be made that it’s it’s more worthwhile,
0:06:18 at least, you know, versus, you know, throwing a throwing an article of clothing
0:06:20 in the mail and making that 10 bucks.
0:06:23 So next one on this list I have is a turbo chef commercial oven.
0:06:24 Tell me about that one.
0:06:26 So this is a really cool story as well.
0:06:29 We were traveling when I found this turbo chef on.
0:06:32 I believe it was offer up was the app that I was on.
0:06:37 And it was in Salt Lake City, somewhere up there, somewhere a long way away from us.
0:06:39 We were traveling and I found this from the hotel room.
0:06:41 We actually got in the hotel for the night.
0:06:44 I’m laying down in bed and I’m trying to source in the area.
0:06:47 So in the next morning, hopefully I could go pick something up.
0:06:48 This is your version of doom scrolling.
0:06:51 Like, what else, what’s for sale nearby?
0:06:52 Yes. So I’m doing that.
0:06:55 I’m laying in bed trying to go to sleep and I’m looking and I find this turbo chef
0:06:59 and the guy had, I believe it was, he might have been asking like $650.
0:07:01 I don’t remember exactly what he was asking for it.
0:07:03 I reached out and asked him if he would take $500 cash.
0:07:07 And the problem was when I reached out to him, he didn’t write back for me.
0:07:08 And we were only in that area for that night.
0:07:11 The next night we were going further west, but he reached out to me
0:07:15 like a couple of days later and we were already over in California or Idaho.
0:07:18 But when he wrote back, he did say, yes, he would take $500.
0:07:20 So I said, hey, we’re coming back through.
0:07:22 And it was another three or four days.
0:07:22 Would you be available?
0:07:25 And then I set up the appointment and on our way back, I met up with him.
0:07:28 And when I got there, he said that he had three of these.
0:07:32 Now, my problem was I only had $800 in cash on me.
0:07:35 And this guy was just meeting me to do this delivery.
0:07:36 And he had three more.
0:07:39 And I said, by chance, if I took two, would you go $400 a piece on them?
0:07:41 And he said, yes, I will.
0:07:42 And I’ll go back in right now.
0:07:44 And he brought it out on a cart.
0:07:45 The first one out on the cart, he was waiting for me.
0:07:46 He helped me load it into the truck.
0:07:49 He took the cart back in and got the other one.
0:07:53 So I ended up getting two of these bad boys and we paid $400 a piece for him.
0:07:54 So $800 total.
0:07:58 And then we sold them on eBay for $7,500 and then $10,000.
0:07:59 Wow, incredible.
0:08:03 I think the favorite part is that, like, you were turning all of this, you know,
0:08:07 family road trip time into, like, business mileage right off.
0:08:10 Like, oh, I’m sourced it over here, even if I’m halfway across the country.
0:08:15 And now was able to score some inventory while we’re there, paid for the whole trip.
0:08:15 And then some.
0:08:18 Yeah, that’s one of the things that we’ve really kind of turned the corner on
0:08:21 is how can we make every trip that we do?
0:08:23 How can we pay for it by flipping and get some right off
0:08:25 because of what we’re doing on the trip?
0:08:27 We were just down in the keys, man, it was probably a month ago.
0:08:29 Beginning of August, we go down for lobster season.
0:08:32 And on the way back, I wanted to be able to pay for our trip.
0:08:33 So I looked for something.
0:08:35 I found an oven for $120.
0:08:36 We actually just sold it.
0:08:38 I shipped it out last week and we sold it for $3,000.
0:08:43 So that’s kind of my game is when I travel, what can I find that I can buy
0:08:46 while we’re out and then I can bring it back and sell it and pay for the trip?
0:08:49 Yeah, as long as you’ve driven to the trip, you have some means to, like, bring it back.
0:08:51 Yeah. And our business, I always have the means.
0:08:53 So I’ll either take a trailer or I’ll take an exchange.
0:08:56 I take something knowing that I might be able to find something
0:08:57 and then I’ll bring it back with me.
0:09:00 I guess the same question is, like, people are letting go of this stuff
0:09:01 just because they don’t want to.
0:09:07 They don’t either know how relatively simple it is to sell on eBay or they don’t.
0:09:08 They just don’t want to deal with it.
0:09:11 And we did a recent episode with a guy who was doing like a similar business
0:09:13 with what he called like junk land parcels.
0:09:17 And it’s like they have title issues or they have maybe they don’t have sewer
0:09:20 or maybe they need some sort of variance or easement or something to, you know,
0:09:21 make the plot buildable.
0:09:23 He’s like, I’ve been doing this for decades.
0:09:24 I don’t mind dealing with City Hall.
0:09:27 I go through that red tape or, you know, to 10 X my money.
0:09:30 But he’s like, I tried by from what he called don’t wanters.
0:09:31 They don’t want to deal with it.
0:09:32 Maybe they inherited it.
0:09:36 They just add they let it go for way, way, way less than it’s worth.
0:09:38 Yeah. And the same thing, exactly.
0:09:43 I also feel like one of the big common denominators for us is people are
0:09:45 selling in the local market.
0:09:47 So where I’m buying something, it’s typically on Facebook Marketplace.
0:09:50 That’s only going to reach that local market to where, you know,
0:09:53 in Facebook Marketplace, a larger item, they’re only going to show it within,
0:09:57 you know, 10, 15 mile radius, sometimes more.
0:10:00 But for the majority of you’re only going to reach, depending on the app,
0:10:04 maybe 25, 40, 50,000 people have the opportunity that are shopping
0:10:07 for that exact item to where when you get it and throw it onto an app like eBay,
0:10:11 that’s got over 130, 235 million registered users.
0:10:13 You just have a bigger pool of people looking for that specific item.
0:10:15 So you can sell it quicker and ask more money for it.
0:10:19 Yeah, I’ve been in the same boat where it’s like, I don’t want to bother
0:10:20 with shipping this.
0:10:24 So I know that I’m limiting myself to, you know, whoever happens to see it on
0:10:25 Marketplace, but come take it away.
0:10:26 I need it out of the garage.
0:10:28 You know, maybe somebody else made some money on that.
0:10:29 And that’s how a lot of people are too.
0:10:30 They just want to get rid of it.
0:10:31 They’re going to be done with it.
0:10:34 And that’s where we swoop in and we will go the extra mile
0:10:35 to actually make the extra money on it.
0:10:38 Fair enough, fair enough, especially if the returns are there.
0:10:42 Like in, like in these cases, the other thing that that showed up
0:10:47 while I was trying to dig up some of your best flips was this autoclave.
0:10:49 And I had to even look up like what this is.
0:10:54 It’s some sort of like scientific cleaning, like sterilization type of device.
0:10:58 Yeah, that was another one from the same guy that I got the stretchers from.
0:10:59 Sold me the autoclave as well.
0:11:02 I believe I paid 100 or 120 bucks for that.
0:11:06 And if I’m not mistaken, it was around three to $5,000 that we sold it for.
0:11:10 But same deal, this guy who gets paid that I met at the flea market,
0:11:13 created the relationship with, he gets paid to clear out businesses.
0:11:15 Businesses go out of business for whatever reason.
0:11:16 They get rid of equipment.
0:11:18 They get rid of a lot of stuff and he goes in and gets it.
0:11:20 And then he snaps a picture, sends it to me.
0:11:22 And I’m able to buy it from him where he’s making money.
0:11:24 Typically the stuff that he gets is free.
0:11:28 It’s all free what he’s getting because he’s getting paid to get rid of the items.
0:11:31 And that was the deal with this autoclave is I got it from him, put it on eBay.
0:11:34 We actually shipped it out and we made some really, really good profit on that.
0:11:41 Yeah, my notes say $100 acquisition price into $5,000 or $5,500 in sales price.
0:11:44 Minus out eBay fees, minus out shipping, or I don’t know, do you tack on shipping?
0:11:47 It didn’t seem like this was a huge, huge item.
0:11:48 Yeah, it was heavy though.
0:11:52 It was a size of a large microwave, if you think of it about that size.
0:11:53 But it was heavy and I don’t know.
0:11:57 It’s a commercial piece of equipment that they put in tools like operation tools
0:11:59 and stuff to sterilize them.
0:12:00 That’s what it was.
0:12:01 I didn’t even know that.
0:12:03 All I knew was the name of it, like I told you from the beginning.
0:12:06 I’m not the smartest guy, not the smartest crane in the box.
0:12:09 I know the name, the model, and then I do all the research to see what it’s worth.
0:12:12 And when he gave me the name, now this guy that sends me pictures,
0:12:14 he takes a picture of the name, the model.
0:12:17 He knows that’s what I need to make a decision on if I’m going to buy it or not.
0:12:18 But yeah, this one, it did go on a pallet.
0:12:23 So actually was shipped on a pallet, but we made from $100 to $5,500 absolutely.
0:12:27 And eBay fees are pretty, I mean, when we actually do the whole breakdown,
0:12:28 we tell everybody how much we pay eBay.
0:12:32 We tell how much shipping and all that stuff is for everybody who watches in on our stuff.
0:12:37 And eBay fees typically are about 13% until they cap that at $2,500.
0:12:43 And then after $2,500, it drops down to, I think it’s like 2.3 or 2.7% for everything over $2,500.
0:12:46 So when I’m selling some of these items that are $7,000, $10,000, $20,000,
0:12:50 they actually bring the fees way, way down and makes it that much easier
0:12:51 for us to be able to sell them on their platform.
0:12:53 Yeah, that’s kind of crazy.
0:12:55 What was the most expensive thing that you’ve ever sold?
0:12:56 This is a really cool one.
0:13:00 So, and it was another one at the top of the bracket that Melissa.
0:13:01 Melissa is my wife, if you don’t know.
0:13:04 But Melissa, it made her very uncomfortable for this one.
0:13:09 And I told her I knew the profit was there, but it was an actual parking lot tower.
0:13:11 Like a security watch tower.
0:13:12 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
0:13:17 Yes. So this thing raised in the air like 20 feet, 30 feet, something like that.
0:13:20 It was on a trailer, so you pulled it anywhere you want to do, you parked it.
0:13:22 Then you got inside of it, cranked up a generator.
0:13:25 It lifted you all the way up so you could see over the whole parking lot.
0:13:27 But we paid $5,000 for it.
0:13:29 And that’s a lot for me to spend on an item.
0:13:30 And I have to know that the return’s there.
0:13:33 But before I bought it, I looked at what the retail and I couldn’t find any comps.
0:13:34 Nobody was selling these.
0:13:36 I hadn’t even seen any other one for sale.
0:13:40 But the retail on this was like 125 or $135,000.
0:13:43 So I said, if I can get this thing for $5,000, I know I can make money.
0:13:46 And we sold it in less than 30 days for 25,000.
0:13:48 Wow. Wow. Yeah, that’s a nice, a nice ROI.
0:13:52 In a given month, what are you sitting on in terms of inventory?
0:13:54 Like, do you think about it in terms of turn rate?
0:13:55 Do you think about it in terms of like storage?
0:13:57 Like, where do I keep all this stuff?
0:13:59 Like, where am I going to put a parking lot security tower?
0:14:00 That’s not going to fit in my garage.
0:14:02 Like, where am I storing this stuff?
0:14:06 Yeah. So what we do at the scale that we’re at now, that we do have to have a storage.
0:14:07 We have a storage facility.
0:14:11 I have a building, I believe it’s like 1,400 square feet.
0:14:13 So it’s not monstrous, but it’s big enough.
0:14:15 And I have some outside parking and stuff like that.
0:14:16 So you do have to.
0:14:17 And we grew into this business.
0:14:19 When I started the business, I lived in a duplex.
0:14:21 The only thing I did was I used my spare bedroom.
0:14:22 I had a spare bedroom.
0:14:23 That was my office.
0:14:24 That’s where I stored everything.
0:14:26 That’s where I created boxes.
0:14:27 That’s where I did everything.
0:14:30 But as we grew and I saw what the profits are, yes, we do have a warehouse that we have
0:14:31 stuff stored in.
0:14:34 I have places where I can park stuff outside, inside, whatever I need to do.
0:14:40 And yeah, typically we sit on $500,000 worth of inventory, but it’s not like somebody who
0:14:41 has a lot of smalls.
0:14:44 I mean, that is a lot, a lot of smalls in that inventory.
0:14:48 For ours, our average sale price, like last year, our average sale price was $2,000 per
0:14:49 item.
0:14:51 And some items are more and some items are a little bit less.
0:14:54 But on average, that’s kind of what we go with.
0:14:55 That’s not your acquisition cost.
0:14:57 That’s like your expected resale value.
0:15:02 On gross, that’s what we kind of, on what we sold last year, we did $92,000.
0:15:04 And that was in 46 items that we sold.
0:15:05 So it was just over $2,000.
0:15:08 But like I said, and profit-wise, after eBay fees, after shipping, after everything we
0:15:13 paid out, it was still over like 70, I think it was 73,000 in some change on the profit
0:15:14 side of it.
0:15:15 Yeah.
0:15:20 So you could source nothing for years and slowly sell down this thing and still have
0:15:23 several hundred thousand dollars worth of profits there.
0:15:24 Absolutely.
0:15:25 I’m really good at finding deals.
0:15:27 And sometimes the deals might need a little thing.
0:15:28 They might need something.
0:15:30 So I’m really good at finding and buying them.
0:15:32 But I’m not the greatest on getting them listed.
0:15:38 So I do have probably $300,000 worth of stuff that is sitting in my warehouse or sitting
0:15:43 in my garage, I have a detached garage as well, that I have not got listed yet for whatever
0:15:44 reason it is.
0:15:45 But that’s money that’s not making me money.
0:15:46 Yeah.
0:15:49 That’s, nobody’s going to find it if it’s not, if it’s not online.
0:15:50 But that’s the challenge.
0:15:54 It sounds like, and kind of a common challenge, like I love the treasure hunt component of
0:15:55 it.
0:16:00 I love the thrill of making that sale, but then like the photography component, the writing
0:16:05 the product description, some measurements, even sometimes the seller or the buyer interactions,
0:16:09 especially Facebook marketplace is the worst, like where, you know, just so many random bots,
0:16:10 I don’t know.
0:16:12 I assume they’re bots who just ask you, is this still available?
0:16:15 The pain that goes into it, but the pain is where the profit comes from.
0:16:20 So the next one that I have on my list is these Air Force floodlights from like Cold
0:16:25 War era floodlights, like looking for, like searchlights, looking for planes.
0:16:26 Yeah.
0:16:27 This was a really cool one as well.
0:16:31 So if you haven’t found the like thing with our story is I love weird stuff.
0:16:35 I love stuff that nobody else sees value in for whatever reason, or yeah, that’s what
0:16:36 I really, really hone in on.
0:16:37 I try to find stuff like that.
0:16:43 We bought six of these huge spotlights and when I say huge, the light itself was probably
0:16:48 six foot tall and then it sat on a military trailer, just a beast of a light in it, the
0:16:49 light bulb.
0:16:51 It’s not like a normal light bulb that you would think of.
0:16:55 It actually had a hole, a tube going through the light mechanism itself and it would run
0:16:58 radiator fluid through it to cool it down.
0:17:00 This is how bright these things are.
0:17:04 You were not allowed to turn these on within a 10 mile radius of an airport.
0:17:05 That’s how bright they are.
0:17:06 Oh my gosh.
0:17:07 But did they work?
0:17:08 Yes, they did.
0:17:09 So they absolutely worked.
0:17:13 You had to have a special generator since they were, I don’t quote me, I’m not a hundred
0:17:17 percent sure, but I think they were manufactured in the 70s, 60s, or 70s.
0:17:21 They had military generators that were on a different frequency.
0:17:23 That was the only thing that could run them was that frequency.
0:17:25 So you had to have a generator to do it.
0:17:28 The first guy that we sold one to, he actually had the generator, he brought it down.
0:17:33 He cranked the sucker up and we saw like the bat, the bat light.
0:17:37 This thing just went to heaven on how bright it was, but it was insane how bright it was.
0:17:39 So to give you an idea, they used them in the war.
0:17:40 They got rid of them.
0:17:45 And then they actually, I think they either NASA bought them or somehow NASA got their
0:17:46 hands on them.
0:17:50 And they used two on each side of the runway at NASA, a 10 mile runway.
0:17:54 And that’s how they lit up the runway for the space shuttle to come in and land or with
0:17:55 these lights.
0:18:00 And don’t ask me how they ended up at an auction that I was at, but they ended up at an auction
0:18:04 and we ended up paying, I think it was like 360 or $370 per light.
0:18:08 And then yeah, we sold, we were selling them, I think it was between $7 and $10,000 per
0:18:12 light when we actually, when we actually sold them, one went out to, if you’ve heard of
0:18:16 Burning Man, a guy out there bought, I think the first one went out there and then he bought
0:18:17 a couple more after that.
0:18:21 So yeah, just a crazy, crazy story, but really, really cool item that we got to come in contact
0:18:22 with and then get it to somebody.
0:18:23 All right.
0:18:25 So I’m hearing local auctions.
0:18:30 I’m hearing contacts at the flea market, offer up Facebook marketplace, finding a guy who
0:18:34 gets paid to clean out businesses where they go out of business, like all of these different
0:18:40 sourcing methods and then looking for those bigger, bulkier items that other people are
0:18:45 a little bit hesitant to touch, but you know, there’s got to be some inherent value there
0:18:46 to the right buyer.
0:18:47 Absolutely.
0:18:48 I mean, you hit the nail on the head.
0:18:52 All these different places were able to do it and we’ve just been doing it for so long.
0:18:56 I’m looking for those unique items that a lot of people won’t say, Hey, I’m going to throw
0:18:57 that on a pallet.
0:18:58 I’m going to ship it.
0:19:00 A lot of our items do do that, but a lot of them also go in boxes.
0:19:04 So we still ship them FedEx or UPS, but it is, it has to be that right item.
0:19:05 Yeah.
0:19:09 And we’ve heard from people who really have honed in on a flipping niche, like I focus
0:19:16 on shoes and maybe even specifically like men’s dress shoes, flipping used cell phones.
0:19:21 And we’ve talked about like flipping domain names and it’s like everybody’s got a niche
0:19:26 and if there’s a way to describe your niche, it’s just big, big profitable stuff.
0:19:27 Absolutely.
0:19:30 We’re looking for those big, big items that yeah, we can turn around and make a profit
0:19:31 on for sure.
0:19:35 This comes to mind here on this $1,000 plus lip list.
0:19:39 I know we’ve talked about the bus wash in the past, does that one qualify?
0:19:40 Absolutely.
0:19:44 So we actually sold two bus washes, bought one locally at an auction and then on a road
0:19:48 trip, I think it was two or three years ago on the way back from a road trip, our last
0:19:54 stop was the outer banks and we actually found a bus wash while I was in the hotel again.
0:19:56 And I think it was the last night we were there.
0:19:59 I found a bus wash, got it for $500.
0:20:01 This thing was like brand spanking new.
0:20:02 We had to actually drive home.
0:20:05 I had an enclosed trailer, so I had to drive back home, outer banks.
0:20:09 Yeah, I think if I’m not mistaken, it was like 10 hours from us, but the profit was
0:20:10 there on this bad boy.
0:20:14 So I went home, I got an open trailer, we came back up the next weekend.
0:20:17 I secured the deal with a guy, I came back up, picked it up the next weekend, paid $500
0:20:21 and sold it for, that one was $14,500 that we were actually able to sell it for.
0:20:22 Oh my gosh.
0:20:25 Yeah, I’ll take a 10 hour road trip.
0:20:26 Okay.
0:20:30 And because you’d sold a previous one, you’re like, oh shoot, I know I could do it again.
0:20:31 Fascinating.
0:20:33 Any other ones that make sense to highlight here?
0:20:37 A smaller one that I just sold a week and a half ago is a Panini press.
0:20:42 We were at the flea market about a month ago, maybe a little less, and I was walking down
0:20:44 the aisle and Melissa goes, hey, look at that over there.
0:20:47 And I had already seen it because I usually pick up stuff really, really quickly.
0:20:50 And I was like, yeah, it’s a Panini press, but I thought it was a cheaper one.
0:20:53 I thought it was, you know, one of the ones that you can get off brand and $300 or something
0:20:54 like that.
0:20:55 And she goes, check it out.
0:20:56 I pulled it up.
0:20:57 It was a star brand.
0:20:58 I forgot the model that it was.
0:20:59 Yeah.
0:21:02 It was like, they’re $2,500 to $3,000 new.
0:21:03 And I was like, whoa, that’s a good deal.
0:21:05 And he was only asking $50 for it.
0:21:07 So I was like, ah, that’s a great deal.
0:21:08 Let’s go back and talk to him.
0:21:11 I offered him $40 and he said he would take $45 for it.
0:21:12 I didn’t plug it in or anything.
0:21:13 I asked him if it worked.
0:21:14 He told me, yes, he guaranteed it worked.
0:21:16 So he paid him $45 for it.
0:21:19 And then we sold it within like two weeks and sold it for $1,500.
0:21:21 That’s another one that, yeah, we’re looking for those.
0:21:22 That was not very big.
0:21:23 It went into a box, shipped it.
0:21:25 I believe that was FedEx that I shipped it with.
0:21:26 But yeah, we see those.
0:21:28 I mean, those are not that hard to find.
0:21:30 $1,500 bucks for a Panini press?
0:21:31 Yes.
0:21:35 Like my 20 year old George Foreman is still working just fine.
0:21:36 I don’t know.
0:21:37 But that’s crazy.
0:21:41 So being able to do it over and over again, those deals are out there.
0:21:44 It’s just a matter of kind of making yourself available and open to them.
0:21:45 And I love, oh, I found it.
0:21:49 Well, it’s just, you know, scroll in marketplace, scroll it off or up, sit in the hotel room.
0:21:52 So much more profitable than just dinking around on TikTok or something.
0:21:53 Yeah, absolutely.
0:21:54 It’s so much fun.
0:21:55 I’ll give you one more real quick.
0:21:56 This is a quick one.
0:21:58 It’s a soft serve ice cream machine.
0:22:01 And I don’t think I told you this last time we had talked because it’s been quite a few
0:22:02 years since we have talked.
0:22:06 I found an ice cream, a soft serve ice cream machine on offer up that a lady posted for
0:22:07 free.
0:22:09 When I messaged her, I saw it after it came on offer up.
0:22:12 I was like, it was like five minutes and I messaged her and said, I can come pick it
0:22:13 up right now.
0:22:14 She messaged me back and sent me the address.
0:22:16 I jumped in, got my trailer, went and picked it up.
0:22:21 We sold that for $8,500 and she gave it to me for free and she told me there’s nothing
0:22:22 wrong with this.
0:22:23 Wow.
0:22:24 That’s not anything about power.
0:22:28 It was three phase and her ice cream shop didn’t have three phase act accessible to
0:22:29 them.
0:22:32 So that was why she bought it in haste and then she couldn’t use it and she’s like,
0:22:33 I don’t want to deal with it.
0:22:34 It’s big.
0:22:36 Just somebody come and pick it up and get it out of my shop.
0:22:37 That’s what we did.
0:22:38 So we picked it up for free.
0:22:41 Didn’t pay a penny for it and actually sold it for $8,500.
0:22:42 So these deals are out there.
0:22:43 You just have to be looking for them.
0:22:48 In a case like that, do you go back to her afterwards and like sprinkle a couple of Benjamins
0:22:49 in the tip jar?
0:22:50 It’d be like, hey, thank you.
0:22:53 Thank you for, you know, paying our bills for the next couple months.
0:22:54 Yeah, absolutely.
0:22:55 We try to take care of it.
0:22:59 And most of it has some like a property manager who calls us and gives us stuff as well that
0:23:03 somebody moves out and they ask us if we want the items inside the house or something like
0:23:04 that.
0:23:06 Whenever we do that, we always try to take care of people who take care of us or we give
0:23:08 them a gift card or something like that.
0:23:11 Just to show them our gratitude, thank you for thinking about us and stuff like that.
0:23:12 So absolutely.
0:23:14 It never hurts to be over generous with people.
0:23:15 Totally.
0:23:16 Well, make sure to follow along.
0:23:20 Robin Melissa, some of my favorite follows on Instagram because they’re posting stories
0:23:23 like these all the time, source, you know, creative ways to source while they’re out
0:23:28 on family road trips, you know, turning these vacations into write offs and finding creative
0:23:30 ways to offset the costs, even pay for these.
0:23:33 Hey, this was a profitable trip for us now.
0:23:36 Instead of most people taking time off and having that cost them money.
0:23:40 So I love all these stories and I know you’ve got, you know, we could feel hours of airtime
0:23:45 with all of those, but we’re going to be right back with Rob for rounds two and three, including
0:23:49 donate a business idea right after this.
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0:25:08 Being an entrepreneur and being able to work remotely definitely has its perks.
0:25:14 I’ve recorded podcasts everywhere from Vietnam to Italy, drafted newsletters from Japan,
0:25:17 hosted mastermind meetings from Spain, ended up being the middle of the night to get to
0:25:22 US business hours and outlined courses in Mexico.
0:25:25 The common thread of all of these trips though is Airbnb.
0:25:30 We love being able to get exactly what we’re looking for in a place to stay and have a
0:25:34 more local experience than staying in some giant hotel chain.
0:25:38 And you know me, I’m always thinking about the next side hustle idea, the next income
0:25:39 stream, right?
0:25:44 And one that’s at the top of the list is hosting our place on Airbnb while we’re traveling.
0:25:45 That way the house doesn’t have to sit empty.
0:25:50 We could use the income to help pay for the trip and we’ve heard from several successful
0:25:52 Airbnb hosts on the show.
0:25:56 And what’s interesting is a lot of them started with almost that exact strategy, running their
0:26:00 place or even a spare room while they’re out of town.
0:26:04 Taking inspiration from that, you might have an Airbnb right under your nose.
0:26:07 In fact, your home might be worth more than you think.
0:26:15 You can find out how much at Airbnb.com/host, that’s Airbnb.com/host to find out how much
0:26:18 your home is worth.
0:26:23 All right, we’re back with Rob from fleamarketflipper.com for round two, donate a business idea.
0:26:26 This is something that you might start yourself if you had more time.
0:26:28 This is something that auto exists in the world.
0:26:30 This is something you think listeners could start and run with.
0:26:33 So Melissa and I have recently got into pickleball.
0:26:36 We play almost every single night in our local town that we’re in.
0:26:37 They congregate.
0:26:38 There’s like 70 people there.
0:26:45 I totally would start a e-commerce pickleball swag, whether it’s shirts, paddles, grips,
0:26:46 balls.
0:26:51 I feel like this pickleball has been around for decades, but it is taking the country by
0:26:54 storm just with how many people are playing it and how much more we’re seeing of it right
0:26:55 now.
0:26:58 And I think it is going to be kind of like the next bubble for sports is pickleball.
0:27:02 So that is exactly what I would do if I had more time, I would open up an e-commerce store
0:27:04 and really start leaning into this sport.
0:27:07 Is there that much equipment involved like you got a couple of paddles, you got a couple
0:27:08 of balls?
0:27:09 I feel like you’re set.
0:27:10 Or is there that surface level?
0:27:14 Nick, you got to go once you’re serious about this, like there’s way more.
0:27:16 You don’t have to have a lot of stuff and you don’t have to have a lot of expensive stuff.
0:27:21 We started out with paddles from Walmart and they are like $20 or $30 paddles.
0:27:27 Slowly as we started getting better and upgrading to $100, $200 paddles, it is night and day.
0:27:30 How much better your game will get with the right equipment.
0:27:31 Really?
0:27:32 Yes, absolutely.
0:27:35 I loved it because I had this paddle that was worn down to almost nothing.
0:27:39 And then I jumped in and played with somebody’s like $200 paddle and I was like, what have
0:27:40 I been waiting for?
0:27:41 This is ridiculous.
0:27:45 How much the difference is on different carbon fiber and graphite paddles, they make all
0:27:46 different types now.
0:27:50 It’s not a lot of stuff, but there is still paddles, gloves, a swag where you’re having
0:27:51 shirts and shorts.
0:27:55 And there’s a lot of stuff that you can enter into it and really, you know, go after people
0:27:56 in this market.
0:28:00 I had no idea you could go that high end on a pickleball paddle.
0:28:05 And so maybe that’s the play, like if you’re going after the $20, $30 Walmart paddle type
0:28:09 of people, like that seems really crowded, that seems really, really competitive race
0:28:10 to the bottom.
0:28:13 But if you’re going after the $200, $300 paddle people, like all of a sudden, hey, similar
0:28:16 to the flipping business, I don’t have to make that many sales to make it interesting,
0:28:17 to make it worthwhile.
0:28:18 Yeah, absolutely.
0:28:22 And that’s the biggest thing is in not just one area, I feel like showing people that
0:28:25 you have a lot of different things for the pickleball community.
0:28:29 I feel like that’s where you can actually go in and I think it would be something that
0:28:30 would kill it, a business that would kill it.
0:28:35 I came across one, I think it was called the Dink or Dink, like it was like a pickleball
0:28:40 newsletter business where it had kind of risen the rising tide of interest.
0:28:42 They said, hey, we’re going to follow the piggyback principle.
0:28:46 We see that this is a rising tide of interest and we want a part of this trend, right?
0:28:50 So we’re going to ride this trend and maybe still are doing really, really well with their
0:28:52 pickleball newsletter.
0:28:55 And so this is one of the broader, you know, even if it’s not pickleball, like for people
0:28:56 tuning in.
0:29:00 And what else do you see around you that has just a rising tide of interest that you could
0:29:02 somehow capitalize on?
0:29:06 Could you be the person that sells shovels into that gold rush instead of, you know,
0:29:08 being the prospector yourself?
0:29:13 We had, and we recently reared this episode with Russ Perry from Design Pickle.
0:29:17 And we first recorded, it was 2017-ish, 28, I don’t remember.
0:29:21 And he was like, because of the name tie-in, well, we’re a design pickle, we run this
0:29:22 design agency.
0:29:26 We sponsored this little like up-and-coming national championship in this little sport
0:29:27 called pickleball.
0:29:30 And he’s like, maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t, but, you know, it’s gaining
0:29:32 a little bit of popularity, gaining a little bit of traction.
0:29:33 So we wanted to be like the title sponsor.
0:29:34 Who knows if this is going to pay off.
0:29:38 And I was like, when we reared that episode this year, 2024, we’re like, hey, you know,
0:29:40 I wonder how much that sponsorship costs now.
0:29:43 I wonder if they’ve kept that going over the course of several years, because obviously
0:29:46 there’s a ton more interest in pickleball now.
0:29:47 That’s awesome.
0:29:48 All right.
0:29:54 So donate a business idea, the pickleball, e-com, swag, and equipment type of store there.
0:29:55 And I like that.
0:29:59 So the broader, broader idea would be find a gold rush, you can sell some shovels into
0:30:02 obviously pickleball is big gold rush going on right now.
0:30:03 Round three is the triple threat.
0:30:07 And we’re going to start off with a marketing tactic that’s working for you right now.
0:30:09 This could be on the flipping business side.
0:30:12 This could be on the flipper university side.
0:30:13 What do you see?
0:30:14 What’s working for you these days?
0:30:15 Yeah.
0:30:20 So on our coaching aspect of our business, we use a software called ClickFunnels.
0:30:24 And ClickFunnels has a 2.0 version that they’ve been upgrading and getting really into.
0:30:27 And it’s amazing what we’re able to do on the marketing side of our business for the
0:30:28 coaching business.
0:30:31 So we use it every day with all the stuff that we do emails, marketing and all that kind
0:30:34 of stuff that’s been amazing for our business, amazing help.
0:30:38 Anything specific that has changed over the last six or 12 months with that new tool in
0:30:43 terms of customer acquisition or blow or what, how are you using it?
0:30:48 They just opened up inside the software of 2.0, the affiliate portal to where it will
0:30:52 make it that much easier for us to be able to communicate and work with affiliates in
0:30:53 our coaching business.
0:30:54 Okay.
0:30:56 So that allows you to tap into affiliate marketing.
0:30:59 If you’re not familiar, I know we’ve talked about it on the show in the past, but from
0:31:02 the affiliate side, this is helping other people sell their products and services.
0:31:06 Now, from the business owner side, from Rob’s standpoint, this is, well, how can I recruit
0:31:08 an army of performance-based sales agents?
0:31:10 I don’t have to pay them until they make a sale.
0:31:14 And when they do, I’ll just pay them a commission on everybody they referred to me.
0:31:18 So kind of a win-win for all parties involved there or a low-risk marketing channel.
0:31:23 And so I’ll chalk that up as the marketing tactic that is working right now, this new
0:31:27 ClickFunnels-powered affiliate portal, which will allow you to go out and recruit some
0:31:31 affiliates that are personal finance adjacent, that are flipping adjacent, that can send
0:31:33 people your way and into your world.
0:31:34 Does that make sense?
0:31:35 Absolutely.
0:31:36 Okay.
0:31:38 So I’m going to put that down as the marketing tactics, affiliate marketing.
0:31:43 I’m going to assume ClickFunnels 2.0 as this new tool that you’re loving right now.
0:31:44 Yeah.
0:31:45 It’s amazing for us.
0:31:46 I’m not in the digital aspect of our business.
0:31:50 I’m more of, hey, I buy this, I pick it up, I sell it, I do that.
0:31:52 Melissa does the back in and she’s really amazing at it.
0:31:55 And she is absolutely loving all the features inside of 2.0 right now.
0:31:56 Well, very cool.
0:31:59 It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at ClickFunnels and maybe it had, maybe it was
0:32:00 due for a 2.0.
0:32:02 It was a little bit clunky in some ways.
0:32:06 So maybe this upgrade has addressed some of those issues.
0:32:07 So very cool.
0:32:08 ClickFunnels 2.0.
0:32:09 We’ll link that up in the show notes.
0:32:13 And last, but not least for round three is your favorite book from the last 12 months.
0:32:15 So this is the triple threat.
0:32:19 So I’m going to give you three books that have changed my life and our business.
0:32:24 Now, once it goes back to the actual owner of ClickFunnels, Russell Brunson, dot com
0:32:27 secrets, expert secrets and traffic secrets.
0:32:29 That’s his trilogy that he wrote in the marketing world.
0:32:31 They are amazing, amazing books.
0:32:33 I have listened to them many, many times.
0:32:38 I’m not a very dyslexic, so I don’t read very well, but I do listen to audiobooks while
0:32:40 I’m running, while I’m exercising all the time.
0:32:43 And I have listened to all of these books multiple, multiple times.
0:32:46 And every time I do, I get new golden nuggets out of them.
0:32:49 So if anything, these books are amazing in his trilogy.
0:32:52 I’ve got a couple of those on my shelf as well.
0:32:57 And maybe it was expert secrets where he talks about the perfect webinar structure.
0:33:00 And it doesn’t even have to be webinar or workshop, but it’s like, the big thing that
0:33:04 stood out to me was like, your audience is coming into these, into your world with some
0:33:10 preconceived notions about what is and is not possible, what they can and cannot achieve.
0:33:14 And it’s really your job as the business owner to really kind of like break down some of
0:33:18 those limiting beliefs and say like, no, you can make this happen.
0:33:23 And Jacques Hopkins from Piano and 21 Days have said the same thing, like your marketing
0:33:25 material needs to accomplish a couple of things.
0:33:28 It’s like, first of all, convince people that they can do the thing.
0:33:31 And secondly, that you’re the person to help them bridge that gap, that you’re the person
0:33:33 who can help them get there.
0:33:35 So that was one thing that stood out from expert secrets.
0:33:38 I know I’ve got a couple of these on my shelf behind me as well.
0:33:44 And Traffic Secrets was an attempt to be timeless in the age of social media algorithms
0:33:45 constantly changing.
0:33:49 So you kind of breaks down what do these platforms really want at the end of the day?
0:33:50 What do they want and value?
0:33:55 And how can you feed your content into those such that you go find people in their natural
0:33:57 habitat, find people where they already are?
0:33:58 Yeah, absolutely.
0:33:59 And they kind of break it up.
0:34:01 DotcomSecrets was his first one that he actually did.
0:34:05 And yeah, all three of the books they tie in together, they really, it is marketing.
0:34:08 It’s marketing genius for what he has written and put together in those books.
0:34:10 So absolutely amazing books.
0:34:11 Well, very good.
0:34:12 We will link those up in the show notes as well.
0:34:17 I’m sure there is a free plus shipping funnel that you can get yourself inserted into through
0:34:20 ClickFunnels or through Russell’s masterful marketing for all of those.
0:34:23 But we’ll link those up in the show notes for this episode.
0:34:26 FleaMarketFlipper.com, where you can find more about Rob.
0:34:31 Check out the free workshop, sidehustlenation.com/fmf, FleaMarketFlipper.
0:34:35 We’ll get you over there, their on demand workshop webinar on how to start your own
0:34:36 flipping business.
0:34:37 Big thanks to Rob for sharing his insight.
0:34:40 Thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone.
0:34:45 As always, you can hit up sidehustlenation.com/deals for all the latest offers from our sponsors
0:34:46 in one place.
0:34:47 That’s it for me.
0:34:48 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:34:52 If you’re finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend.
0:34:56 So fire off that text message to that, you know, deal hunter bargain lover friend of yours
0:34:59 and say, Hey, you already love looking for this stuff.
0:35:00 Maybe turn that around.
0:35:01 Look, look for some of these profitable finds.
0:35:03 I’ll think you’ll get a kick out of this episode in any case.
0:35:06 Until next time, let’s go out there and make something happen.
0:35:08 And I’ll catch you in the next edition of the Side Hustle Show.
There’s hidden gold in everyday places — if you know where to look.
That’s the message Rob Stephenson from FleaMarketFlipper.com and Flipper University is spreading, and he’s back with some of his most profitable stories yet.
Rob is a full-time flipper, sourcing low and selling high. He’s turned a side hustle into a full-time business with jaw-dropping profit margins, all from part-time work.
In episode 633 of The Side Hustle Show, Rob explains the “Big Profit Flipping Model.” This model draws inspiration from how he consistently finds and flips items for $1000+ profits.
Full Show Notes: 9 $1000+ Flips: Uncovering Profitable Resale Items
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