How I Make A Full-Time Income By Flipping Stuff

In 2015, my friend Melissa made over $42,000 flipping items while working 5-15 hours per week. The following year, Melissa and her husband made over $133,000 flipping items while working 20-30 hours a week.

They’ve sold items such as:

• magnetic machine bought for $5 and sold for $735
• patio set bought for $100 and sold for $2200
• bought a stroller for $15 and sold for $300

If you’re ready to dive into a new side hustle like flipping or want to learn more, keep on reading.

What is a flipper?

A flipper is someone who finds things that nobody else sees value in and sells it for a profit.

The most common kind of flipper is someone who flips houses.

We don’t deal with houses, but several other kinds of items. We find used items at flea markets, yard sales, auctions, and thrift stores and resell them on eBay for a profit. I married into this business ten years ago, and my husband Robbie has been doing this for over 20 years now.

How much have you made flipping?

Honestly, we didn’t keep track of our income for several years. Flipping items was always our ‘extra money.’

It was money that we used for savings, vacations, gifts, and anything else that wasn’t a usual part of our monthly budget. It always seemed to save us when something big happened that we needed extra money for.

When we started our blog just over two years ago, we started keeping better track of our income.

In 2015 we made $42,000 with our part-time flipping business, and in 2016, we made $133,000 in our first year going full-time flipping!

Learn how flipping can be your ticket to lifestyle freedom and financial security in this free training here.

What can someone expect to make their first year of flipping?

It’s hard to give specific numbers to someone when they are just starting.

There are a lot of factors involved which include the time they invest, the items they find to buy, and the time they put into posting and selling those items.

It’s realistic for someone to make anywhere from  $500-$2,500 per month in their first year of flipping items for profit.

We just recently did an interview with one of our Flipper University students who has been flipping things for over a year, but just decided to get a little more serious about it. He jumped into our coaching course four months ago and now in his biggest month, he has hit over $1,000 in profit!

One thing we love about this business is that someone can start with little to invest.

If a person takes $50-$100 to find some items, they should be able to make $200-$500 on that. We don’t buy anything we can at least make a $100 profit on now.

What item was the most profitable?

We’ve had several very profitable items, which included a prosthetic leg we bought for $30 and sold for $1,000 (within a day), a magnetic machine we paid $5 for and sold for $735, and a teak patio set that we bought for $100 and sold for $2,200.

But our most profitable lip to date was a security tower that we bought last year for $6,000 (a higher investment that our normal investments), and sold for $25,000!

It only took us just over a month to sell, and the ROI on this flip was incredible. We bought it at an auction and sold it on eBay (where we sell most of our items).

Below are a few items they’ve sold for profit.

 

How can someone start working in this type of business?

There are several ways someone could get started in the flipping business.

I married into it, so there is always that way… or, someone can start browsing their local thrift stores, flea market, Facebook Marketplace, Offer Up and Craigslist and start buying items that are priced low for their value and reselling them for a profit.

Where do flippers list their items?

There are many places that flippers can list their items. There is Craigslist, eBay, Offer Up, Facebook Marketplace, and Let Go as the main places to list items.

We cross-post most everything on eBay, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace, but we prefer eBay for the majority of our items because it reaches SO MUCH more people than any other platform.

Side note: Here’s what a reader sent me about Flea Market Flipper! How awesome is this? 

What would you tell someone new to flipping?

The biggest thing to someone new is to stay consistent with it.

Someone doesn’t need a lot of extra hours in a week to do this as a side gig, but they do need to be consistent with the time they have.

Most people who get into this enjoy the hunt for deals – like going to the flea market, browsing yard sales and checking out apps like Offer Up, so that part isn’t difficult.

You can turn your passion for visiting thrift stores, yard sales, and flea markets into a profitable reselling business. 

Learn how flipping can be your ticket to lifestyle freedom and financial security in this free training here.

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Would you be interested in a job like this?

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