Issue #85

What’s up guys, Mat here and it’s back to business as usual. It’s been an interesting week with our buys and sales but before we get into that… I hit up 2 garage sales on the weekend. First time in a while that I dragged myself out of bed for 2 local ones.

Is this really the state of ‘em in 2025? eBay prices at garage sales?

I saw this sale advertising video games and I told myself before arriving that they’d be gone before I got there. I’m content with that, other buyers are happy to arrive a couple of hours early or message in advance to get them and that’s completely okay with me. I’m not even that big of a video game seller, they don’t really excite me unless the return is huge.

When I arrived, I saw some dude park a bit further down the road from and he no joke, starts sprinting into the sale. I find this hilarious and decide that I’ll take some photos and videos of the sale so I can use it for content on social media. I see the video games and consoles still there (Usain Bolt was looking them over) and think that the fact they’re still out means they’re most likely priced high. I see the stickers and wow, over eBay prices.

At this point when I go to garage sales I don’t make an effort to really haggle with people. There’s a price they’re after, I don’t want to low ball, it’s not worth the time and I don’t like the feeling that the other person may not be happy with what I’m paying them. The dude that sprinted into the sale isn’t happy about seeing the high prices, hands over a business card and tells her if they’re still at the sale at the end of the day to give him a call so he can offer peanuts.

Just before he leaves, he looks over at me using the camera on my phone and says “You need permission to do that“ like he’s some sort of garage sale security guard. Like dude, drop your business card into the fishbowl, mind your own business and leg it back to your beat up Commodore. Honestly man, I don’t know what’s more embarrassing, sprinting into a family garage sale or chastising me because I didn’t have a permission slip to use my phone.

Don’t be the person that runs into a sale. I swear to God next time I see this happen I’m just going to start sprinting after the person just to see how they react. Anyway, we didn’t clean up at sales but we did at the thrift and on eBay. Check it all out below and remember that Flip Weekly has a podcast that goes over this entire episode right here.

In This Issue

• What I Bought

• What I Sold

• Secondhand Opinions

• Win a Free $200 Mystery Box

• Podcast

• Social Media

• 100% Free Resources to Help You

What I Bought

I legit can’t write out the full name of this first item without negatively affecting the deliverability rate of Flip Weekly. For that reason, pictures will tell a thousand words. Before that, let me give you a quick backstory on what I would consider one of the strangest things people collect. Bare with me, the pay off is worth it.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, pharmaceutical companies employed sales reps to talk to and influence doctors and medical practitioners to push their drugs onto their patients. They were basic sales people and marketers. If a patient comes in with a stomach ache, why not refer them to our drug? We might give you a kickback, the patient gets better, it’s a win-win, right?

It proved lucrative and more and more drug companies were employing people to engage in pharmaceutical marketing, but like today, attention spans can be short. So what do you do? You use “leave pieces“ or what we now know as swag, merch or promo items. Basically small gifts that had the branding of the drug or pharmaceutical company. Leave behind some pens, a mug, magnets, anything promotional to keep the drug at the top of the mind.

Over time, people began to think this was a tad unethical. Why should doctors be influenced by marketers? Shouldn’t they be solely focused on the well being of the patient?

Common sense said yes. So in the early 2000’s (2008 for the Americans) ethical and moral standards caught up and these sort of promo items became prohibited. No longer could doctors receive coffee mugs with brand name drug logos, no longer could they hang the clocks up on the wall featuring their mascots. It became illegal.

Fast forward to 2025, people have moved on from Funko Pops and the next best thing to collect are these items. I’m not kidding, people have too much spare money.

So what is it that I found? Well, I think it’s even more hilarious than those branded mugs and clocks. This is something I don’t see anyone ever using, let alone displaying. How people want it beats me. Take a look.

Imagine a poor dude sitting in his doctors office, explaining his problems as he realizes the best of his youth has passed him. He’s embarrassed, he doesn’t want to be there, and as he’s leaving with his prescription the doctor hands over this commemorative plate. Thanks Doc.

The plate was $0.99 and sitting at the front of the store. I had to pick this thing up and carry it with me all around Savers. Best believe if anybody caught a glimpse I gave them the same cheeky wink the tiger in the graphic is giving.

There are no Sold Listings for something this… unusual so I have to go with my gut. The only thing I could find was via Google Lens and it was to a subreddit called PharmaRepCollectables (basically a forum) which was… exactly what it sounds like. A whole bunch of people posting and sharing their love of drug rep merchandise.

I actually posted a photo of my find over on the subreddit and screenshotted some of the comments for you to check out.

A few other items posted there:

It’s so funny going through this subreddit and seeing people say they need these items in their life. I highly recommend you check it out, it’s so bizarre, yet entertaining.

It’s such a strange niche but it’s real. People are collecting this sort of item and if you find anything like that in a thrift store or garage sale you should pick it up. I only know about this category because I saw a video from Heather on Instagram. In it she found a bag of pens from Goodwill for just $3. Most people would walk right past but the pens inside the bag were drug rep pens. The value of the bag was over $100. Check out her video here.

I listed the plate for $99.95. I hope it doesn’t break any eBay rules and gets taken down. I’ll let you know if it’s still up after 7 days.

Moving on, I was at a Salvos this week and this book cart called to me.

As a young person I was inclined to check out this cart. Something about this makes me think excess stock which means less oversight. We might be able to get lucky and score an item that people haven’t looked at yet. I didn’t buy this first find but I thought it was cool, check it out.

This was $1 and I left it behind. Remember Steven Bradbury’s success at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games? Dudes been skating through life with that achievement for the past 20 years. He deserves it.

Check out what I found next which I did buy:

One of my garage sale bucket lists has been finding a huge collection of Asterix books. These books are extremely nostalgic for me, they were the first book I grabbed at primary school when my class was in the library and I pretended to read.

I can’t remember the amount of times Asterix books were in my lap and I callously flipped the pages making sure my primary school crimes went unnoticed. We have Asterix the Goul, Obelix the obese man and that’s all I remember, I definitely checked out after putting the book in my lap.

They can go for decent money on eBay and the collectors market is quite big. If you can find 3, you can usually get around $50, so finding 6 we can ask for $100.

My favorite part about finding signed books is that I get to charge whatever I feel like, especially for a Gordon Ramsay autograph.

Here’s a fun fact, Gordon signs his books left handed. He’s a leftie. How fun. If there’s 1 chef whose autograph you want it’s Gordon. I can flip this $5 cooking book into around $100.

If not Gordon, Anthony Bourdain (RIP). If you can find one of Anthony’s cooking books in a thrift look for a signature, you can get between $500 - $1,000.

One other thing I’ll show you just because it surprised the hell out of me.

Since when are Save The Children op shops putting out semi-decent video games? Priced at just $3 each, we have God of War number 1 and 2 which can get around $30 each on eBay. Having both I’ll lot them together and aim to turn a $6 purchase into around $60.

What I Sold

In early September I went out of my way to go and pick up a WWF sticker book, 100 unopened packs of stickers and over 500 doubles for $150. Check out Issue #82 for a full write up. It was a bit of a gamble, I mean $150 for a sticker book?

I came across the listing on Facebook Marketplace and after sleeping on the decision and doing a bit of sleuthing online I took the plunge and brought it home with me. With only a single comp to go on and a few fans referring to the book as the rarest WWF sticker book of all time, I might have come to regret the purchase.

But nope, not in this timeline.

Not only will you not believe the sale price but you wont believe who it sold to.

We’ve turned $150 into $850 in less than 1 month. Somebody out there has decided to spend $850 on this sticker book. EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS. In this economy.

The Buyer sent me through a message and asked if I could ship to the US. I said no. They said that’s fine, they’ll have it shipped to the UK and forwarded on to the US.

I’m thinking… bit of an effort for some stickers, who is this person?

I click on their username which contains the word ‘pawn‘ and think ohhhh, this guy must run a pawn shop. Buying to resell?

I can see they’ve filled out the About page on their eBay profile which includes info on their social media pages. I follow the links to Instagram and wow, I couldn’t believe it.

“I work at Gold & Silver Pawn Shop.“

If that’s not familiar, ever heard of the History Channel TV show Pawn Stars? This dude is a cast member.

The dudes name is Santos and he started the show in Season 21 going from a part time employee to full time as one of Chumlee’s buddies. Given the nature of the show it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he negotiated the price down from $1,000 to $850.

If I knew who this guy was prior to the sale I could have totally said that the best I could do was $960 but the opportunity escaped me. Nevertheless, it’s a really nice flip and in hindsight I still can’t believe it was on Facebook Marketplace for over 24 hours for just $150. It goes to show that these sort of home runs aren’t snapped up instantly and really the opportunities are endless.

You might be surprised to see this Sony Walkman here already.

“Mat, aren’t you some sort of expert repairmen? Why does it say parts only?“

It defeated me. I picked up a bunch of old cassette tape players, for free, about a month ago with the idea I would repair them and sell for a huge profit. With the vast experience of repairing just 1 player in the past, I figured I could repair almost anything.

Nay.

I ordered a new belt, opened this guy up, played Operation and got it on, but alas, it still doesn’t work. Out of the single idea I had, I decided to list it up for sale for parts only. Yes I could have bought a new center gear to try and replace it, but to be honest I didn’t want to give myself something else to do. I knew if it was just sitting there I’d get annoyed at myself for not working on it and bringing it back to life.

I listed it up for sale on Thursday night for $150 and accepted a Best Offer of $125 on Saturday morning. The person that bought the Walkman talked about specific parts that they’re going to try and replace so hopefully they can get it working. For themselves or to resell? Doesn’t really matter. They can spend $50 on the center gear and if that fixes the problem it can go on to sell for over $500. Kudos to them.

With that said, I’m still going to pick up these portable cassette tape players in the future. Eventually I’ll have more time to learn the ins and outs of them and go beyond replacing a belt.

At the end of 2025 this Polly Pocket deal may turn out to be my best purchase of the year. These 2 extremely small Polly Pocket’s have sold for a combined $150. I’m not kidding, the compacts were about 5cm in diameter and were able to be shipped off in the smallest padded mailer.

I really hope the end buyer is a collector and will display them - not gift to a kid. Why? I actually gifted my almost 2 year old niece a vintage Polly Pocket with 2 figurines about 3 weeks ago and since then the dolls have been bitten, chewed, pretty much lost, the compact has been stepped on and the tree bitten off and re-applied. They’ve essentially been through the wars. I can not imagine how these survived the past 30 years in tact.

Another portable cassette tape player that wasn’t working. This one I didn’t try and fix as the LCD screen is in the too hard basket. It sold, and it didn’t take long either. Completely free on Marketplace, keep your eyes open.

This isn’t the biggest sale but goddamn do I love this brand. This is a late 90’s Playworks Winnie the Pooh LCD watch. It wasn’t a quick sale but it takes up no space and cost only $2. I’ve talked about it before, but in the late 90’s, early 2000’s a brand called Playworks seemingly had the license to all pop culture merchandise, at least here in Australia. If you find anything pop culture from that era, best believe you’ll see Playworks somewhere on the item.

This is exactly why I love picking up jerseys. They sell so fast and take very little effort to photograph and ship. I picked this NSW Waratahs jersey last week for $5 and it sold via Marketplace for $50. The best part is that usually I tell buyers that shipping is $10 for standard or $15 for express. I lose a bit of money but it makes for an easy and fast transaction and we’re not splitting coins.

This guy says to me before I even got into my spiel:

Got an extra $5 out of the deal. As for the other jersey from last week, it’ll definitely sell soon, it’s doing great numbers on Facebook:

Funny thing is only 4 views on eBay. Trust your gut if you think something will do good on Marketplace. I feel like I know exactly what will sell on Facebook versus eBay and jerseys do extremely well.

For me the best items to flip from Marketplace are the ones I’d never buy in store. Not because they’re low quality and will break instantly, but because they’re way outside of my budget range. If I see one of those ‘out of my budget‘ brands on Marketplace going for $5, I’m all over it. As is the case with this portable CD player.

Bought for $5, picked up from out the front of what looked like a childcare center. The buyer thinks oh well it’s just a boring CD player, no-one wants that, let’s list it for $5. I’m all over it because it’s one of the best brands and sells every single day for close to $100.

This type of item isn’t scooped up from Facebook within the first 5 minutes, after all it’s a boring CD player. People are more concerned with sniping video games and Pokemon cards. Radios, televisions, any other electronic can be bought and sold fairly quickly. It’s a great introductory category. Train your Facebook algorithm (explained here) for Sony and Facebook will feed you Sony items.

There’s no reason why you can’t start flipping. Got $5 and a way to pick up a radio? You can flip it on eBay for $100 just like I’ve done. It’s not rocket science.

A lot of resellers say to people new to this industry to start with selling items from around your house. Get to know your market that way. I agree with that, but then I expand and say flip items that you wish were around your house. How many times I wanted to buy a Sony branded product but settled for a lesser known brand because it’s cheaper.

Use that information to your advantage. If you know prices, you can act fast and beat out others. Have a standard Anko kettle but always wanted a Smeg? That’s knowledge, you know the value of Smeg. Look out for it on Marketplace. See it for $10 and know if you want it you have to pay $100 in store? You have your range and you can act.

Twilight really goes hard when it comes to special editions. Back in Issue #46 I talked about a rare Twilight boxset that can sell for over $150, and this week we sold a 10 disc Blu-Ray set for $94.95. Collectors love this version because the discs are tucked inside a compact hardbound art book, all wrapped in a slipcover.

The rule of thumb? If you spot anything Twilight that looks a little different, take the time to look it up.

Secondhand Opinions

The concept is simple, we’ll throw up a reselling question, I’ll present my poorly thought out opinion and you’ll provide your own.

Last week I asked you: “If you overcharge a Buyer with shipping, do you refund them the difference?“ and here are the results:

Despite majority leaving as is, I was surprised to see such a large number of people refunding the difference. You’re the type of person I’d love to buy from. Who doesn’t love a message saying they’re getting a refund? You’re a better person than me.

After getting back to garage sales for the first time this week, I want your feedback. I’m asking you “Have you noticed garage sale prices being more in tune with eBay prices lately?“

Like I said, I haven’t been to them in a while. Are buyers holding sales to make money and not to de-clutter? Are they comping everything they have? Or maybe they’re spending more time looking up values because it’s tough out there and people don’t have much spare money (apart from the drug rep collectors). Let me know.

That’s all I’ve got for you this week, check out Flip Weekly on social media for videos, the podcast for audio and I’ll see you again next week.

Mat.

Win a Free $200 Mystery Box

What’s this? Click here for more information on how you can score a whole bunch of free prizes including a $200 Mystery Box!

Flip Weekly Podcast

The Flip Weekly podcast is for people who want even more reseller content. You can find the podcast on all major podcast streaming platforms or you can listen directly on the Flip Weekly website here.

Flip Weekly on Social Media

If you want more Flip Weekly content, don’t forget to follow us on social media.

• Flip Weekly on Facebook.

• Flip Weekly on Instagram.

• Flip Weekly on YouTube.

• Flip Weekly on TikTok.

100% Free Resources to Help You

Flip Weekly have created the following resources to help you become a better reseller.

• Ultimate List of YouTube Reseller Channels

• Google Sheets Reseller Spreadsheet

• Memorize Video Game Prices with Flip Vidya

• eBay Sell Through Rate Calculator

• How To Tell If A Book Is 1st Edition

• 100+ Nostalgic 90s Kids Shows Ranked by eBay Value

• Reseller Terms and Acronyms You Should Know