Issue #8.

Yes, the answer is yes. There’s no need for suspense, I’m not going to write a novel and tease out the answer. It’s true, I found a hat in the thrift store marked at the low price of $2 and successfully sold it only a few days later for $250. Incredible and hard to believe, right? Read on below for the full story, but first!

Table of Contents

• What I’ve Bought

• What I Sold

• Resources & Friends

• User Submissions & My Challenge

• Can A $2 Hat From A Thrift Store Go On To Sell For …

• What’s To Come

What I’ve Bought

This weeks garage sales and thrifting was interrupted by the Easter long weekend. I didn’t get a chance to check out the sales on Saturday morning and most thrift stores were from Friday until Monday only leaving a couple of days before this issue was scheduled to go out. Nevertheless, I did manage to venture out and find a couple of interesting items.

How many times have I said no to clothes? I saw this ugly Christmas sweater for sale at a thrift store for $18 and it just called out to me. I think it looks dope. It’s a nice size being 2XL, it’s Jagermeister branded and despite it being no-where near Christmas I had to get it. I looked for comps online and I legit couldn’t find the exact sweater. There’s UK comps for similar types going for between $50-$100 so it’s not too bad a purchase. I imagine this is going to sit for a while until it gets closer to Christmas but that’s fine with me; if it doesn’t sell I’ll just keep it for myself because I really like it.

Side-note: the dude at the register commented that he put it out only the other day and the staff were joking about no-one will ever buy it. They all thought it was hideous.

The next item I bought was something that turned out to be a low-key home run.

This is a graphic novel / comic called The Darkness. You do not have to be a comic book enthusiast or an expert on graphic novels to find something like this. When I’m out searching in the book section I always scan for words like “compendium“ or “omnibus“ as these are the type of books that can go for big money. The book was sitting on the shelf literally exactly like the photo and only had a $12 price tag on it. It’s over 1,200 pages long, completely full of colorful illustrations and worth a lot more than $12.

How much exactly? First of all, it’s a hardcover so it’ll be worth more than the paperbacks. It’s also the first printing which means you can add a premium onto the price. I did realize it was missing its dust jacket so a few dollars off for that. Here are some of the paperback sold comps:

Now in terms of hardcover, 1st printing… there’s really only 1 that I found on eBay which you can see here:

So this random book that I found in the thrift for $12 could be worth $300… not too shabby. At the time of writing I haven’t listed the book but I may aim for around the $250 mark, maybe a bit more. So again, don’t sleep on books.

The next item was behind the counter at an independent thrift store and once I saw it I immediately wanted it. I apologize in advance for what I’m about to do.

Crikey, folks! Would you just look at this beauty here? We've got ourselves a 2006 talking Steve Irwin action figure, still in its box, mate! Now, this one's a real ripper, let me tell ya. I remember when they first came out, and let me tell you, they were as rare as a Tasmanian tiger sighting!

Now, I know what you're thinking, the price might be a bit steep, but trust me, it's worth every penny. This ain't just any old action figure, it's a piece of history! And even if you can't make a quick buck off it, it's something to cherish and display proudly. I mean, look at it, it's as cool as a cucumber in a croc pond!

Now, if we take a gander at the sold comps, they're all over the map, mate! From a recent sale of $25 in the US (where they might have been selling it for a song) all the way up to a whopping $100! And would you believe it, there's one up for grabs in Australia right now, going for a fair dinkum $100 in an auction, with 10 bids already!

Seems like this little beauty was mainly sold in the US, so over there it might be as common as kangaroos in the outback. But here in Australia, it's like finding a gold nugget in the bush! Keep an eye on that auction, folks, it ends in three days, and then we'll see where the wind blows, and list our price accordingly.

What I Sold

I think it’s only fitting that one of the things I did over the Easter break was sell a $60 bible. I didn’t buy the bible thinking that Easter was coming up and it would be the perfect time to be selling bibles. That would be deranged right? A non-religious man using Holy Week to make a profit? I digress. This isn’t an area I usually find myself in, so let’s take a look at the piece.

When I bought this bible from the thrift for $5 I knew nothing about them, all I had in the back of my head was a voice saying “bibles sell well“ and for the life of me I can’t remember where I heard it. The important thing to note however is not all bibles are created equal when it comes to reselling. You’re competition is a free bible they hand out at church. So what does that tell you? Yours needs to stand out, be unique and different.

The bible I sold was called The Parallel Bible and it gets its name from the fact that one side of the book is in English and the other side is in Hebrew. eBay comps at the time were in the $100 mark with not that many listed so I picked it up and gave it a go. It didn’t take too long to sell with the buyer finding it on Gumtree and paying $60 in cash.

Now if we take a quick look at the bibles that sell for a lot of money, we see a recurring theme: bibles that are covered in goatskin consistently sell for hundreds.

There’s a few things you can do to determine whether a bible is covered in goatskin. The first is to obviously open up the bible and see if there’s any mention of the covering. If not, take a look at the texture - goat skin is smooth but slightly pebbled or grainy. Next do the flexibility test, gently bend the cover and see if it flexes easily without cracking or breaking. Finally, its been said that goat skin can have its own smell which is described as “earthy or musky“ so give that bad boy a sniff. If all else fails, use Google Lens to look up the bible.

Next up you’ll remember these from last weeks issue of Flip Weekly where I visited a yard sale full of M&M merchandise.

These 2 Star Wars collectibles were slightly under-priced but resulted in a quick sell through rate being snapped up in just 6 days. A reminder that you can make money on most things that are pop culture related, old and sealed if you’re able to get them cheap. In this case they were bought for less than $2 each and had appeal to both Star Wars collectors and M&M collectors.

One of the core principles of sales is to sell to people who have money. In this next items case, it’s sell to people who have expensive hobbies.

It was the beginning of the year and I came across this golf ball washing kit (kit? set?) which was opened and had some of the cleaning solution already used. It had a $5 price tag on it and I decided to give it a go because they’re only sold in the US for $60 each and the company doesn’t post to Australia. I listed it on Facebook Marketplace for $40 and it sold next day. A week or so later I visited the same thrift store and they had 3 of these, all fully sealed, brand new and still $5 each. I decided to pick all 3 up and over the past few months they’ve sold quite well. It’s an easy $5 into $50 because golfers have money to spend on their hobby.

Tuesday edit: I guess it’s golf time because the last one sold today. So one was sold on the 30th of March and another on the 2nd of April.

Here are a few other items that sold this week:

Resources & Friends

This week I want to give a shout out to a reseller that has a pretty popular YouTube Channel. Kayla has a channel called The Homeschooling Picker and she documents her journey visiting estate sales and thrift stores where she finds some value where I never would be able to. A lot of her items are in the homewares category, she does a lot with Christmas decorations which surprisingly can be worth a lot, and she can also spot a fake handbag from a mile away.

If you take a look at her channels Instagram page, she has some photos of recent sold items and they’re things that I wouldn’t even realize are worth money. We’re talking a dip bowl for $85, birthday cards for $50, mixing bowls for close to $300.. some of the prices are insane. She also does a lot of women’s clothing, brands like lululemon are always popping up and consistently sell for higher prices than men’s clothing. If this sounds like categories you’re interested in, give her channel a watch and you’ll definitely learn a thing or two.

User Submissions & My Challenge

In the spirit of Easter just gone, I want to see some bibles in my inbox. Have you sold any high priced bibles? Own any? No? Go out into the thrift or visit a garage sale and find some! Bonus points if you find one of the valuable goat skin bibles. If you do happen to find one, take a photo with the price tag still on, shoot us through a message here.

Can A $2 Hat From A Thrift Store Go On To Sell For $250?

We’ve established that a $2 hat from a thrift store can go on to sell for $250, so let’s talk a bit about that. Last Tuesday (26th of March) I hit up a few thrift stores and was having a hell of a time trying to find something unusual or unique. This was my last stop of the day, a Salvos on a busy main street where it’s 50/50 whether or not I’m able to get a park in order to go inside. I was lucky enough to find a park and I’m glad I did because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to find an absolute gem of an item.

Tucked away in the children’s toy section, folded in half and beneath a bunch of worthless plush was a kids hat that went untouched since it was put on the shelf back in January.

Now the reason I picked up this hat wasn’t because of the character Miles, it was because of the original tag and the small embroidered patch inside the hat. Take a look.

Green flag #1 was the year written on the tag which was 1997. Old is gold. Green flag #2 was that it still had its original tags! If we do a quick Google search for Sega World Sydney we can see that it was a Sega branded amusement park that opened in 1997 and closed just 3 years later in 2000. 3 years isn’t a very long time for an amusement park to be open so guess what? It’s developed a bit of a cult following.

If you’re unfamiliar with Sega it’s basically a video game / multimedia company. Heard of Sonic the Hedgehog? That’s about all you need to know to follow along.

After checking out and paying a whopping $2 for the hat I decided to search the hat up on Google Lens to see what it was worth. Zero results. Weird. So I head to eBay and search for Sega World Sydney - only a few results but you will not believe the type of prices I saw.

Okay, these prices seem insane. $370 for a swipe card?! $1,000 for a 20cm plush toy?! A $350 t-shirt described as having “some flaws“… this is crazy. Obviously it’s one of those categories where the buyers are being overly sentimental with their pricing and this stuff doesn’t sell anywhere near that… right? Wrong.

Wow, so this stuff is collectible, highly sought after and worth a mint. I now know for certain that we have an amazing thrift store find. I continue looking online to see if there’s any way I can find the exact hat that I’ve bought and despite watching YouTube videos, scrolling Instagram and utilizing any and all reverse image search methods I’m unable to find it. The closest I could find was a Sega World Sydney hat sold back at the beginning of March for $249.99.

This isn’t a bad thing, this means that the item is so rare that there aren’t any available online so you can essentially set your sales price. So what do I do? I use the similar hats sale price as a guide and list mine for sale for $299.99 on the 26th of March. The increase in price is due to mine having the original tags and being in better condition. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, I mean it’s a $300 hat which is outrageous.

I list the hat for sale for $299.99 and within 24 hours it had soared in views and had amassed 13 people watching. I messaged a collector on Instagram informing him of the listing just in case he was interested or knew anyone that was and he actually told me that not only had he seen the listing but others had messaged him about it. Hearing that I knew this was going to sell fast.

On the 30th of March, just 4 days later I received an eBay notification for the listing. The notification was a too good to refuse $250.00 offer. I hit Accept, the buyer quickly paid and I was beyond happy - $2 into $250 within 4 days. I was so happy that I gift wrapped that bad boy - ribbon and all!

What’s To Come

This time next week I should have a freebie ready for you guys. Over the past week my team and I have been working on creating a Google Sheets Dashboard where you can keep track of your inventory and sales, visualize your profits and keep track of ‘Buy Again’ items all in a user-friendly way. You’ll be able to easily input your 'Buy Again’ criteria whether it’s an item selling with a 40%+ profit margin or a sell through rate of 30 days or less, the system will keep track of everything so you don’t have to memorize it.

It will be completely free, exclusive to Flip Weekly subscribers and development will continue for as long as Flip Weekly exists. Once it’s live and available, you'll be encouraged to contact me with feature requests and we’ll get it done.

Thanks again for reading and see you next week.

Mat.