Issue #56

To anyone complaining that it’s impossible to find items in thrift stores anymore, read on. Or, if you’re not so much a reader, listen to this weeks Issue of Flip Weekly via the podcast. If you thought 3,000 words a week wasn’t enough, now you get an additional hour of my dribble. There’s a lot to get through this week, so let’s right into it.

In This Issue

• What I Bought

• What I Sold

• Win a Free $200 Mystery Box

• Podcast

• Social Media

• 100% Free Resources to Help You

What I Bought

Right now I have a dilemma, do I start off this newsletter talking about Star Wars, or do I opt for Barbie? 2 contrasting IP’s that helped me clean up this week with each worth close to $200 each. Let’s start off with Star Wars.

This thing is so cool and the reasoning for why it was just $15, I’m assuming is because they couldn’t get into it to discover the secrets. They’ve seen Scholastic, assumed it’s a giant book and moved on. However, it’s got some hidden compartments that make this item much more valuable. So what is it?

I’m not a Star Wars fan so I’ll let the Wiki explain the lore:

So within the lore, this is a secure blast-proof case that contains secret files belonging to a Star Wars character. In the real world, it’s a plastic case that takes a couple of AAA batteries and requires anything credit card shaped inserted into the slot that opens it. Inside, you find a handbook, a manifesto, the characters license and firearms permit plus a few other interesting artifacts. When you insert the datacard that’s sort of hidden underneath, the case unlocks, the lid opens and there’s lights and sounds. To be honest, it was pretty cool the way it slowly opened once I finally found some working AAA batteries.

If you want to see it in action, check it out here, I’ve timestamped the link.

Like I said, I don’t think the staff had the batteries on hand nor knew to insert a credit card shaped object into the slot to open things up. I have a feeling they saw Scholastic on the side, assumed a big book and priced it as such. We however get to profit from that because this case from 2013 is worth a lot more than $15.

Whilst I wont be able to get a brand new $300+ price point, I can tack on a premium as inventory levels are always lower within Australia for this sort of stuff. I decided to list up for $169.95 and it’s already received 16 views and 2 watchers so I’m hoping I get the sale quickly which would look in approximately $100 in profit.

Now in terms of Barbie, we have a similar sort of product. I couldn’t think of a PG segue joke that called back on credit cards and inserting foreign objects into slots, but regardless it’s a Barbie item considered quite rare and valuable.

Let me start off by saying that if you find a Barbie book at a thrift store or garage sale with “Assouline“ anywhere on it, pick it up. This company seems to be responsible for publishing some of Barbie’s most valuable books. I mean, take a look at this:

If you find 1, you might be able to find 2, 3, 4… there’s less than 50 active listings for these on eBay but the prices are crazy high, like there’s 1 called Barbie: 60 Years of Inspiration and it has 22 watchers listed at $2,400. Whilst the book I found wasn’t anywhere near close to that, it was 100% worth picking up:

The good thing about Barbie books is that they’re very easy to spot with their insanely bright pink covers and iconic dolls gracing the front and back covers. This book I found was in a Save The Children’s Op Shop and cost me $5, yet should go on to sell for somewhere close to $200. I’ll be posting an Instagram Reel of me finding this, so be sure to check that out, it definitely stands out.

Before I move on from books and this particular op shop, just another quick find that will definitely pay off. I know books aren’t that exciting, but they can be when they’re not your run of the mill $5 into $20.

Both of these books were purchased for $5 each, and I’ll show you the sold comps below. I wont spend too much time on this except to say that I’ve told you in the podcast you have my permission to profile book covers.

With my Australia tax added on, I should be able to turn these $10 books into $200. My strategy for these books isn’t difficult, I’ve never read these or really even heard of them before, I just look them up based on their covers. I judge the book, yes, and it pays off.

It isn’t just Bratz dolls you need to keep an eye out, it also pays to spot Bratz animated DVD’s. I found a bundle of 9 in a thrift this week for $1 each and it turns out I should be able to get $100 for them.

I’ll be posting the full video on Instagram, but I rocked up to this thrift store and started to notice a weird amount of Bratz stuff. A DVD here and there, a loose doll, some old party merchandise and I thought well it looks like someone has donated their old collection. I didn’t get lucky enough to find sealed dolls, but I did spot a Bratz animated DVD… then another… then another… then I started actively looking for them. Picking up 5 children’s DVD’s at a time, stepping over kids to get better looks, I was able to find a total of 9. They’re all $1 each and when I was looking up comps it seemed to be about $10 per disc plus a premium if you have a bundle.

As you know, I’m not the biggest fan of buying DVD’s but I do get excited for single DVD’s worth hundreds and mildly curious for bundles that can get me at least $100. This is moreso an experiment than anything, just how popular are Bratz DVD’s? Are they gonna get a huge amount of Watchers but not sell for weeks? Go in a few days? I’ll report back.

This next item is really cool, it’s one of the first ever Nintendo Gameboy knockoffs created called a Game Child.

At first glance it could easily be mistaken for… junk but to me it looked like an old knockoff GameBoy and knowing that knockoffs are a big business, I decided to check it out. It’s called a Game Child, it’s from the early 90’s and it came with a few interchangeable cartridges that could easily snap in so you can play the most basic video games. We’re talking a Car Racing game where you basically go left or right to avoid obstacles. Not that exciting but the entire piece is really gaming history.

The comps are okay, however once I got it back home I tested it out and it seemed as though the console only works when pressure is applied to the battery. The battery compartment, despite having a screw on it, seems loose and the console wont stay on so taking that in mind I don’t think I’ll be able to get full price. That said, you have to make a decision about the buyer… are they buying to play or for display? If it’s display that doesn’t really matter, you can add a premium for having the box, but if it’s too play, it’s a major deduction. I’m a bit conflicted so after seeing an active listing, boxed, for $100.00 I’ll go for around $60.00 with the caveat that it doesn’t work without pressure on the battery. Damn.

A few other cool things I picked up this week:

What I Sold

Bit of a personal accomplishment here… selling a jigsaw for $79.95 despite it missing 2 pieces. Picked up in Issue #52 for just $6 it’s gone on to sell less than a month later for $74.95. When I bought this cursed treasure from Hell’s gift shop it contained pieces from another puzzle so I wasn’t able to determine quickly whether or not it was complete. I spent about 3 hours putting this thing together only to discover that 2 pieces were missing, and not discreet pieces.

That didn’t seem to matter, it sold for $79.95 and I’ll tell you why. When I picked this up I didn’t really care if the pieces were all there, I quickly determined that people were wanting this item to display as it was basically a huge Redheads matchbox that looed pretty dope. It had a single comp on eBay for $300 with multiple watchers so I took a calculated gamble that has paid off. In situations like this, trust your gut.

I can’t get away from this stuff. This is a coffee table book that I’d never put out on my coffee table. It’s artwork from… to be honest I have no idea. I tried researching this and I just went around in loops. All I know is that whenever I opened the book to a random page… I’d see cartoon illustrations of scantily clad women.

It’s sold for $79.95 + post and all I can say is that this anime stuff sells well and sells for a lot of money. Just be aware that you might think you’re buying something innocent, but then you take photos and a few moments later get a couple of knocks on your door.

If you ever find Warhammer books at garage sales or thrift stores, you’re legally obligated to tell me about it. I’ve found thousands of dollars worth of these books alone in the past 12 months (watch me find this exact one here for $4) and this has gone on to sell for $100… for 1 book. Whenever I come across Warhammer books in a thrift store (not that often) I can always feel my heartrate jump up because if you find a huge collection of these, you can sell them for thousands. I’m not even kidding, paperbacks maybe around $50-$100 each, hardcovers anywhere from $100-$500 and then if it’s a set? You’re rich.

I don’t think I mentioned this item to you, it was listed on December 30th last year so maybe it slipped through the cracks when I posted my Top 10 Flips of 2024 at the end of last year. It was in the DVD section of the thrift store and what it is is a limited edition case of Star Trek DVD’s from 2008. The case is in the shape of a Photon Torpedo - we all know what a Photon Torpedo is so I wont bother explaining it, but what you can guess from a few items in this Issue is that books/media inside different sort of cases = value.

It was a bit pricey at $35.00 but I think it was priced according to how many discs were included, not so much that it was a limited edition case. Anything like this should catch your attention and is always worthy of a lookup. From this $35 buy, I should net approximately $86.21. Now just to find a box that can fit a Torpedo.

The jersey that I picked up this week and listed at 4:37pm went on to sell on Facebook Marketplace at 4:48pm, a mere 11 minutes later. I list on eBay first and then copy the details over to Marketplace, so the listing time on Marketplace is probably closer to 4:40pm, giving this a 8 minute sale time (3-4 minutes for the buyer to get in touch and ask a question or two). The jersey sold for $100 on Marketplace + post and the reason it’s worth a bit is that it’s an NRL ANZAC jersey - these are jerseys worn for 1 match per year and aren’t available year round so given this is 6 years old, it’s quite rare. There were no sold comps on eBay but there was 1 active listing which was a new listing for $199.95 on auction. Given mine sold in just a few minutes it was probably underpriced but I’m not too worried, $30 into $100 is good enough for me.

That’s it for this week, thanks again for reading especially if you made it all this way. If you’re after more reselling content, check out our socials and podcast. See you next week!

Mat

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