Issue #16

We’ve got a long one this week so grab a drink, take a seat and get comfy. Come along as we bypass garage sales for a community sale where I uncover some amazing finds from the 90’s - one of which has been banned from being sold on eBay AND Marketplace! We also have killer thrift store finds with 2 items costing less than $10 and selling for over $200 each! There’s so much to go through, but first!

Table of Contents

• What I’ve Bought

• What I Sold

• Resources & Friends

• I Found Valuable 90's Nostalgia At A Community Sal …

• What’s To Come

• Your Journey to a Free $200 Mystery Box

What I’ve Bought

Doin’ lads. Got a yarn for you. Hit up a thrift store last week and was able to find myself an O.G item. Which book do you think I’m talking about?

One of these books has a $4 price-tag on it and I’m really keen for it.

If you watch YouTube and live in Australia, chances are you’re at least aware of who this guy is. Spanian has a YouTube channel where he’s known for his “Into The Hood“ series, a whole bunch of videos where he walks-through dangerous suburbs of Australia giving viewers a quick glimpse into the lives of the people that live there. It’s not for everyone but you can’t ignore his popularity with each video averaging close to a million views.

Anyway, I remember weeks ago seeing this book on Marketplace and the guy was asking for $200 and it stuck with me, so when I saw it on the shelf it gave me the opportunity to do a bit of research. Let’s take a look first at eBay Active Listings and then Sold Comps.

There’s 7 current listings of which 4 are auction and 3 are buy it now. All 4 of the auctions are over $100! In terms of the buy it now listings…

Wow, they range from $399 all the way up to $589… that’s crazy for a book that was only released in 2021. Before we get all excited, let’s check Sold Comps; remember, you can ask for anything on eBay, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get it.

So we have 119 results which means the sell through rate is extremely good. The top one is signed so we can ignore that, but searching via Ended Recently I can see a consistent pattern of high priced sales. In fact, the more I search the more confident I am that if I was to list this book, the minimum I would put it up for would be $250.00 - and that’s for a quick sale! So that’s what I do - I took a few photos and chucked it up for $249.99 plus post. This is significantly under the other BIN listings so my theory would be that when the multiple auction listings end in a day or so and we have some people that missed out, they might jump on over to the next best thing which is the cheapest BIN.

Moving on and what an amazing find I had on Sunday. If the thrift store looked this item up, it would have been put in a display cabinet, NOT in the children’s media section. Take a look at the photo below - what do you think I picked up?

No, it’s not Shrek 2 on DVD, it’s this factory sealed, brand new Nintendo DS video game:

I love it when items slip through the cracks; whoever was doing the pricing didn’t know what this is. In between over-priced DVD’s and worn, unwanted books we have this sealed Nintendo DS video game for $5. I didn’t know anything about this specific title however as I’ve told you guys before if it’s an older video game and it’s still sealed, it may be worth money. I looked it up and and guess what? We have a winner. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is quite a rare game and according to an eBay sold comp, the self-proclaimed “CHEAPEST ON EBAY“ had it selling for $119.99 and that was pre-owned!

Due to finding the game factory sealed and brand new, you can ask for a higher price. It obviously doesn’t mean it will sell but when your item is superior you want to add on the premium. Looking at active listings, their are pre-owned as high as $250.00 and only 1 sealed which is $320.00. With the average sales price around the $100 mark, I decide to list mine for $219.95 with the idea of potentially getting a best offer of around $200.00. I think it’s the perfect price and I’m hopeful for a quick sale.

One last thing before I move on, I wanted to point out an item that I saw in the same thrift store but I didn’t buy because I was too excited with the video game.

I saw this on the shelf and I knew that GHD was a good hair straightener brand. Opening it up and it was completely empty however when it comes to quality brands, sometimes these empty boxes and storage containers can be worth quite a bit. I looked it up and lo and behold:

This isn’t to say that you should go out and buy empty Dyson boxes, just be aware that just because something is empty doesn’t mean it’s worthless. Do a search on eBay for something like “case only“ and sort by high for some interesting results.

What I Sold

Side note: I just wanted to let you guys know that I gave away all of the items from the mystery box from last weeks Flip Weekly. I chucked them up on Marketplace Thursday night for free and they were gone by 11am the next day (thank God).

Is there anything better than turning a $3 book into $49.99?

This Pokemon book wasn’t in the best shape and had a few things going against it including:

1. Creases on multiple pages including the covers.

2. Stickers from the sheets inside missing.

Yet still went on to sell for $49.99. It was listed for sale in March and sold in May. That’s quite slow for Pokemon but quite fast for what’s essentially a damaged book.

Your reminder that 1) Pokemon always sells and 2) even if something is damaged (but still does its job) it can sell.

I love finding some brand new, sealed Barbie. I also love finding brand new, sealed items that have outdated price tags on them. Here’s a tip: if you find an item that has a price tag on it that you don’t recognize (most big box retailers around me don’t use physical price tags anymore) than it’s worth taking a look at.

Here we’ve got a $10 price tag on a brand new in box Barbie item with an original $19.95 barcode to the right. I think most thrift stores are happy when they see price tags on items because it makes their life a lot easier, they just mark it down half price and move on to the next item. That works in our favor - check out the selling price:

This was a full price sale at $54.95 and took around a month to sell which left me with a 53% profit margin after all fees. If you remember anything from this post, remember that if you see an original price tag next to a thrift store price tag it’s worth a lookup.

Look at what we have here. From $4 on May 23rd to $249.99 on May 28th. It took 5 days for this to sell at full price. If you like turning $4 into $250, be on the look out for Spanian’s book.

A few other things I sold this week:

Resources & Friends

If you’re an avid YouTube watcher, I recommend checking out the channels listed here which is The Ultimate List of YouTube Resellers. I’m constantly adding to the list and looking for more people to feature. We currently have profiles on 35 channels and adding more every day.

I Found Valuable 90's Nostalgia At A Community Sale

On Saturday I decided to mix things up and spend the morning at a community flea market instead of driving around looking for garage sales.

This particular sale was hosted by a church and held twice a year. Whilst it states it’s a flea market, it predominantly consists of the church taking donations leading up to the event and then selling out any remaining space to stall holders. I’d estimate that it was around a 70/30 split in terms of the church and private sellers.

It started at 8:30am and when I rocked up there was easily 100 people in front of me, it felt like a Sydney rental inspection. Seeing the long lines can have an immediate discouragement effect but it’s important to remember that the more we learn about what to buy and what sells, the better we do in these situations. So walking in I was literally dead last in the line and this is what I see when I get in the door.

A whole bunch of plastic, thin aisles and plenty of people. At this point I’m missing my warm bed and would love to teleport home. Nevertheless, I move fast and look over everyone’s shoulders trying to spot something I like. Nothing in the homewares section but I find the electronics. I spot 2 Sony radios with green stickers on them (green indicates $2).

Immediately they go in my bag among the chaos. Bad move. One of them has such bad battery corrosion it’s reminiscent of plaque on teeth that have’t been brushed in years. Nice one Mat. Reminder folks, if you’re buying electronics check the battery compartment. Not to worry, this is a Sony radio for just $2 - these things sell for $30+ so it’s a win. Moving on, I pay the $4 for the radios and I’m thinking… is this it? I thought we had toys and clothes and media. I exit the area and I’m naturally guided through the church to a new room which is exactly what I was looking for.

I’m not the first to find the toys - after wasting 5 minutes in the “Recycled Area“ the toys must have been picked over by tens of people already. This is what I see once I get in the door:

Basically the entire inside is filled with toys. 3 aisles with toys stacked up high against the walls, on the table and underneath the tables. In terms of pricing… it was really good. Some items had prices taped onto them but apart from those everything else seemed to work on a $1 per item rule. I ended up spending an even $30.00 in this room and here’s what I bought.

I had never bought or sold Baby Born items before but I’m familiar with the brand and it seems as if it’s quite collectible. Less than 24 hours on eBay and its received 15 views and 4 watchers. Listed price is $79.99 which is surprising because the box condition is absolutely horrible.

Update: Baby Born has sold for $74.99 within 4 days of being listed.

I couldn’t find anything about this item so I asked Reddit. It’s apparently an early 80’s Mattel knockoff. With no comps available I listed it for sale for $50.

Growing up with sisters I immediately recognized this item. It was sitting in the corner of the room with the above boxed items, each were under $5 - this Sky Dancer was only $3! I didn’t check comps whilst I was there because I knew this thing was going to be worth a bit however upon getting home, I left it till last to list and look up and turns out we ran into a bit of a problem. For those unfamiliar, a Sky Dancer works like this: first you put the figure into the base, second you pull on the “rip cord“ and third the Sky Dancer spins ultra fast and “flys“. It’s sort of like a remote control helicopter but if the helicopter had no pilot or controls. What does that look like? Well, take a look here.

With these things being completely unpredictable, they actually caused injuries to children and parents when they were first released.

Naturally, both eBay and Marketplace have banned the sale of recalled products so I’m unable to sell it. Some of the other marketplaces have it as high as $200 with very few fully boxed comps available. I was hoping to list it on eBay for a few hundred dollars. What to do with it? I guess I can try other marketplaces with more relaxed rules… either that or gift it to a family member or subscriber who is wanting the most hilarious reason ever to call in sick to work.

You guys know I love my tin lunchboxes and this was the first thing I picked up when entering the toy room (you can actually see it hiding in one of the room shots). It’s from 1997 and is listed for sale for $29.95 with other sold comps going as high as $48.99.

I grew up watching WWF wrestling and have vaguely followed it since, so I recognised 2/4 of these wrestlers. This was one of the last things I picked up and I only did because prices were so good. Each was only $1 and I knew I could lot them up and sell for more than $4. On eBay I chucked them up for $22.95 and on Marketplace just a standard $15.00. They lasted around an hour and sold on Marketplace same-day. I was also surprised at the eBay views - 8 within an hour which makes me think if I can get more in the future they’ll sell fast (providing they’re decent wrestlers).

This one was interesting. In the toy room all of these figures and accessories were inside the bag, my hands were full, their were a ton of people so I wasn’t able to check out what it was I was picking up. Looking back I think the reason I bought it was because it was completely different from toys you see nowadays. The fabric on the outside, the plastic molds attached to it and there’s a window on one side and I could see there was these stuffed toys with plastic accessories. It was a total Hail Mary. I opened it up once I got home and could see what was essentially a Squirrel playset…

Checking the tags:

This was a good pick up - checking eBay comps it looks like people find it difficult to find full sets and each individually item can sell for a decent amount. I ended up listing mine for $69.95.

This was within a clear bag and I could see Star Wars and I could see Micro Machines. I knew that Micro Machines were popular back in the 90’s so I picked it up without second guessing myself. I knew that when it comes to these sort of items pieces can be missing but I assumed in the split second that the fact they kept the cardboard from the box it was a good sign. It ended up having 1 missing piece from the set but also came with extra pieces which is why it lasted for less than 12 hours on eBay, sold for $35.00 and is off to Germany with a total order value of $80.03. A reminder that the total I spent on all of this was $30.00.

I saw this Pokemon figure on the floor and picked it upwith another electronic Pokemon figure that I haven’t been able to test yet. Of the $30 I spent in the room, I’m sure this would have only been $1 or $2 yet I’ve already turned down a $25.00 offer on eBay. This guy is from the year 2000 and listed at $34.95 and I’m sure he’ll sell soon enough as he has a sold comp that’s $75.00!

So… overall I spent $34.00 at this sale, my total listed value was $502.78 and I’ve already made my money back with the sale of 3 items.

P.S. I did spend an extra $4 - it wouldn’t be an Aussie event without a snag.

What’s To Come

Now’s your chance to become a BETA tester for Flip Vidya.

Here’s a scenario: you’ve found video games at a garage sale or thrift store and have no idea what they worth. The space is so brutally competitive that you don’t have time to look them up individually. You end up buying them all only to realize once you’ve gotten home that only 1 or 2 games are worth anything. Or how about you’re scrolling through Facebook Marketplace and come across a huge lot of video games. Time is of the essence and every second counts and you pass on the deal because you don’t have the time to search the value of all of the games. In both scenarios you’ve either lost money or lost out on making money.

Flip Vidya was created to solve these problems by helping video game resellers memorize which games are worth buying and which are best to avoid. It’s done through a gameification system where you’re presented with 3 options and the goal is to select the most valuable game. User scores are submitted into a Leaderboard which displays the highest scores of the day and of all time. I’ve been playing the game for a while (albeit my high score is only a 5 win streak) and find it to be slightly addictive. This game is really for anyone who wants to gain an upper-hand when it comes to buying video games, spend less money on deals whilst maximizing profits.

Before launching to the public I would like to invite Flip Weekly subscribers to test out the game, provide feedback and offer up any suggestions on features or usability issues. If you’d like to try it out, please click this link and request access.

Thanks guys, talk soon!

Mat

Your Journey to 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!