Issue #103

Failing upwards. The story of this week. How many times can I screw up and then fluke my way out? This week you’ll be shaking your head in amazement at my capacity to mess up, and then dropping your jaw at the sale prices once I glue things back together.

We’ve got multiple $500 sales, items found in thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace that are worth over $100, and winners of last weeks Street Sharks giveaway. It’s a big win, so let’s get into it.

Mat.

In This Issue

• What I Bought

• What I Sold

• Street Sharks Giveaway Winners

• Official Flip Weekly Podcast

• Win a Free $200 Mystery Box

• Flip Weekly on Social Media

• 100% Free Resources to Help You

What I Bought

On a plaque hanging inside the State of Liberty it reads:

I’m convinced my Facebook Marketplace algorithm reads “Give me your weird, your cheap, the unusual products yearning to be resold on eBay, the outcasts that can’t find a home within a 15km radius.“

When I’m showed this kind of thing, I can’t refuse.

First thing I think of when I see this… thing is beer memorabilia. Considering the success we’ve had in the past with it, you know it caught my eye. Beer memorabilia, or Breweriana for the fancy folk, are beer-related items that feature the brand and can include things like glasses, cans, signs, labels, or in this case, seats that are speakers. Unusual, right?

Its just been posted with a $25 sticker price and I’m immediately thinking it has to be worth more than. I quickly size it up and deduce it should be under Australia Post’s maximum weight and length limits so I send a message to the seller whilst I try and find more information about it. It’s essentially a cushion and speaker all-in-one developed by a German audio engineering company. Considering the inputs (AUX and RCA) I suspect this is from around 2010.

There’s nothing on eBay and a Google Lens search results in just 1 result. A Queensland online auction company that auctioned off a speaker exactly like this plus a bunch of miscellaneous items on a pallet in 2021. The auction had 5 bids and a sold price of $50.

The $50 sold price doesn’t deter me. These local auction companies don’t have the reach or exposure as something like eBay and I don’t think it reflects the true value.

I message the buyer and pick it up in Sydney’s CBD. I ask the buyer about the item, what’s the story behind it?

He doesn’t know. He’s a DJ and was given the speaker by a friend. He tells me that he couldn’t find any similar ones online except for the auction website. I tell him I’ve had a hard time finding anything similar too. I’m told the speaker is working but doesn’t have any of the cables. Not to worry, how hard can it be to find a power cable?

I get home, leave the speaker in the car and continue doing my research. I legitimately can’t find anything about this product. Then I get my first lead. A separate reverse image search yields the speaker being featured on a freelance photo editors website.

I decide to reach out to David to see if he knows anything.

Okay, I think we’re getting somewhere. It appears to be a promo item, most likely for some sort of XXXX competition. Wanting more information I reach out directly to XXXX via email, Facebook and Instagram. I’m not expecting a reply, but you never know.

As I’m waiting for XXXX to drop everything and respond to my pressing concern, I start looking for power adapters. On the side of the speaker it says 10V AC 1.2A. Cool, let me Google that real quick and buy a replacement. I can see that you want to get the correct voltage and amps unless you want to fry your electronics.

None on eBay. Zero on Amazon. I guess we’re going hyper-niche, let’s check Jaycar Electronics. Nothing there either. This can’t be right, let’s ask them.

Ehh, if an electronics company can’t supply or source this thing, what hope do I have?

I do what most clueless people do when they don’t know anything about a subject. I consult ChatGPT. Despite AI’s reassurances of “yeah, it is weird you can’t find this Mat, don’t worry it’s not your fault“ we still come up empty handed.

I move on to real people. I consult Reddit. Reddit informs me that I could try a 9V AC 1.33A adaptor instead.

By the way, I have no real idea what any of this means.

The concept however makes basic sense. Lower the voltage, increase the amps. The Reddit user kindly linked to the exact adapter on a company website called Altronics.

It’s a bit of a gamble, I mean this could destroy the speaker but I’m sort of out of options. I can’t find any adapters with the exact requirements except for a few in the United States that would cost me around $100 to import.

The location of Altronics?

I guess we’re doing a Savers trip. I pay $25 for the adapter, strike out at Savers and head home. I finally bring the speaker upstairs, set it on the ground near the lounge room and go about my afternoon. Later when I’m sitting down I can see I set the speaker upside down. There’s a zipper on the bottom with a note attached.

I see this stapled onto the bottom of the speaker and I’m pretty sure I let out an audible “NO.“ Not a “no way“ or a “you’ve got to be kidding me“ just a simple NO.

It’s reminiscent of the ending of the movie SE7EN.

What’s behind the zipper?

WHAT IS BEHIND THE ZIPPER?!

The original power adapter. Yep, all of that for nothing. This entire wall of text should have been 2 sentences. Plugged it in, it works. Speaker plays, bass sounds great, absolutely nothing wrong with it. I return the Altronics item, get a refund and now have to decide on how to price this. We’ve got no real comps so I check out Sold Listings for XXXX beer merchandise. People have paid anywhere from $200 - $600 for XXXX signs.

I’m thinking that what we have is multi-functional and quite rare. I mean, it’s got the XXXX insignia embroidered onto a seat that doubles as a speaker. Let’s aim for the top, let’s list for $500, we can always reduce it if we need to. Anyway, let’s move on from that saga, we’ve devoted way too much time to it, I’m sorry.

Just 2 weeks ago I found a very rare 1st edition 1982 Tolkien book at Savers. It wasn’t The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings but it still sells for a lot of money. This week I went back to the exact same Savers and found what I’m guessing is the rest of the collection.

First we have 2 books from 1985. The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. Both were priced at $3.49 each and like I said to you a fortnight ago, when you find older J.R.R. Tolkien it’s best to pick them up. Both of these books have been listed together for $100. Not a home run, but still really cool, the cover artwork by Roger Garland is why people will want this in their collection.

For $4.49 I bought this Journeys of Frodo book by Barbara Strachey. Some might think its taking the lore of make believe world a bit far with an atlas detailing a fictional characters travels, but not LotR fans. In incredible detail, this author has mapped out the journeys of the fellowship throughout the series complete with illustrations, graphs and maps. It was originally published in 1981 and boy, do I wish I found that copy. Instead, we have the 1998 copy.

Here’s what you need to remember though when you see resellers buying books. It is incredibly easy to find a book at a thrift store, look it up and see that it’s selling for over $50. Heck, you could make a case for every 1 in 10 hardcover cookbooks. But, you need to look at the sell through rate. You do not want to get stuck with hundreds of hardcover giant cook books. They take up too much space and once you get a stack of 5-10 they’re incredibly heavy.

Always, always, always look at sell through rate. Journeys of Frodo currently has 21 Active Listings and 27 Sold Listings. 128.57% STR. More have Sold than are what’s Available. Demand outweighs supply, that’s why you see such a high fluctuation with the pricing.

With a busy weekend combined with the Australia Day public holiday, I didn’t get much time to hit up all of the regular thrift spots. Not to worry, I was still able to snag a few more great deals on Facebook Marketplace and trust me, these will make a lot of money.

Two listings sparked my interest. They appeared to be from the same seller.

The 1st listing really interested me, the 5 for $50 as I could tell they were much older. I guess the seller was one of those people that think old = worthless. Here’s the thing. I really need to see the tags to tell if they’re genuinely old or are the modern day retro jerseys. Don’t get me wrong, retro jerseys sell all day for around $100 a pop, but if just 1 is genuinely from that period of time we could be in for a huge payday.

I had a feeling the $50 bundle was going to move fast so when I saw that the dude had another listing for $150, I messaged and said I’d take them all, even though some of the more modern jerseys could sell for $40 or $50.

The guy agreed and I drove an hour North to meet him. I paid $200 in total for 14 shirts all dumped together in the 1 garbage bag.

Once I got home and started to take a look at them we have quite a few rare jerseys, some retro and we got extremely lucky… a genuine 1970’s that looks to be worth $500.

Now here’s the thing. The description explicitly states “some in good shape, some not so“.

I did not expect some to look like they’ve been used as oil rags.

As I’m going through the jerseys, I can see that a lot are dirty. We’ve got dirt, mud, and honestly what appears to be motor oil. First things first, let’s try and remove the stains. I separate all of the grotty jerseys and soak them in a tub of warm water and Sard Stain Remover - something I’ve sworn by in the past.

After they finished an overnight soak, in the washing machine they went. All at once.

Being the genius as I am, I didn’t think too much about the soak and washing procedure. Especially for a jersey that’s almost 50 years old.

As I’m pulling the jerseys out of the washing machine to inspect them not only can I see some stains have appeared to gotten worse, but one of the jerseys had an insane color run.

Guess which one it was? Yep, the $500 jersey. The previously white collar was now pink. You’ll have to excuse the lack of photos, I do believe I was shitting my pants.

Quickly I search for remedies and find a highly rated product called Dr Beckman’s Colour Run Remover. A pack costs around $14 and you get 2 satchets. The instructions say to empty the satchet into 20L bucket, fill it half way, submerge the item, stack old plates on top of it and close the lid. Very, very specific but because we’re dealing with a $500 vintage jersey, I follow it to a T. I buy the bucket, I submerge the jersey (yes, even using old plates) close the lid and pray for a miracle.

I’m thinking this entire time… no way this works. How would a bunch of powder know to remove the colour from the collar and not from everywhere else? I’m legit starting to think all colour is going to be removed.

The next day I’m nervous and I take off the lid of the bucket and I’m greeted by a smell that almost knocks me to my knees. This is why the instructions said specifically to place a lid on top. This thing reeks. I take a quick glance at the collar and it legitimately looks back to normal. Like… this thing worked. In the wash it went where I gave it a 50/50 shot of having the colour run again (I’d feel so dumb if this happened) but alas, I pull it out and it looks great. 10/10 and highly recommend Dr Beckman’s Colour Run Remover.

So, what do we have and what are the comps?

Missing are 4 jerseys that I lotted up together. They’re the ones that I couldn’t get clean. I tried a spray stain remover but honestly it just wasn’t working and was going to take forever. If they were clean? Maybe $300 worth of value. My lot price? $100.

All in all, a total listed value of $1,339.60 on eBay (a bit less on Facebook Marketplace). Not bad for a $200 purchase.

Finish the newsletter to see just how many have sold.

Finally, a really cool Marketplace find that’s also from the 70’s.

We have a 1978 remote controlled R2-D2 that appears to be in pretty good nick. Not only is there very little yellowing on R2, the box is remarkably in pretty good shape.

You might thinking, Mat… the box has ratty corners, it’s not in good shape? Wrong. Go look at some of your own boxes from just last year. We don’t exactly cherish these things. This is 2 years away from 50 and look at it. I’m in awe. The listing description states that they don’t know if it actually works but I took a gamble on it just based on condition.

When I got it home and checked out the battery compartment I was getting my hopes up.

This thing takes an array of battery types, one of the reasons why I believed the buyer that they hadn’t tested this out. R2 takes one 9V batteries and two D’s. The remote control takes one 9V battery.

Batteries go in, his red light blinks. Looking good. I press down on the remote and the head mechanism works. Old mate turns his entire dome like the posessed chick from The Exorcist. I press forward to make him move and unfortunately nothing. The mechanics are gone, forums suggest a drive belt has eroded or a gear has broken. Given the age of this thing, and the amount of moving parts I decide against trying to repair him.

The sound is absolutely horrendous. It’s extremely unpleasant. Like the car scene in Dumb and Dumber.

“Want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?“

I’m thinking this ain’t right so I jump onto YouTube and search for a working version. I find the original advert from 1978. Take a look here. It sounds exactly the same. They made it sound like this intentionally. I even think the ad reduced the pitch. It’s bad.

Now in terms of comps, they have to be high considering we’re outlaying $200.

This is the only 1 I can find on eBay Australia at time of listing. $375, with a box that’s a bit worse and its marked as untested. I’ve come to find that a lot of these units are either untested, not working, constantly beeping or have some other issue.

For us to have a unit that lights up, makes sound and has a working head(?) I think we can ask for a premium. I’m listing him up for $549.95.

What I Sold

We’ve found the sweet spot. How much are die hard Bratz collectors willing to pay for an un-brushed sporty Yasmin & Jade?

The answer… an even $500. I had to laugh when the buyer told me to pack these plastic dolls with limbs that are routinely removed “carefully“.

You’ll remember back in October I scored an entire storage container full of vintage Bratz dolls and accessories for just $20. I painfully went through the entire tub, identifying individual bags, shoes and 1cm mobile flip phones to the correct doll. The laborious task paid off with 2 of those dolls selling to a Buyer in Finland for $500 + postage. Over the past 90 days I was getting impatient, I was slowly reducing the price of these disheveled divas from $1,000 to what eventually became $749.95. When an offer came in for $500, I said screw it, let’s do it.

If you’re ever at a garage sale or see a tub of vintage Bratz dolls on Facebook Marketplace, don’t hesitate. Buy it.

How many times can a dude screw up in 1 week? Seriously, after the XXXX speaker, then the jersey and now this. I bought this Dragonlance board game just the other week for $20, counted out all the pieces and listed it up for $100. Heaps of interest.

I receive this message.

I quickly look at the photos and compare it to a complete version online. The complete version has some sort of castle tower that stands 5cm tall and 3cm in diameter. I can’t see it. How did I miss it?! I quickly take down the listing so eBay doesn’t banish me to the shadow realm. It’s re-listed as 99% complete and for $20 less.

A few days pass and I receive the following message:

It has to be assembled from the black pieces of plastic that’s already in the box. Honestly, how dumb can you get? The buyer goes on to tell me he started watching the listing because he doesn’t have this board game in his collection and that once his “finances recover from car rego licence renewals as well Christmas overspending“ he’ll buy it. He also says that I should end the listing before someone else buys it.

I decide against it and 8 hours later the dude messages me again and says if I’m happy to sell it at the current price he’ll take it. Done, deal. It’s out of my hair and I’d feel like too much of a schmuck to take down this listing again and again.

Let’s get some jersey sales going. Get ready for an influx of sales that end in a bang.

Street Sharks Giveaway Winners

We’ve got some winners to announce! This was a super simple giveaway, all you had to do was confirm your email address and you’re entered into the draw. We had just over 100 people enter so your odds of winning are literally 1 in 20.

The winners were drawn live on Flip Weekly’s podcast and I’ve also included them down below. In an effort to keep email addresses private, I’m posting just the first half of the address. I’ll be reaching out shortly and posting them out to you.

Winners

• bradfoote1

• carlakoala1167

• mustardchops13

• lyndall8

• natasa.vukoman

Thanks again for entering! If you were unlucky but want to win cool stuff in the future, stay subscribed, hit me up with ideas and I’ll see what I can do. Thanks again for reading, I’ll see you again next week.

Mat.

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.

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 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