Issue #17

What have I got for you this week? After a solid month of development I’m excited to tell all of you that our secret weapon for video game reselling, a way for you to make more money and avoid bad buys… is live. Plus, after reselling for almost close to a year I feel I’ve gotten a lot better at picking up items that sell fast - I have a lot of items below that have a quick sell through rate. More on that later, but first!

Table of Contents

• What I’ve Bought

• What I Sold

• Resources & Friends

• Your New Secret Weapon for Video Game Reselling

• What’s To Come

• Your Journey to a Free $200 Mystery Box

What I’ve Bought

Show this to anybody under the age of 18 and they would have no clue as to what this thing is. I mean, I’m early 30’s and micro-cassettes seem like they were on their way out when I was growing up. Nevertheless, take a look at this sweet score:

That’s a $25 price tag which is quite steep and immediately puts me off however I know that this old technology, especially boxed, can fetch a decent amount if there’s enough demand.

Okay, so what is it? This is a Casio TP-35 micro-cassette voice recorder. Basically you get blank micro-cassette’s, put them inside, hit record and start speaking. You’re wondering… so like the Voice Memo feature on an iPhone? Yes, exactly. Why would somebody want to use outdated technology like micro-cassette’s to record their thoughts when you can do it for free on basically any phone? Old people. The answer is old people.

It was marked at $25.00 in the thrift which is quite high so I looked up comps. There’s only 3 listings for a Casio TP-35 and I’m guessing they chose $25.00 because it’s in between the $17.96 listing and the $45.09 listing. However, this is another case of the thrift not valuing the original box plus inserts (this came with the original headphone, instruction manual plus styrofoam padding).

With this information I decided to pick it up and would later go on to list for $100 on Marketplace and $149.95 on eBay.

Here’s a first for me: I bought some jeans. I know, I know, I’ve been doing this for over 6 months and have yet to pick up what many resellers consider their bread and butter. To be honest, they’ve never interested me. I understand you can make a full-time living reselling jeans (and many people do) but personally they don’t scratch the itch for me. I was about to walk out of this thrift store until something caught my eye.

What on Earth are my beloved NBA teams doing on a pair of poorly hung jeans in a Sydney thrift store? I take a closer look and a few things to stick out to me. The first is that they have their original tags. The second is that the NBA team logos are embroidered onto the jeans and some of the team logos are outdated. Have we stumbled across a vintage pair of jeans?! Of all things?! Let’s take a closer look:

I bought both pairs for $15 each and after wading through comps I was really happy about the purchase. The brand is UNK (keep an eye out for them) and comps for these go all the way up to $200.00 and surpass that number if you get a rarer pair. I decided to list mine up for an even $200.00 each on eBay and a bit lower on Marketplace at $100 each. I’ve already had 1 guy ask for a deal if he bought both on Marketplace but we know how flaky buyers can be.

You guys know I can’t go past my books, especially when it comes to comedians that I’ve seen live.

If I’m in the mood I’ll go through some of the biographies of popular entertainers, sports people, heads of state etc and look for a signature on the inner page. It’s an easy way to turn a $1 book into $30+

My general rule for signed books is to only search for signatures that are from popular individuals. You don’t want a signed copy of my book because it’s worth nothing. But celebrities, heads of state, anyone that is no longer living are all going to fetch a bit of money. Gordon Ramsay routinely has $100+ signed book comps, Barack & Michelle Obama are in the hundreds, if not thousands, etc. There’s really only 2 ways to tell if a book is signed:

1. Open up the first few pages and look for a signature.

2. A sticker or label on the front cover of the book saying it’s the autographed/signed edition.

What I Sold

What do we have here?

I listed the Casio TP-35 at 5:47pm on Saturday the 1st of June, received the first message on Marketplace at 10:18pm same-day, and it was gone for $100.00 cash on the 2nd of June. No negotiating, no low-balling, just straight up full price. It only took 2 messages for me to know that this buyer was 100% genuine and going to buy the voice recorder. Why? Because of this:

Every message was an audio message - the perfect buyer for a voice recorder. It gets a bit wholesome now - the older gentleman that picked it up was incredibly sweet and talked to me about his work and his experiences with moving to Australia, being unable to speak English that well and his use for this voice recorder. With permission, his answer for why he bought this item, courtesy of audio to text transcription:

So this is to say that even old technology has a use nowadays.

This next one is a bit of a cheat.

I don’t buy shoes that often because I’ve never really had that much luck with them. I picked these up on Friday when they caught my eye, were only $25.00 and after scanning them with Google Lens I could tell that the thrift store priced them based off the first result which was not this pair of shoes. I was umming and awing whether or not to get them when I had zero comps available but decided to take a gamble and backed myself to be able to find a comp once I got home. I tried all of the usual routes and narrowed them down to being a pair of Ken Block #43 DC Skate Shoes but no matter what I couldn’t find an exact replica online.

If they were a pair of Ken Block #43 DC Skate Shoes, they would be worth $450+. The thing is… I just couldn’t tell and with the amount of fake shoes out in the world I didn’t want to risk selling something that was not authentic. I remember reading once that high quality shoes need high quality materials and when I was opening and closing the velcro strip some of the backing from the studs was just falling off which I didn’t think would be normal for a real pair of DC Skate shoes so I decided that I wasn’t going to sell them…

Until… I had a buddy of mine come over on that Friday night, saw them, liked them, fit his feet and he decided he wanted to buy them. I gave them to him at cost ($25) and its saved me the hassle of dealing with potential fake shoes. I’m honestly unsure if I’ll ever buy shoes again unless they have a full chain of custody or I learn more about identifying fakes.

Moving on, take a look at what sold on Tuesday, just 5 days after listing.

This Jimmy Carr book also sold same-day as this other book:

The Wheels on the Bus is such a fun book and one I remember from my childhood. The illustrations are quite detailed and it features moving parts which are engaging for young kids. This particular copy as a 1st edition from 1990, I paid only a few dollars for it and all of the moving parts still worked and weren’t missing. This was listed on April 22nd so it took just over a month to sell. I’d recommend picking it up if you see it on shelves for a couple of bucks or less because even the 25th anniversary edition sells for around the same price.

Remember this from last weeks issue “#16: I Found Valuable 90's Nostalgia At A Community Sale“:

This was picked up for $2 and went on to sell for full price, $29.99 plus $10.60 postage. I’m always picking up Sony radios as they’re fast movers and I’ve found them overlooked and under priced at garage sales.

Resources & Friends

In this newsletter I’ve talked about buying jeans for the very first time. It’s a new area for me, not one I’ll necessarily stay in, but if you’re interested in learning more about reselling jeans, I highly recommend checking out Carrie At Home’s YouTube channel.

Carrie is a top 10 jeans reseller on eBay, primarily selling pre-owned and her 4 month old YouTube channel is full of useful information, especially if you’re wanting to resell jeans. Before listing the 2 I bought this week I checked out her video “How to sell jeans better than 99% of eBay sellers“ and it definitely helped me out because to be honest, I had no idea what I was doing, especially when it came to sizing.

The good thing with learning about this specific item is that no matter what thrift store you go to, they’re going to have jeans; it’s just up to you to know if the ones they’re selling are good or not. I highly recommend her channel so give it a sub and go buy some jeans!

Your New Secret Weapon for Video Game Reselling

It’s live, your new secret weapon for video game reselling: Flip Vidya. This 100% free tool was created by us here at Flip Weekly to enhance your knowledge of video game prices through a fun and interactive flash card game. Whether you're a reseller or a gaming enthusiast, I guarantee it’s going to help you quickly learn which video games are worth buying and which ones to avoid.

How It Works

1. Choose Your Settings

   1. Platform: Select the video game platform (e.g., Nintendo 64, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360).

   2. Condition: Choose the condition of the games (either complete in box (CIB) or loose).

   3. Currency: Select your preferred currency (AUD or USD).

2. Start Game

   1. You’ll be shown 3 video games.

   2. Your task is to choose which game is worth the most money.

   3. You have 10 seconds to make your choice. This feature will help you learn to recognize game values in split seconds.

   4. After making a selection, the prices are displayed:

      1. If you're correct, you'll hear a positive sound and move on to the next round.

      2. If you're wrong, the game ends, but you can see the correct prices for future reference.

      3. If you achieve a streak of correct answers, you'll have the chance to submit your score to the leaderboard.

How Does It Help?

Imagine finding video games at a garage sale or thrift store, but you have no time to look up their prices. Or maybe you come across a huge lot of games on Facebook Marketplace and need to act fast. Flip Vidya was created to solve these problems. By playing the game, you'll gain the knowledge to make quick, informed decisions, avoiding bad purchases and seizing profitable opportunities.

Current Features

• Streaks and Leaderboards: Track your progress with win streaks and see how you rank against other players on daily and all-time leaderboards.

• Time-Based Challenge: Each round gives you only 10 seconds to choose, ensuring quick thinking and fast decision-making.

• Real-Time Pricing: Our game pulls prices directly from PriceCharting, ensuring you have the most up-to-date information.

Play Now

To test out your video game knowledge head on over to FlipVidya.com and let’s see if you can beat my high score! If you have any feedback, please contact us here.

What’s To Come

The overall goal of this newsletter is to provide you guys with value that’s both beneficial and enjoyable. The tool we’ve launched today, Flip Vidya, is really the first release of hopefully many more to come. If you’re enjoying the newsletter and the resources we’re releasing, please read the section below where you can win prizes just for sharing Flip Weekly.

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!