Issue #73

What’s up guys, it’s Mat and you’re in for a doozy. This week I got triggered by the entitlement of a senior citizen, went way out of my comfort zone with womens clothes and makeup (I couldn’t believe it either) plus drill into you items you need to be picking up in the thrift. All that and more, but first if you’re not listening to the podcast, please do, the thrift Gods will reward you.

What I Bought

The dilemma I had this week when I came across this first item. I’m reminded of the irresistible force paradox “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?“ but in my case it’s “What happens when Mat comes across an ultra rare, high value item but… it’s a goddamn puzzle.“

That’s right, a set of puzzles. These aren’t your ordinary puzzles, no, these are beaten up, dirty, tin can looking things from the 80’s that I guarantee will sell quickly.

I know what you’re thinking, Footrot Flat, the comic book that if you find all 27 issues can sell for over $1,000 also made puzzles? They did, and they sold them in baked bean tin can looking things. Neither were in the best condition, the one on the left was caked in dirt and the one on the right had the lid cave in, but both seemed to be fully sealed. Later on I would find a 3rd at the back of the shelf which was in even worse condition which I’ll show you in a second.

These puzzles were priced at $5.99 each at a Savers location and we had not a single Active Listing on eBay. That’s okay, let’s check out the Sold Listings.

We had 6 that had been sold, most on bid and the latest had 32 bids and sold for over $100. Despite the ones I found in the thrift not being in perfect condition, I figure they will still sell for a lot of money. Before I tell you my plan, let’s take a look at the condition of Puzzle 2 & 3 knowing that Puzzle 1 was brand new and sealed and the dirt came off.

As you can see, they’re treated like paint cans in a garage. Bottom caved in on one, roof caved in on another… however, puzzle pieces inside untouched. So what do we do? Lot them all up as one? No.

I’ll be starting with the fully sealed jigsaw puzzle and a Buy It Now price of $200. From what’s available with eBay data, none have sold for that amount but there’s no Active Listings and with the last one receiving a lot of bids and a sale price just over $100, we can take a shot. To avoid flooding the market, I’ll then list the next 2 together and we’ll do it as an auction, just for the fun of it. I truly do believe that the 1st will sell for $200, or at least close to it, and so it’s all profit anyway.

The most difficult question though would be if I found these open would I have bought them? They’re 500 piece jigsaw puzzles, do we really want to count 500 pieces only to come up 1 short… again… I mean would you? I’ll let you know how we go with the 1st puzzle and then with the auction afterwards.

Moving on, I’ve branched out to something that I never thought I’d be selling.

I’ve been seeing a reseller named Heather on Instagram having really good success with makeup and skincare related products found in American Goodwill grab bags and thought I’d try myself here in Australia. The problem, I’m a middle aged straight white dude, I know nothing about makeup. The one thing I do know though is packaging and branding and this Il Makiage box inside a $8.49 grab bag caught my eye. It’s a foundation called “Woke Up Like This“ which if the end result is anything what I look like as soon as I wake up…

It might seem a bit risky, going outside your regular niche and picking up a product you know nothing about, but to be honest the only real risk was if the bottle was half empty. Why? We lower our risk by checking out if this thing sells on eBay and if so how much and what’s the sell through rate. Well, the bottle sells as high as $74.00 and the sell through rate is 184%. That’s good, like… really good. For comparison the Nintendo 64 Console, something every video game reseller on social media wants to find has a 86.79% sell through rate. This make up is double.

I still know nothing about the brand, the makeup, what foundation does or is, but if I’m able to turn $8 into $70, than who cares. It’s a reminder that there’s money to be made in every category.

By the way, these grab bags are filled with the most random, useless products. Why are they putting a new foundation bottle in the same bag as an empty tin, a fidget popper toy and a pair of tiny scissors? Weird.

I couldn’t pass up this Facebook Marketplace deal because it’s a good lesson for you. $5 for a 2nd generation iPod Shuffle from just up the street. You can usually find these cheap on Marketplace however in most cases they’re missing both the charger and earphones. With Apple constantly tweaking their product designs, regular earphone cables do not fit into these older iPod’s so sellers have no idea if the item works therefore the selling price is low.

I know we all like to complain about planned obsolescence with these big consumer tech companies but the earlier products, especially the iPods are reliable and battle hardened. Remember, Apple’s marketing back in the day was summed up regularly as “It just works“ so I wasn’t hesitant to pull out some gold coins. What do you know, it works fine, no issues whatsoever.

You might be contemplating immediately listing it up by itself as TESTED but slow down, we want to pair it at least with a charger so it appeals to a buyer. In the examples shown above, the sellers have paired the iPods with a dock charger, basically something you sit the iPod into for it to charge. This isn’t anything special, you can buy most cables on websites like Aliexpress (or even eBay themselves, but with a markup) for just a few bucks.

You can chuck in a buck or two for the cable and have it arrive from China. You’ll just need to practice something that many people no longer have: patience. Once it arrives, make sure the cables work, list it on eBay and you’re ready to turn your $7 iPod into $50 or more.

Note: when buying cables, do the tiniest bit of research and look for the specific cable type. A lot of sellers put a premium on items if it’s listed as what it does versus what it is, for example “iPod Shuffle 2nd Generation Charger“ instead of its proper name “USB to 3.5mm Cable“. They do this because these listings are generally visited by less informed consumers who are more likely to pay more for a specific use cable.

I paid up for these next two items but wait until you see what I'll profit.

These are brand new and sealed video games and accessories found in the board games section. At this particular thrift store this sort of stuff is placed inside and marked up, so I was surprised to see it out the back near an exit. Given that I was expecting to see a $5 price tag but one was $35, the other $20. Crazy high for me considering I want to turn $1 into $100 but I got intrigued when I saw both of these were brand new and sealed. Let’s take a look at comps.

For the first:

For the second:

When I’m doing my price comparisons, I want to check out Active Listings, Sold Listings, Active and Sold within Australia, and then Google to see if it’s available outside of eBay.

Once I finished doing that I was able to list the items up and here’s where I landed:

Total cost of goods sits at $55 and total profit looks to be approximately $135.86. Like I said, not the margins I usually like to work with but given the sell through for video games is quite high, I shouldn’t be sitting on this for too long. A reminder to you that there’s a huge difference between opened/pre-owned and new and sealed.

It wouldn’t be Flip Weekly without a VCR flip. I found this Sony player in Savers for $14.99. It didn’t come with any RCA/AV cables which made me hesitant to purchase considering the thrift testing would just be “does this turn on“ but I bought it anyway. I brought it home and gave it a test and it worked without any problems. With no Active or Sold Listings I whacked it up for $100 + postage (this unit was significantly larger than others I’ve sold so postage would be Russian Roulette for $150 with free shipping) and given the brand it should sell fast.

Given it didn’t come with the RCA/AV cables I was going to buy them on eBay or Amazon to sell it as “COMES WITH ALL CABLES“ but then I realized… I come across these all the time at the thrift. For the first time in forever, Vinnies came in handy in their junk section. $4 for “14K Gold Plated Audio Cables“. Funnily enough they work perfectly and should help me sell this $15 unit for $100. Have I drilled into you enough that you should be buying VHS players or do I have to mention that every week?

Are you getting sick of Pokemon content?

The one above, brand new and sealed. The one below, open. Both priced the same.

Placed alongside board games and jigsaw puzzles we have these two Pokemon items. From afar I could tell one was sealed and the spine didn’t look like anything I had seen before so I was excited. I took them both down and could see what appeared to be two giant Pokemon Pokedexes. For those unfamiliar, a Pokedex is a device used within the Pokemon universe to identify Pokemon. I really had no idea what they were until I read the text on the front of the sealed item:

This is basically episodes of Pokemon in a cool hardcover case. That’s really all it is. With 18 discs in one, and 22 in the other, common sense told me these would be worth more than $15 each, especially with one sealed and the fact this came out in 2011.

In very recent Issues of Flip Weekly I’ve told you about the dinosaur category, specifically Jurassic World and Jurassic Park. This week I was lucky enough to stumble upon a dinosaur hand puppet, specifically the raptor named Blue from the Jurassic World franchise. I’m assuming these hand puppets were made for kids because it was a struggle to get my hand in and out of this thing. Your arm goes in to the “Rangers Protective Glove“ and it looks like you’re holding baby Blue.

There’s a sort of joystick/trigger system inside which operates the eyes, mouth and neck and with a battery pack installed, it also makes noises and sound effects. It’s an awesome pick up for $7.99 because the sell through rate on this is at 163% and the comps are really, really good.

A reminder that if you don’t understand sell through rate, check out my article on it here - it’s essential to know and understand if you plan on reselling items.

If you saw a creepy looking old man looking through what I thought was either the women’s, kids or dress up rack at a Salvos lately, don’t worry, it’s just me. This one isn’t as foreign to me as makeup, but I was still proud of the find. We have both the bomber jacket and leggings for a Kill Bill Uma Thurman cosplay.

I’ve talked about cosplay items before in Issue #43. These sort of hobbyist, fandom type areas always tend to command high prices, just take a look.

That’s an insane amount of money for what’s essentially a faux leather jacket and really cheap leggings. They’re cheap leggings because unfortunately they have a hole in them and I’m unable and unwilling to try and fix them. I haven’t picked up a needle and thread since the few weeks we had a sewing class in school where I’m 99% sure I failed at making something as simple as a pillow.

Regardless, this find, which will be listed up for around the $100 - $150 mark, has piqued my interest in the costume section of thrift stores. I think next visit I’ll be seeing what’s on offer. Sure, 90% of the time I’ll find tatty, worthless superhero costumes, but if we can score something like this it will be 100% worth it.

What I Sold

Sad to see this go, we have a Nokia 3315 complete in box. When I was in high school everyone had one of these before moving onto the sleek Motorola Razr V3. The Nokia 3315 (or 3310 for less cool people) was an introductory phone that I think younger people liked because you could change out the case to reflect your personality. The phone was virtually indestructible and I didn’t hesitate to pick it up for $25 when I found it in Issue #52.

Wait a second… am I really going to dive deep into the makeup category? We’ve turned $8 into $70 in just 3 days and this foundation is so small that it’s not going to be an issue to ship. Does all makeup sell like this? Did I just get lucky and find one piece of makeup that sells quick? If you have any insights into this category whatsoever, hit me up.

Whenever you’re buying a model kit, unless it’s brand new and sealed you need to open it up. I don’t care if there’s “DO NOT OPEN“ stickers on it, you don’t have my permission to spend your money on something unless you can prove that either 1) every single piece is inside or 2) the pieces are still in their plastic.

Trust me, you do not want to buy a model kit that has its pieces opened. How on Earth are you going to verify it’s complete? You’ll have to sell it with a giant question mark over the top and I’ll let you in on a secret, most buyers hate question marks. So the only time you can purchase a model kit is:

1. Brand new and sealed.

2. Box has been opened but the contents inside are sealed.

For this buy of a Zoids Sea Striker, the box was opened but the contents were sealed. $4 into $59.95 and it’s off to the USA with the total sale price being just below $100.

Sold in less than 48 hours for full price. I actually received a $50 offer from someone only a few hours after this went live and it triggered something within me and we sort of got into a little eBay fight. Read on to Secondhand Opinions for the full screenshots and context.

Off to the UK within 3 weeks and we turned $12 into $100, exactly what we aim for. The most annoying thing about this item was that it exceeded the width of the standard Australia Post boxes. What do you do when that happens? You have to either find a box, or make your own box. Moving boxes become your best friend, you can usually find them at storage places or your local timber and hardware. Be prepared to cut, tape and use your arms and legs - the end result is what resellers call… a Frankenbox.

Can someone please check on the health of Rod Laver? I’m pretty sure the dudes almost 100 and after what happened with Magda Szubanski I’m a bit worried.

This is a British television show that you want to find in a thrift store or garage sale.

The show debuted in 2017 and it doesn’t matter what season you get, you’re going to sell it for upwards of $50. Just looking at Sold Comps again, we have Season 10 selling for $79.95, Season 9 Volume 2 selling for $74.95 (not even the full series) and there’s no active or sold listings that is the complete set. Mentally bookmark the title and if you find it in the wild, tag us because this is a DVD set you could easily make $500-$1,000 from.

Bob The Builder is sort of like Thomas the Tank Engine in terms of value, just less known. Just like Thomas, Bob has the toys, merchandise, manchester, all sorts of merchandise that can sell well. The diecast cars sell high:

As do the playsets:

And seeing as this stuff isn’t getting made anymore, it’s worth picking up if you see it in the wild. I found the talking phone for just $3 and it had a high sell through rate and consistently sold for $50 so I thought why not?

Secondhand Opinions

The concept is simple, we’ll throw up a controversial, or at least spicy reselling topic, I’ll present my argument whether it’s poorly thought out or not and you’ll provide your own.

Last week I asked you “Should thrift stores be responsible for checking if items are fake?” and here are the results:

Most seem to think that thrift stores should be responsible for checking if items are fake. It makes sense, you’re selling and making money from the item, why should you be allowed to put on a blindfold and be ignorant? Especially if there’s doubts. Us as resellers would never put an item up for sale if we had an inkling it was fake, yet thrift stores who like to charge as much as eBay can? I’m glad we all seem to agree.

This weeks topic is: Should you give discounts to eBay users who claim to be disabled, on welfare, a senior or pensioner?

I don’t know if its because I grew up with a single mum who had to rely on handouts for a period of time, that now as an adult I would do everything possible avoid handouts. We live in a world that’s increasingly more difficult to not only get ahead, but to survive on a day to day basis. If you’re selling on eBay, it might be because it’s your main source of income, you’re selling items around the house to pay bills or you started a side hustle to help offset the cost of living.

But what happens when someone comes along, sees one of your items, asks for a discount and states their case. I’ll give you an example.

This week I sold a Sony VHS player. Within a few hours of the item being listed I received the following message.

Look, I make charitable contributions, I empty out my wallet if I’m approached in public asking for a handout, but something doesn’t sit right with me when I receive a message like this. eBay user John has sent through a message offering $50 for a $119.95 item with a poorly written message insinuating that he’s disabled, a pensioner, and a poor decision maker.

I don’t agree with this sort of charity, especially when I looked on his profile and see he is selling items worth over $10,000.

The entitlement triggered something in me and I replied with something I maybe shouldn’t have. It is the truth though, I’m selling a VHS player, I’m not offering food or a place to sleep, your health problems are irrelevant. I have these sort of conversations with friends all the time who are in customer facing roles - they’re abused on the phones and behind the counter, constantly demeaned and forced to be friendly and politically correct because “the customer is always right“. No, I refuse with the niceties when it comes to entitlement.

As you can see, it’s quite late at night and I might have been under the influence, but the point still stands. I’m of the generation where university degrees don’t guarantee jobs, an income doesn’t guarantee a roof over your head, the basic cost of living is ten times worse than it was ten years ago and the future, some may describe, is bleak. Can you get a VHS player with a $70 discount with a sob story? No, but you can get a response from someone with a “bad attitude“.

Finally, I asked a friend who is in customer service what they would want to say if given the opportunity to be unfiltered. I copy and pasted the reply.

But anyway, I pose the question to you:

What do you think?

You can vote, you can email in, submit a form on the website or even get in touch via social media with your own thoughts.

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