Issue #18

First and foremost, I want everyone to take part in this week poll. The poll is in the What I’ve Bought section so read on below. Besides that, we have some huge pick-ups and sales ($8 into $200 within 6 hours!), the reincarnation of an old friend, and lots more. It’s a shorter one this week as I’m moving house, but you don’t want to miss this.

Table of Contents

• What I’ve Bought

• What I Sold

• Resources & Friends

• What’s To Come

• Your Journey to a Free $200 Mystery Box

What I’ve Bought

My worst fears have come true. In Issue #15 I found a creepy looking Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist doll at a garage sale. I paid $20.00 and sold him 2 and a half hours later for $120.00 and thought I had seen the last of him. I was wrong. This week Charlie has reincarnated.

He’s been reincarnated into a little boy puppet who made his way home with me from the thrift store. This puppet has less moving puppets than Charlie, he doesn’t have strings or any plastic, it’s purely sticking your hand up the back and making the mouth move. After successfully selling Charlie for a profit I decided to take a gamble and bring the evil back into my house again. He’s listed at $89.95 on eBay and $50 on Marketplace - decent margins for a $10 purchase. No buyer yet, but the listings are seeing plenty of action.

It must have been my lucky day - what do you spot here in the puzzle / board game section?

I’m referring to Tomb Raider (3rd from the left on the top shelf). It’s a big box PC game, they’re very collectible and I’ve been lucky enough to buy and sell them in the past. I’m guessing the thrift store staff mistook it for a board game which is why I’m always checking every square foot of the store, you never know what has been misplaced.

For this particular game if you only have the case and disc, it's close to being completely worthless however having the original big box display box brings its value up to the $50+ mark.

I have mine listed on eBay for $59.95 which I think is a fair price and it’s already gotten a fair bit of interest. This is my 5th big box PC find from a thrift store, I’m not sure why I’ve gotten so lucky with them, each one I’ve bought have gone on to sell for between $50-$100 including a sealed Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone which is really cool. If I was to give you guys defining features and characteristics of a big box PC game to help spot, I’d say:

1. They’re video games, so expect video game looking graphics.

2. They’re thick cardboard boxes, not plastic.

3. The back would usually feature screenshots of the game and descriptions.

4. As they’re PC games, they’ll have System Requirements printed on the box.

5. Size-wise, we’re talking bigger than your standard DVD. This box measured 24.5cm x 19cm x 5cm.

Who’s ready for a hit of nostalgia?

For anyone unfamiliar, these are Yowie toys that came inside of a Cadbury chocolate egg. The first original series launched back in 1997 and as soon as I saw the desert mouse, I had a ton of memories come flooding back and I just had to pick them up. They’re not the most valuable thing around, I’ve listed these for $25.00 on eBay and $20.00 on Marketplace however if you find a set out in the wild and they come complete with their little info sheets you can actually sell them for a few hundred dollars.

It wouldn’t be a Flip Weekly newsletter without an awesome book pick-up and this week I have two. The first I was really excited for and this may seem morbid, but it was because the author has sadly passed away.

The signed books I usually buy are from people who are still with us, so this is a new one for me. Olivia passed away in August 2022 and is still beloved by people all around the world with signed posters and other merchandise selling for thousands of dollars. I’m excited to see what this $8.00 book sells for.

The other book is more of a gamble but still exists me and let me tell you why:

The book is called SAS A Pictorial History of the Australian Special Air Service 1957 - 1997 and is edited by a man named Michael J Malone who holds an OAM which is an Order of Australia.

I picked this book up just due to sheer interest and was surprised to see that not only was it signed by the editor, but it was also quite a rare book. If you’re unable to read the copy inside the book, this is what it says:

Whilst this copy isn’t LEATHER BOUND IN WEST AUSTRALIAN EMU HIDE, it is 1 of 1500 and signed by the editor. If I take a look at comps, there is nothing on eBay however there are copies of the book on websites like Antiquarian Bookseller and Books on War Australia where they range from $125.00 all the way up to $250.00+. The thing I’m most intrigued by is that it was once put to auction by Sydney Rare Book Auctions with an estimate of $50 - $70 and that was unsigned. This company is quite close to me so I’m tempted to get in contact with them and see if they’d be interested in auctioning it of. I paid $10 so even after their fee I’m sure to make a profit. I just like the idea of having a thrift store find of mine hit an auction house that isn’t eBay for a bit of fun! Do you think I should?

What I Sold

In Issue #16 I visited a community sale and was lucky enough to find a Happy Family for only $2. A week later its done some massive numbers on Facebook Marketplace.

I’ve known for a while that knockoff and replicas can do well, but I honestly wasn’t expecting 1,000 clicks, 32 saves and countless messages, especially when it was near impossible to find anything about it. The last time I talked about it, here’s what I had to say:

Since then, I learnt a tiny bit more. Here’s how I marketed the item:

It’s now go on to sell for full price to a Barbie collector. Here’s your reminder that old toy knockoffs can still be valuable.

For those that like selling DVD’s, here is one to keep an eye out for:

The movie is called Breakdance 2: Electric Boogaloo and I picked it up in the thrift for $1 on June 8th and it’s gone on to sell for $20.00 + postage on the 11th of June - a 3 day turnaround time. I don’t know if this movie started the meme of every sequel being a variation of Electric Boogaloo but it’s what stood out to me.

The next item sold was something I picked up back in February for $6 total and has gone on to sell for $35.00 + postage.

The most annoying thing about these plush toys are that they had a lot of views and watchers just no bites. As I mentioned, they were $3 each and I started them around the $70.00 mark because of comps at the time. Over the next few months I slowly dropped the price hoping that one of the many watchers would snap them up and get them out of my hair but it took 4 months. Bit of a contrast of turnaround time considering the item above and what I’m about to post below.

This book may be one of my fastest selling items of all time. Here are the numbers:

Listed: Jun 08, 2024 08:14:00 PM AEST

Sold: Jun 09, 2024 02:22 AM AEST

Time it took to sell: 6 hours and 8 minutes.

I listed this book at 8pm for $250.00 which was a fraction cheaper than the few comps I could find. I received my first offer at (I kid you not) 8:59pm for $190.00. I actually took a screenshot of the offer which you can see below with the time. I was so very tempted to accept the offer just because it would have been a sale within an hour which is crazy but I rejected it thinking well let’s see what else comes in.

Eventually as the night went on the book received plenty of interest both in terms of watchers and viewers and I sent off a best offer for $200.00 to several people. At 2:22am, the book sold and was sent off to the United States. An $8 book selling for $200 all within a day? Pretty damn good if you ask me.

Resources & Friends

This week I want to take a moment to plug one of my own projects which I talked to you guys about last week. It’s called Flip Vidya and it is the best way to memorize video game prices for when you’re on the hunt at garage sales and thrift stores. The reason it’s the best way to memorize video game prices is because we use the power of flash cards in a game like setting.

Since launching last week we’ve had hundreds of people visit the site and give it a crack (no-one has beat my high score just yet) so if you’re looking for something that is fun yet has the chance to both make and save you money, check out Flip Vidya and I’d be extremely grateful if you could share the website with your friends and family.

What’s To Come

This week and next weeks newsletter may be a bit shorter than usual as I’m currently in the process of moving. With that said, in the upcoming weeks I’m looking to add to Flip Weekly’s Ultimate List of YouTube Reseller Channels by having in-depth interviews with each reseller. If you’re a YouTube Reseller and want to take part, please hit me up here.

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!