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How To Use Celebrities For Free to Sell Big on eBay ($8 into $187)
Just mentioning Timothée Chalamet helped sell this $8 t-shirt for $187.
Issue #27
Welcome back guys, Mat here and I’m excited to show you what I’ve got for you for Issue #27 of Flip Weekly. We’ve got ultra quick sales, ten times returns and tips and tricks for you guys to take to the thrift stores and garage sales to hopefully help you make some money. As you can see from the Issue title, we’ve had a bit of help this week from Timothée Chalamet so read on and don’t forget to share Flip Weekly to any of your friends and family that are wanting to make a bit of extra cash.
In This Issue
What I’ve Bought
I spotted this Bundaberg Rum bottle holder as soon as I stepped foot inside Savers this week. He was a bit run down with what looks to be general wear and tear (lots of rum bottles being replaced) however he was marked at just $5.99.
He’s sporting a real goofy smile.
I’ve bought and sold this sort of bar merchandise before and it does really well on Facebook Marketplace, to the point where it’s gone before I even get a chance to measure up for eBay. If we take a look at eBay listings, we have 6 active Bundy Bear Bottle Holder listings with 9 sold which gives us a good sell through rate. Click here for a handy sell through rate calculator.
Honestly, check out the goofy, lovable face!
With a $75.00 sold listing, I should be safe to list on eBay for around $50 and I have high confidence it’s going to sell quickly. Just remember that if you pick something like this up, be careful with your advertising on eBay. Avoid showing the bottle holder with a full bottle of alcohol and you of course can’t combine the bear with a bottle of rum… unless of course you have a liquor license and are a pre-approved eBay alcohol seller. Note: the same can basically be said for Marketplace.
Within Savers, I came across this beauty, we have a AWA branded compact disc player for just $3.99, an awesome score providing it works.
Younger people may not even know what this is, right?
These CD players were prevalent all throughout schools in the early 2000’s - I remember my friends and I would all carry our own in our backpacks, complete with an anti-shock feature that was a game changer at the time. I had to laugh at my realization that in order to test I’d first need to obtain a CD and then a pair of headphones with the old style headphone jack - 2 things that I don’t have in my home. Luckily I was able to pick up both from Savers for a couple of bucks, remember always test.
If you see any sort of portable CD music player in the wild, I think it’s worthy of picking up particularly if it’s a name brand like Sony as they tend to hold their value and are high quality. If you take a look at Sold Listings for “Sony CD Walkman“ you can see a pattern emerge of sales hovering around the $80 mark, and for unusual colors and models they can go even higher into the 3 figures.
The cassette tape versions of these do even better by the way.
The player I picked up unfortunately was not a Sony Walkman but that didn’t stop me from listing it up on eBay and Marketplace for a good chunk of change. It went on to sell really quick, I’ve included the same price below.
As I was walking through the aisles I spotted this miniature cruise ship display with the words “Pacific Jewel“ on the wooden base with a $9.99 price tag.
Spotted 2 days after watching Titanic on Netflix. What does that mean?
Ironically the reason I stopped was to take a photo as I’ve been on this cruise ship back in 2017. When I lifted this up to take a closer look I was quite surprised at the build, it was extremely sold, appeared to be well made and it weighed close to a kilogram. Don’t fall overboard when I show you these Active and Sold Listings.
Active Listings range from $200 to $390.
2 recent Sold Listings from $130.
I could only find 3 Active Listings starting from $200 and 2 Sold Listings that were acquired on bid for around the $130 mark. Of the 3 Active Listings, we have 15 people in total watching. This is good enough for me, and for $9.99 with a potential selling price of $200 I decided why not?
I did some Googling and thought at first the reason the price was so high was because in 2019 Pacific Jewel was renamed Karnika therefore maybe it was bit more scarce and more collectible. I jumped back onto eBay and had a look at other P&O model cruise ships and it looks as if they all go for this sort of price.
Who would have thought?
So who is the buyer? It could be model collector of cruise ships (or any sort of transportation) but I think the correct answer would be former passengers that vacationed and didn’t get a memento at the time of their trip. The Cruise Lines International Association (down the rabbit hole!) put together a profile of the typical cruise vacationer back in 2008 and the two things that stand out to me are that:
They’re married couples over the age of 45
Have an average household income of around $90,000USD.
If we adjust that for inflation it’s a household income of approximately $130,000 which according to Pew Research puts them in the “upper income tier“. Basically the customer base is rich people.
Listed cheaper than some mops.
Take a look at this dope find at Savers, it’s one of those “smart“ automatic robots that mop the floor. I’ve never owned one of these before, or a Roomba, so I thought now is the perfect time. I saw the $19.99 price tag and had a feeling this thing either didn’t work or was missing parts, so I decided to open it up in-store. To my surprise, not only did it have all of the original parts and worked, but it was also pretty much brand new.
It came with 3 brand new samples of the different types of mops. Who knew there were different types of mops?
After looking through the contents I was quite confident that this thing was going to work so I picked it up. After getting home I pull it out again and can see now for certain that everything is there. I attempt to use it and it works!
Fully complete including the original warranty.
If we take a look at comps we can see that we’re definitely going to make money. The unit alone, completely untested sells consistently for around $60 and it goes up from there with pre-owned working units and brand new in box packages.
If only it was brand new and sealed.
I’m only $19.99 into this item so I decide to list it up for $149.95 with free shipping which I think is fair. If it sells for full price I’ll make around $90.00 in profit. If it never sells? I’ll never have to mop again (which is of course something I do often).
Attention: if you’re after mid-week content and want to see cool and unique items I pick up in the thrift that don’t make it onto the newsletter, follow Flip Weekly on Instagram.
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What I Sold
In last weeks issue of Flip Weekly I was lucky enough to spot this vintage Teletubbies beanie that was in great condition and had no Active or Sold Listings. I listed it on eBay for $59.95 with free shipping and Marketplace for $40.00 and it sold within a few days. As it was quite rare I could have potentially asked for more but looking at comps for old Teletubbies hats I thought it was a fair price.
$6 into $40.
The portable CD walkman that I bought from Savers barely lasted a day. It was listed on eBay for $49.95 with free shipping and Marketplace for $30.00 and it wasn’t long before someone snapped it up on Facebook. I love finding these nostalgia relics and to be honest this is the first time I’d ever come across one in a thrift store, they strike me more as garage sale gems.
$3.99 into $30.00
We have to go back to Issue #9 of Flip Weekly to see how I was able to score volume 1 through 10 of the Manga series Goblin Slayer. These sold for full price at $219.95 and left me after the cost of goods with a $142.45 profit.
$77.50 into $219.95.
In the first week of July I invited a mate of mine along to garage sales. The idea was to pick up some fast selling items in the morning and have them sold by the afternoon in order to pay for a night out for the two of us. I collected content, jotted down some notes and took photos throughout the morning however the piece never eventuated as the garage sales just weren’t that great. As we were making our way back there was a suggestion to hit up the local thrift and so we did and that’s when we came across this t-shirt.
This t-shirt was surprisingly light, like ultra light (in terms of weight)
It was priced at $8.00 and initially caught my eye because of the unusual Changes tag that I’ve never seen before. I checked the print and it was pretty cool Thundercats graphic so I’m looking closer and take a look at the stitching - it had the modern day double stitch. I’m in 2 minds here, maybe it’s a modern day t-shirt that has been imported from the US or something like that. Nevertheless it’s $8, we haven’t had much luck today and so we bring it home to inspect it further.
After a bit of research it turns out that this t-shirt design is pretty much exactly the same as a t-shirt that Timothée Chalamet wore in a movie called Bones And All.
Thanks Tim.
He’s basically wearing it for the first half of the movie.
Due to this very reason, I guess, the t-shirt is a hot commodity and something that fans want to have. I mean it makes sense. I can think of hundreds of times I’ve been browsing forums and communities when someone randomly asks “does anyone know where I can get that specific piece of clothing that that specific popular person is wearing?“ - looking back now it happens all the time.
This realization occurred when I saw 1 listing on eBay for this exact shirt.
Vintage Thundercats T Shirt Bones And All Timothee Chalamet
Awesome t shirt that was worn by Timothee Chalamet in the movie Bones and All. This is not his shirt but he wore one like it.
I mean why not take advantage of this fact? If you’ve spotted the shirt in a movie and you can connect it to a fandom that’s just smart marketing. Want to know how smart this persons marketing was?
That’s a sale price of roughly $330.00AUD.
Absolutely insane for a t-shirt right? We didn’t see that sort of result but I mean, can’t complain when you bought it for $8.00…
Shipped to the US for a total sale price of $187.20.
Call me The King of Autographed Books because they seem to always just fall into my lap. We have a signed copy of John Green’s tearjerker The Fault in our Stars which went on to sell full price at $49.95 + postage after it was purchased for just a few bucks. I’ve written extensively about looking for signed books so check out Past Issues here if you’re wanting to know how I’m able to find them.
$5 into $49.95.
This sale was perfect timing after talking last week about Disney Spirit Jersey’s. I took a best offer on this awesome Toy Story Pizza Planet Spirit Jersey of $70.00. I picked it up in Issue #14 for $10.
$10 into $70
When I came across the following set of DVD’s at last weeks garage sale I was 50/50 on whether or not to pick them up as Season 1 had a missing disc. I’m glad that I did because they were sold within 4 days for $90. If you ever see anything He-Man or Master of the Universe out in the wild, take a closer look.
The cost of goods for these DVD’s were in the single digits.
In Issue #24 I visited one of Australia’s biggest op shops called ADRA. On the way home I stopped at an indepdent thrift store that was having a sale on VHS tapes at just $0.50 a tape. I found these 3 Hercules VHS tapes and lotted them up for $34.95 + postage on eBay. They actually sold in just over 2 weeks for $29.00 + postage. Hercules and Xena on VHS should definitely be on your to-buy list.
$1.50 into $29.00.
More VHS!
Essentially free into $39.95.
It’s a running theme throughout Flip Weekly that I sell a sealed copy of a VHS each week and this week we have the classic Crocodile Dundee 2. This was from a repeat buyer which is cool and serves as a reminder to keep an eye out for sealed VHS.
Continuing on media…
$2 into $49.95.
I don’t spend too much time looking at DVD’s, they’re not something I love selling but I’m going to pass up on free money when you come across fast selling items. These 2 box sets of Sailor Moon were at a thrift store running a 50% off DVD sale so the total price I paid was just $2. They were listed on eBay on the 1st of August and sold on the 8th - super quick.
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