Issue #37

This week is all about making bank from tanks. Yes, there’s money to be made with Thomas The Tank Engine. There’s also money to be made in retro tanks which you’ll see below. I’ve also got hundreds of dollars worth of sales this week, some pick ups that had people looking at me strangely plus a category of items to keep an eye out at garage sales (I had a 6,000% ROI in just 1 week). All that and more, but first!

In This Issue

• What I’ve Bought

• What I Sold

• Win a Free $200 Mystery Box

• Flip Weekly on Social Media

• 100% Free Resources to Help You

What I’ve Bought

Innocently sitting in the board game section of Salvos was this unopened Thomas & Friends battery operated train complete with tracks. I walked straight past it mentally noting it was there and thinking that sometimes Thomas The Tank Engine can fetch a bit of money. Luckily for me the rest of the Salvos was empty so I went back to it. I did what I usually do when I find something interesting: I took a photo and searched for it on Google Lens.

Nothing really came up. I didn’t think much of it but it was Tomy branded (read: a good brand) and from what I can tell it was factory sealed. I decided to search eBay Sold for “Tomy Thomas & Friends Battery Operated” and I started to see some interesting listings:

Wait so… James and Molly sold for $149.95 and $159.95 and I have Thomas? Thomas is the protagonist right? Is he worth more? Who are even James and Molly? They’re real… characters? I literally couldn’t find a single comp for Thomas in this packaging so I just have to go off these similar comps. I bought Thomas for $8 and I’m listing for $199.95 and hoping people will pay more for the main character. This is a category I’m going to pay a bit closer attention to in the future - we all know model train collectors pay big money, I just didn’t think it crossed over into Thomas & Friends because in my mind it’s just a children’s show. However, it makes sense, this is a battery operated train and tracks so why wouldn’t model train collectors buy it?

We’ve gotten lucky again with zero Google Lens comparisons and therefore an underpriced item. This is an arcade joystick device that is used with an Xbox 360 from a brand called HES. Basically plug it into the Xbox 360 video game console and instead of using a controller you can use the old school arcade controls. On the surface it could easily be mistaken for one of those cheap arcade systems that you plug into your modern TV and have access to 1001 games instantly however it actually lives up to its namesake of being an absolute tank. It’s casing is 100% steel, the thing weighs 3kg and the buttons and joystick feel extremely authentic and well made.

I’m grateful nothing showed up on Google Lens because if you instead do a search for “HES Arcade Stick“ there’s like 3-5 results where you can see a bit more about it. This YouTuber does an unboxing and also an old listing for this system can be found at The Gamesmen for $198 with 0 stock remaining.

Side-note: if you’re ever near Penshurst NSW, you 100% should stop in at The Gamesmen. It’s a huge retro and modern video game store that also has a “video game museum“ with some of the old school consoles and handhelds, it’s totally worth a visit.

So there’s no comps on eBay and only out of stock listings on gaming websites. I bought this for $25 and so I decide to list it up on eBay for $199.95 with free shipping. Within just a few hours I receive an offer of $150 which I turn down. An offer that quickly? It’s a good sign and the viewing numbers look promising after just 24 hours.

If you’re ever out in the wild and see an arcade / joystick machine, it’s worth checking out. I remember finding a Street Fighter arcade joystock game at a sale for just $10 which went on to sell for $100 relatively quickly.

Okay you’ve heard resellers talk about Barbie, you’ve heard Bratz, you’ve might have even come across Monster High, but have you heard about Lalaloopsy? Lalaloopsy is a line that has been getting discontinued and brought back for the past 10 years. Originally discontinued in 2016 and then came back (sort of) in 2021 and then went away again. That means we have a whole bunch of dolls that people were collecting and zero manufacturing going on. Basically the opposite of Funko Pops, yeah?

Let’s take a quick look at sell through rates for all of those listed above.

As you can see, despite being discontinued it’s still selling at a decent clip. In fact those 3 dolls I bought above for $6 should go on to sell for ten times that - $60. But that’s all moot, let me show you what to keep an eye out for. First is the logo and second is the eyes of the dolls.

The eyes basically look like buttons. They’re circles with a plus in the middle. If you see this, it means it’s a Lalaloopsy doll. Even if it’s from 2021, it’s still worth some money. But if it’s from the original series? That’s a payday. The good thing? They blend in with other plush and dolls.

This stroller has been the source of all misery this week. I picked it up last week for $10 and since then I’ve advertised it exclusively on Marketplace and have had tens of messages from people wanting to buy it. I’ve dealt with no-shows, ghosters, blockers and more. It got to the point where I decided screw it, I’m taking it off Marketplace and putting it on eBay.

The reason why I picked it up was because I’ve bought and sold vintage Baby Born before and there seems to be a market for it. So why not for the old strollers? Fortunately eBay comps for similar sort of stuff is quite good.

I’m guessing the reason I got inundated with messages on Marketplace was because I listed it for $50, hoping for a quick $10 into $50 flip when in reality people are willing to pay 4 times that. I’ve listed mine for sale on eBay for $199.95 and I’ve already turned down an offer for $130.00. It’s currently got 75 views and 3 watchers so I think putting it on eBay over Marketplace was a good idea.

What I Sold

On Friday I was contacted on Marketplace by somebody that was interested in buying the tank. If you’ve been selling on Marketplace for a while, you can just tell when the buyer is serious and in most cases the deal is closed within 2 or 3 messages. That’s exactly what happened with this item. I received the first message at 4:12pm and by 4:29pm the money was in my account - to be posted within my state.

I found a treasure trove of cheap items at garage sales in Issue #36 last week. One of those items was this Dyson head that was marked $1. Fortunately I had some spare coins and picked it up considering its sold in less than a week for what might be the greatest ROI I’ve ever had: 6,400%. The moral of the story here is that overlooked items like vacuum cleaner parts are worth picking up if they’re a great brand.

Adult shoes just don’t do it for me. Selling them doesn’t spark joy so this is the last pair I own and I think will sell. I’ve had this pair since March 24 and I picked them after watching The Aussie Flipper buy and sell adult shoes; he’s since gone on to abandon the category and I don’t blame him, they’re pretty boring. The weird thing about this sale is that they sold for $29.99 but are off to Israel with a shipping fee of $76.60 making this an order of over $100. I guess it was back when I estimated shipping costs very poorly as this shouldn’t cost $76 to ship.

What feels like forever ago, is Issue #25. In that issue I picked up this 28 Day Later Omnibus graphic novel for just $7.00. With the third film in the "28 Days Later" franchise scheduled to be released in 2025, it makes sense that this graphic novel sold. You can see I had a listed price of $150 however I accepted a best offer on Marketplace for $130. That means a $7 book turned into $130. Insanity!

In Issue #31 back in September I came across a huge tub full of old PlayStation 2 games and accessories. Each game and accessory was marked at $5 and thanks to Flip Vidya I was able to identify where the value lay. One of the valuable items was this transparent red controller that sells everyday for $50-$60. Compare that to the regular black Sony controllers which sell for $20-$30 you can see it’s worth picking up. Basically when it comes to video game controllers, anything different or unusual in colour is going to be worth more, providing they’re official Sony products, not cheap rip offs.

A few other items I sold this week:

Bit of a short one this week, I wasn’t able to get to garage sales on Saturday as it was my younger sisters birthday so I was travelling. This next week is looking good for sales plus on the 24th a new Savers location opens in my home state so I’ll be checking that out too - hopefully we snag a couple of unique items. Thanks again for reading and I’ll see you next week!

Mat.

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