Issue #52

It’s been a busy week, I’d like to thank everyone who supported the launch of Flip Weekly’s Podcast (you can listen to this weeks episode) and to everyone who has entered the giveaway on Instagram. It was kindly pointed out to me that the end date for the giveaway was listed as the 30th of February which is incorrect. The correct end date will be the 25th of February and the winners announced on the podcast released on the 27th. If you haven’t entered yet, it’s completely free, jump on over to Instagram and you can win yourself 1 of 3 $50 Vinnies gift cards. But enough of that, let’s get into it.

In This Issue

• What I Bought

• What I Sold

• Reminder: Pack Your Items Securely Or This Will Ha …

• Win a Free $200 Mystery Box

• Podcast

• Social Media

• 100% Free Resources to Help You

What I Bought

You know when you can feel that someone or something is staring at you? When you’re out and about walking alone or sitting at home in the dark and you can feel a pair of eyes gazing into your soul? Or when you’re inside a Salvos thrift store on a random weekday and your sixth sense picks up on something.

That’s exactly what happened to me. This thing so desperately wanted to scream “take me to the water“ but without a pair of batteries it was as good as dead. I’m a suspicious person when it comes to situations like these in thrift stores and kept my receipt when I brought this ole’ fish home, one half expecting it to shrivel up and die, the other half expecting nothing once batteries were put in.

I put a couple of batteries into this little fella and experienced what one can only call poetic justice. Yes! It works. No! It works. In the throes of modern day society, with the cost of living at an all time high, temperatures rising and rents surpassing wages, imagine a mid-sized bass from the early 90’s looking you directly in the eyes and telling you to don’t worry, be happy. Not just once, no, every time you walk past it triggering the sensor which miraculously still works. As the reader of Flip Weekly you know that these patience testers sell fast and sell for hundreds so when it patronizingly sings “take me to the water“ you have to resist the urge to punt this thing across North Sydney to the Harbour.

Moving on to something that had the opposite effect than the fish.

I don’t know how this slipped through the thrift store cracks. This is very similar to a Polly Pocket playset. Think action figures and a playset but in miniature version. It’s a Beauty and the Beast set from 1995 where it’s sold in a sort of clamshell and you open it up and interact with it with the 2 mini figures, in this case the chick from Beauty and the Beast and the Beast. I didn’t even hesitate to buy it. Why?

• Anything small and in this clamshell with pop culture is mimicking the popularity of Polly Pocket.

• I looked on the back and could see that it was from 1995. One of the first things I check for. The modern day ones aren’t worth as much.

• It was just $3. A 90’s toy for just $3? Easy.

But you know what the most important thing was?

It came with the 2 micro figures.

This thing is almost as old as me. Think of how many kids have played with this. This isn’t a regular toy, it’s a mini version. What do you think happens to the micro figures? They get lost, they get misplaced… to be honest they probably get eaten. If you find something like this in the wild, always look for the figures, they are worth a lot more than just the case.

There’s very few listings of this available in Australia, but you can see the difference just in these 2 active listings:

The mini figures are so rare that you can chuck up a listing just for them if you find ‘em in the wild.

I’ve actually found something similar in the wild before, the dude version of the above. It was a 1996 Micro Machines set of the Riddler. I didn’t pick it up because it was just the head aka playset, no figures. Look at the difference here:

The lesson here is that if you find one of these clamshell Polly Pocket type things in the wild, give it a shake, check for accessories and don’t be afraid to leave it behind. Back to my Beauty and the Beast one real quick, I listed it for $99.95 on eBay and $80 on Marketplace, let’s see how it goes.

You’ll have your tinfoil hat handy after the first item in this Issue so lets put it back on real quick.

I see a VCR / DVD combo in a thrift store with just a power cord, no other cables, but with a tick next to Working, you know what I see? A product that hasn’t been fully tested. I see a “Yep, it has power“ test and then put on the floor. Cynical, yes, but for good reason, it’s happened to me before. To fully test out a player like this, you need to actually plug it into a TV and whack in a DVD and a VHS and test out all of the controls. Not doing so is a good way to get a return or negative feedback on eBay when the buyer finds out they can’t fast forward through Cheer Up Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Nevertheless, once getting this hefty unit home I was able to test it out and everything appeared to be working. I had a spare RCA cable so I was able to chuck it in with the player just so that it removes a hurdle from a person clicking that Buy Now button.

If you remember Flip Weekly’s wrap up of the biggest flips for the year 2024, you’ll know that #9 was something very similar to this, it was also a Panasonic DVD/VCR combo but it was a different model and had a remote. It was sold for $199.95 so you know these things are worth decent money. Let’s take a look at similar comps for this model.

The above was the only active listing for this model so it’s what I was basing my pricing off. My thought process was that I wanted to sell mine faster so I’d price it lower than the only other active listing. I wanted it to look more appealing so I decided on $169.95 with free postage. Now look, I could have listed for the exact same amount and it most likely would sell, it would just take longer as the one with the remote + instructions is obviously more appealing. However, $169.95, minus the $30 cost of goods and the $20 it would cost to ship and the eBay fees, still nets me a very solid $92 profit. It’s aggressive pricing but I think it will pay off fast.

I put this up there as one of my favorite finds of all time. We have the classic, indestructible, greatest of all time cell phone from the early 2000’s, the Nokia 3315. If you didn’t own one, than someone you knew definitely did. This phone was everywhere back in the day, the iconic red was the default however the cool thing about these phones was that you could switch out the shell casing to something a bit more personalized. Your favorite band, your favorite sports team, pictures of your friends… it was really simple to snap off the case and replace it which is what pretty much everyone did.

The popularity rose because of this feature, plus they had a killer Snake game and were damn near indestructible. To the point where you can Google Image Search Nokia 3315 (or 3310) and see some people try and make funny memes about it.

To tell you the truth, I’ve actually wanted to buy a Nokia 3315 myself, but I’d want it factory sealed. Because of this, I was somewhat familiar with what these were selling for on eBay. I’ve never come across a factory sealed Nokia 3315, mostly loose and a few in box but missing inserts.

This is an item where the pricing is a bit all over the shop, but based off of the above, I genuinely think that a loose red default Nokia 3315 that’s working could be listed for $99.95 and sell, and my version, complete in box, $149.95. My main reasoning behind these prices besides the comps is that’s what I would personally be okay paying as a collector. There aren’t many on the market working, even less in the original box, and with the 3315 being a variant of the more popular 3310, which sold over 126,000,000 units worldwide, it’s the perfect price.

Whilst I was looking at these older phones, I looked up a few of the other ones I had as a kid just to see if they had any value.

Overall it looks like there’s some value in the older mobile phones, the more popular ones. I had a look on eBay for a few other less popular phones I had, like the Siemens C60 and there were no active or sold listings. So with all of that said, if I was to find an old mobile phone at a garage sale in the future would I pick it up? 100%… providing it works.

In Issue #51 you learnt about the eclectic Australian brand Mambo after I found a $22 t-shirt in the thrift that went on to list for $160. The t-shirts are art on fabric, and with this find, it’s art on a skateboard. I found this really sick mini skateboard in a Savers on the way back from family on the weekend - it was only $3.99 but if you check out comps on eBay, it looks really promising. There’s only 1 sale and 1 active listing:

If we split the difference between the 2 we get $150 so I decided to list just under the average for $129.95. $3.99 into $129.95 is the kind of sale I want to make. I could aim for the full $215 but the condition of the board is… suspect and I like to get the bigger items out the door. Here’s your tip to always check out the graphic on skateboards, some are rarer and more sought after than others and it’s worth a lookup.

Why would I do this to myself? A puzzle? Really? And it's open? Am I okay? Have I learnt nothing? Apparently not. I begrudgingly bought this $6 Redheads Jigsaw from a thrift store and walked out muttering under my breath like Joe Pesci in Home Alone. What was the appeal? It must have been amazing to purchase one of these things. Let me tell you, there were no sold comps. All I could see was a single active listing.

I completely understand that you can ask for whatever you want on eBay. I mean, this seller could have asked for $1,000 or more. I get that. 4 people decided to watch the listing. It sort of sparked something, I remember back to when I sold the matchbooks and received a ton of attention and I started to think that maybe this being Redheads it might just be a collectible someone would want?

As somebody who (sort of) collects I also thought that if this thing was missing a piece or two it wouldn't really matter. I think the appeal of this product is the giant matchbook that resembles the popular brand of matches.

Luckily I wasn't relying on a complete puzzle because after slogging away for a few hours late on a weeknight, this was the end result.

If you’re wondering why I didn’t just count the pieces, I did, there were more than 150 and it was impossible to tell which did or didn’t belong. The only way to confirm was to do the puzzle. What I’ve ended up doing is put the puzzle up on eBay for $99.95 just to see what happens. Funnily enough it’s already had 13 views and 2 watchers so who knows how this goes.

I also picked up this mug. Yeah, cool mug. I’ve talked a lot about knowing the history of logos so I wont bore you. Basically I recognised the NRL sporting team, I recognised the ARL logo which is the pre-NRL logo. Essentially it means this is old sporting memorabilia which is highly collectible. The mug was only $2 so I thought why not, let’s shoot for $2 into $50.

What I Sold

Thankfully the first item sold in just 3 hours which was not enough time for me to lose the most important pieces.

This was a Marketplace winner! It still confuses me with what goes well on Facebook and what goes well on eBay but nevertheless, the Beauty & The Beast little playset thing has sold within 3 hours for $80. $3 into $80. The key detail here is that we’re able to mark it as “Complete” thanks to the 2 minifigures being included in the sale. Without those, this might sit for weeks, or months.

The aggressive pricing paid off, this combo went on to sell for full price less than 48 hours later. $30 into $169.95 - if you get these things, make sure you test them out before selling and if they work, enjoy the quick payday.

Speaking of Mambo, in last weeks Issue I showed you this Mambo Loud T-shirt that I found in a Lifeline op shop for $22. The pricing in Lifeline I’ve found to be higher than other op shops however I know that Salvos keep an eye out for these exact t-shirts and sell them online so I guess Lifeline either hasn’t caught on or it slipped through the cracks. Either way, it’s gone on to sell for $159.95. After fees and post I should make a tidy $100 profit.

It’s always the pick-ups you least suspect that get the most attention. I was surprised with the amount of interest that this mug of all things received. After somebody messaged saying they wanted to pick up, I checked the Insights and could see a ton of views, saves and even shares. Somebody drove 45 minutes on Sunday evening to pick this mug up. What more can I say?

Reminder: Pack Your Items Securely Or This Will Happen

Throwback to Issue #50. I had just sold 2 Star Wars polyresin helmet statues for $99.95 each plus post to the same buyer. Total order value was $266. It was good sale, I had picked them up just over 2 weeks earlier for $60 so it was going to net me $150 in profit and it could have been more if I didn’t price them for a quick sale.

These things couldn’t fit into a regular size Australia Post box so I decided to go out to the local hardware store and buy some heavy duty moving boxes. They fit almost perfectly inside the box so I stuffed in as much butchers paper as I could above, below and on the sides to protect them in transit. Due to the size and weight of the boxes I honestly didn’t think they’d be thrown around. In hindsight, I should have used some bubble wrap. I can’t remember exactly why I didn’t, maybe I had none left.

Anyway, the statues arrived at the buyers place and it looked like they took a lightsaber to the head.

In this situation I’m 100% in the wrong and the only recourse is to issue a full refund, all $266 and cop any negative feedback. This could have been easily avoided just by picking up some bubble wrap and making sure the helmets were protected if the boxes got shaken up. It’s a $266 lesson (really $326 including the $60 cost of goods) so make sure you don’t repeat my mistake.

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