True Story Thrift Store Flips


thrift store flip

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make money selling used items

Have you done any daydreaming about making money with thrift store flips? I used to. Full disclosure, I love shopping at thrift stores.  I love the thrill of finding a sweet deal on a name brand clothes, or housewares.  Whatever it is I was finding a good deal on, I have no qualms about buying second hand.  I figure if I am saving money, I don’t want to buy new too often. Recently was chatting with my friend Candi.  She was so excited telling me about her newly acquired skills!  Let’s hear what she’s shared cause well, cha ching, you’re going to love these!  

True Story Thrift Store Flips

~ Here’s Candi’s story ~

It wasn’t until a couple of years ago though that I thought about buying this stuff for the sole purpose of reselling it and for a while that’s all it was, just thinking about it.  Then I started doing it and I’ve got to say, I love it!!

Yes, I have had some flops in my buying and selling game, but I have had some pretty big wins too.  I am going to share some of those wins with you here:

Oak dining room table.  I found an oak dining room pedestal table at Goodwill recently for a whopping $2.99, yes that is 2 dollars and 99 cents.  The thrift gods only know why it was so cheap, It seems that my local Goodwill likes to sell their furniture for rock bottom prices lately.  Anyway, I scooped it up the minute I saw it and loaded it into my vehicle (that took some doing). I couldn’ve re-finished it and probably put it up for sale for a couple of hundred dollars, but instead I took pictures of it as is and put it up for sale on OfferUp for $60.  Within an hour I had an offer of $50 and took it. ONE HOUR!  That’s right, I made over 1600% profit on this flip. Although it is not huge on a monetary scale, it is a huge percentage. It doesn’t take many of those and you can start earning some really good money.

make money selling thrift store stuff

 

$1 Silver Jeans.  Okay, this one might not count as it wasn’t a thrift shop, but while shopping at a yard sale one day I spotted a super cute pair of silver jeans on the $1 clothing table.  I grabbed those and took them home and put them up for sale on Ebay. Mind you, this was a couple of years ago, so Silver jeans was a little hotter in style, but I was able to sell them for $35.  Another huge profit day!

 

Generator.  A while back we were shopping at a little mom and pop thrift shop store and spotted a generator priced at $35.  The shop owner said they had bought it at a storage auction, but could never get it to fire up. My husband, being fairly mechanical decided to go ahead and buy it.  He brought it home, spent 20 minutes with some basic tools cleaning out the carburator and it fired right up. The next day he put it up for sale on Craigslist and sold it within the week for $800.  EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS! 

profitable thrift store finds

~  Thank you Candi !!  Such an inspiration, I’m dragging my butt down to the thrift store tomorrow with fresh eyes ~

This is just 3 examples of how you can make really good money buying and selling at thrift stores and yard sales.  

I’ve got to say, I’m reading Candi’s successes here, my mind is wandering to a recent cranky husband weekend.  O.K., my husband is a royal pain when he’s bored, not digging into a project.  Are you following me yet?  If I buy some fixer upper items, he keeps busy and we both score some extra cash!  Win Win, right? I think this thrift store flipping may be good for our relationships too haha.

While everyone is out black Friday shopping I’ll be scoring cash !

What was your best thrift store flip?  Or the one that got away?!  Oh, I’ve got a lot of those, like the bench that sold for $50 and I saw re-sell online TWO days later for $250.  I near shed tears.  Then there was the Kitchen Pots that are sold at a very high end store for hundreds, I bought for $2 then gave away.

 

make money online selling used

 

make money selling used

 

Matt R

Hi, my name is Matt and I'm the founder of Barefoot Budgeting. This site is dedicated to one thing... helping you budget and save money.

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