3 Hacks For Increasing Your Thrift Flipping Income
Generate more sales online
The thought of spending $3 to make $15 captured me at a young age and produced an entrepreneurial spirit in me. I felt excited, motivated, and hopeful with thrift store flipping until I physically set foot in one.
I was flooded with the realization that I actually had no idea what to look for, and even if I could sell it online it felt like shipping costs would eat up my profit. Fast forward a year from that moment and I made one sale, a Gameboy Advance SP.
I realized at that moment of selling that I had wasted an entire year. From then on I have learned a few tips and tricks that could have doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled my online earnings.
These tips are free and I am not withholding information from you in the hopes of duping you into my online course. Read deeply and freely, and happy hunting my fellow thrifters!
What Should Your Shipping Cost Strategy Be?
According to rejoiner.com, 36% of all polled people were willing to abandon their purchase if the cost of shipping and delivery was too high.
Think about that statistic, and then think deeply about your own online purchasing patterns. I know that for some insane reason I gravitate towards more expensive items if the shipping costs less than other less expensive items. I know it doesn’t make sense, but the data suggests that a lot of online customers behave like me.
When I began selling online I was having a low conversion rate, meaning, I had a tiny amount of people that were actually willing to buy anything from me out of the large number of people who looked through my listings.
One day my mother who had been selling online since the earliest days of eBay gave me a tip that forever changed my sales. She simply suggested I list the shipping as “free shipping” but then secretly add the cost of shipping into the price. Almost instantly I saw my items selling quicker.
For a real example listen to the difference in selling the same two items at different prices. Like above, I originally bought two Gameboy Advance Sp’s for $25 each down the street from my house.
The first one that I talked about in the intro sold for $40 and the buyer paid $7 for shipping. It took weeks to come across that buyer. At the end of the sale I only made around $8 of profit.
After reevaluating my shipping methods I sold the second Gameboy within 7 hours of its listing. I sold it for $60 and made out with $28 in profit.
Don’t be afraid to increase the price to include shipping. Someone like me won’t think twice about an item they want with free shipping listed.
When Is The Best Time To Thrift Shop?
If you are new to flipping your thrift store findings I am willing to bet you are currently making the same mistake I had been making for years. Stop going to the thrift stores on Saturdays.
The reason for my avoidance of Saturday shopping is based on one simple fact. Most thrift stores restock their shelves in the middle of the week. This means that by the time Saturday rolls around you are left to sift through the leftovers that no one else wanted.
I usually wait to go on Wednesday or sometimes even a Tuesday. Next time you are in your store ask an employee when they get their shipments in. You will have a much higher chance of finding valuable items before the other local professional thrifters clean out the store first.
Dominate Online Auction Algorithms
In my earlier days with online selling, I was clueless about what to advertise my items to be found. I thought I could quickly fill in something, the searching customer would get the gist of it, and buy it from me. I found out many sales later that was just not the case.
When you search online with Amazon, Etsy, or even eBay you will notice that every search inquiry has a list with someone’s post being at the top. That number one ranked search is not randomly there, it was purposely placed there by the platform for a variety of reasons.
I learned that I must be specific with my listings.
For example, if I wanted to sell another Gameboy Advance SP I must list it by the specific type/make/variation and not simply “Gameboy”. I will have a hard time selling it because anyone searching for “Gameboy” is most likely looking for an older model.
When you enter the description make sure to describe it in detail and use information that provides value to your customers’ search. You don’t want anyone to look at your listing and ask the following:
- What is the color?
- What is the condition of this item?
- When was it made?
- How much use has this gone through?
- Why is this being listed at such a low/high price?
- Does this have anything else included in the sale?
Planning to cover all your bases will allow the selling platform to determine if you meet searches in a more valuable way than other posts, and they can rank you much higher. Ranking higher will lead to more views and ultimately more sales.
Conclusion
All of the above three major tips have exponentially increased my selling online. Every step is small enough of a change and will cost you almost no extra time at all but will help increase your income potential.
Remember, your goal shouldn’t be to make one million dollars in a year, it should simply be to make money. Being consistent and efficient will lead to the big bucks in time. Start small, and happy hunting!