Anyone want to share their BIGGEST FLIP!?!?

[vintageantique77]

So we've all been brooding over the pandemic, but it's got me reminiscing about the good old days I've had on eBay, and more notably, my biggest money makers, or "flips" as it's called. I don't see any shame in admitting when you've made a flip, but I know some will shy away when asked the question. I want to know what was your biggest flip?

What was the item?

How much did you pay for it?

and how much did you sell it for on eBay?

I'd be happy to start us off,

I was browsing a local recycling drop off a few months before the pandemic, and came across a huge box of "magic the gathering" cards. When I say huge, I mean...over 5,000 cards! Plopped them on eBay with no clue what I'd get, and got $1400 for them! I know someone else has had that exciting thrill, right? TALK ABOUT IT!

Hoping you won't be shy to let us know what your biggest flip was!

[quadcitypickers]

Back before roughly 2010 or so I was one of the few people who had a smartphone at an auction. I would type pretty much any interesting or cool item into the eBay app and look at sold items.

Today, however, I see people in their 80's with iPhones so getting "sleepers" has really been tough in the past 5 or so years.

When Covid hit, people have REALLY been hitting auctions hard. I used to quadruple my money on most flips, like $10 to $40, $25 to $100, etc. Now it's hard to find stuff to double your money on.

Here are some of my best flips, off the top of my head.

1. Some rare french movie camera lens on a film camera for $30.

I sold the lens for a whopping $2200 and the camera for $150.

2. Some kind of planter monitor for a tractor. Paid $13 for it. Everyone acted like I was nuts for buying it, some even laughed. I had the last laugh when I sold it for $850.

3. I stopped at a yard sale and a lady had a ton of jewelry. She had a bunch of gold colored necklaces in bags for $1 each. I took one out of the bag and it was marked 14k gold. She had THIRTY of these small necklaces. Oddly enough, she didn't have any rings or bracelets. There was a little over one ounce of 14k gold. I scrapped it for $1400 at the time.

4. A popular consignment store near me put out 2-3 silverware chests full of silverware. I looked at one and there were 2 sets mixed together. One was STERLING SILVER. I quickly paid the $49.99 they had on it and left. I scrapped the set for about $750.

I was VERY lucky to find it. I was actually late on rent, and this helped pay it!

A few weeks later. I walked back in and see a ziplock bag full of sterling silver flatware for a whole $8.99, I think it scrapped at $250.

I'm not really religious, but think someone was looking at for me at that time.

5. At an auction of a collector, there were 10 coffee cans full of old store tokens. I won 2 for $80. I was low on cash and wish I had the money to buy all 10. I think there were around $400 worth of tokens in each can I ended up with. I wish I had the cash to buy 10 for $400. That would of been an easy 4 grand!

At the same auction, I won some weird looking eyepiece for like $10. Did a little research and it was off a German tank from WWII! I ended up selling for $600!

6. This was actually this year. Some hoarder died and had 10 5 gallon buckets of old watches. The family went through them and took all the expensive ones to an auction. They were $5 each.

Well...they ended up missing a few. I went through them and pulled a Bulova Accutron spaceview, a normal Accutron 214 and a 14k gold Hamilton Wrist Watch for $15! I ended up selling all 3 for around $500. They Accutrons did not run or they would be worth a bit more!

[vintageantique77]

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@quadcitypickers wrote:

Back before roughly 2010 or so I was one of the few people who had a smartphone at an auction. I would type pretty much any interesting or cool item into the eBay app and look at sold items.

Today, however, I see people in their 80's with iPhones so getting "sleepers" has really been tough in the past 5 or so years.

When Covid hit, people have REALLY been hitting auctions hard. I used to quadruple my money on most flips, like $10 to $40, $25 to $100, etc. Now it's hard to find stuff to double your money on.

Here are some of my best flips, off the top of my head.

1. Some rare french movie camera lens on a film camera for $30.

I sold the lens for a whopping $2200 and the camera for $150.

2. Some kind of planter monitor for a tractor. Paid $13 for it. Everyone acted like I was nuts for buying it, some even laughed. I had the last laugh when I sold it for $850.

3. I stopped at a yard sale and a lady had a ton of jewelry. She had a bunch of gold colored necklaces in bags for $1 each. I took one out of the bag and it was marked 14k gold. She had THIRTY of these small necklaces. Oddly enough, she didn't have any rings or bracelets. There was a little over one ounce of 14k gold. I scrapped it for $1400 at the time.

4. A popular consignment store near me put out 2-3 silverware chests full of silverware. I looked at one and there were 2 sets mixed together. One was STERLING SILVER. I quickly paid the $49.99 they had on it and left. I scrapped the set for about $750.

I was VERY lucky to find it. I was actually late on rent, and this helped pay it!

A few weeks later. I walked back in and see a ziplock bag full of sterling silver flatware for a whole $8.99, I think it scrapped at $250.

I'm not really religious, but think someone was looking at for me at that time.

5. At an auction of a collector, there were 10 coffee cans full of old store tokens. I won 2 for $80. I was low on cash and wish I had the money to buy all 10. I think there were around $400 worth of tokens in each can I ended up with. I wish I had the cash to buy 10 for $400. That would of been an easy 4 grand!

At the same auction, I won some weird looking eyepiece for like $10. Did a little research and it was off a German tank from WWII! I ended up selling for $600!

6. This was actually this year. Some hoarder died and had 10 5 gallon buckets of old watches. The family went through them and took all the expensive ones to an auction. They were $5 each.

Well...they ended up missing a few. I went through them and pulled a Bulova Accutron spaceview, a normal Accutron 214 and a 14k gold Hamilton Wrist Watch for $15! I ended up selling all 3 for around $500. They Accutrons did not run or they would be worth a bit more!

---

Great finds! Felt like a good kick to have those flips I bet! When you say auctions are big time now, do you mean real life auctions? or auctions here on eBay? I've given up on auctions lately because they would just sit and sit...Back in 2012 I could rely on an auction making me money - now they *almost* always lose me money.

[effie*s_trinkets]

 a vintage barbie doll, I paid $10 for it, sold for $100. I might have been able to get more, but that was enough for me at the time. 🙂

[effie*s_trinkets]

who buys rabbit poop?? or is this a joke? (sorry I don't get american humor most times lol)

[blackbirdbazaar]

I once sold a water filter thingy for 600, it was still leaking water lol, I just thought it looked interesting and hit had japanese writing on it so I grabbed it up.  My mouth fell open when I saw online it was going for 600+! It sold quickly. I just recently sold a hockey helmet for 250 plus shipping. IT is vintage and it sold VERY VERY quickly, it had the most interest out of all my listings through the years. 

[blackbirdbazaar]

wait that wasn't a joke? you REALLY sell their poop?

[donsdetour]

A box of items that cost me a grand, sold four item from it for $16,000. I aint saying what.

Late to a street sale (3 in the after noon) and almost broke found a ring for 7 plus tax, had to borrow the tax LOL: Platinum and 1 1/4 carted diamond.

Under an eBay id that I worked for  I spotted a ring sold as silver plate:  Platinum and 1 carat diamond for 12 plus shipping.  Best eBay purchase.

I could go on but well.

Missed, a bottle that sold at an estate sale for 14.00 sold for $15,000.

A lamp shade at a local antique store (A friend to boot) marked wrong was purchased for$ 175, and sold for $14,000.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

That poster explained it was for fertilizer.  A quick search brings up multiple listings, showing that it's not a joke. 

[effie*s_trinkets]

also, once I bought for $1 a little MCM keychain backpack, and sold it for $50. But not on ebay, on mercari instead.

[rusty_osgood]

I could write a book. But I'm old so it stands to reason. I collect all kinds of things and subsequently visit estate sales and garage sales in certain neighborhoods etc. Here is a short (relatively recent) list:

I bought 2 belt buckles, 3 bracelets, some earrings and two necklaces for $11. Two days later I sold the two belt buckles for $900. The bracelets and earrings are worth another $1K but I gave them to my wife. They were all sterling and made by famous Navaho Indian artist Ben Begaye.

I bought a set of Bagpipes (with ivory fittings) at an estate sale for $80 and sold it for $800.
I bought a rifle scope for $10 and sold it for $375 (WW2 scope)
I bought a jewelry box with misc. small trinkets inside for $8. (Never take stuff out of the box, always buy the entire box because if anything inside is worth anything, it is likely worth more than you will pay for the entire jewelry box.) Inside were gold cuff-links and an Italian (good luck) horn. I sold both for just over $400

I bought a box full of stamps (stamp books) for $40 and ended up making over $700 on a quick sale. 

Last month, I bought an Accutron 14K watch right here on eBay for $525. The gold alone (scrap) is over $900. Be careful, this is only true for certain models. Some watches have metal fittings inside to make them heavier etc...
I bought a MontBlanc pen for $30 (worth $900) and another for $3 (worth $400) on the same weekend. The trick here is that very few people know anything about valuable pens and you can learn most of what you need in about 6 months. My entire collection is easily worth over $15K and I likely spent less than $1K on it all. Likewise, I routinely buy the following items and make 10x minimum: Sheet Music, Posters, Books (only certain ones), some jewelry, mostly silver stuff.
I am an Engineer and make decent $$ so I only do this as a hobby. I usually end up giving most of the profit away to my kids and to charity these days.

This is all a bit of an art mixed with knowledge. Knowing what stuff is worth takes getting stung a few times and liking research. I do research for a living so that part is easy and fun for me. Cheers!

[rabites-n-chocobos]

Bought 23 NATOPS Air Force manuals for $100 from an estate sale. Sold them for $100-$250 each. I sold all of them in 2 months.

[vintagecraze50]

Signed TY Beanie baby collector card. Opened 2 boxes of cards and found it. 30 bucks for the two boxes of cards, Sold for 1 Grand.

[dbfolks166mt]

     I usually pickup scrap metal, brass, copper, etc. at garage and estate sales and sell it for scrap spot price at the local recycle center. Several years ago I found a couple of 5 gallon buckets and a large box of material in the garage of an estate sale I believe I paid $10 or so for the whole lot. Sorting through the mess and separating it once I had it home I came across a bronze statue that looked a bit dated, heavy patina. I took it to a local gallery to see if they knew what it was and if it was worth anything more than scrap value. It wasn't a very impressive looking piece but such is often the case with art. It wound up being some 16th century Chinese bronze casting by some artist who's name I can't even spell. They ran it through a consignment art auction where it brought a little over $27,000.00 just a bit more than what it was worth or scrap. 

[chrispass918]

A first edition Salem’s lot without the dust jacket for $48 and sold it for $450. 

[chrispass918]

I’m not selling it but I got another first edition Salem’s lot for $48 but this time someone gave me a dust jacket for free and I could sell it for $2500 if I ever wanted to.