The Flipping Ninja’s Weekly Listener Q & A offers highly-focused, non-theoretical, no-nonsense Q&A.

This week’s Questions:

• What do you estimate your hourly income is both DURING the first month you started a serious effort on CL?

• What techniques do you use to spot deals quickly? Do you find that most sellers are available to have you pick up things that day?

• Could you go more in depth on talking down prices or haggling with Craigslist sellers?

• How can I get started with flipping if I don’t have any money to spend?

• I’ve been thinking about flipping or buying toys and selling them on Craigslist, but this is something I don’t know a lot about. Do you have any idea if toys on Craigslist can be picked up cheap enough to turn a profit, or if it’s worth reselling them on Craigslist?

• What items should I focus on to make the most money when I’m just getting started?

On this week’s episode you’ll also discover: 

• How to setup Craigslist Alerts so you’re notified everytime a MONEY-MAKING DEAL/OPPORTUNITY gets posted (you can jump on it before anyone else).
  
  
• How much money can you make per hour flipping? $25? $170? $500? It depends on this one thing…
  
  
• The one thing that almost nobody does on Craigslist – that can make you thousands of dollars starting today (it takes 30 seconds to set up once you’re logged in BAM – you’re done).
  
  
• How to STOP spending all day long on Craigslist browsing for deals… and instead make deals COME TO YOU (while you’re having dinner with your family, watching a movie, or relaxing).
  
  
• How to create “virtual salesmen” who constantly bring you deals automatically, 24/7. You get all of them first, then decide if you want to take it or not.
  
  
• Interested in selling and flipping toys on Craigslist? Before you start crushing it with used toys on eBay, Craigslist, or Amazon, keep this one thing in mind (covered in podcast)

Quotes:

“Work for wages, and you’ll make a living. Work for PROFITS, and you’ll make a fortune.” – Jim Rohn

“You can’t hit a target you can’t see, right? So you have to SEE your targets so you can improve on them.”

“You don’t need any money to get started flipping. A lot of people use that as an excuse to not do it. You don’t need money to make money in the flipping business. All you need is time, energy, and courage. Creativity.”

“There are plenty of ways to make money flipping without actually spending money.”

“If you’re a flipping ninja, you have the Eye for the Deal™. What is the Eye for the Deal™? The Eye for the Deal™ is when you reach that point where you just have that eye; you see profit potentials immediately. When you go to the store, or when you’re at a garage sale, or when you’re browsing Craigslist – all you see is dollar signs.”

“You can see right away if you’re gonna make money on something, and HOW MUCH you’re gonna make on it. Right away, instantly, subconsciously – you don’t even think about it. Just like how your heart beats on its own without you consciously doing it. Once you develop the Eye for the Deal™, that’s what it becomes like.”

“Developing The Eye for the Deal™ takes experience, practice, knowledge, etc. But once you got it, it’s literally like you’ve got this beacon – this superpower that works for you 24/7 – recognizing deals, profits, opportunity.”

“For toys, focus on eBay, but don’t disregard Craigslist.”

“Part of my philosophy is I wanna help you make as much money as possible while doing as little work. Call it lazy, call it smart, call it efficient, call it resourceful – whatever you want to call it – I don’t really care.”

“The key is to make as much money as possible, in as little time as possible. Because you want TIME to do what you want. You want that freedom. That’s what it’s all about – freedom, isn’t it?”

“Part of helping you make as much money in as little time possible is pointing out things that you’re doing NOW. Recognizing things that you’re doing NOW, that take up time. Seeing if you can automate it somehow. Seeing if you can setup a way for you to keep getting the same result – without you having to DO THE THING.”

“The traditional method of your regular average flipper who buys things and resells them or someone on the Internet teaching this stuff, aka the “low level”, “poor man’s way” of doing it would be this: you constantly pull out your phone every hour and go on Craigslist and search “Yamaha Keyboards”. See if someone posted one for sale. I mean you’d be checking it ALL THE TIME, you don’t wanna miss those deals, right? So it’s like every second of your life — you’re like ‘I GOTTA SEE IF SOMEONE POSTED IT! I GOTTA SEE IF SOMEONE POSTED IT! I DON’T WANNA MISS OUT ON IT – LET ME SEARCH!’ You could be sitting there at a movie with your girlfriend. And you’re literally chained – you’re anchored and chained to your phone, and you’re constantly searching on Craigslist. Now suddenly… think about how that would impact your whole life. And that’s just for Yamaha Keyboards! That doesn’t sound ideal, and that’s not what I teach. Efficiency and freedom is the name of the game when you’re flipping things — The Flipping Ninja way.”

“There could be a seller selling an item, and there could be 2 flippers contacting them. The seller will tell the first flipper, “No, I can’t do today, I’m available next week.”
But at the same time, he’ll tell the second flipper, “Yeah, I could do today, how about 4pm?”
What’s the difference? 
Why is it that he said “No not today” to the first guy, and “Yeah today works for me, I could swing it” to the second guy?

“It’s because there’s a way of communicating with sellers. There’s a way of speaking to them. Whether through text, whether through phone, whether through email. There’s a way of taking to them that will get them to meet you today. It’s what you say. The words you say. Your approach. So if you know what that is, if you have the information and tactics – literally word for word what to say to sellers to make absolute sure that YOU get that deal the SAME DAY (or as quickly as possible) – there is a way of speaking and communicating to them that will let you win the deal.”

“One thing to keep in mind is, these people selling these items; they’re not people like you and I who are flipping things to make money on the side. These are just regular people who are looking to get rid of their items – for whatever reason. So it’s not like they’re looking to make specific profits or anything like that.”

“Sometimes you’ll come across an item that’s a really good deal. So if it’s a really good deal, it’s gonna be gone soon. That’s just the way it is. I mean if a deal is really good, it’s not gonna last long. So if you’re talking to someone on the phone about their item, just assume that if you don’t set up a time right now to go and buy it from them and take it off their hands, someone else within a few minutes is gonna go and do it instead. So keep that in mind when you’re out there looking for things to buy. Don’t be a cheapskate where you’re constantly trying to haggle on every little thing – especially if it’s already a killer deal.”

What To Do Next

LOVE FLIPPING AND WANT TO LEARN MORE MONEY-MAKING AND MARKETING SECRETS? READY TO EARN 1K ON THE SIDE? HERE ARE SOME NEXT STEPS…

If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it!

I’d also love it if you could take a few minutes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes. I read every one personally and may even read yours out on the show.

And don’t forget to subscribe to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live.

Want me to answer your questions about flipping, side hustles, marketing, entrepreneurship, personal development, motivation, mindset, lifestyle — or anything else?

Have your question featured on a future show!

Send your questions in to AJ[at]TheFlippingNinja.com

Full Episode Transcript

00:00

Music.

Do you want more control over your life- more freedom, more confidence? Do you want to set your own rules and steer your own ship? Are you sick and tired of the 9 to 5 grind that’s eating away at you and robbing you of all your time, barely getting you by?  How about the new way? A new side hustle, side income you can use now. To do things like pay off debts, buy a new car, wipe away credit card bills and student loans, remodel your home, take exotic vacations, fancier dates, buy your friends a round of drinks, send a nice gift for your family, how about an emergency fund or even a down payment for a house and so much more. Welcome to the Flipping ninja podcast where we teach you how to take charge of your life and make your own money flipping things on your spare time.

0:46

Complicated, we’ll cover it all from what to buy where to look, marketing and selling tactics that create demand and bring you top dollar research, pricing, creating ads that sell like crazy and even powerful principles on the inner game of success.

0:52

Music.

1:01

So if the idea of being your own boss is exciting, you’re in the right place. Now here’s your host. The world’s leading authority on flipping AJ from theflippingninja.com Unplugged and Unleashed.

01:17

Guys, it’s AJ here The Flipping Ninja and, welcome to this week’s podcast, which is flipping ninja Q and A where you ask your questions and I’ll get them answered for you. Okay, anything related to flipping, marketing, buying, reselling, advertising, selling writing words that sell, how to take photos, that sell, how to take photos that sell, making money, business, entrepreneurship, personal development doesn’t really matter what your question is. I’d be happy to take a look at it and answer them for you, so typically on Flipping Ninja Q and A sessions. What we do is I literally take as many questions as, many the most common questions that I get, and I kind of noticed patterns, right? I noticed patterns of questions that people ask the most so I typically try and just a grab a ton of those and go through them as quickly as possible. I try not to spend too much time on them. I want to keep it short and sweet so that I can cover more ground, yeah, and get as many questions answered as possible. Okay.

02:24

So, the first question we got this week is. What do you estimate your hourly income is? Both when you first started and then today? Compared to today, so pretty high.  Okay, Pretty high. When I first started my hourly income was low. You know, we’re talking on an hour by hour basis starting out it was pretty low, because maybe it would take me, three or four hours to, you know, just go at it until I could find something and then flip it and make like, for example, a forty dollars profit or a fifty dollar profit. Or maybe It’ll take me, like, three hours to find, like maybe it would have taken me, like, three or four hours to make a hundred bucks, right? So if it takes me four hours to make a hundred bucks and you do the math, that’s about twenty-five dollars an hour, right?

03:17

Still, not bad. Still not bad, but starting out it was fairly low. Today, now that I got better at it and, you know, just like you guys would get better at it. If you continue to, if you just jump in and you know to train and learn and get experience, it’s going to be much higher. And I’m not talking just like, you know, because when we think hourly wages and raises, we think you’re getting paid ten dollars an hour. Work here at our company for three years and you’re going to get a dollar bump pay raise or seventy-five cents pay raise. Right now you’re getting thirteen dollars or now you’re getting eleven dollars an hour. Now, you’re getting eleven twenty-five. Congratulations and flipping. It’s different. It’s not like that. So when you get better, you don’t just your profits per hour. How much you make per hour doesn’t just add, Okay, it multiplies so that means when you first started out, when you’re first starting out, you might be making you know, like twenty-five dollars an hour. But after you get good, after a few weeks, a few months you might end up making one hundred dollars per hour and then two hundred, and it keeps going. So I’ve had instances where you know, dozens of instances where I’ve–

04:31

I mean, I’ve made five hundred dollars plus in an hour, many times, okay, so that can be a normal thing for you if you operate at that playing field and it’s funny. I say playing field like it’s some like high-level professional playing field. It’s like no, anyone could do this. It’s not rocket science. So starting out, I’d say twenty-five dollars an hour average and then today I would say five hundred dollars an hour and higher. Now you have to understand something though. Think about it. Like I always say, flipping is not an hourly paying job. Okay, it’s a profits job.

5:04

So Jim Rhone the amazing personal development guru and legend Jim Rhone always said, “Work for wages and you’ll make a living. Work for profits and you’ll make a fortune.” So it’s really cool, so far as what my estimated hourly income is, starting out. It was on the lower end twenty-five dollars, fifty dollars an hour and then later on it got much higher to like, you know, regularly making one hundred seventy dollars per hour, two hundred dollars per hour, five hundred dollars per hour. And it’s kind of nice and this.

05:45

And I want to really stress the importance of tracking your, not only your profits but your time, because when you’re tracking your profits and your time, then you automatically know what your action, how much time you’re actually spending to do all these things.

06:01

All this flipping stuff, you know how much you make so then you could run the numbers and realize that shoot the total time it took you to find that bike, look up the value, realize you’re getting it at a killer deal buy it, take it home, clean it up, take photos, write an ad, post it up, get it sold.

06:23

I mean, if you’re tracking every single minute like that, you start to see it’s like suddenly that bike you bought at that thrift store for sixty-nine ninety-nine for seventy bucks just sold, for seven hundred bucks.

06:40

I mean, if you’re tracking every single minute like that, you start to see it’s like suddenly that bike you bought at that thrift store for sixty-nine ninety-nine for seventy bucks just sold, for seven hundred bucks.

06:57

Oh, my God. I made, like, over, like, over six hundred dollars in forty-five minutes. Holy smokes! Like so that’s the importance of tracking your profits and so you know what? Your hourly income is part of my Flipping Ninja Blueprints Master class actually include that. I have a completely programmed Flipping Ninja profit tracking app. So basically what this is, it’s an app that you literally just go in and you put your numbers it color codes everything, it tells you exactly. You know you put how much time you spend on it. It actually does the math for you, and it tells you how much you are making per hour every day, every week, every month and what your averages are. So you kind of get a good measure and you, you know, you can’t. You can’t hit a target that you can’t see it. So you can see your targets, and then you can improve on them from there, right? So, so that’s what I would say to that question.

07:53

So the next question we got from Robin is what techniques do you use to spot deals quickly? Do you find that most sellers are available to have you pick up things that day? As far as the techniques that I used to spot deals quickly. I mean, now we’re talking high-level tactics. Now we’re talking strategy, tactics straight up, you know, skill sets that make you, money type territory. Okay, so what I, I’ve basically coined the phrase the eye for the deal. So having the eye for the deal, so if you’re a flipping ninja, you have the eye for the deal. And what is the eye for the deal? The eye for the deal is basically.

08:37

When you reach that point where you just have that eye, you can see profit potentials immediately. It’s like when you go to the store or when you’re at a garage sale or when you’re browsing on Craigslist, all you see is dollar signs right away. You can see right away if you’re going to make money on something and how much you’re going to make on it right away instantly, subconsciously, it’s like you don’t even think about it.

09:01

It’s like, you know, just like how your heart beats on its own. You’re not even thinking about it. Once you develop the eye for the deal, that is, that’s what it becomes like right, so developing the eye for the deal takes experience, practice, knowledge to really get it. But you will once you get it. I mean, it’s literally you’ve got, like, this beacon that’s just working for you twenty four seven. Recognizing deals, profits, etcetera, so back to your question. What techniques do you use to spot deals quickly? I use a lot of techniques, and the ones I can think of right off the bat that are extremely helpful is I use what, I set up alerts. So on Craigslist, for certain items that I know I like, you know, for certain items that I’m really familiar with and I know that I get to sell for a lot of money. I’ll just go on Craigslist and I’ll set up an alert for that item. So basically what that means is any time that somebody posts a certain item on Craigslist, let’s just say let’s just use for example. I have, I have so many different items that I have an alert set up for, but one example is a keyboard. So, like a digital piano like a Yamaha keyboard that I have sold probably hundreds of keyboards, okay, so.

10:22

Those are pretty high ticket. Whenever I get my hands on one of those keyboards, I usually make two to four hundred dollars profits average. Okay, so the keyboards, what I do are on Craigslist. I go on Craigslist and I set up what’s called a search alert. So that basically means that any time.

10:45

Any time somebody posts a keyboard for sale, in this example specifically a Yamaha keyboard for sale anytime they post it, I get a notification immediately on my phone. Okay? So just think about that. Think about that. You’re, you’re literally just hanging out at home eating dinner, Boom. You get a notification, you get an alert on your phone from Craigslist saying, hey, someone just posted this keyboard on Craigslist for sale. Here’s the link, and then you literally see it right away instantly. You open it up and you can immediately make a buying decision.

11:26

Okay, so the cool part about that is you’re suddenly not monitoring Craigslist twenty-four seven like a madman and burning yourself out. Okay, so the whole goal, part of my philosophy is that I want to help you make as much money as possible while doing as little, as you know as little work. Okay, call it lazy, call it smart, call it efficient, call it, you know, resourceful. Whatever you want to call it I don’t really care. I just want to make as much money as possible in as little time as possible, because I want time to do what I want. I want that freedom, right? That’s what it’s all about. It’s about freedom. So part of doing that is cutting out things.

12:16

That you’re doing now. Cutting, you know, recognizing things that you’re doing now that take up time and seeing if you could automate it somehow, seeing if, seeing if you could set up some way for you to keep getting the same result without you having to do it. So in this example, the traditional method of just may be a regular buyer of maybe a regular person who buys things and resells them or someone on the Internet. You know, teaching this stuff, you know, a traditional, I guess. Low-level way of doing it would be okay. Constantly pull out your phone every hour and go on Craigslist in search in Yamaha keyboard. See if someone posted for sale. I mean, you got to check it all the time, okay? You don’t want to miss those deals, right? So it’s like every second, pretty much every second you’re like “O my God. I got to see if someone posted it. I’ve got to see if someone posted. I don’t want to miss out on it. Oh, let me search.” It’s like, you know, you’re sitting there at a movie with your girlfriend or something. It’s like, ” Oh, let me, I got I’m going to pull out my phone and see if someone posted this item on Craig. I got to search to see if anyone posted it so I could jump on it and flip it for a profit shoot.” So you’re, you literally chained you’re here. You’re anchored and chained to your phone and to, you know, constantly searching on Craigslist. Now, suddenly think about how that will impact your whole life.

13:41

Okay? And that’s just for Yamaha keyboards I mean when you’ve got thousands of different items and thousands of different niches, how the heck are you going to even operate? How are you going to survive, right. So my point is it’s just you can do it that way. It’s totally up to you. But I mean, I don’t about you, but for me, I would rather have that automated. So what you would want to do is as far as spotting deals quickly, is you set up these alerts on Craigslist, right? So, that means that you set up the alert and you could just forget about it. You can go literally do whatever you want. You set up the alert, go and take a walk outside, hang out with your friends, hang out your family, watch a movie. You don’t even think about it. And then any time somebody else posts that item for sale, only, then will you get a notification. Okay, it’s like imagine if you’ve got a salesperson constantly watching it for you.

14:39

It’s like you’re literally having, you have someone there like an assistant or an employee constantly watching it and waiting for that deal. They’re waiting for someone to post something. I don’t care if it’s two in the morning. They’re just watching it.

14:56

So then what happens is whenever a deal comes up, they let you know.

15:03

And then at that point, you just have to make a decision. I mean, you’re the decision maker. Obviously, you have to see if it’s a good deal. But you literally didn’t even think about it. All you’re doing is just getting the alerts, seeing if it’s a good deal making a decision, buying the item and making money. Okay, so that’s one way I spot deals quickly, and I recommend you do the same too. It’s easy. Just go on Craigslist and I think you just search you go the for sale section and you do a search. And then I think there’s a button to hit save search. I have so many saved searches set up that I actually don’t even remember how to do it off the top of my head, because I have so many different items, so many different safe searches set up. For example, I’ve one for a certain recliner chair made by a medical company. So, anytime those are posted, I get an alert because on those I usually make five hundred fifty dollars and up to six hundred dollars profits per flip on one chair for those. So those air hot items that I set up alerts for so that I’m constantly getting alerted.

16:10

Okay, so on top of that, I mean, you know, setting it up that way is more reliable because it removes the risk of you missing out on deals if you were to do it manually, Okay. So with the alerts, you set it up once, and you get alerts right after the item is posted. So that means you could be the first one to jump on it and then to answer the second part of your question: the second half of your question. Do you find that most sellers are available to have you pick things up that day? I mean, it all depends. It all depends, usually, if you can, depending on your way of communicating with them. So, here’s another thing. Let me just, just to give you some perspective, there could be a seller selling an item and there could be two Flipper’s contacting them.

16:59

That seller will tell the first flipper. No, I can’t do today. I’m available next week, but at the same time, he’ll tell the other Flipper. Yeah, I could totally do today. How about 4PM? What’s the difference?

17:15

Okay, what’s the difference? Now the flipping ninja is going to be the one who can land that deal today. Now, what’s the difference, though? Why is it that he said no, not today to the first guy and yeah, today works for me. I could, I could wing it. I could swing it to the second guy.

17:35

It’s because there is a way of communicating with sellers. There’s a way of communicating with them. There’s a way of speaking to them, whether through text, whether through phone, whether through email, there’s a way of talking to them that will get them to meet with you today, Okay, it’s what you say. It’s the words you say it’s your approach. So if you know what that is, if you have them, you know, the not if you have the information, the tactics of literally word for word, what to say to these sellers to make absolutely sure that you get that deal the same day or as quickly as possible. I mean, there’s a way of, there’s like, there’s like, a way of speaking to them.

Okay, there’s a way of communicating to them that will let you win the deal. Okay, so it’s all subjective, and yeah, it all depends. Next question is, could you go more in-depth on talking down prices or haggling with Craigslist sellers? Yeah, so this kind of ties into what I was just talking about in the last question. As far as you know, there’s a way of communicating. There’s a way of using your words to close deals and, and get deals. So, she is making me think I kind of want to do. I’m thinking, maybe I should do a full podcast episode on how to talk to how to, how to negotiate, how to negotiate with buyers and sellers so that you get the best deal every time. Do you guys think? Is that good? Should I do that? Should I create a separate?

19:08

Should I create a complete podcast on how to negotiate and haggle and talk down prices? What do you think?

19:17

Yeah, okay, I’ll do that. So the short answer to your question of you know, going more in-depth on talking down prices and haggling with sellers is, the easiest way is what you want to do is you don’t want to throw an offer right off the bat. Now, this is one strategy, Okay? I’m not saying do this every time. This is one strategy that works, and you’ll make a lot of money with, and that is effective. Okay, so this one strategy, I want you to just stick with this one strategy for now and then in the other podcast episode I make on negotiating, you can learn about the other ones. So what you want to do is, if you’re trying to get someone selling an item to go down on price, there are a few different tactics that you have available,

20:08

Okay, a few different plays that you could carry out to do this. So one of them is you email them, telling them you’re highly interested in the item and you’re, you know, a serious buyer saying you’re highly interested in buying the item from them. So, you want to pick, you’re highly interested in taking it off their hands, buying it from them. You just have a few… So here, let me just do it in the first. Let me just say the first hand. Let me just talk in the first person just because it’s easier. So you would email or text?  You know, say something like this. “Hey, I’m really interested in picking up your keyboard. If it’s still available, I just have one question. Does it come with the case, or does it come with the cover?”

20:59

So what you do is, you know, you call them or you text them or you email them and you say something like this. You start off with a few questions about the items first, and then you make an offer. And then there’s one more step. This is critical.

21:16

You let them know that you can come right away.

21:20

Okay, so you say something like, “Hey, is your keyboards still available? I’m interested in picking it up.”

21:27

“I just, I just had a quick question. Does it come with a power adapter?” Once they respond, you’ve already started that first point of communication; I guess commitment so to speak. Then you hit them with your offer. Okay, let’s say someone has a keyboard posted up for four hundred dollars on Craigslist. You want to buy it so that you can flip it, so, you know, maybe email them, say something like, “Hey, I’m I saw your keyboard add, I’m really interested in picking it up. I just had a quick question, though. Does it come with a power adapter?” And then they’ll respond and then they’ll be like, Yeah, you know. Yes, it does come with it.

22:04

“Yes, it comes with a power adapter and a USB cable, Right?” I’m just making this up. So then once to do that right away, then you want to hit them with a price. Okay. You want to say: “Sweet, Would you take three-fifty for it? I’m free any time to come and pick it up. Just let me know what works for you.” Okay? You want to start with the price. Well first want to acknowledge their answer, and then you want to hit them with the price.

22:32

 And then you want to add that part in that specific order you want to say, “Would you take three-fifty? I’m available any time to come and pick it up today.” Okay? I’m available. Any time that works for you, you know? And even better method would be.” Would you take three? Sweet, would you take three- fifty for it? I can pick it up anytime today. What time works for you?”

22:58

Okay, now you’re presupposing that they’ve already agreed to your offer, and they just had to tell you the time. So you’re putting him in a place where it’s like shoot, shoot. I have a buyer. Yeah, I guess I could get through. This is in their head. They’re thinking man three-fifty. I really wanted for you four hundred for it, but, I mean, but if he can pick it up today. Yeah, how’s 4pm work? Done, boom! You just got the keyboard for three-fifty. You just took fifty dollars off for knowing exactly what to say. What did that take? Ten seconds to do that? So knowing what to say and learning what to say exactly is actually a very high ticket skill when you break it down and really think about it. Okay. And also one thing to keep in mind is these people selling these items they’re not people like you who are flipping things to make money on the side, these are, just people who are looking to get rid of items for whatever reason. So it’s not like there, you know, strictly looking to make specific profits and etcetera, right? So that’s one quick strategy for you is, you know, use. You contact that you emailed them with the question asking about the item they respond, and then you hit him with a price and then ask when you can come to pick it up. But also keep in mind.

24:15

You know, if you really want to be successful in the buying and reselling business, sometimes you’ll come across an item that’s a really good deal. So if it’s a really good deal, it’s going to be gone soon. Okay? That’s just the way it is. I mean, if it’s a deal is really good, it’s not going to last long. So if you’re talking to someone on the phone about their item, just assume that if you don’t set up a time right now to go and buy it from them and take it off their hands.

24:41

Someone else within a few minutes is going to go and do it instead. Okay, So keep that in mind When you’re out there looking for things to buy. Don’t be one of those cheap. Like, don’t be a cheapskate where you’re just constantly trying to haggle and get the price down. Like if it’s a freaking good deal already, or if you’re going to make two hundred dollars on this flip already, don’t try and push it. And, you know, don’t be like I want to make, I want to try and make it another, you know, forty dollars extra or whatever. Don’t push it. Okay? Just get the deal as quickly as possible. Flip it. Make your money so you can move on.

25:20

All right, so next question, how can I get started with flipping if I don’t have much? If I don’t have money to spend: so, if you don’t have any money, that’s the thing. You don’t need any money to get started flipping. You don’t need a lot of people to use that as an excuse to not do it. You don’t need money to get started.

25:37

You don’t need money to make money in the flipping business. All you need is time, energy, courage. Okay, creativity so there are plenty of ways to make money flipping without actually spending money. I mean, jump on Craigslist. Look at the free section of things, you know, Look around your house. Maybe you have items on your house that are just sitting there that you could literally sell.

25:59

That you are totally blindsided, too, because you just kind of forgot about it. I know I even I have tons of stuff that are just sitting there that I should be selling and getting rid of. But look around your house. Look at the free section of Craigslist. There are zero excuses for you to not make money flipping things because you don’t have any money. Okay, I could literally make a hundred bucks, at least in a single day, just from the free section of Craigslist. It’s so it’s I mean, it’s super easy. It’s simple. So, um, you don’t really need a ton of money. And the cool part is, once you make that money from whatever it is like the free section of Craigslist or etcetera once you make it, Ah, you can, then reinvest it in buying other items so that he could flip for higher profits. All right, next question. So I’ve been thinking about flipping or buying toys and selling them on Craigslist, but this is something I don’t know a lot about. Do you have any idea if toys on Craigslist can be picked up cheap enough to turn a profit or if it’s worth reselling them on Craigslist?

27:07

Excellent question- when it comes to toys, I would say yes, you can definitely make money flipping toys. The only thing is, I would not, Craigslist wouldn’t be my first choice for selling them on or re-posting them on just because it’s, it’s not. In my opinion, it’s not the best channel for it. I would recommend you sell them on eBay. So if you’ve got toys, if you’re looking to start small, they’re just, you know, try and flip toys or, like even board games. Definitely go for eBay. I mean, post them on both, obviously, but really focus on eBay because eBay is, one of the world’s biggest marketplaces, where people are constantly looking for totally weird random stuff, and they usually sell on eBay as well. So, like if you have a random toy, that’s like, you know, let’s say you had some random action figure of like I don’t know, Jean Grey from X men from like 1996 right? I mean, if you post it on Craigslist for, like, you know, fifty bucks, it sounds kind of crazy right now. Who’s going to buy this old like, thrift store action figure of like some, you know, whatever for fifty bucks locally, right? But here’s the thing you never know. If you post that same action figure on eBay and you create a compelling ad for it and you have photos that sell.

28:35

It’s very possible that that same action figure actually will sell for fifty dollars, and that’s pretty cool. I mean, that’s kind of cool just to keep in mind, because, you know, you never know there might be this crazy collector guy in some small random town or wherever, who just He’s got his whole X-Men toy collection, and he’s looking for that one Jean Grey has been searching everywhere. He can’t find it, and he’s like, I don’t care if it’s fifty dollars. Who cares, man? I just want to complete my collection, and then he’ll jump on it. And then you literally posted on eBay.  The next thing you know, it’s sold in hours. You just made fifty dollars from this, you know, ten cent action figure you got at a garage sale, right? So if you’re looking to get into toys then definitely keep your energy and eye on eBay, you know, flipping them on eBay because that’s a better channel for them. It’s a better medium you’ll make more money that way, but right after you post the items right after you post the toys on eBay, post it on Craigslist because you never know. I remember a couple of years ago I had this awesome… So you remember the old original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers? The first one- that was my favorite one that was the best Power Rangers out of them all. I don’t care what anyone says. Everybody knows that, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The first original one was the best one, anyway, so I bought this complete set of all the Power, of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

30:01

And I bought it at a garage sale. I think it was an estate sale actually. I just, I was driving, and I just saw this estate sale. So I turned around and I drove in, and I like, Well, I went through this huge house and there are so many items. I see all these Power Rangers toys in this box, and I’m like, Oh, my God, Dude, I can totally sell these. So I think I paid the guy or I think I paid the girl like, I think it was like fifteen dollars maybe.

30:23

I think they wanted twenty. But I’m like, this is all I had. I literally had fifteen dollars cash, and they’re like, yeah, that’s fine. So I bought all these Power Rangers toys for fifteen dollars and then, now here’s the key. I took them home and I took absolutely stunning pictures. And you actually have these? I have this example in the Flipping Ninja Blueprint. I show you this example of these Power Rangers toys that I’m telling you about now. But, so I basically take these Power Rangers toys, and I take these super freaking epic pictures off them, like, if you see them, you’re like, Holy Shit. Even if you don’t, you’re not into Power Rangers. Like, if you saw them, you’d be like, O my God. I want those in my house displayed in my freaking kitchen or China cabinet, whatever. So I took killer photos, I created a killer ad and I posted it up on eBay. Right, because I’m like, Okay, eBay is the spot where that something like this would sell for good money. So I post on eBay. But then I post on Craigslist as well, now, in this case, it turns out those toys actually sold locally from Craigslist. So, someone, someone contacted me and they literally paid me two hundred dollars for this whole set. They met, I met, I met them at the mall and they bought my Power Rangers total collection for two hundred bucks. And I bought them for fifteen dollars. So I made one hundred eighty-five dollars from that one flip. So, like I said, for toys focus on eBay.

31:50

But don’t disregard Craigslist use, you know, I call it Octopus selling. That’s where you post it on every channel, every medium so you can get as many eyeballs as possible, right? So yeah, next question is, what items should I focus on to make the most money when I’m just getting started?

32:11

So when you’re first getting started, I usually recommend people start with something that you’re familiar with. If you’re totally familiar with surfboards because you are a surfer and you’ve been doing it since you were little. Then start with surfboards. Okay, you know more about it than anyone else. And that puts you in a position where you can sell with education. You can sell from a place of knowledge, and that will allow you to ask for more money and find, you know, absolute deals. So someone is posting a surfboard for way lower than what it’s worth. And you know that because you’re familiar with surfboards you’ve been, you know, playing with them your whole life.

32:53

Then you know. So you’re going to go and get that deal before anyone else, right? And then not only that, you’re going to turn around and flip it and resell it and make a huge profit because you’re so good. You’re so; you’re so knowledgeable about surfboards, right? So I usually recommend start, people start with something you’re already familiar with, right? For me, it was keyboards, it was piano. It was digital pianos right. And then once you do that you slowly go wider. Okay, you go wide. So once you focus on your one niche after you’re making you know, let’s say you’re making two hundred dollars now per month from that one niche because you’re, you know, that’s just your niche.

33:35

Now you’re topped off. You’re like, Okay, they’re people. I can’t find any more deals, but I seem to be making ah, one hundred fifty dollars to two hundred dollars per month flipping surfboards. I want to make more money. What should I do? So then you kind of just move sideways, you go wide. So you say Okay, what is another niche or industry that I’m really familiar with? Right then You’re like, Oh, wait let me think. Oh, well, I totally love mountain biking. I’ve been doing it since I was little with my Dad. He’s always taken me to the bike shops. I’m familiar with the best mountain bikes that are. I know right away. If a mountain bike is a three thousand dollar mountain bike or if it’s an eighty dollar mountain bike from Walmart, I could totally do mountain bikes, right? So then you start flipping mountain bikes, right?  So now you’ve got that first niche that you started with, which were surfboards. You’ve got really good at that. And then you move to mountain bikes, right? Not, now. Suddenly you’re making. Now you’re making two hundred dollars from surfboards per month. You’re making you know, four hundred dollars for mountain bikes per month.

34:41

You’re making freaking six hundred dollars a month from those two niches, right? So then you keep going wide, Okay? You just repeat you repeat this. So then suddenly you’ve got, like, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten different streams of income from all these different niches and you keep doing that, you keep getting experience. Eventually, you’ll wake up one day and it doesn’t matter what the item is. It doesn’t matter if you’re totally not familiar with the industry or the niche or the category. It doesn’t really matter because you’re so good that you can sell anything. You can flip anything, right? So once you’re at that point by that point, you will have already developed the eye for the deal so that you’re constantly recognizing and spotting deals. It doesn’t really matter, right? You’re just automatically seeing deals and you’re seeing dollars everywhere on every single item you look at. Doesn’t matter what it is, so that is my long answer to a simple question, and we’re going to wrap it up for this week. I hope that helped you. I hope that helped you. Like I said, keep sending in your questions. You can email them to AJ@theflippingninja.com, and I will be sure to get them answered for you guys all right, until next time. And remember, you always just one flip away from freedom. See you guys.

36:08

This has been the flipping Ninja podcast from the crew at theflippingninja.com. We believe that all Americans should be able to make their own money without having to rely on a job. If you’re ready to ditch the nine to five, visit theflippingninja.com and join our Flipping Ninja blueprint Masterclass, where you’ll discover how to earn a reliable side income of $1000 to $5000 a month, flipping things with just 5 to 10 hours a week. See, we’re on a mission to help 100,000 people earn $1000 a month on the side. Flipping things, working professionals, students, parents, men, women, artists, techies, entrepreneurs, introverts, total newbies. You name it. Be a part of the revolution and blast out of the living paycheck to paycheck once and for all at www.theflippingninja.com Until next time. Remember, you’re just one flip away from freedom. Want to make a difference? If you enjoy today’s show, please pay it forward and head over to iTunes. Give us a rating and leave a review so others, just like you could benefit and take charge of their financial future.

37:06

Music.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:23 — 52.3MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS