Sometimes a good hustle is marketing something that is already in high demand. Here are some of the best things to flip for a profit to earn some extra cash.
Best Things to Flip for a Profit: Earn Side Hustle Income
If you are in search of an extra source of income, you can make a quick buck or two by flipping things. So, what are the best items to flip for a profit?
Flipping items might be viewed as an unconventional passive income opportunity. It is certainly scalable. Flipping for profit has gained significant popularity for new sources of income.
The best items to flip are some of the most common items available. After reading this article, you might even realize that you are a victim to purchasing some of these items.
People have recently gone back to flipping items for profit. This was a huge trend back when eBay was first launched. However, there’s been a recent trend to start flipping for profit to build side hustle income.
I wanted to provide you a guide to how to find the best items to flip or resell for profit.
By flipping and reselling products, you can effectively increase your income or build your own business for limited upfront investment. There’s things like flipping scrap metal where you can find it for free.
Or, you can even resell phones where you pay a small dollar amount but have a number of options for selling them.
This is an attractive proposition for anyone trying to repay student loans or invest at a faster rate.
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Before we do this, what defines reselling items for profit?
What is flipping items for a profit
Flipping things has become an easier venture today thanks to the recent technological advancements. You can easily find a platform to sell on, price and sell your items as well as purchase items to sell for a profit on the internet. With wealth creation, it always starts with increasing your income and having an urgency to invest early.
Items that can have a good resale value may fall under one or several of these categories:
- Vintage and old items
- Items that need repair and renovation
- Unique and used Items
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What makes an item a good item to flip or resell for a profit?
In order to find the best products to resell for a profit, you need to maintain criteria as to what makes these products fit the mold for flipping. In my opinion, the best products to flip are products that everyone has. Here are some characteristics to look for in order to start flipping for profit:
- Best products to flip for a profit are usually very common and can be found in every household
- These products have something unique and usually have very long shelf-lives or are long living assets
- Other products to consider in flipping are the ones that are always in high demand or have sentimental value
By just participating in local sales, you can find some of the very best things to flip. Flipping for profit takes some trial and error, so document what products are working well for you and what products are not working well. Get smarter about flipping for profit as you go along.
Let’s get into our list of items to consider flipping for profit.
List of Items to Flip for a Profit
Following under our categories for items to sell to make money. Our list of the best things to flip for a profit include common items that you basically see every day. There is a huge market for these products, which makes them very good for flipping for extra money.
Let’s get into the more nuanced details of our items to flip for a profit within those categories. Here are some of the best things to flip for a profit:
Antiques and vintage items
One of the best things to flip for a profit is the retro stuff. People love collectibles and can be willing to spend money on a piece of furniture or artwork that is still high-quality but rare, classic, beautiful and enduring old. So, keep an eye on antique items that you can buy at low prices and sell for a profit.
Some of the best antiques and vintage items to flip for a profit include:
- Vintage Lawn Furniture
If you walk to any thrift store, you are likely to get a few quality old pieces of furniture. In the ancient days, pieces of furniture were made of iron, aluminum, and steel. You can choose a few of them and rebuild them or create new items from them. Always consider the items that can be creatively upcycled and classically styled to make a new item.
You can also buy old dining room and office chairs. When you buy the coffee room or office chairs, avoid the ones that require a lot of re-upholstery or the oddly-shaped ones.
Most solid wood furniture needs only a light sanding and application of a new coat or sealer to restore its lost glory. It is essential to choose versatile pieces that only require a bit of ornamentation.
- Brand-Name Clothing
Another set of products to sell for a profit are the branded pieces of clothing. It is essential to look for items with no damaged zippers, no missing buttons, no extreme alterations, no stains, or weird smells.
People can spend loads of cash on brand name jeans and clothing. So, if you can find brand new clothing with tags still on, then don’t hesitate to buy a few of them because they can fetch you good money if resold.
Vintage clothing can include a shirt, short or a classic hat made over 50 years ago. The condition of the pieces of clothing is everything when it comes to flipping clothes for a profit. People go nuts for the brand Supreme… I don’t know why.
- Old Canning Jars
Vintage canning jars such as those manufactured by Mason, Ball, and Atlas can become beautiful decorative items. A variety of them sells for a premium especially if they have retained their original zinc or glass lids.
- Lawn Tools
Old metal rakes, hoes, spades, among other lawn care tools that are well-made can be a good source of extra money if resold. If you clean them well, then you can sell them for a profit. You can use a grinder with a brush attachment to remove rust.
- Old Appliances
You can also flip old appliances such as dinnerware, flatware, and lamps among others. Vintage Kitchen gadgets include potato mashers, meat grinders, butcher tools, old kitchen aid mixers, among others. Vintage Tupperware and Pyrex glassware containers are also great things to flip for a profit. Old coffee mugs especially the classic ones are also a good catch.
Other old items to flip for a profit include old metal and wooden toys that are still in good shape, old sports gear, old cameras and camera lenses, vinyl records, jukeboxes, old style picture frames, old school video games consoles, vintage globes, an original edition of board games among others.
- Wine
Investing in wine can be an attractive proposition. Here are some tips for investing in wine. You can create wealth by simply storing an asset that will be sold later.
There are only certain bottles of wine that appreciate in value, so make sure that you find the right types of wine.
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Items that need repair
Another set of the best items to flip for a profit can be products that are relatively good but need a bit of repair or renovation. Some of the best items to repair and sell include:
- Bicycles
Bicycles are excellent items to flip and make a few dollars. Look for name-brand bikes that are still in good condition as well as fixer-uppers. If you have the mechanical skill to fix a bike, you can buy and sell bikes. You can also repaint and tune them up to renew their look to appeal to your customers.
- Houses
House flipping is another income generating venture. You can buy low-priced houses during auctions and sell them later at a profit. You can buy abandoned properties, do renovation and then resell them at a profit. This obviously takes significant time and can be much more capital intensive.
- Porcelain sinks and bathtubs
You can also buy worn out porcelain sinks and bathtubs, reglaze them and then sell them later at a profit.
- Trailers
You can upgrade a trailer or add its value if you paint it, fix new tires or bearings, fix new side panels and lights and then sell it at a profit. Another option to make money with trailers is to purchase trailer kits in bulk, assemble them and later sell the assembled unit at a profit.
- Websites
Believe it or not, there are a bunch of websites out there that have good traffic that just need some additional love to earn additional income. You can then sell the revamped website for a large profit. Here are some tips for getting started with flipping websites.
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Unique and used Items
Some of the unique and used items to flip for a profit include:
- Books
Do a little research and find cheap books that may be worth a lot if resold. Generally, individual books might not have good resale value, but book lots can sell very well at online auction sites.
Students might also donate college textbooks without knowing their resale value. Many of them may not be worth a gold mine though, but you can always check the going rates on auction sites to see if the venture is worth it.
- Garden/lawn equipment and power tools
Garden and lawn pieces of equipment can also be great to buy especially at the end of the season and resell them for a profit in the spring.
When people are moving out or otherwise want to declutter, they sell power tools at bargain-basement prices. It’s essential to test each item before you buy, give it a cleaning, grease the ones that need greasing, and flip it for quick cash.
- Canvas artwork
Keep an eye on canvas artwork because you never know when you might stumble into a valuable piece of art or painting. Check your local estate sale for something that might have more value than what the owner perceives.
- Baby clothes and items
If you still have or can get relatively new baby clothes, baby carriers, baby walkers among others that are still in considerably good shape, you can easily resell them at a profit on various online platforms.
- Outdoor and office furniture
Outdoor furniture is another big seller especially during the warmer months, and so, you can flip them for a profit.
- Cell phones
Smartphones and smart devices are going to be in demand for a very long time. Here’s how to flip cell phones for profit.
Keep an eye for people selling office furniture at a throwaway price, buy and then sell them to people starting a new business and are looking for second-hand things.
Other types of unique items to buy and resell include sports memorabilia, LEGOs, light-up ceramics and sneakers. Sneakers have been a very hot item for people to flip lately.
I’ve heard several people making six figures or more just from flipping sneakers. Here is how to become a sneaker reseller.
Here are a few quick tips on places and platforms to find and sell items for a profit.
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So, where can you find the best things to flip for a profit?
One of the best places to find the best items to flip for a profit is to buy them from folks who are renovating their home. Another great way is to allow customers to trade in their old items for a discount on a new or used one and then repair the old item and resell it for a good profit.
You can also shop for items in high-end locations since higher-end areas tend to accumulate higher-end thrift store hauls. You might also find better-quality and name-brand goods in the neighborhoods.
Buy the items on the days that they are selling them at higher discounts. Remember, just like investing, buy low and sell high.
Some of the best platforms to sell your items on include listing them in Craiglist, Etsy, and eBays. You can take high-quality photos of the items and post them in as many marketplaces as possible. Post many photos and describe the items thoroughly including their damaged or missing features.
Always offer extra value to your customers to appeal to them such as free delivery. Since some items require cleaning, repair, and refurbishing, you need to consider the repair, cleaning and even the shipping costs before you set the resale price.
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Conclusion on Flipping Items for a Profit
There are numerous best things to flip for a profit. The most important thing is to perform thorough research before you buy any item so that you can identify their resale value and determine your potential profit after deducting all the extra expenses that you may incur.
I hope this list of the best things to flip for a profit has offered you valuable insights and you are ready to try out the venture.
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1 Comment
Thanks for the great post. Also, people have valuable things they don’t use in their homes that can fetch them some good money. All they need to do is determine what to flip and get some quick cash.