One year ago I decided to take the change I had in my change jar and see what I could do if I were to buy items with it and try to flip it into something larger. One year later I count where I am at as a big success to have started from the small amount of $36.38.
First, my last update I sold another item, the new hard drive, on May 27th. I did not end up getting the big score I hoped but still made $11.61 profit on it after selling it for $20 plus shipping. The Santa cookie jar was broken in shipping and I filed a claim with the carrier insurance. I was reimbursed for the item and the shipping amount which made cookie jar more profitable ironically. I earned an additional $15.41 for the refund of the shipping. This is the first time I’ve ever had to file a claim myself for an item with insurance. I don’t expect this to occur again. As well, I bought four more items to get me close to being fully invested. I bought three pairs of Nike shoes and two coffee cups.
Summary of the year
I am a numbers person so I will walk through the numbers of the year’s progression.
Initial Starting Amount: $36.38
Number of Items Sold Year One: 30
Largest Profit Made on One Item in Year One: $39.85
Smallest Profit or Biggest Loss on One Item in Year One: $-3.78 (Item broke)
Number of Items Sold I Made Money On: 27
Number of Items Sold I Lost Money On: 3
Currenty Total Inventory Possible: $384.35- Over 10.5 times what I started with!
Total Profit in Year One: $347.97
Current Number of Items in Inventory: 41
Average Profit on Items Sold: $11.60
Approximate Number of Hours Needed: 15- I was spending no more than ten minutes to find items when I buy them. To pack and ship takes me around ten minutes, as well.
Approximate Hourly rate: $23.19
Overall level of satisfaction with this: 10 out of 10 in Year One
Where to Go From Here
My goal moving forward for the next year of this is going to be to try and get $1000 worth of inventory to sell. If I can get to this level in two years I should be able to reliably make $50 a month off of it without much trouble. I’ve had this happen already with the inventory level I am at already, but it has not been consistent. Fifty dollars a month would be something where this could pay a recurring bill or even better start putting this amount away each month to build up for passive income in the future at retirement or some over life event, if I take the money out on a consistent basis.
I’m going to try and keep my inventory item amount low while building up to $1000. This is going to require me to keep moving up my average amount I have invested in my flips while maintaining the percentage I want to make off of them. This will be a little harder as I go up in item value. I also don’t want to limit myself either in what I am doing with this, so I could change my mind. There are a multiple paths I could go down to show how someone could make money from where I am at with flipping. At the end of the day I am enjoying doing this and will keep on change jar flipping away.
Current Inventory
| Item | Cost | Date Purchased | Sold | Profit |
| Ireland Puzzle | $3.45 | 6/27/22 | ||
| NFL Puzzle | $2.37 | 6/27/22 | ||
| Animal puzzle #1 | $1.18 | 6/29/22 | ||
| Animal puzzle #2 | $1.18 | 6/29/22 | ||
| 3 Hole Punch | $1.18 | 6/29/22 | ||
| Serving Dish and Bowl | $9.29 | 7/20/22 | ||
| *Star Wars Puzzle | $2.37 | 7/25/22 | ||
| Star Wars Puzzle | $1.18 | 8/31/22 | ||
| Animal Puzzle | $1.18 | 8/31/22 | ||
| Animal Puzzle | $1.18 | 8/31/22 | ||
| *2 Coca Cola Puzzles | $6.91 | 9/13/22 | ||
| *Christmas Coffee Cup | $1.18 | 9/13/22 | ||
| *Stapler and Stapler remover | $.54 | 9/26/22 | ||
| *Floral Plate | $2.71 | 9/26/22 | ||
| *Old Spice Cologne bottle | $3.25 | 9/26/22 | ||
| *Wood block set- kid’s toy | $2.17 | 9/26/22 | ||
| *Japanese Stein 1 | $3.25 | 9/26/22 | ||
| *Japanese Stein 2 | $4.33 | 9/26/22 | ||
| *Satellite Puzzle | $2.37 | 11/28/22 | ||
| *Tealight | $2.37 | 11/30/22 | ||
| *Board Game | $3.78 | 1/4/23 | ||
| *Painter’s puzzle | $3.78 | 1/30/23 | ||
| *Roblox characters | $5.94 | 1/30/23 | ||
| *New Hard Drive | $5.94 | 2/9/23 | 5/27/23 | $11.61 |
| *Logitech Ergonomic Mouse 1 | $10.27 | 2/9/23 | ||
| *Antique? vase | $8.11 | 2/21/23 | ||
| *Teapot | $5.94 | 3/3/23 | ||
| *Antique Plates | $7.56 | 3/19/23 | ||
| *Marriage book/game | $8.11 | 3/24/23 | ||
| *Rollerblades | $16.77 | 4/1/23 | ||
| *Granite Cutting Blades (6) | $48.65 | 4/4/23 | ||
| *TI BA II Plus calculator | $5.94 | 4/5/23 | ||
| *Crystal bowl | $5.94 | 4/10/23 | ||
| *Perfume bottle | $8.11 | 4/10/23 | ||
| *Traumlicht candle holder | $3.78 | 4/10/23 | ||
| *Japanese Doll | $2.70 | 4/24/23 | ||
| *Dyson Vaccum | $18.94 | 4/24/23 | ||
| *Pair of Shoes | $37.86 | 5/4/23 | ||
| *Casserole dish | $8.11 | 5/17/23 | ||
| *2 Caleur Coffee mugs | $5.39 | 5/22/23 | ||
| *Nike Lebron XII Shoe | $27.15 | 5/22/23 | ||
| *Nike Air Jordan V.5 Canvas | $27.11 | 5/22/23 | ||
| * Air Jordan Flight Remix Wolf Grey | $42.50 | 5/24/23 | ||
| Underinvested | $21.55 | |||
| Total inventory amount | $384.35 |