I didn’t go out to look for new items for a little while. On July 20th I went out and got two more items to flip. These items are more expensive like the biscuit form that I purchased on June 29th. The first item is silver plated vase which I paid $4.64 for. The second item is a two piece set of serving bowl and tray.
My thought on the silver plated vase was with the price of silver being as it high as it is at around $18 an ounce I could sell this to a silver metal shop for at least what I paid. This means the risk of the item is almost zero in my mind. I have not done this before with a piece like this, but know this is a potential out to get my money back to reinvest again, if it does not sell. Multiple ways to get your money back and make a profit are always good things to have when you are flipping. I should be able to double my money on this item when it would sell. That is always my goal when buying items at this price point level. If I can sell all of my initial inventory from the change jar then I’ll have about $70 in inventory as I reinvest.
Serving bowl and platter
The serving platter and bowl together cost $9.29. I could have sold each separately, but think they will sell for more together. Again, I think this will allow me to double my money on what they cost. These two items together put me slightly over the total I started with by $.44. I am going to try and stay as close to the amount as I had when I make purchases, but with a $.44 overage I am not worried about it. If I looked around my car there was this amount in the cup container. I may use additional change to do this later to help buy more as the change builds back up, but for now I am going to show the overage and let items sell to make up for overages.
On June 29 another trip to Goodwill allowed me to purchase seven items for the initial purchases of the change jar flip inventory. I purchased five puzzles, a 3 Hole punch, and a biscuit form. My thoughts on puzzles continues the same as before. I believe these will be a reasonable item to flip for the three reasons I wrote about on the June 13th post. Two of the puzzles are by Ceaco and cost $1.18 each. Another puzzle is fifty percent off of the $1.18, and only cost me $.60. It was a puzzle of the globe. The fourth puzzle is of a music album cover and cost $1.18. The fifth puzzle is of Iowa and also cost $1.18.
The three hole punch was $1.18. I believe I have made a mistake on the purchase of the three hole punch right after buying it. I looked more at pricing of it and realized with shipping I will likely not be able to compete against others selling them new. I will list in at a price level where I will not lose money. If I cannot sell it after a while I will try to find something else I can pair with it and sell it as a set of office supplies. I will need to keep an eye out for something to pair it with once other items have sold which will allow me to not lose out on what I’ve spent. This could be a bad decision, because I would be trying to cover a potential losing item buying investing more into it. This will require more thought from me as this flip adventure continues on.
3 Hole punch
The last item I bought was a biscuit form. I spent $7.03 on this item. These were selling for money than $20 online and I feel this will be the first larger item purchase which could get close to doubling the amount of money easily on a larger item. Once looking more online I do have some flipper’s remorse on this. I could have bought six more items which would allow for a higher turn over on them and have put me at an equivalent level of profit with less risk. I think this item will sell at a certain point though and free up the initial amount put into it. Almost 20% of the change jar initial flip amount in this one item is part of the way flipping goes early on a lot of times.
Total inventory sell through expectations at this point
At this point I have 11 items. This means I could expect a first sale at some time in the realistic future. I’m guessing with eleven items online I should average selling an item every 30 to 60 days. To get to a high level of expectation of selling something every month I believe I need at least 30 items based on my previous history of flipping. Sell through rates in my experience with inventories have been around 3% of inventory a month, if the inventory is in good condition and properly listed.
On June 27, I went to a Goodwill again and made two more purchases. These fall into the same category I had purchased in before of puzzles. I found two more puzzles I thought would make a good flip based on comparing prices. These were more expensive than the other three puzzles I had purchased before. This could be a mistake early on at this attempt of flipping the change jar money, because I do not have experience in flipping any puzzles before. However, when you are flipping you have to experiment in buying different types of items to see if you can understand the margins you can get on them. If you don’t experiment by buying other types of items you will not find the right type of thing you like or want to flip. If theses prove to be a mistake I will end up grouping them together after time passes to get the intitial value out of them. If it is not a mistake I will continue to buy puzzles and focus on building up the inventory of these. Another good part about puzzles is they do not take up much room to store while you wait for them to sale. They are in a rack with space which was not being used. The first puzzle cost $3.45 and is a NFL puzzle. The second was a puzzle of Ireland and cost $2.37. The Ireland puzzle is still in its original wrapping and can be sold as new. This is a bonus to find something in new condition at Goodwill. I hope to be able to make over $5 profit on this item with it being in new condition. Being able to sell something as new is the reason I purchased this. At this point I’m at five puzzles overall and they seem to be easy to find.
On June 13, 2022 I went to a Goodwill again with the same thing in mind as my previous plan. I was going to buy some more items around $2 to be able to get as many items as possible with the initial amount of $36.38 I had.
What was bought this time
This time I purchased two more puzzles to add on the the inventory . One is manufactured by White Puzzles and is of Autumn. The other is by White also and is a bridge. These items are all used and in good quality when I buy them. If I buy items in poor quality I will not be able to resell them. People in the secondary market are looking for good quality products just like those people who are buying new items. Most people buying in the secondary market are looking for a better use of their money, but to still get value out of what they have. The puzzles cost me $1.18 each with tax. This was the same amount I paid for the first one.
2nd purchases
Why did I buy more puzzles
I do not remember flipping puzzles before in my history but there are few reasons why I bought more of them. First, the price point to be able to build up to a decent inventory amount at $1.18 per item was appealing to me at this point in the initial purchases phase. Second, puzzles are realitivly light. In my experience of having flipped a lot of items you can make a mistake when you buy something that looks good on a sales level, but if it is very heavy you will possibly end up losing money shipping it. Third, if something like puzzles do not move after a while I can package them together to move them all at once and get my money in the inventory to turnover.
I started with the idea to do this when I looked at my change jar and thought about cashing the money in at the bank and depositing it into my account. The change built up over a year and half to two years worth of time, but I don’t know the exact time frame. Looking at the change I thought, “Well, maybe I can go have a meal at restaurant with this.” This thought didn’t do much for me honestly. Then it came to me, because I’ve flipped plenty of items before and started with small amounts before but never tracked my progress in a medium like this. I had the thought to start this site, but took action first on buying an item with the money I had in the jar that I could flip. I wanted to see how much I could turn $36.38 into over time. I have no expectation what this will turn into, but it is a fun way for me to track what can happen with a small amount of money over time.
What I did first
I got in my car on June 6, 2022 drove to the bank and deposited the money in my account then drove to a Goodwill that was close to me. I knew I would need to find something that was very inexpensive and that I could at least double my money on. I planned on buying something for $2 or under because with the starting amount at this level I need to be able to buy as many items as possible to create a good turnover of inventory.
1st purchase
First Purchase – Disney Puzzle
I walked around the Goodwill for about 10 minutes to look at items and see what was available. As I was looking at puzzles I looked up some online to see what they were reselling at and found a Disney Kinkade Puzzle for $1.09 plus tax. This one looked like a good option based on what I saw others having sold for. I decided to get this one and so began the first Change Jar Flip.
Moving Forward
I will make other updates as items are bought and doing a rolling total on the total invested in items and what the cash balance might be. I’ll make updates when there is a new purchase or sale of an item or items. At a certain point when multiple items sale in a week I’ll do a weekly update. This will likely take a while before this happens, because the inventory in number of items will need to be large to ensure items move every week frequently.
Flipping is a process of finding an item or items which are selling at a discount to what they can be sold in a market. Flipping at the most basic level is finding discrepancies in pricing and then buying, or bartering, so you can realize the amount between the two prices.
Flipping money
History of Flipping
There is no known date when first flip would have occurred. This would be because flipping occurs as a concept to humans when they perceive someone has something of value they would like and are willing to exchange something in return. This is done by children at a very young age when they make their first trade. Think back to a time you had a toy one of your friend’s had and you wanted it, but your friend wanted something in return. You had made a flip you felt brought you more value. You already understand how to flip at a basic level. Everyone enters into these types of transactions on a daily basis whether you are consciously going through it in your mind or not at the moment.
History of Money over Time
As society has progressed, we have used different forms of value for items to make exchanges of value easier. Shells, stones, gold, fiat currency, and digital currency are all evolutions of ways to make exchanges smoother and allow value to be shown in a much easier way. Without a form of value given to something then the ability to exchange items and services freely in a society is a more difficult process.
Importance of a Currency in Society
The need for there to be a currency which a large portion of the population uses and believes has a value is an important factor in our current economic systems. As well, with an establishment of a currency many goods in a society might not have a mechanism to be provided, like common goods, such as roads, and parks. When you participate in transactions on a normal basis you help to provide a mechanism which keeps the value of a currency stable and moving forward for everyone involved. While the overarching interplay of all of these transactions might not seem like it plays into flipping, it does. With people entering into transactions with the goal of profit it makes it so more money is created which can allow others the ability to pay for portions of what they need to live their lives.
Why Flipping is an Important Part of the Economy?
When people flip items to others for profit, they are helping to create the secondary markets for items which others find value in. This helps in a variety of ways by reselling those items. The first is this creates a value for a previously manufactured items which would otherwise end up in a landfill or destroyed in some way. This is a multiplier effect of goods and money in our society when resell happens. This means value can be had multiple times with items, instead of one user for it then the destruction of it. Second, when an item is resold, it creates profit for an individual that resold it hopefully. This profit can be used to buy other goods and services the individual desires. This is a secondary multiplier effect. Third, the person or business who decided to get rid of the item could have donated it, thrown it away, or sold it too. This party may or may not have made a profit when they liquidated the items, but they previously would have purchased the item new or on the secondary market. When they did, they added to the economy with their purchase. When all three of these portions work together a good has created a situation where the buying and selling of it helps the overall economy and each individual with the value they received by their purchase. This doesn’t take into account how the individual would have earned the money initially to be able to purchase the good.
Here is an example. Say Sherry has $5 she earned and would like to go buy an item or items she can flip and make a profit on, because she is industrious and likes to take small amounts of money she has and invest them into something she can build up into a larger inventory over time. She goes for a walk to her local thrift store to see what they have for sale for $5 and under. While she is there, she sees a nice flower vase for $2, a book for $1, and another book for $2. She takes the time to find out how much similar items are selling for. She purchases the items with her $5 and lists the items for sale. The items sale after a little while. One book makes her $2 in profit, the other book makes $3 in profit, and the vase makes her $3 in profit. Let’s assume the original buyers of the items paid the following: the vase $20, book one $10, book two $10. The following table shows the amount of the original purchase price, amount to the donation store, profit made by the reseller, and the total effect as a percentage the reselling added to the economy.
Item
Original Sales Price
Profit
Original Buyer
Vase
$20
0
Book One
$10
0
Book Two
$10
Donation Location
Cost
Profit
Vase
0
$2
Book One
0
$1
Book Two
0
$2
Reseller
Cost
Profit
Vase
$2
$3
Book One
$1
$2
Book Two
$2
$3
Total Amount in economy
Original Sales Price
Total in Secondary Market
Total Amount
Secondary Market Effect
Vase
$20
$5
$25
25%
Book One
$10
$3
$13
30%
Book Two
$10
$5
$15
50%
Monetary effect in economy in reselling example
There are also other factors in here which could be added to the secondary market effect on the economy by reselling like the wages earned by the original manufacturer’s employees of the item, wages at the donation location, fees earned by the online marketplace, and many more. The example above is a simple explanation of the potential power of secondary reselling on the economy.
