My first "flipping" attempt in a while... A FAIL or not?

I'm not talking about this kind of flip.  But here's some funny, and some cringe worthy, flip fails, for those of you too lazy to try to go make money flipping stuff for profit.

"Flipping" is today's buzzword for buying something cheap, and then reselling it fairly quickly for a profit.

When I was a kid, back in the dark ages of the 1970's, my dad did this all the time, but he called it "wheeling and dealing."  I went with him to gun shows from the time I was maybe 8 or 9, and with both of my parents to garage sales, yard sales, and flea markets on a regular basis.  My mom was a consumer shopper at these, looking for items she would use at home.  But my dad was a wheeler/dealer from way back.  He never tried to make big money doing this, it was more for fun.  But he nearly always made some money.  I learned haggling and wheeling and dealing by following my dad around as he did this.  I'll talk about some of his better deals in future posts.

If you read this blog, you know I'm homeless right now, since I escaped North Carolina and landed in Richmond, Virginia randomly about 3 months ago.  Now there's a whole big bad stereotype that comes with the term "homeless," and I don't fit much, if any, of it.  I don't drink anymore.  I'm not an alcoholic who had to quit, I just worked as a taxi driver for years, driving drunks home every night.  I worked  7 days a week, got random drug an alcohol tests, and basically just didn't drink during those years.  I'm not opposed to a beer or two every now and then, but I don't really like beer, so I just don't drink.  I also don't do any drugs, prescription or street drugs.  I also am a talented artist, who actually sells work on a regular basis.  And I'm a small business minded guy, with entrepreneurial tendencies, at heart.  I wake up wanting to do something cool to make a little money.  So I'm not the typical street bum, although most people see me as just another bum, because I look like one these days.

So, lame ass stereotypes aside, my way out of homelessness here in Richmond is to create an income, from zero, that will rent me a room and get me going again.  I'm working on getting my artwork selling in a new city.  I'm selling some, but it's just not steady money yet.

But I've also been watching a ton of Gary Vaynerchuk videos (like Trash Talk in the next post), and I've been getting the urge to do some wheeling and dealing again.  I bought storage units and sold the stuff back in California for years, before the TV shows about it.  I was trying to turn that into a full time business to escape taxi driving, but couldn't make it happen.  When you drive a taxi, that's all you do, you're always in a certain spot waiting for fares, all day, every day.  There's no down time to really do decent flipping.

Right now, I'm in a new city that I don't know well.  I don't have a car, so garage and yard sales are pretty much out of the question for the moment.  This also holds me back on a lot of Craigslist deals.  I can't buy storage auctions, because I have no place to store anything.  Even my own clothes are in a duffel bag, in a trash bag, stashed in the bushes right now.  Oh, and I'm just scraping by money wise, panhandling for food money at times, when needed.

Even with all that working against me, I decided to try a type of flipping I did a bit in NC, thrift stores.  So I took a bus across town to the Goodwill Outlet store here.  Unlike normal Goodwill stores, most of the stuff at outlets stores is piled in huge bins, not organized, and not priced.  You dig through, bin by bin, grab what you want, and you pay by the pound.  They weigh the stuff at the register, and you pay a standard rate for most stuff, and a lower rate for books, because they're heavy.  At this Goodwill outlet, they have some things priced, and they also auction at ton of stuff off, so the outlet bins aren't as good as the Winston-Salem outlet store was in NC.  But there's still stuff to find.

I needed new shoes, because the soles were literally ripping off of mine, so that was priority one this day, and the main reason I went to Goodwill.  I found a pair of shoes really quick, luckily I have small feet in a popular size.  Then I started digging through the bins.  Here's my three finds from my first trip.

 This is an L.L. Bean canvas garment bag.  Looked like it had never been used.  No wheels, which most people want on luggage today, but you can store suits or women's dresses in it when traveling, throw it on your shoulder, and go.  It's still highly functional.  I got it for $1.00, it wasn't weighed.  Seriously, one fucking dollar! These sold on Ebay for $39 at the time.  But, I don't have the resources to sell on Ebay at the moment.  I tried Craigslist.  No luck.  It wound up getting wet because I had it stored in a trash bag in the bushes, and it got nailed when the remains of Hurricane Michael blew through town.  Then it got moldy.  So I tossed it.  One dollar loss, but good find.

 Wahl Color Pro hair clippers.  Research showed these are basically a consumer version of the high end Wahl clippers.  These actually worked, I plugged them in at Goodwill and shaved my arm hair to test them.  These were weighed with the item below, and I paid 41 cents for them.  The whole kit, with guards and plastic box, was $22 to $35 on Ebay, I couldn't find a finished sale.  I had the clippers, no guards or box.  I put them on Craigslist for $15.  No luck.  So I took them to the FBM/Powers Bike Shop D.I.Y. World Championships BMX contest last weekend.  I painted them gold (theme for prizes at the comp), and held an impromptu best trick contest on the curved wall ride.  I'm out 41 cents, but I had a blast, and Adem, the guy who won my best trick contest, had me autograph the clippers, since I produced some BMX videos BITD that are moderately legendary now.  Priceless. You can see Adem do a can-can rail slide at 9:28 in the clip at that link.

 I was so stoked I found this, COMPLETE, in the bins full of crap at Goodwill.  It's a cardboard scene of Snoopy's dog house, that you see in the bottom of the bottom pic.  Then you pull the vinyl characters off above, and place them in the scene, where they stick right to it, and peal off to change them.  I paid 40 cents for this.  It's the 2007, 35 year anniversary remake, of the original 1972 set.  They sell for $9-$10 on Ebay.  I tried Craigslist, no luck, and I gave it away at the BMX contest.

So, from a technical standpoint, these items were a flip fail.
I'm out a whopping $1.82 (plus tax).  These items were actually selling on Ebay for about $68 total.  So I got good deals, just couldn't manage the flip sales while homeless.  But it's a win to me, because I found that there really are good finds at the Goodwill outlet store here.  I just need to get a storage unit so I can store stuff safely, and I've already got re-signed up on Ebay, so I can get to flipping soon.  I also need to get a new bank account to use my Paypal, I'm working on that, too.

Plus, in the bottom of the bottom pic, you see my feet.  Those feet are in the $100 Nike Free Run shoes (in really good condition) that I also bought at the Goodwill outlet store for $3.00.  I'm wearing a $3.00 sweater I got at Goodwill right now, an Eddie Bauer jacket I got for about $1.75 at a Goodwill outlet in NC, and I have my art supplies in a messenger bag I also got for $3.00 at this Goodwill outlet store.

So, my point is, flipping in alive, well, and definitely possible, here in Richmond, Virginia.  It's possible where you live, too.  If you need some extra cash, are an artist who needs to supplement your income or suppoert your habit, or just like bargain hunting, check out the next post, where Gary Vaynerchuk, owner of a $280 million a year media company, goes garage sale hunting. 

Bum to Bankroll: Building a small business starting with no money in 2018

Here's Gary Vaynerchuk, real life successful entrepreneur, online marketing legend, and the first guy to call you out on your bullshit excuses about not making money.  He's got a huge following online and social media, and yet he still goes garage sale shopping... for fun.  Why?  Because his family immigrated here when he was three, and he grew up buying and selling stuff to make money.  He came from the world where buying and selling stuff had to make money.  He came out with this challenge last year for his followers who were starting with little or no money. What's hot on Ebay has changed in a year, but the game of "flipping", as people call it today, has not changed.

So what does this have to do with me and you?

If you're in a career you're fairly stoked on, and life and money are good for you, then this post isn't for you.  But if you're struggling with 1, 2, or 3 low paying jobs, or you have no job and can't find one, or you just need extra income, this may be for you.

As for me...  I landed here in Richmond, Virginia, completely randomly, with $3 in my pocket, less than two months ago.  I'll get into that story in another post.  If you follow this blog, you know I've been working to build my Sharpie artwork into a business for a couple of years now.  And it's still not a legit business, but it is income.  I make money selling my drawings on a regular basis.  That's awesome.  But, I'm still homeless at the moment, and and as cool as "Street Life" sounds in hip hop videos, it largely sucks in reality.  I mean, I'm a dirtbag by nature, but I do like taking showers on a regular basis.  And that's not happening at the moment.  Besides the smell (peroxide helps with that), the sketchy sleep, lack of sleep, crappy fast food-based diet, and hauling 30 pounds of junk everywhere, really take a toll on the body.  On the plus side, I've lost 14 pounds since I got to Richmond.  But I'm still well over 300 pounds at the moment.

Since I use Facebook, this blog, and other platforms to promote my artwork, I listen to a ton of videos to educate myself on ideas, techniques, and nuances of social media promotion, marketing, and business.  In today's world, that's called "self-educating."  I stumbled across Seth Godin's videos and then books about 6 years ago, and he really understands how the internet has changed the business world.  Then I found Mitch Joel's book, CTRL ALT Delete, at the library, and learned a lot from him about business in the high tech, communication-rich age.  In an interview with Mitch online, I heard him mention Gary Vaynerchuk, a competitor of his in the digital marketing agency world.  Gary puts out an absurd amount of content about making money in today's world of smart phones, social media, the internet, and our hyper-connected world. 

His "day job," is trying to help huge corporations and brands sell shit in today's world.  But most of those companies are still run by old guys still thinking with a largely Industrial Age mentality.  Those huge companies spend $80 BILLION a year on TV ads, but don't stop to think that hardly anybody even sees, let alone watches, TV commercials in today's world.  So Gary's media company tries to shepherd them into getting their message out in relevant ways in today's fast changing, media soaked world.

The cool thing is that Gary, for his own reasons, gives you, me, and the world, pretty much the same advice for free.  The sales and marketing world is changing fast, and he's telling all of us who listen how to adapt and make use of it.  So I listen to Gary's stuff a lot.

Since I'm homeless since landing in Richmond, I have to literally carry everything I own around with me all the time.  I have a small, bookbag-sized backpack, a larger dufffle bag over my shoulder, and my big 18" X 24" sketchpad wrapped in trash bags to keep it dry from the rain.  I had this amazing backpack for ten years, that I bought in a California swap meet for $4.  But it finally died right before I came here from North Carolina.  So I had a cheap ass little backpack that was already wearing out last week.  I needed a new one.

I know that Goodwill is a great place to get backpacks cheap, especially Goodwill outlet stores.  Why?  Because at the outlet stores, you pay for stuff by the pound.  And little backpacks are really light.  So I Googled it, and found the Goodwill outlet here in Richmond.  It was a long bus ride, and a bit of a walk, but I got there, put my own bags next to the register so I could go shop, and I went treasure hunting.

Here's the thing about Goodwill outlet stores, everything is put into big bins, kind of separated by category (clothes, shoes, books, random stuff), and you have to dig through the bins to see if there's anything you want.  I had two goals that day, and less than $10 to spend.  I needed a hoodie (or sweatshirt, or maybe a sweater) that would fit my 320 pound self.  That's a tough one.  Big guy clothes don't last at thrift stores.  But it's starting to get chilly, and it was a necessity.  I also needed a new small backpack, preferably one that would last more than two months.

The outlet was smaller than I imagined for a big city, and it was crowded.  Personally, I hate shopping for clothes.  I'm a shorts and T-shirts guy, and rarely buy clothes.  But it's been getting cold, and I needed some kind of sweatshirt.  I dug for maybe fifteen minutes through bins of mostly women's clothes of all kinds.  I was getting a little bummed that I might not find anything my size.  Then BAM, under skirts and jeans and tops I found a 4XL, light blue sweater.  SCORE.

Now I've always been a bit of a flipper, a wheeler/dealer as we called it when I was a kid.  I went with my dad to gun shows and garage sales as a kid, learning the basics of bartering as he bought and sold things, and nearly always made a little money.  It was a hobby for him, a kind of treasure hunt, and I caught that bug.  Years later, I back in 2003 or so, I stumbled across storage unit auctions, before the TV shows about them came out.  I bought units and sold the stuff on the side while working as a taxi driver.

Wandering around the Goodwill Outlet Store, I got the itch to find stuff to flip again.  I love the treasure hunt part of it.  I did find a backpack, a really good quality, High Sierra one, and a good messenger bag, too.  But at this store, they weren't sold by the pound.  I paid $2.99 for my backpack, and left the messenger bag they wanted $3.99 for. I almost felt I was being ripped off, getting a $20 back pack for $3, rather than the $1.75 it would have cost by the pound.  So I found both things I needed, and a still wrapped Harley Quinn poster, for $5.77.  Not bad.

Since then, I've been watching flipping videos quite a bit on You Tube.  As I thought about it, and listened to GaryVee's hype on flipping as the best way to make money with a small dollar starting point, I started thinking about flipping stuff in addition to selling my art.

So that's where I'm at.  I might sell a drawing today, which would give me some money to go hit Goodwill again.  I also have a drawing to start tomorrow, and will be getting a deposit for that one to get started.  So even though I don't have a place to live, an activated phone, or have Ebay as a viable selling option, I'm going to try to make a few extra bucks flipping stuff, as I work on my art as well.

I have to start making a fair amount of money soon to get a roof over my head, and start rebuilding my life.  And I'm going to spend more time blogging about my journey from "Bum to Bankroll" (that's actually a blog title I started once, then decided against).  Whatever your situation is, you're probably a bit better off to start with than I am.  If you're willing to read these long posts, hopefully you'll learn from my dealings and that will help you not only get motivated, but make some side money as well.