5 Ways To Turn $30 Into $300 by Flipping Items
Written by
Brooke Barley
Edited by
Rebekah Evans
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With a little ingenuity, spending $30 can earn upwards of $300 as a side gig. The trick is knowing what to look for and how to turn it into something more valuable. Looking through places like Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and local thrift shops can help people find items for cheap. Here’s what to do with those items to earn a profit.
Check Clearance Racks
One trick is to go to a mall, thrift stores, outlet stores, Nordstrom Rack or Ross and search for brand names. According to Poshwatch, the top five selling brands on Poshmark are Louis Vuitton, Free People, Chanel, Lululemon Athletica and Gucci. When searching through the clearance racks, look for these top brands, then sell the pieces for a higher price on Poshmark to make a profit. For example, these Free People shorts from Nordstrom Rack are selling for $19.97, but regularly sell for $40. Shoppers can easily purchase these from Nordstrom Rack, then sell them on Poshmark for twice the price.
Restore Furniture
This might seem daunting for those with no experience, but there are plenty of tutorials online that can help. Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist often have postings for old, broken furniture people are trying to get rid of. Looking at Facebook Marketplace, for example, there are plenty of nightstands between $1 and $30 and some would only need a paint job to look good as new.
One example from Pretty Distressed documented how it’s best to look for smaller pieces at first, like nightstands. From there, buyers can clean, sand, paint and add new hardware to make it look as good as new. From there, flippers can sell it for a large profit.
Look for Musical Instruments
Once someone gets the hang of cleaning furniture, it’s easy to move over to instruments. Often, people will sell their instruments for cheap online. Usually, these just need a deep cleaning, then can be sold again for a profit. Other sellers might be getting rid of an instrument because it’s broken or missing strings. Some broken guitars on Facebook Marketplace sell for as low as $20. YouTube and TikTok can offer tutorials on how to fix these. Then, people can sell them to make more than they bought them for.
Repair Electronics
For those who like puzzles, this could be a very lucrative new hobby. Again, this might take a little self-education at first, but then flippers will know how to repair their own electronics when they break in the future. One Reddit user named jcdenton10 in the r/Flipping subreddit said they easily repaired a sound system and turned $10 into over $150. Search Facebook Marketplace for “broken” and find computers, speakers, cameras and record players starting at $30.
Take Advantage of End-of-Season Sales
See all those items on sale after the holidays? Buy them up and sell them for just slightly cheaper than they go during the season. Customers will think they’re getting a bargain by paying less than they would in stores and sellers will make money because they’re still charging more than they paid for the items. For example, this set of two resin Santas originally sold for $55.99, but is selling at Target right now for $31.99. Come holiday season, sellers can put these online and ask for $50. This way, they’d make a profit and still be selling them for less than they sell for at Target.
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