David went from being bankrupt to selling over 2 million dollars in phones and electronics on eBay over the last 6 years. He has helped hundreds of people grow their eBay business through buying and selling phones off classified sites and reselling them on eBay.

Interesting Notes

• Broken cell phones sell fast on eBay!! Dave knows it because when he list it on eBay, it sells within a day or two.
• Before he did this interview, he listed $7,000 phones. He sold $200 within five minutes. And he expects to sell $3,000 overnight. This thing happens every single week.
• He believes that eBay has so much built-in traffic. With eBay, he gets to sell his products fast. Unlike a physical store where he has to talk to customers, people are already searching for stuff on eBay. When he hears the "cha-ching" on his phone, he would print the label on eBay, wrap the item in a bubble mailer, and it is done.
• Dave loves eBay because he could move so much inventory so fast. It also takes a whole selling part of the business away from him. It also enables him to focus on what he is good at, that is, acquiring inventory at a price where he can make a healthy profit.
• He gets his inventory by placing ads on classified sites - places like Facebook Groups and Craigslist. He would say, "We pay cash for phones". Then people would call and sell him their broken phones. He would offer them a price where he could make a 40% to 60% profit.
• Ten years ago, Dave and his wife had lost their house and car. He was dead broke and lived in his mom's basement. He worked from their home as a carpet cleaner and made $300 a week. He wanted to have a business that he could do part-time.
• The eBay business intrigued him because he likes the work at home idea. He enjoys working from their house. And to sell online looks exciting to him. So he started selling stuff on eBay. He started finding stuff from yard sales.
• The first item he sold is an old antique flag that had 48 stars instead of 50. He bought it for $20 but sold it for $.99 with free shipping. He spent three months finding junks at yard sales that did not pay off.
• On their wedding anniversary, he found a lady selling a designer purse - a Coach. At that time, Coach was a big thing. The lady sells the purse at $30. He bought it for his wife as a present on their wedding anniversary.
• He thought of selling purses on eBay but was afraid because of his previous experience. He looked at what is selling on eBay and found out that purses sell for $230. He realized that he needs to go for high-dollar value items. The next week, he found four Coach purses at the yard sale. He bought the purses for $15 per piece and made $200 over the weekend. That was a huge, life-changing moment for him. The next weekend he went out again. With a little more practice, he was able to make $400. Selling designer purses turned into a little eBay business for four months.
• Dave wanted to expand his little eBay business and have something consistent to sell. So he started posting ads on Craigslist saying, "I will buy your used cell phones and electronics, cash!". He wanted to try and see if he can get anything from it as the purses do.
• He made $10,000 in his first month on electronics. With that, he switched from purses to electronics. His business blew up from there. In his first eight months on eBay, he made a quarter of a million in sales.
• He does not advertise for cracked or broken phones. He advertised for phones in general. Though people sell him phones in good condition, there are others who sell him cracked ones. He accepted those because he learned from American Pickers that anything with a low emotional attachment usually is most profitable. It made him think, "who has an emotional attachment to cracked cell phones?" Then he realized that one can let it go so much cheaper, as cheap as $30. And it can be sold to eBay for $150, a massive profit margin!
• Dave's philosophy is sharing information. He believes in the Abundance Mentality, that is, there is enough to go around for everybody. He never gives second thoughts on the competition. He worries about doing better for himself.
• Now, he trained people on how to flip phones on eBay. And by him training people, they share ideas with him too. When he helped people do better, they also share the good things with him. So, from $20,000 a month on eBay two years ago, now he is averaging $30,000 a month.
• He has trained over 70 people who have hit over $10,000 in a month flipping phones on eBay. He put them on his YouTube channel to be recognized and become a superstar.
• He also flips laptops, tablets, Mac books, and iPad. He does not flip old and vintage items because it distracts him from his main business. He focuses on what he knows, that is, electronics genre, and do lots of it. He thinks that he would hurt his sales if he would try to diversify too much because he would not be so focused.
• To Dave, electronics is cool because it is all the same. An iPhone is still an iPhone. Unlike with purses, you have to make it look pretty first and take at least 10 pictures.
• When he lists an iPhone, everybody knows what it is. So he would take the phone out of the case, slap it on the table, and take a picture of the front and back, and it is done. Unless there is severe damage, he takes a picture of that.
• In shipping his items, he would wrap it in one or two layers of bubble wraps. Then he would stick it on a bubble mailer.
• For his flipping business, Dave uses only eBay tool to value an item. He tries to keep his business simple. He finds that complicated things make business worst. He goes to eBay search and do appraisals. He looked into the sold listings and find out what something is worth.
• eBay makes sure that sellers think about their buyers. Dave too believes in customer service. He always gives great customer service in every business that he has. If there is an item that has an issue, he will be happy to take it back as a return. He gives back the money to the customers. Then he will resell the returned item to whoever wants it to get his money back.
• Dave runs his business with this business philosophy: WORK LESS, MAKE MORE! He has built systems and structures. He hired people to work for him. Now, he runs four businesses completely automated.
• The hardest part of a beginner entrepreneur is the Discipline in Structure. As an entrepreneur, you have to train yourself to think like you work for your bills. Think like your mortgage or your credit card payment is your boss. All those are telling you that you need to go to work today.
• Dave has been selling on eBay for seven years. He has made over two million dollars. And he would still continue to sell on eBay.
• Flipping phones on eBay is a business that he has done a lot and mastered. He has been training people for three years now on how to do it. He has thousands of students on his paid course. He has 20,000 people on his Facebook Group. He wants to help more entrepreneurs grow, and expand from there. He might get into bigger things in the future.
• His life now is helping as many new entrepreneurs get into a business, make some money, and find a profit. People who are making $10 an hour in their jobs and who tried several ways to make money and failed, take his course. Two months later, these people are making $10,000 a month.
• Last year, a kid with a $50 in his pocket, enrolled in his course. Now, one year later, the kid has a $100 grand in his bank account.
• Dave feels good to be able to take someone from a struggling position. And he wants to do it for more people.

Advice, Tips, and Tricks

• Focus on what you know and do lots of it. If you are selling $5,000 or $10,000 on vintage coins or something, you don't have to switch on flipping phones. You have to learn how to sell $20,000 or $30,000 on that something you sell. Figure out how to do it. Then stick to what you know.
• Make sure you have the right keywords for whatever you are trying to sell. It has to be what the buyer would search for on eBay. Make sure you have the right keywords so that you would attract the buyers you are looking for.
• Make sure you don't oversell in your listing so you would not get a bunch of returns. Even if the phone is in good condition, Dave's listing would say, "has slight scratches on it". This way nobody can get the phone and say "hey, there is a tiny scratch" and send it back to him. He undersells his listings rather than oversell. It is wrong to think that the more you hide something in the listing, the better it sells. Make sure your listing comes professionally. If you are over-promising, people can see it. People trust you more when you put something negative in your listing. He would say, "has some light scratches but works well". Winning people's trust makes them more willing to buy from you.
• Make a structure for your own business even if you are the only person working. For example, posting ads to get the inventory. Your structure is to make sure to post 15 ads each day. So you post 15 ads every single day first thing in the morning. Make sure to take in calls to buy the items and make so many offers. Have a structure to remind you that you are going to hit a certain amount each day. Doing so creates consistency in your sales and in your business.
• For whatever item you are looking to flip, find three same items using the Sold Listings on eBay search. Then find what people are paying for and take the average of those three. That would give you the accurate picture of what the market is going to pay.
• If you want to be a flipper on eBay, you have to be very good at doing appraisals. You have to be very good at finding out what an item is going to be worth. The better you find out, the more accurate you are in finding out what something is worth. The better off you can make and be more confident to flip an item means more profit in your pocket.

Quotes

• "eBay has so much traffic built in!"
• "Iron sharpens iron!"
• "eBay is all about buying. You made money when you buy the item."
• "The key to business is: work less, make more."
• "You've got to really hone in on something and be really good in at least one thing." - Ron

Contact Information

• eBay Store: Treasurehunter121680
• Website: Flip phones for profit
• YouTube: Win At Life with Dave

Sponsors

• Norila Digital Marketing