If you’re wanting to make more money, it’s a great idea to start flipping phones. You can flip phones for profit either as a full-time job or a profitable side hustle. Many people have started their own businesses by flipping other people's phones. If you've heard of house flipping, you can probably imagine what phone flipping is.
Phone flipping means buying used smartphones and fixing or flipping these devices to resell them. Considering the popularity of these devices and the return on investment repair professionals make, it's understandable to want to learn about entering into this type of profession.
One of the main things people want to learn about is how to flip cell phones for profit. Fortunately, we have lots of information in this guide that’s going to help you.
In this post, you’re going to learn about:
Organic advertising methods to boost sales
Paid advertising methods to kickstart profits
Properly pricing phones to make the most profit
Where you should sell your smartphones
Making the most profit from your listings
How to calculate your company’s profit margins
Avoiding selling mistakes that can eat into your company’s profits
A list of phone flipping experts you need to work with
Let’s get started with this guide on how to flip cell phones for profit!
Organic Advertising: Time-Tested and Cost-Effective
Source: Corporate Finance Institute
A major part of flipping phones for profit comes down to advertising your business. Without some kind of marketing strategy, it’s hard for people to know your company exists. Fortunately, we have tons of organic and paid advertising methods to help you out.
Essentially, organic advertising is a way to market your business without spending a lot of money. Organic marketing is a great way for you to start increasing your company’s exposure and making lots of profit.
Let’s get started by looking at how you can flip more phones by utilizing these organic marketing methods.
Create Content on Your Own Website
When it comes to creating a website, things are much easier than they used to be. You don’t need to have technical skills or a background in coding to create a website. Many popular websites like Weebly and WordPress make setting up a website easy.
If you have the know-how, time, and patience, you can find a profitable future through reselling phones through an eCommerce website you own.
Before you can start posting content on a website, it’s going to need a domain name. When it comes to choosing a domain name, you’ll need something that isn’t taken by someone else. Fortunately, domain registrars like Namecheap will let you know if a domain name is available or not.
The only drawback of creating a website is that, while it can be profitable, it will take time to start gaining traffic from an online audience. If you don’t want to wait weeks or months for a website to start being profitable, consider setting up a virtual shop on large eCommerce platforms like Trade-In Tech.
What’s great about having a website is that you can start creating pages full of content. If you want to utilize a content marketing strategy, start thinking about topics your customers might be interested in. It’s also a low-cost way for you to start gaining more customers.
For more tips on how to create a website, don’t miss our list of 15 website features to help you gain more customers.
Share Your Phone Flipping Content on Social Media Pages
While you’re creating a website or setting up your new Trade-In Tech member page, we also recommend creating social media pages for your business.
Once these pages are up, it’s time to let people know more about your business. Let the world know you’re purchasing and selling phones. Certain phone flippers use their social media pages to connect with both companies and consumers looking to sell their phones.
When it comes to creating social media accounts, it’s best to stick with platforms that are popular. We recommend making social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and Pinterest. If you come across other social media platforms that look popular, it’s a good idea to make an account on these platforms.
Use your company’s social media pages to list information about your business and post lots of pictures. When it comes to posting, it’s always great to post content once a day. If possible, at least try posting content to these pages once every few days. The more quality content you post, the more chances you have to gain new followers and increased engagement.
You might also consider paid advertising on these social platforms. With paid advertising, your company pays the social platform after someone clicks or sees your ads. These rates and types of advertising allowed on each social media platform varies. But, we’ll cover that topic in the paid advertising section below this one.
Learn Basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
One of the best ways to increase awareness about your business is with SEO, which stands for search engine optimization. Essentially, SEO lets search engines like Google and others know about your company’s website and your business itself.
In the past, trying to learn SEO was quite complicated. Fortunately, there are now endless resources to help you learn how to properly optimize a website. A few popular websites to help get you started are Moz, Backlinko, and Ahrefs. You can also check out a wide range of SEO tutorials on YouTube.
There are also paid websites that teach students entire courses about SEO. If you have room in your budget for these courses, they could be beneficial for your company. A few popular online learning websites are Skillshare and Udemy.
What’s great about SEO is that learning beginner tips can help set you far ahead of your competition. If you enjoy this type of work, there are many tutorials to help boost your skills even further. Soon, you might find that you become an SEO professional.
If you’re interested in learning more about search engine optimization, don’t miss our recent post about the best SEO tips for phone flippers.
Create and Build an Email List
One of the best, yet most often underutilized, ways to start gaining more profits is by having an email list. It’s understandable to wonder what makes having an email list so beneficial. Let’s answer this question with another question: wouldn’t it be nice to instantly let all of your customers know about sales or promotions?
Unfortunately, it can seem impossible to achieve this goal. Creating posts on social media might catch the eye of some of your customers. However, it’s unlikely that all of your customers and business partners will see these posts. You might also create a new website post about an upcoming sale, but what if everyone doesn’t see it?
Through email marketing, you can instantly get your company’s message into the inboxes of your customers. Considering that, it’s no wonder that a recent study found that 90% of marketers use email marketing to distribute their content.
But, how do you get started with email marketing? Here are a few steps you’ll need to take to start building a list of email subscribers.
Start Gathering Email Addresses
It would be great to start instantly sending out emails to a huge list of people. However, there are rules you must follow regarding email marketing. To help combat the growing problem of email spam, you’ll need to have explicit permission from someone to begin sending them emails.
While this might sound complicated, you can obtain the permission you need with a simple opt-in form. Many popular email services like Mailchimp, GetResponse, Constant Contact, and others allow you to easily create an opt-in box from scratch or by using one of their templates.
Once you have your opt-in created, you can embed it into your company’s website. Some companies prefer to have a pop-up appear asking people if they want to join your email list. Others like to have this opt-in placed in a sidebox of their respective websites. Consider trying multiple options to see which one gains you the most subscribers.
Create Your Messages
The next step is to start creating the messages you plan on sending to your email subscribers. You have a lot of freedom to make just about any message you want. However, the key to good email marketing comes down to making your message important.
Sending out lots of emails each day won’t do anything but annoy your subscribers, and they might opt out of future emails. Instead, aim to send out a few messages per week or one per day at most.
Another question you might have is what content should you include in your company’s emails? Most experts feel that it’s best to create a mixture of messages for your company’s subscribers. This means sending out some emails about promotions and others with informative content. If your emails are all about making a sale, it could turn away potential customers. By including a mixture of content, you’ll help ensure your subscribers remain subscribed.
A/B Test What You Send
If you haven’t heard of A/B testing, this is a way to send out multiple email messages to your subscribers. With this type of testing, you will have two (or more) email messages. Each email can have a customized headline, images, and over
What makes A/B testing so great is that it allows you to see which of your messages people are responding to. After you gain insights into what your subscribers respond to, you’ll learn how to adjust your future messages to get the best results.
Without A/B testing, you could be missing out on sending emails that have more value to your target audience.
Track Your Results
Speaking of results, it’s also important to track how your sent emails perform. Don’t worry; most email marketing platforms make this information easily available to you. Typically, you’ll see results listed as email open rates and click-throughs. An email open rate shows you what percentage of your subscribers are opening the emails you send. Click-through rates have to do with how many people clicked through the links found in your emails.
The Power of Paid Advertising for Flipping Phones Successfully
Source: Overdrive Interactive
Organic advertising is a cost-effective way to gain exposure that leads to more sales. However, there is also another type of marketing that might work even better to help your electronics business grow. Paid advertising is something that many businesses use. But, before you start utilizing this type of advertising, it’s helpful to learn about the many ways to do it.
Advertising Locally (Radio/TV/Billboards)
One of the oldest forms of paid advertising is marketing your business through radio or television advertisements as well as billboards. Considering the reach of these local advertising campaigns, they’re only best for companies that only want to advertise locally.
If you’re planning on making online sales and working nationwide or internationally, it’s probably best to skip local advertising. But, paid local advertising can be a great way to start gaining a following if you have the budget for it.
Paid Search Engine Advertisements
Most companies handle paid advertising by having their businesses appear in search engine listings. With a paid advertising strategy, your company can start appearing in prime locations on search engines. If you want to choose the most popular search engine, we recommend creating paid advertisements on Google Ads.
First, you’ll need to create a Google account if you don’t already have one. After setting up your Google account, you can now start choosing your keywords. A keyword is what someone will type while using a search engine. For instance, you might type in the keywords new iPhones, if you wanted to search for iPhones in new condition.
Your keywords will likely involve those revolving around phone flipping or flipping phones. To make things easier, Google will also include keywords like the ones you’re searching for. Once you have keywords, you can start creating the headline and body of your listing.
Per Google’s requirements, you will have 25 characters to use in your heading. So, it’s imperative to make every letter of your headline count. This is where you’ll include your most important and relevant information.
The next section is where you’ll type out the body of your ad. Again, you won’t have a lot of room here. So, it’s imperative to use your two lines or 35 character limit wisely. You might consider writing a few versions of your ad body to determine which one you like the most.
Finally, you’ll need somewhere for interested users to go. This is otherwise known as your landing page. This link should go to a relevant page on your website, taking users on the next logical part of their journey.
Paying for Advertising Space on Social Media Platforms
You don’t only have to utilize paid advertising on search engines. Instead, you can also advertise your company on social media. There are many social media websites that allow paid advertising, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and many others.
If you’re getting started with paid social media advertising, you might start out with Facebook. The popularity of this platform makes it easy to connect with other buyers and sellers. Plus, this platform’s paid advertising section is easy to get started with.
To get started with paid social media advertising, it’s best to first decide your company’s goal. For instance, some companies advertise on social media to increase followers, likes, and similar metrics. Other companies might choose social media advertising to get more people to their websites and offer pages.
Once you have a goal in mind, you can start creating your ad. In many ways, this process will be similar to how you create a Google Ad. Fortunately, social media advertising lets you get a little more creative.
Partnerships With Other Websites
Another popular paid advertising method is by partnering with other websites. Many companies choose this strategy when they find a website that has a good amount of monthly visitors. It’s also important to find a website with visitors that will be interested in your products.
If you are operating a phone flipping business, you would want to find websites that talk about smartphones. Trying to advertise your website on one that sells toys, for example, probably wouldn’t yield much in the way of results.
The key to success with this method is finding websites that will accept advertisements. If you see banners or other types of advertisements on these websites, you’ll know that you found the right ones.
Your next step is to find out if any websites that interest you will accept your advertisements. Fortunately, most websites have sections where you can contact them about advertising. All you need to do is to send a message letting them know about your business and what you want to advertise.
Understandably, these websites will want you to pay them for advertising space. Each website will likely have advertising costs that vary. Most websites will charge you to advertise with them for a month at a time. If you can find the right website with a targeted enough audience, paying for space on other websites can pay off in a big way.
Retargeting
You might also consider retargeting, which is one of the most popular paid advertising methods. Retargeting is the best way to target people who have already been to your website. So, it’s best to wait to start retargeting until your website has a decent amount of traffic.
With retargeting, advertisements for your company’s website “follow” users throughout various internet locations. For instance, you can set up a retargeting campaign that shows your advertisements on other websites and popular social media platforms. If you’ve ever seen advertisements from a business that show up everywhere on the internet, you’ve seen the power of retargeting.
After setting up your campaign, your advertisements can start showing up everywhere. This is beneficial because retargeting is a great way to ensure that your business stays at the forefront of a consumer’s mind.
Best of all, you don’t need to be a technical genius to set up a retargeting campaign. By using the Google Display Network (one of the most popular retargeting platforms), you can have your advertisements set up in an hour or so. If done correctly, paid advertisements are great ways to watch your company grow online.
Paid Video Advertisements
In the past, you’d need an entire camera crew to film a high-quality video. Fortunately, that’s no longer the case. Thanks to the popularity of platforms like YouTube, it’s easy to shoot videos for your company.
What’s also great is that you don’t need a million-dollar budget to start making these videos. If your computer has a webcam, you basically have everything you need. As your company keeps growing, you can decide if it’s worthwhile to purchase a new camera or microphone.
But, what should you make your videos about? There are a few approaches you can take to begin video marketing. The first thing you’ll need is an idea for your video. Since we’re talking about creating paid video advertisements, you don’t need to shoot a mini-movie. Instead, think of a few topics you can talk about for a minute or two.
If you want paid video advertisements as part of your marketing plan, it’s best to publish these videos to the number one most popular video-sharing website, YouTube. Before you can start publishing your videos, you’ll need to have a YouTube account. Fortunately, these accounts are free and fast to set up.
After your video is ready, you’ll need to upload it to YouTube. The exact amount of time it will take to upload your video depends on the size of it and your internet connection speeds. While your video uploads, you can add a title and description. It’s also a good idea to add relevant tags, which can help your videos show up in YouTube’s search results.
Pricing Phones To Sell Them Fast
Before you start finding phones to flip, you’ll need to set your prices. These prices dictate what you’ll buy and what’s better to pass on. Setting your prices can literally make or break your wholesale electronics business.
One thing to keep in mind when making a price list is that the condition of each phone can vary greatly. For example, a phone that has some superficial scratching on the screen might be worth a bit less than one that is in nearly perfect condition.
When you make your list, make sure you state what condition the phone needs to be in for you to pay the price you state. If you are unwilling to purchase phones with superficial damage, you will want to state that as well. For instance, if you were buying wholesale iPhones, you might only want phones in great condition instead of those with lots of damage.
Here are a few great tips to help you price your cell phones fairly while making sizable profits.
Research the Market Values of Phones
Since there are many phones made by several brands available for sale, you’ll need a pricing structure rather than one set price. If not, you can end up ripping yourself off. You don’t want to buy the first phones you come across, thinking you’ll make lots of money. But where do you find these prices?
The key to success with creating your pricing structure comes down to doing your research. We recommend checking out a few popular resale websites to get an idea of how to research and create your pricing structure.
To set the right price, you can compare the selling price of a phone with the current value that it has, which can be done through Flipsy. You can look up any model of phone on Flipsy to see its value. This information should make it easier for you to set your buying prices. Another great website for researching smartphone market values is ItsWorthMore and Atlas Mobile.
Some of these websites also display the best offers from buyback stores, allowing you to determine how much profit you'll make. If the selling price is at least $50 lower than the top buying prices, you should be able to make a significant profit per phone.
We understand that research isn’t the most exciting thing, but it’s a must if you want the most profit possible. It’s also a great way to know when you’re getting a deal or not. Also, make sure to check smartphone market values regularly. The value of phones decreases over time.
Make a Pricing Structure
The main goal of entering the phone flipping business is, of course, to make a profit. The simplest way to make a profit by flipping phones is to buy low and sell higher. You can do this by making a pricing structure or price list.
If you want to do this well, we recommend having sections in your structure for popular smartphone manufacturers including Apple, Samsung, and Google. Set prices for the latest smartphones from these companies as well as past models if you plan on buying used devices.
It’s important to also note that smartphones can come with differing features. Make sure to keep an eye out for smartphones with larger memory capacity. For instance, a 256GB iPhone will sell for more than one with only 64GB of space. It's also a good idea to take note of which phone colors, some of which are rare, command more value than others.
Another factor when setting prices is condition. As you know, items in bad condition are often worth much less than new items. With that in mind, your pricing structure should cover how much you’ll pay for items with a few scratches or those that need much more work.
You now have a pricing structure that will be a major help when you start finding phones to flip. With a proper pricing structure, you can help ensure profits continue coming in.
Ensure You’re Buying Profitable Phones
When looking to flip phones, you’ll want to have a good idea that you can make a nice profit on any phone that you’re wanting to flip. You need to figure out what the final selling prices are for the phones you’re thinking of selling.
Making a profit is the whole goal of the phone flipping business. So, you’ll need to figure out what amount you need to make per phone for a profitable business model. Don’t just buy any old phone in hopes that you can make a profit. Researching what products sell for is key in any profitable business.
Think About Offering Discounts for Bulk Buyers
One thing that’s great about the phone flipping industry is how popular it is. You can find people everywhere buying and selling smartphones from various companies. With such popularity, you’ll also find people buying or selling either small or large amounts of smartphones.
If you want a way to entice those bulk buyers to shop with you, consider offering them discounts.
Where Should I Sell Smartphones?
Besides buying smartphones, the next most important step is finding a place to sell them. Normally, it can take days, weeks, or months to find the right cell phone suppliers. But, we’re here to save you time. When you’re ready to start selling your smartphones, look no further than the places below.
Trade-In Tech
When you get ready to start selling the smartphones you purchased, it’s important to choose a platform that has lots of interested buyers. This is why it’s so beneficial to start selling your phones on Trade-In Tech.
At Trade-In Tech, we dedicate ourselves to being the best place for anyone in the wholesale electronics industry. On our wholesale platform, it’s incredibly easy to start selling your inventory.
Trade-In Tech has tens of thousands of members from all over the world. And, our members are always looking for more smartphones to add to their inventory. Part of what makes Trade-In Tech so great is that it’s easy for anyone to get started on our platform. In a matter of minutes, you can complete the account setup process and start selling your smartphones.
What’s also great about Trade-In Tech is that we don’t believe in fees. When you join our platform, you’ll never get charged any fees for buying or selling electronics. With our social pages, chat rooms, groups, and marketplace you’ll find that it’s easy to start selling your smartphones on this platform.
Facebook Marketplace
You might also think about selling your inventory on Facebook Marketplace. This is the name for Facebook’s buy and sell section. As you probably know, Facebook is one of the largest and most popular websites in the world. Capitalizing on its popularity, Facebook has a popular marketplace section.
Under the right circumstances, Facebook Marketplace can help you start selling your phones. The catch with Facebook Marketplace is finding the right buyer. Anyone with a Facebook account can use this service. So, make sure that you avoid dealing with scammers that often lurk on these platforms.
Considering the popularity of Facebook, you’re also going to be competing with lots of other sellers. With that in mind, make sure that your prices are competitive. It’s also a good idea to be responsive whenever you receive any messages through Facebook Marketplace. Waiting too long to respond might mean missing out on a sale.
eBay
Another popular platform for selling electronics is eBay. Chances are, you likely know about eBay. If you don’t know about this website, eBay remains one of the most popular places to buy and sell items.
On eBay, you can either choose to auction off your items or sell them with Buy It Now prices. One of the main worries people have with auctioning off their items is letting them go for too low of a price. Fortunately, eBay allows you to set minimum bids. By setting a minimum bid amount, if someone bids on your listing, you won’t have to worry about losing lots of potential profits.
You can also choose to sell your items for a Buy It Now price. The concept behind this selling method is simple: you set a price that you want to sell your items for. If someone wants to pay that price, they’ll buy your items.
Like Facebook Marketplace, eBay is an extremely popular platform for all sorts of things. This popularity also means that you might be competing with many other sellers. But, with eye-catching listings and fair prices, eBay can be a good place to start selling your inventory.
For more information, check out this helpful list of tips for selling electronics on eBay.
Craigslist
Craigslist is another possible platform for you to sell flipped phones. With that said, Craigslist is all about meeting people locally. So, you’re not going to be able to sell nationwide on this platform. However, it can be a good source of sales when you’re starting out.
With Craigslist being a local service, this also means that you’ll be meeting people to make a sale. Some people understandably don’t feel like meeting others in person. If this sounds like you, it might be best to avoid Craigslist. There’s no need to go through situations that make you uncomfortable to sell your electronics.
This platform also often attracts people that are looking for deals. Considering that, you should expect a few people to try and talk you down on price. But, you don’t have to engage with these people. If your prices are fair, you’ll find the right buyers.
If you want to be smart about selling on Craigslist, schedule meetings during the day and in public places. You might also prefer to bring someone along with you before meeting with another person. By following these tips, you can help ensure your Craigslist sales go as smoothly as possible.
Other Social Media Websites (Instagram/LinkedIn/etc)
We previously mentioned Facebook as a great platform to sell electronics. With that said, Facebook is far from the only social media platform for marketing your company to the world. You can also gain a lot of potential success on Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and others. These platforms can be great places to find and buy electronic devices.
Each social media platform has its own unique style. If you wanted to target other businesses, LinkedIn focuses on the business side of things. Those wanting to market to younger consumers would likely have success by using Instagram.
If you don’t know who you want to target, there’s no harm in making accounts on all of the previously mentioned social media platforms. But, before you start doing that, it’s good to learn a little bit more about how to effectively position your brand on these websites.
Instagram: Instagram is a social media platform that’s all about image and video-related content. If you want to do well on this platform, you’ll want to create posts that focus on either images or videos. Considering that, Instagram is a great place to post any high-quality photos of the smartphones you’re selling.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn is all about the B2B (business to business) side of things. However, this platform also provides many things that make social media so popular, such as creating posts, adding images, and connecting with other pages. To have success on this platform, it’s helpful to show that you know what you’re talking about. Use LinkedIn to share website posts, leave comments on other people’s posts and you should start building a following on LinkedIn.
Pinterest: With new social media platforms gaining popularity each month, Pinterest isn’t the most popular website in the world. However, it still has millions of users logging in to check out all sorts of content. Pinterest uses “pins” as its main way of categorizing its content. Fortunately, making a pin is simple, it’s only a matter of adding an enticing picture and a nice description. Don’t forget a link to your company’s website.
Twitter: Another popular social media website is Twitter. However, it is a little different from most other social platforms. Twitter is all about getting your message out in as few characters as possible, otherwise known as a tweet. As of right now, Twitter limits each of its tweets to 280 characters. While you’re using Twitter, conciseness is key. You’ll want to save your longer posts for websites like Instagram and Facebook.
Tik Tok: Tik Tok is another social platform that’s become incredibly popular. The main way of creating content on this platform is by making videos. Add some music, record what you’re selling, and it could lead to massive profits for your business. If you can add a bit of humor, you could get even better results on Tik Tok.
Snapchat: Like Tik Tok, Snapchat is another popular platform for millennials. If you want to start gaining a following on this platform, be sure to create an “add me” URL and a “snapcode.” These features make it easy for other Snapchat users to find and follow your company. You’ll create content on Snapchat by creating “Snaps”. This is Snapchat’s term for creating posts. On Snapchat, the sky’s the limit regarding what you want to create. Like TikTok, fun and humorous posts tend to work best on Snapchat.
How To Make The Most Profit From Your Listings
In most cases, you’re going to get a lot of sales from your listings. Almost every platform that allows you to sell smartphones will require that you make listings for each of these items. Don’t worry; creating listings isn’t hard. Here are a few tips to keep in mind before you start creating your listings.
Be as Descriptive as Possible in Your Listings
Each platform you choose to sell phones on will have areas for you to list information about what you’re selling. With that said, certain sellers list the bare minimum of information and wonder why their products aren’t selling.
If you want the phones you’re flipping to sell fast, make sure to be as descriptive as possible in your listings. This is also a great space to list out what condition these phones are in. Being upfront and as honest as possible about your phone’s conditions is something every buyer will appreciate.
You’ll also want to include information about any electronic accessories that come with your phones. In some cases, listing information about the accessories that come with your electronics might result in new sales. It can also help your listing viewers save time because they won’t have to ask you what accessories come with your products.
Take High-Quality Pictures
Also, consider adding lots of high-quality photos to each of your listings. In some cases, this might be the closest a buyer will get to your listings before buying them. Try to take photos that detail the front and back of your devices. Also, use photos to clearly show any defects that are present.
It’s always best to take lots of pictures. By doing this, you can upload as many as a platform allows per listing. Even if some of your pictures look similar, a potential buyer always loves being able to get an in-depth look at what they’re buying. In some cases, your pictures might be the only visuals a buyer has.
Another tip to remember is to use your “best” picture as the main one in your listing. This is a great way of putting your best foot forward and grabbing a customer’s attention right out of the gate.
Create an Attention-Grabbing Headline
Something else you’ll want to focus on is your listing’s headline or title. In most cases, people who are looking for what you sell will see your headline and a picture from your listing. By creating a title that grabs their attention, you’ll likely get more people viewing what you’re selling.
The first step to creating a great headline is to list the make and model and brand of what you’re listing. If you were selling an iPhone, you would want to include the word Apple (manufacturer) and the model of iPhone for sale.
One of the best tips for creating effective titles is to use every possible character. Most platforms will include your listing in search results if it lists some or all of what buyers are looking for. So, make sure that every word and letter you use is relevant.
It’s also smart to mention anything in your title that makes your product special. For instance, this could be the memory capacity of your smartphone, its color, or another important feature.
Look at Previously Sold Listings for More Inspiration
Eventually, you’re going to run out of inspiration for your listings. When this time arrives, you can always check out previously sold listings. For this example, we’ll look at how to find this information on eBay.
From eBay’s main page, look to the right and click the Advanced link. From there, you’ll go to a new page that gives you more options before making your next search. All you need to do is click the box next to Sold Listings.
Now, after typing in what you want to search for, you’ll see only results from previously sold listings. This simple trick can help you create better titles and descriptions. Looking over previously sold listings can also become a major source of help for setting your prices.
Receive Alerts From Interested Buyers
Hopefully, you’re selling your smartphones on popular online platforms. By doing this, with the right goods and prices, you’re likely to get messages from interested potential customers. Understandably, no one wants to sit by their phone and computer to wait for a potential message to arrive in their inboxes.
Fortunately, you don’t have to do this. Instead, take advantage of the alerts that most apps, platforms, and websites send out. In most cases, you would find information about alerts or notifications in your account settings section. From there, simply receive alerts when you get a new message and you should be all set.
To make sure that your alerts are working properly, it’s a good idea to create a few test alerts. If you see messages or emails notifying you about your alerts, you should have everything set up properly.
Calculating Profit Margins
Since we’re talking about profits, we thought it would be helpful to teach you how to start calculating your company’s profit margins. While it might sound complicated, you don’t have to be a math genius to come up with these figures. Plus, knowing how to calculate your company’s profits is an incredibly valuable skill to have. Here’s a closer look at how you can start calculating profits and ensure you’re running a profitable business.
Keep in mind that every company’s profit margins will differ. Chances are, at least during the early stages of your business, your profit margins might be much lower than the one in this example. And, that’s perfectly fine. Give it some time and you should soon see your company’s profit margins rising.
Mistakes To Avoid in the Selling Stages
It’s good to be eager about getting ready to start making money by selling your flipped phones. With that said, you don’t want to be so eager that you make a few costly mistakes. Unfortunately, certain mistakes are easy for new sellers to make. By avoiding a few mistakes that new sellers make, you can set yourself up for even more success. Here is a quick list of mistakes to avoid in the selling stages of a phone flipping company.
Don’t Entertain Extremely Low Offers
We always want to give you an honest idea of what to expect in the wholesale electronics industry. While it isn’t something people want to deal with, you’re likely to encounter a few low offers. Selling something for $1,000 and getting asked if you’ll accept $100 is annoying.
The best way to deal with extremely low offers is to simply ignore them. Starting a business takes enough time. By responding to every lowball offer you receive, you’re leaving yourself less time for more important matters. If one of these buyers comes back with a serious offer, you can respond to them.
It’s Probably Best to Avoid Off-Platform Sales
Every now and then, you might also receive a private message from someone wanting to buy your smartphones privately. Unfortunately, in most cases, this is someone trying to scam you. In most cases, someone is doing this to try and avoid paying you for your items.
They’ll usually want you to ship your items first before receiving payment. Unless you specifically know someone or you’re working with someone with a long history of transactions, it’s best to stick with making sales inside of the e-commerce platform you’re working with.
Having you ship your items before getting paid is one of the most common scams in the wholesale electronics industry. By avoiding this scam, you can continue running a profitable phone flipping company.
Double Check the Username of Who You’re Speaking With
It’s also helpful to make sure you’re talking to who you think you are. Unfortunately, sometimes scammers will attempt to use someone’s username they’ve seen on a forum or message board. The trick is that they alter one character or add a space because they can’t take another person’s exact username.
As an example, let’s say that you were on a platform and working with a popular wholesale electronics dealer. This person’s username is NYCPhoneSeller45. Soon, you get a message from someone with this username, except it says NYCPhoneSeller451, which is not the same account. This is an attempt by someone to make you think that they are someone else.
Unfortunately, certain new sellers or buyers will fall for this scam. Before you respond to any message, make sure it’s not someone trying to scam you by using a copycat username.
Phone Flipping Experts You Should Work With
When you want to learn how to do something, it's wise to learn from those who have succeeded at it. If you want to enter into the profitable phone flipping industry, it's helpful to learn about several experts in this field. With that in mind, here are six of the best phone flipping experts you should work with.
1. David Kosciusko - Flip Phones For Profit
It's impossible to discuss phone flipping experts without mentioning David Kosciusko. He also proves that you don't need to have a small fortune set aside to start flipping phones. Starting with only $300, Kosciusko built his skill for flipping phones into a multi-million dollar business.
With all of his success, Kosciusko still sets time aside to help others gain the same type of success he has. He primarily achieves this goal through his extremely popular "Flip Phones for Profit" course. The course covers many aspects of phone flipping, especially if you're wanting to do this using eBay.
“Flip Phones for Profit” continues to help over 1,500 students make money by flipping phones. Many of these members have told their success stories of being able to earn a full-time income by reselling smartphones. Kosciusko also manages several large Facebook Groups that are dedicated to helping others become profitable phone flippers.
2. Hayden Howard - Trade-In Tech
With 10+ years in the industry, Hayden Howard is definitely a phone flipping expert. Using his expertise, he founded Trade-In Tech to help buyers and sellers in this industry.
Trade-In Tech helps connect distributors, wholesalers, retailers, and others interested in buying or selling consumer electronics. This company also helps its members buy and sell smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and computers.
A notable feature of Trade-In Tech is that its members pay no fees on sales, something that's hard to find in this industry. Something else that sets Trade-In Tech apart is the many features it offers for its members on its social platform.
Saying that Trade-In Tech is growing fast is an understatement. Trade-In Tech currently has thousands of verified members. It also recently became one of Inc. Magazine's Top 500 Fastest-Growing Companies in America!
3. Will Godiska - Atlas Mobile
Will Godiska is another phone flipping expert and the CEO of Atlas Mobile, which is one of the most well-known global wholesalers of mobile electronics. As a top buyback buyer, Godiska and his company have done business with partners throughout the world.
The team at Atlas Mobile prides itself on offering amazing customer service. Considering that, it's this excellent type of customer service that has led Will Godiska to form long-standing relationships with many people in the wholesale electronics industry.
4. David Becerra - Zelphone
As one of Trade-In Tech's top buyers, there's typically a lot taking place in David Becerra's world. Becerra works as the CEO of Zelphone, a company that works with consumer electronic vendors throughout the world.
Zelphone is always looking to expand its network of global suppliers. Therefore, it's a great idea to consider getting in touch with David Becerra and the Zelphone team. You can also rest assured that Zelphone will provide reliable and great customer service.
If you’re interested in getting serious about flipping phones, you'll find David Becerra in some of Trade-In Tech's most popular groups. He's also an extremely reliable business partner to have in this industry.
5. Feldon Richards - NYC Phone Buyer
Another notable expert in the world of phone flipping is Feldon Richards. As the CEO of NYC Phone Buyer, he has a lot of experience in the phone flipping industry. His company purchases smartphones and other items from buyers in the NYC area.
Fortunately for everyone in this industry, Feldon Richards is kind enough to provide awesome one-on-one training that no one should miss out on. By receiving this type of training, you're learning from an expert phone flipper.
It's easy to find Feldon Richards on Trade-In Tech to get in touch with him for training. This type of training is especially great for anyone who wants to specifically learn about how to succeed at flipping phones for cash. You can also find Feldon Richard's page on Trade-In Tech that features all of his amazing inventory.
6. Alex Trejo - Tech Exchange
In 2010, Alex Trejo started Tech Exchange. Since this time, Tech Exchange remains one of the leading companies in the phone flipping industry. As he continues to lead this company, Alex Trejo is certainly another notable expert in the world of phone flipping.
While Alex Trejo has achieved success in many mediums, one of his several notable accomplishments has to do with his Facebook groups. These large Facebook groups are full to the brim with people from all over the world.
It's important to note that you can also find Alex Trejo on Trade-In Tech. His buyback service is one of the most popular on the platform. For anyone interested in buyback options, it's certainly worth contacting Alex Trejo.
If you're looking to learn more from an expert in the industry, becoming a member of Trade-In Tech is a great way to achieve this goal. By becoming a Trade-in Tech member, you might end up working with this legend in the world of phone flipping.
In closing, we hoped that this guide helped you learn many ways to start flipping phones for profit. Learning these skills will take a bit of time and practice. However, you can soon find yourself running a profitable business by buying and reselling smartphones. If you’d like to learn more about phone flipping, we encourage you to visit the Trade-In Tech blog.