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Hey, what's up? I'm Nicole, and in this video, I'm going to tell you guys the totally true story of how I took a literal $20 bill and turned it into over $50,000 of pure profit. This isn't clickbait. This isn't a scam. I promise. I have absolutely nothing to sell you. This is just a true story of a side hustle that I fell into by accident a few years ago, which has completely changed my life and can change yours too.
So, let's start at the beginning. This all began for me about four and a half years ago. I was killing a little bit of time one day before heading into work, kind of just doom scrolling on my phone, not looking for anything in particular. And for reasons I truly don't even remember, I found myself on some of those local buy and sell pages, like the Craigslist, Kijiji, Letgo type apps, just scrolling through page after page of junk, looking for really nothing in particular.
So, after scrolling through for a while, not really seeing anything too interesting, I eventually passed by this ad for an item. I'm going to put a picture of it right here. It was like a little kid's size, fully functioning electric guitar set with the amp and all the accessories. And I thought it was really cool, but what actually caught my attention the most was that I saw it was posted for only $30. And I just kept scrolling past it because I had no use for it whatsoever. But I kept thinking about it and thinking, why is it so cheap? It has to be worth more than $30. I figured it had to be worth at least $50 or $60, and I just couldn't let it go.
And then I had this little light bulb moment go off in my head and I thought, hold on a second. What if I went, scooped it up for that $30 bucks and then resold it for the $50 or $60 that I thought that it's worth? Hmm. And I guess this is the part of the story where I should tell you that I got online and did some research to see if it was actually worth as much as I thought it was, but that didn't happen. I decided I was just going to go for the gamble and give it a shot.
So, I decided to send the guy a message. And I actually realized it couldn't have worked out any more conveniently. He lived very, very close to where I had to go for work. And so, but I was about to send him a message and ask if I can pop by and get it. I had this little ballsy moment, I guess you could say, and I decided that I was going to actually offer him $20 instead of $30 because, why not? And to my surprise, after a little bit of back and forth, he actually agreed. And that was it. It was a done deal. I drove over and scooped it up.
So, I got home later that day, tested it out, wiped it down, took some nice new photos, and got ready to repost it online. I remember thinking, alright, I hope I can get about $60 for it. But, you know how the internet works, so if you want $60, you got to ask $70 or $75. And while $75 is almost $80, and $80 is almost $90. So, I posted it for $100. And to be clear, I had no reason to believe anybody was actually going to pay me $100 for it. But I figured I would start high, and if I didn't get any bites, I could lower it a little bit after a couple days and see what happens.
So, I posted it up for $100, went out that evening, and more or less forgot about it. And while I was out, I had a notification come through on my phone. A lady had seen the ad and sent me a message asking if she can buy it. Told me her son would love to have it. Didn't even try to negotiate. And after chatting with her a little bit, it turned out she lives about 10 minutes away from me. And being very eager to make the sale, I actually offered to drop it off to her the next day.
So, the next day, I drove over to her house, brought her the little guitar. She handed me five crispy $20 bills, said thank you, and sent me on my way. Boom. Just like that. I remember having this like, IKEA moment.
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So, I got back in my car with that $100 and I sat there staring at it in shock. I know this sounds silly because $100 isn't a ton of money, but I felt like I had won the lottery. Like this was the easiest money I had ever made by far in my life. And I took $20 off the top, stuck it back in my wallet to replace the $20 I had spent the day before when I bought the little guitar, and I had $80 in my hands. And all I could think about was, I wonder if I can do this again.
So, for the next few days, I scoured the online buying and selling in search of another deal. And after not long, I did find one. I'm going to put a picture of it right here. It was actually another electric guitar, but this time a full-size adult's guitar. And I actually did do my research this time, and I found it was worth about $200 brand new. And I figured it had to be worth at least $100 or so, even if it was a little bit scratched up. I figured I couldn't go wrong.
So, I drove down, picked it up. Same deals last time. Tested it, photographed it, reposted it. And to my shock, later that evening, I had somebody reach out and ask to buy it. I met up with him the next day, and he actually bought it for $120. Just like that, no questions asked, no issues. At this point, I was three or four days in. I was up $150 in profit, and I decided it was a good idea to start keeping track of things in an Excel sheet. It was at this point that I realized I was hooked. That was it. I was in, and I was just going to do this as many times as I possibly could. Any deal I could find, I would pick it up and try to fling it for a profit. Definitely a lot of musical instruments, but really anything that was a bargain, I would buy and sell it. If I knew at least a little bit about it, I'd buy something for $50 and sell it for $100. I'd buy something for $100 and sell it for $200. Sometimes I'd even get lucky and buy something for like $150, $200 and sell it for four or five hundred dollars. I just kept rolling my profits into my flips and doing it over and over again. And when you remember that I took that initial $20 investment back, everything I was working with was pure profit. So, the more money I made, the more comfortable I became spending a little bit more upfront for the potential to make a bigger profit down the road.
And so, fast forward to today, and I've made a grand total of over $50,000 in pure profit. And yes, I'm well aware that $50,000 in four plus years is not a living, at least not in this part of the world. But that's over $10,000 a year of extra money over and above your normal job. And it's certainly not insignificant. In fact, it's enough that when my car died, I was able to walk into the dealership and buy a new one in cash. So, when you think about it, I literally took $20 and turned it into a brand new car, which is insane.
This is the first job I've ever had, if you even want to call it that, but I've actually really enjoyed. Like, the thrill of the bargain is real, and it's a lot of fun. So, if you're sitting there now wondering how you can get started, the best advice I can give you is to start with what you know. The reason I started with guitars is because I play guitar. I know at least enough about them to be able to appraise them and test them and even do some minor repairs. Maybe you're into something else, like photography gear. Maybe you're into cameras and lenses, you can flip those things. Maybe you're really into video games and you can sell consoles and games and controllers. There's also a ton of money to be made in larger objects like furniture and appliances. And let me tell you, I would totally be into selling furniture and appliances if I had a truck or muscles. But hey, maybe you do. And if so, go for it. You can literally buy and sell anything. But start with what you know.
In a future video, I'll break down my step-by-step process that I use for finding good deals and selling them quickly for top dollar. This is definitely a skill that you can acquire over time, but I do have some tried and true practices that will help you along the way, and I'd be happy to share them with you. I'll also show you some of the things that I've bought and sold over the years, and maybe even take you on a ride-along when I do some of my deals. So, if that's something you'd be interested in seeing, please drop me a comment below and let me know.
If you found any value in this video, please hit the like button. I'm brand new here on YouTube, and it would help me out tremendously. I have a lot of future content planned relating to flipping and other side hustles and other ways to make money in general. I'm also going to be documenting my journey to FIRE. If you don't know, FIRE stands for Financially Independent, Retired Early, and that is the goal that I'm working towards.
If you're already into flipping, go ahead and drop me a comment below and let me know what kind of things you buy and sell. I find this stuff so interesting and I'd love to compare notes with you. Anyways, thank you guys so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.