Auction Flipping Archives - The Fed-Up-With-This Papers

Toro Workman Auction Flip, $1,400 profit!

The title should be “I accomplished the ugliest Toro Workman auction flip on the planet”, but that’s how you get the good deals. It’s amazing how far a can of spray paint can go. The uglier the item, the cheaper it sells for, and in this case it sold cheap! The best part, I won this online so the time I put into it was just to go pick it up, trailer it home, fix a few things and paint it. All in, I’d say I maybe put a total of 5 hours into this purchase and sale.

I didn’t bother going to the auction preview, so this was won completely sight unseen. This didn’t really matter, because with that low of a price even if I got there and it had no engine I could have still sold the shell for $700 give or take. This was being sold by one of the local school districts. I pulled up with my trailer and winch ready to load up only to be welcomed by 3 of the nicest maintenance crew guys with the Toro Workman on the forks of their forklift. We chatted for a bit, and they told me they were pretty sure the item ran it just needed a new battery and maybe a little work, but other than the worn seats and ugly paint it was a great unit.

PUTTING IN THE WORK

After getting it home I connected a battery and crossed my fingers that it would start…. Nothing. So now it was time to try and figure out what was going on. I sprayed a little starting fluid in the carb, and used a wrench to jump the starter relay… started right up. So I went to the local auto parts store and bought an $11 starter relay, install and that fixed it. The unit ran and drove like a champ!

The next thing that had to go were the seats, after looking online I found a new set for only $180. Money well spent, I put new seats on just about everything I win, few things add more resale value than a new seat.

If you're not mechanically inclined don't worry. Sure you make more money if you know how to fix these things up, but you don't have to. Just checkout my blog post "Flipping a Broken $300 Golf Cart for $700" this was a similar auction where I just purchased a broken golf cart at auction and flipped it with nothing fixed at all.

NEW PAINT JOB

Part of the issue with the old paint job was it was peeling and uneven, I knew I’d never be able to make it look flat and even, so I decided to go with a camo style paint job. This was surprisingly easy to do. I purchased 3 cans of camo paint colors at Lowes. I started with an olive base color, then using some sticks and pieces of tall grass I sprayed over them like stencils all over the body with flat black and sand colors. I was SHOCKED with how nice it came out. I’ll be sure to do this again.

PRICING IT ALL UP

TORO with buyer premium - $603
Spray Paint - $14
Seats - $180
Starter relay - $11
Battery - $35

All together my total cost for the TORO Workman auction flip was $843 for a total profit of $1,357. The sale was also very easy, I list just about everything on Facebook Marketplace. A gentleman came from about 45 mins away with a trailer. He drove the cart around a bit, we negotiated and drove it right onto his trailer. I only owned the old Toro Workman for maybe 10 days, during this time I used to do some work around my property then sold it for a healthy profit. Not a bad auction flip at all.

1990 Bass Tracker Pro Deep V 16 Bass Boat

Winning a Bass Tracker Pro Deep V 16 at auction for $1,200

The best days of a boat owner’s life are the days they buy their boat and the day they sell it. I can attest to this statement having owned quite a few boats. With that said, I’ve been looking for a boat just like this Bass Tracker Pro Deep V 16. Light and easy to tow, V hull so I can take it in the upper part of the Delaware river, and super cheap!

BUYING A BOAT AT A TOW TRUCK AUCTION

Bass Tracker Pro Deep V 16 — Interior of the Bass Tracker Deep V 16 at the auction

That’s right, I won this boat at an auction that was liquidating a tow service. I went in thinking I’d have to pay a lot more if I wanted to win this boat. The reality is the Bass Tracker Pro Deep V 16 is a great boat, and perfect for this area due to the lack of large lakes with most fishing happening in the Delaware. To my surprise, not many people bid. The opening bid was $600, two people went at it and I bid on top of the leading bidder at $1,200 and that was the end. After inspecting the boat I decided that $1,200 was going to be right around my limit. The boat’s interior was in great shape, the motor looked like new with good compression, and the trailer could easily sell for $600. So at $1,200 there’s no way I can lose money on the boat. It also helps that both the boat and trailer have titles. You don’t always get titles on trailers when they end up at auction.

NOT MY BEST INSPECTION

As I mentioned the boats interior is great, and the engine and trailer are super clean. The problem… the transom is very rotted. Luckily, this isn’t too difficult of a fix on this aluminum boat and should only cost about $100. It will however take a fair amount of time, I’m guessing a solid 8-12 hours all in.

You can buy just about anything at auction, I like things with motors as they can give very big returns, but it’s important you know how to turn a wrench if you go that route. I’m actually happy I didn’t notice the rotted transom, I may not have bid. I hooked up a battery and sprayed a little starting fluid into the engine and it started right up so this is a strong running boat. The outboard, a 40 hp Evinrude, is probably worth the $1,200 I paid for the whole boat.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE ARE NO KEYS?

I’m not talking about keys for the boat, I’m talking about keys for the giant hitch lock that was on the trailer. This is another important lesson, never assume anything at an auction. Items are sold as-is with no guarantees. That includes assuming a boat, car, or anything else for that matter comes with keys.

Keys are honestly not really an issue, I purchased a replacement starter switch with keys for $20 and had it swapped out in about 5 minutes and it worked like a charm. The issue here was not having a key for that trailer lock. You need to be ready to get creative in the world of auctioning.

What I did was run over to the local Harbor Freight and purchased a battery-operated disk grinder and 10 disks, I think I maybe spent $30. This thing worked like a charm and I was able to cut through the large lock on location in about 30 seconds.

This isn’t the first time Harbor Freight has come to the Rescue. I’ve driven an hour to pickup a trailer only to realize I forgot I had removed my ball hitch like an idiot. Another trailer I won didn’t have any lights, a quick visit to the local Harbor Freight saved the day with a $25 light kit. Call it the law of havoc, but eventually auctions will throw you a curve ball and you’ll need to be a problem solver.

TO SELL OR KEEP THE BOAT

Replacing the transom on a bass tracker deep v — The gas tank and battery removed, getting ready to replace the rotted transom

My hope is to get this boat water worthy in time for the spring striper run up the Delaware. The timing isn’t ideal as it’s now just too cold to work on. If we get a random weekend of 50+ degree weather I’ll get out there, otherwise it’ll just have to wait for early spring. I think I’ll hang onto it for one season, plus I always feel more comfortable selling boats if I can say I’ve tested it and it’s great. The only similar model I see listed online apparently sold for $4,950 recently. I honestly don’t expect to get that much, maybe $3,750. With that said, it will have a new transom and I plan on installing an electric CMC tilt trim for $600. So I’ll likely list it for the $4,950 and see what happens. I’ll update once I can get back out there. Maybe I’ll even do a blog post about the repair.

Flipping a Broken $300 Golf Cart for $700

One of my favorite things about auction flipping is it’s almost impossible to lose money if you buy right. This broken $300 golf cart is the perfect example as it was in bad shape. All four tires were flat with the 2 rear tires completely off the rims. Also, it was missing a bed and had no keys. Still, the seats were in good shape and it had an engine, that’s really all you need.

READ THE FINE PRINT

Even after all these years of auction flipping I still make mistakes. In this case, my mistake was not realizing the only payment options were in person at the auction office or via wire transfer which comes with a $60 fee. This was extremely frustrating as the office was about 30 mins away from where I had to pickup the golf cart and I wasn’t about to blow $60 on a $300 item. I guess it worked out for the best, but it was an annoying surprise.

PICKING UP THE GOLF CART

This auction was kind of a mess from start to finish. I went in thinking I’d win 10 golf carts at this auction and ended up only winning one. Since the auction was almost an hour away I was annoyed I’d have to drive all that way for just a single cart. The next issue, this was a municipal auction and I went to pickup the cart on a state holiday, the lot was closed! This was infuriating since I called the auction office to confirm I could come and pay in person. I drove over an hour to pay my invoice towing my trailer only to find out the lot was closed and I couldn’t pickup today.

Luckily, after a few phone calls, I was connected with the gentleman who worked the lot and said he had to stop by the lot anyway. After 30 mins of waiting I was let into the lot.

If you’re going to get into flipping golf carts, tractors, or anything similar you’ll need a winch. Trying to push a golf cart onto a trailer with flat tires is pretty much impossible. A winch makes easy work of loading in minutes. I recommend one with a remote control rather than a wire controller, it makes life much easier as you walk around to make sure nothing is getting snagged and that the cable is spooling evenly. Please be careful, a winch cable can snap and be very dangerous, putting a weighted blanket or heavy jacket over the cable will help stop it from snapping back if it were to break. Just be mindful of what you're doing, don't use a 2,000lb winch to pull a forklift. I use a 5,000lb winch on my 7,500lb trailer.

FLIPPING THE CART

My hope, as with all non-running items I win, is that I’ll hook up a battery and it’ll just work. After purchasing a $5 replacement key and hooking up a battery I found that I was out of luck. The large electric starter motor was shot. I did take 20 mins to remove it, open and clean the brushes and put it all back together. This was enough to get the motor to turn and the engine to run on a little starter fluid, but it wasn’t a running machine.

The good news, as I stated at the beginning, it’s almost impossible to lose money. So I listed the cart as-is and had a buyer the very next day. The gentleman works on golf carts and had the parts needed to get it up and running. Because I do a lot of these types of flips I had a set of good golf cart tires sitting around, I put those on the cart and we pushed it right up and onto his trailer. Another $400 profit for doing pretty much nothing. Had the cart been running I probably would have built a little wooden flat bed for it and asked about $1,500. Still, being paid $400 to drive 2 hours and winch a broken $300 golf cart onto a trailer isn’t bad money.

Here's a nice winch setup on Amazon for less then $100