Flip Phones for Profit

Flip Money Tracker & Capital Dashboard

Companion to "Capital Velocity" and "The Honest Money."

One spreadsheet page, updated every Sunday, fifteen minutes. A flipper who cannot answer "how much is sitting and how fast is it turning" in ten seconds is guessing.

1. Per-flip rows

Model	IMEI	Cost	Date bought	Lane (eBay / Swappa / local)	List price	Date sold	Fees	Shipping	Net

2. Summary cells (every Sunday)

Summary	This week	Month to date
Cash on hand (working capital in cash)
Capital sitting in unsold phones
Average days to sale (purchase to paid sale)
Net per flip, average
Flips this month
Losses this month (target line: expect 5 to 15% of purchases, the range experienced operators describe even at scale)

3. The metric (built in)

Formulas from the course: flips per month = (working capital ÷ average cost per phone) × (30 ÷ average days to sell). Monthly profit = net per flip × flips per month. Worked example (assumptions: $400 working capital, $200 average buy, 10-day sales, $70 net): two phones at a time, money turns three times a month, about $210 a month. Cut days-to-sale to seven and the same capital pays a third more per month.

Input	Worked example	Your numbers
Working capital	$400	$
Average cost per phone	$200	$
Average days to sell	10
Flips per month = (capital ÷ cost) × (30 ÷ days)	2 × 3 = 6
Net per flip	$70	$
Monthly profit	~$210	$

4. Net-per-flip worked example (2026 fee levels)

Assumptions: buy $220, sale $350, eBay no store. net = (350 − 48 fees − 10 shipping − 4 supplies) − 220 = $68. eBay cell phone final value fee ~13.6% without a store (~9.35% with), plus $0.40 per order over $10; Swappa splits a flat 3% between the parties (seller pays 3% of asking plus ~3% processing; buyer pays 3% on top), the best online lane at ~$327 payout on a $350 ask before shipping. Plan around $50 to $90 net per clean mid-priced flip.

5. Standing decision rules

Any phone unsold after 14 days: hard price cut to the comp floor	☐
Any phone unsold after 21 days: fastest lane (local or instant buyer), whatever it brings	☐
No new buys while more than two-thirds of capital sits in stale inventory	☐
A model line keeps aging: stop buying that line for a month	☐
Keep at least a third of capital in cash	☐
Reinvestment loop: every dollar of profit buys more working capital until the planned working-capital ceiling, then take a share of monthly net as income	☐

Sell stale stock at breakeven or a small loss, on purpose, without drama. Idle inventory is the expensive thing, not the occasional loss.