Reselling

How to Make Money Flipping From Your Phone in 2026

· 7 min read · By the Friends & Family team

Gas costs 27% more than a year ago, prices are up 3.4%, and hiring just slowed to 29,000 jobs. More people are turning their phone into a second income by buying limited cards, vinyl and collectibles at retail and flipping them. Here's how it works, what it pays after fees, and where reselling groups fit in.

Three scenes from our video, a delivery route on a city map, three smiling resellers in front of a board of product photos, and a man checking items off on his phone at a kitchen table
Image: Friends & Family

Money is tight right now, and a lot of people are looking for a way to earn extra from the phone already in their pocket. One of the most practical options is flipping: buying limited products at store price, then reselling them on eBay and other marketplaces for more. This guide covers why people are doing it, how to make money flipping and selling on eBay, the real fee math, and how reselling groups help you know what to buy.

Why everyday people are turning to reselling (42 seconds).

Transcript: "Gas costs twenty-seven percent more than last year. Meanwhile your hourly paycheck buys a little less than it did twelve months ago. Hiring slowed to just twenty-nine thousand jobs last month, and finance has shed over a hundred thousand since spring of last year. Overall prices climbed three point four percent over the past year, so groceries and the power bill squeeze budgets already stretched thin. Everyday people are turning to reselling, buying limited trading cards, vinyl and collectibles at store price, then flipping them for profit. Knowing what to buy is everything, so in Friends and Family twenty-plus experts post the drops worth grabbing and where they sell."

Why people are looking for extra income right now

The numbers in the video come straight from this fall's economic data:

  • Prices: U.S. consumer prices rose 3.4% over the year through August 2026. Gasoline was up 27.4%, and energy overall was up 16.3%.
  • Paychecks: average hourly earnings rose 3.0% over the same stretch, less than inflation, so a paycheck buys a little less than it did a year ago.
  • Hiring: employers added just 29,000 jobs in September, far below the 84,000 economists expected, and unemployment ticked up to 4.2%.
  • Finance jobs: the financial sector has shed 129,000 jobs since its peak in May 2025.

Side income is common, but not universal. In Bankrate's June 2025 survey, 27% of U.S. adults had a side hustle, down from 36% the year before. Of those side hustlers, 35% used the money for regular living expenses, and 29% said they'll always need extra income to make ends meet.

Ways to make money from your phone or computer

There's no shortage of options: freelancing, gig apps, selling things you already own, or creating content. Reselling stands out for one reason: you don't need a special skill, an audience or a car. You need the right information, a little starting money and a marketplace app. Most of it happens on your phone:

  1. Get the alert that a limited product is dropping or restocking.
  2. Check out on the retailer's app or website, often in under a minute.
  3. List and sell it on eBay, Mercari, Whatnot, Discogs or TCGplayer when it arrives, or sell it to a buyer in your community.

No bot is required. Many of our members check out by hand from their phones. The edge is knowing what's worth buying before it sells out.

How to make money flipping

Flipping is simple in theory: buy below what something resells for, then sell it for more than you paid after fees. In practice, four habits separate profitable flips from expensive mistakes:

  • Check sold listings, not asking prices. On eBay, filter by "Sold items" to see what buyers actually paid. Listings that haven't sold don't tell you much.
  • Know the fees before you buy. Marketplace fees, shipping and sales tax all come out of your margin. Our 2026 reseller fees comparison lays out eBay, Mercari, Facebook Marketplace, Amazon, Discogs, TCGplayer and Whatnot side by side.
  • Favor returnable buys. If a store takes returns, a flip that doesn't work out can go back instead of becoming dead inventory.
  • Pick categories you can learn. Trading cards, vinyl, Lego and video games each follow their own patterns. Start with one. Our beginner's guide to reselling walks through it.

How to make money selling on eBay

eBay is the default place to sell for most flippers because of its huge buyer base and easy sold-price research. The key is understanding what you actually keep:

  • eBay's fee is 13.25% plus $0.40 per order for trading cards, and 13.6% plus $0.40 for most other categories, including vinyl and video games. It's charged on the sale price plus shipping and sales tax.
  • Example: a $100 card sale with free shipping and about $7 of sales tax costs roughly $14.58 in fees, so you keep about $85 before shipping.

Here's how that math has played out on recent calls from our team. These are individual examples, not typical results:

  • Star Wars Galactic Racer Collector's Edition: posted in April at $159.99. eBay presales have mostly sold for $213 to $250, which works out to about $30 to $42 profit per copy after fees and tax, before shipping. Our team also called a pass on the Deluxe Edition. Full breakdown.
  • Gears of War Lancer pizza cutter: a $60 collab item that sold out within hours, with presales mostly at $275 to $400 before a final restock added supply. Full breakdown.
  • 2026 Topps Holiday Football: early presales hit $45 to $60 on a $29.99 box, but after fees and shipping a heavy box, the margin was thin. Our call was to hold off. Full breakdown.

Plenty of calls are passes, and plenty of products resell under retail. Knowing which is which is the hard part.

What people flip: every category we cover

The Friends & Family community covers several categories, so when one market cools, there's usually another moving:

What reselling groups do, and how to pick one

The hardest part of flipping isn't checking out or shipping. It's knowing what to buy, when it drops and what it actually resells for. That's what reselling groups (also called resell groups or cook groups) are for. Typically, they offer:

  • Alerts and restock monitors that ping you the moment something drops.
  • Calls with reasoning: buy, hold or pass, plus what it's likely to resell for and where to sell it.
  • Staff who answer questions, so you're not guessing on your first flips.
  • A community to sell to, like WTB/WTS channels where members buy and sell with each other.

Not all resell groups are equal. Our guide to the best resell groups lays out how to compare them on coverage, proof, staff, price and trial terms, and what a reselling group is explains the basics. If you want ours, here's what our reselling group includes.

What Friends & Family includes

Inside Friends & Family, 20+ staff post the drops worth grabbing and where they sell, across every category above:

  • Friends and Family TCG ($6/week, 7-day free trial): Pokémon, One Piece and Magic, with early links, monitors, free ACO and live voice calls.
  • Friends and Family Complete ($17.50/week, 7-day free trial): everything in TCG, plus sports cards, vinyl and CDs, Hot Wheels, video games, Monster High and Lego.
  • Friends and Family x Tickets ($50/month): concert and event ticket calls and guides for first-time sellers.

Members post their own wins every day; you can see them on our wins page.

The honest part

Reselling is a real way to earn extra money, but it isn't guaranteed money:

  • Results vary. What members make depends on what they buy, when they sell and how much time they put in. Wins on our site are individual results, not promises.
  • There's inventory risk. Prices can drop after restocks, and some purchases are final sale.
  • Fees and shipping add up. Always run the math before you buy.
  • Profit is taxable income. Keep records of what you paid and sold for.

Start small, buy what you can afford to hold, and learn one category at a time.

Sources

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