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Kids & Money

Thrift Flip Challenge: Buy Low, Sell Smart

A teen project: buy something secondhand, improve or resell it, and track profit or loss like a mini business.

1 min read

Try the calculator

Put these ideas into numbers with the Side Hustle Earnings Calculator.

Open calculator

Give yourself a starter budget ($10–$25) and a time limit (one weekend). Find something at a thrift store or garage sale that you can clean up and resell.

Track every cost: purchase, cleaning supplies, listing fees, and shipping. Revenue minus costs equals profit or loss.

Challenge rules

Parent approval before buying. No flipping broken electronics you cannot test.

Write down buy price and target sell price before you list it. If costs exceed target, pivot or learn from the miss.

Profit math

Profit = Sale price − Buy price − Extra costs. A $8 buy and $22 sale sounds great, but $6 in shipping and fees leaves $8 profit.

Enter your hours in the side hustle calculator. Was the hourly rate worth it vs. a regular job?

What you learn

Pricing, patience, and honest descriptions matter. Bad photos and rushed listings sit unsold.

Losses are lessons if you write down what went wrong. Successful flips often need practice.

Check your understanding

Profit, costs, and whether a flip was worth the time.

Question 1 of 4

Profit on a flip equals…

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