Man shares how he makes $673 a day in passive income by flipping iPhones

A man shared how he claimed to make $673 a day in passive income by flipping iPhones he found on second-hand marketplaces.

The reseller said he used automated software to hunt for underpriced devices on Vinted while he got on with his day.

He said the system could even purchase suitable iPhones automatically, meaning he didn’t have to sit around refreshing listings.

And in his latest experiment, just a couple of hours of automated shopping landed him three phones with an estimated $476 in gross profit.

It’s just him and a bot on his flipping iPhones journey

Stim Flips, who documented his gadget flipping business on YouTube, said Vinted had become one of his favorite places to find bargains because some sellers didn’t know how much their used electronics were worth.

His strategy was built around a Vinted monitor, which continuously scanned newly uploaded listings and flagged potential bargains almost instantly.

But he took the automation one step further with an ‘Autobuy’ system.

The software could apparently be configured to search for particular iPhone models and automatically purchase listings that fell below a specified price.

He said he could also filter out listings containing words such as ‘cracked’, ‘broken’ or ‘damaged’, while whitelisting terms such as ‘mint’ or ‘immaculate’.

For his experiment, he targeted iPhone 12 through iPhone 16 models, with the goal of buying them well below their typical resale value.

He then left the system running while he went to his warehouse with his stash of phones for around two hours, and when he returned, he claimed the automated system had picked up three iPhones.

Flipping three phones made him $476

The first was an iPhone 12 that he said cost him £26.19, or around $35.

Based on eBay sold listings, he estimated it could sell for approximately £100, or $135, leaving him with a projected gross profit of around $100.

The second was an iPhone 14 Pro Max that cost £119.64, around $161.

He estimated that one could sell for approximately £265, or $358, giving him a projected gross profit of around $196.

Finally, he picked up an iPhone 15 Plus for £177.46, or about $239, which he planned to list for £310, or about $419, leaving him with another $180 in gross profit.

That put his projected profit from the three phones at roughly £352, or $476, before any selling fees, shipping costs, taxes, refunds or other expenses.

The creator said this was what made the system so appealing because he could theoretically leave it running while working, going out or doing other things.

He also claimed the same concept could be applied to everything from game consoles and sneakers to LEGO, Pokémon products, cameras and drones.

The results shown in the video are a snapshot rather than guaranteed daily earnings, and making hundreds of pounds every day is not always necessarily guaranteed.

For anyone considering trying the same thing, the biggest challenge would be finding enough genuinely underpriced phones while accounting for their condition, battery health, storage capacity, network status, selling fees and the possibility of returns.

Still, the basic idea was remarkably simple: find an iPhone someone had priced too cheaply, buy it, and sell it for closer to its actual market value.

The twist was that, in this case, a bot was doing the passive bargain hunting and flipping iPhones while the reseller got on with his day.