The Surprising Profit in Mattress Flipping

Hi, I’m Roger Saint Vincent. I’m always trying out new hobbies and businesses, some of which include choreography, art, cooking, and building. Over the years, my curiosity has led to many side hustles. My current side hustle is flipping mattresses. At first glance, this might sound gross and unprofitable—after all, who would want to buy a used mattress? But online mattress companies like Helix, Leesa, Emma, and Plank offer free trials, and if the customer isn’t satisfied with the product, they can return the mattress at no extra cost."

This offer is great for the customer, but it becomes problematic for the company since they can’t resell these products as new. This is where I come in!

I acquire these mattresses and resell them to people looking for high-quality mattresses at a lower price. It’s a great business in many ways, but most importantly, it helps keep these large products out of landfills. If you'd told me a year ago that flipping mattresses could be so lucrative and straightforward, I would have laughed. But here I am!

I came across an interesting blog a while back that listed 100 ideas for side hustles. Most of the content was typical of what you’d find on the subject, except for one idea: returns flipping. I had never heard of Sharetown before, and I thought the idea of large-item reverse logistics was a genius niche. My inquisitive nature basically demanded that I investigate.

This business idea broke a lot of established rules (in a good way) in terms of inventory management, contractor relationship management, fee and payment structures, and environmental awareness. As a bonus, their company culture is forward-thinking.

I’ll just say that one positive thing for me and my family during the pandemic was the shift toward working from home. My main job doesn’t really require me to go into an office, and since March 2020, I have enjoyed a work-from-home arrangement.

This gives me some 'time in between time,' if that makes sense, to make an occasional call to a client or slip out into the garage to spruce up an item for sale. The mattress business doesn’t require a lot of extra time—maybe 10-15 hours a week. So even when my main job gets busy, there’s still plenty of time in the early evenings or weekends to handle the side hustle.

The only thing I wish I had is a three-car garage. My indoor parking space has been taken over by mattress storage, which is a bummer, but the trade-off—fully paid-off solar panels on my house—is so worth it.

I’ve considered renting storage space for my inventory, but I’ve decided that the convenience of having my products right there outweighs the downside of brushing the snow off my truck a few times a year. Otherwise, I have had such great support from Sharetown that I do not think I made any new-kid mistakes when I started, thankfully.

Just ask for help. Use the resources available, and trust the people who have been doing the job for a while. There’s plenty of money to be made, and most people in the business are happy to show you how they’re doing it—including me.

The other thing I would advise is to realize that profit is profit. Take the win and move on—'turn and burn,' as they say. There will ALWAYS be more inventory, and everything sells eventually. Try not to get hung up on making a certain margin on every sale. Sometimes I make $200 profit on a sale, and sometimes it’s $50—it all evens out in the end.

Go to www.sharetown.com and select, “Become a Rep.” There you will find a form to fill out with your basic information. When you do that a company rep will contact you. You can ask questions and get the information you need there.

Alternatively, you can always easily DM me on Reddit at u/alaraja and I’ll be happy to help you!

Side note: If you choose to fill out the Sharetown contact form, it would be great if you used my name (Roger Saint Vincent) as the referral source—I’ll get a small atta-boy for that referral.