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    Repair then flip: calculate what you can afford to pay

    Enter your own assumptions. The calculator keeps cash costs and your own time apart, shows three scenarios, and tells you the most you can pay and still hit your target in the conservative case.

    The three formulas

    • Cash surplus before tax = resale proceeds − purchase price − other cash costs
    • Profit after own time, before tax = cash surplus − own hours × your hourly value
    • Maximum offer = conservative resale proceeds − other cash costs − own-time allowance − desired profit

    Invented numbers that show how the calculator behaves — not a real transaction or a price estimate.

    Purchase
    Other cash costs

    Travel to view, history reports, inspection fees.

    Fuel, van or trailer hire, vehicle recovery.

    Paid work only. Your own hours go below — entering them twice would double-count labor.

    Your own allowance on parts, consumables, diagnostics and paid labor, for when the diagnosis turns out incomplete.

    Selling

    Use dated, local, sold prices in the same condition where you can. Asking prices are a weaker proxy. A price from another country is not evidence for yours.

    What it would fetch for parts. Zero is a valid answer.

    Fee presets are planning figures, not quotes. Check the venue’s current fee page.

    Your own time

    Nobody pays you this. It only tests whether the project is worth your time.

    Your target

    Results

    Adverse case
    OptimisticBaseAdverse
    Sale price$0.00$0.00$0.00
    Selling and payment fees-$0.00-$0.00-$0.00
    Resale proceeds$0.00$0.00$0.00
    Purchase price-$0.00-$0.00-$0.00
    Other cash costs-$0.00-$0.00-$0.00
    Cash surplus before tax$0.00$0.00$0.00
    Own time (0 h)-$0.00-$0.00-$0.00
    Profit after own time, before tax$0.00$0.00$0.00
    Cash surplus per own hour–––
    • Optimistic: Diagnosis right, contingency unspent, optimistic price.
    • Base: Contingency spent, expected price.
    • Adverse: Contingency spent and the outcome disappoints.
    Maximum offer
    No purchase price works under these assumptions.

    From the conservative sale price, after all other cash costs, your own time and the profit you want.

    Purchase budget
    $0.00
    Cash needed before any sale
    $0.00

    Purchase plus every cost you pay before money comes back, including the contingency.

    FlipGap does not estimate the chance that a repair succeeds. The adverse case shows what happens if it does not.

    All figures are before tax. Tax and trading rules depend on your country and situation.

    Frequently asked

    Because no money leaves your account for it. The cash surplus answers “how much cash is left”. Profit after own time answers “was it worth my hours”. Paid professional labor is a cash cost; your own hours are valued separately so labor is never counted twice.

    The lower end of recent, local, sold prices for the same model in the condition you will actually sell it in — including the repair you will have to disclose. If you only have asking prices, go lower still and note that your evidence is weak.

    Because that is what happens when a diagnosis is wrong, a part does not fit, or nobody buys. If the adverse loss is more than you can shrug off, the purchase price is too high — or the project is not for you.