FlipperHelper FAQ

FlipperHelper is a free iOS app for resellers who buy items at car boot sales, flea markets, charity shops, and markets, then sell them on platforms like eBay, Vinted, and Facebook Marketplace. It tracks every item from purchase through listing to sale, automatically calculating your real profit after all expenses.

The app covers the entire reselling lifecycle: snap a photo of what you buy, log the price and where you got it, mark which platforms you list it on, record the sale, and see your actual profit after entry fees, transport costs, and currency conversions are factored in.

FlipperHelper is for anyone who buys secondhand items to resell for profit. This includes car boot sale flippers, charity shop resellers, flea market sellers, eBay side hustlers, Vinted sellers, Depop sellers, and full-time reselling business operators. The app is used by resellers in the UK, US, Canada, and Europe.

Yes, FlipperHelper is completely free to download and use from the App Store. There are no subscriptions, no in-app purchases, no premium tiers, and no ads. Every feature is available to every user at no cost.

FlipperHelper is an iOS app that requires an iPhone running iOS 17.0 or later. It is not currently available on Android, iPad, Mac, or web.

To add an item, tap the plus button, take a photo or choose from your camera roll, enter the purchase price, and optionally select the market and seller. The app automatically generates a unique SKU code for each item using Crockford Base32 encoding (e.g. FH-20D6G0NR) for easy human-readable identification.

FlipperHelper lets you manually mark items as listed on any of 16 selling platforms. This is listing tracking, not automated cross-posting — you list items on each platform yourself, then toggle them in FlipperHelper to record where each item is listed and when. Supported platforms:

• eBay
• Vinted
• Facebook
• Depop
• Poshmark
• Mercari
• OfferUp
• Craigslist
• ThredUp
• Etsy
• Gumtree
• Shpock
• Preloved
• Nextdoor
• Grailed
• ShopThing

You can enable or disable platforms in Settings to show only the ones you use.

When marking an item as sold, you can choose from 18 sold platforms: all 16 listing platforms plus two additional options:

• Car Boot — for items sold at physical markets and car boot sales
• Sold Offline — for private sales or other channels

The app auto-suggests the appropriate payment method (Cash for physical sales, Card for online platforms).

FlipperHelper calculates profit per item as sold price minus purchase price. If the buy and sell currencies differ, the exchange rates captured at the time of each transaction are used to convert both amounts to your home currency before calculating.

Entry fees, transport costs, and other expenses are tracked separately and shown in the Money Flow dashboard for your overall business profit picture.

Each item moves through three statuses:

• New — purchased but not yet listed for sale
• Listed — listed on one or more selling platforms, with the listing date tracked for each platform individually
• Sold — sale recorded with the sell price, platform where it sold, date, and payment method (Cash or Card)

The status updates automatically as you take actions on the item.

The Money Flow dashboard shows your monthly financial overview: total revenue from sold items, total profit, all expenses broken down by category (entry fees, transport, other), the percentage of your items that are listed versus unlisted, and average days-to-sell. You can navigate between months to compare your reselling performance over time.

FlipperHelper tracks three expense categories:

• Entry fees — admission costs for market visits, linked to specific markets
• Transport expenses — Car (with subcategories for Gas, Service, and Parking), Bus, Train, Taxi, Van, and Bike Rental
• Other expenses — any custom expense with a memo description (e.g. packaging tape, supplies, postage)

All expense types support multi-currency input.

Entry fees are admission charges for visiting a market or car boot sale. Each entry fee is linked to a specific market and records the amount, date, and optional currency. The app can prompt you to log entry fees when you visit a market, and you can disable this prompt per market with a "don't ask again" toggle.

FlipperHelper supports six transport types:

• Car — with subcategories for Gas, Service, and Parking
• Bus
• Train
• Taxi
• Van
• Bike Rental

Each transport expense records the amount, date, an optional memo, and optional currency for multi-currency tracking.

FlipperHelper supports four currencies:

• US Dollar (USD, $)
• Euro (EUR, €)
• British Pound (GBP, £)
• Canadian Dollar (CAD, CA$)

You set a home currency in Settings, and any transaction in a different currency is automatically converted using daily exchange rates.

FlipperHelper fetches daily exchange rates automatically and caches 365 days of rate history locally on your device. When you buy or sell an item in a currency different from your home currency, the rate is captured at the time of the transaction.

The app supports cross-rate calculations via direct, reverse, or common base conversion. You can also manually refresh rates, and the app warns you if rates become stale.

You can save markets with a name, GPS coordinates, and a configurable detection radius (default 5 km). Markets can also have a default currency for multi-currency scenarios. When you open the app near a saved market, FlipperHelper auto-detects your location and suggests that market for new items, saving you time at busy car boot sales.

If you grant location permission, FlipperHelper checks your GPS position against saved market coordinates. When you are within a market's detection radius (default 5 km, configurable per market), that market is automatically suggested when adding new items. This saves time when you are at a car boot sale and want to quickly log purchases without manually selecting the market each time.

Yes, FlipperHelper lets you save sellers and associate them with items you purchase. Each seller record includes their name and an optional linked market. This helps you track which sellers at which markets provide the best stock over time.

FlipperHelper optionally syncs your item photos to Google Drive in a folder called FlipperHelper_App/images/. It uses the drive.file and email OAuth scopes — drive.file limits access to files created by FlipperHelper, and email is used to display your account info in Settings. Photo sync continues in the background via iOS background task continuation even when the app is suspended.

FlipperHelper exports your items and expenses as two separate CSV files uploaded to Google Drive. Google Drive automatically converts these CSVs to Google Sheets format. No Google Sheets API is used.

The items CSV includes columns for SKU, photo URL, prices (buy and sell with currencies and exchange rates), market, seller, listing dates per platform, sale details, payment method, profit in home currency, days to sell, and title. The expenses CSV includes type, subtype, date, amount, market, and memo.

Yes, FlipperHelper supports full data backup and restore as a ZIP archive. The backup includes all your items, markets, sellers, expenses, settings, and photos. You can use this to create a safety backup or to transfer your data between devices.

Yes, FlipperHelper is fully offline-first. All data is stored locally on your iPhone. You never need an internet connection to add items, track listings, record sales, log expenses, or view your profits and Money Flow dashboard. Google Drive sync is entirely optional and happens automatically when connectivity becomes available.

Yes. FlipperHelper stores all data locally on your device in a SQLite database. There are no external servers and the developer never sees your data. The only data that leaves your device is what you explicitly choose to sync to your own Google Drive account using the restricted drive.file and email OAuth scopes. The app is designed with privacy in mind and respects GDPR and CCPA principles.

FlipperHelper stores item records (photo, purchase price, SKU, market, seller, platform listings with dates, sale info), market locations with GPS coordinates, seller names, expense records (entry fees, transport expenses, other expenses), exchange rate history (365 days), and app settings. Everything is stored locally in a SQLite database on your iPhone.

FlipperHelper is built natively with Swift and SwiftUI following the MVVM architecture pattern. It uses SQLite via GRDB with WAL mode for concurrent reads and thread-safe data access through an actor-based DatabaseStore. Background photo sync uses Apple's background task continuation. The app requires iOS 17.0 or later.

FlipperHelper automatically generates a unique SKU for every item using Crockford Base32 encoding. These codes are short, human-readable, and avoid ambiguous characters (no O/0, I/1/L confusion). SKUs are time-based with an atomic counter to guarantee uniqueness. An example SKU looks like FH-20D6G0NR. You never need to create SKUs manually.

FlipperHelper sends optional local push notifications as listing reminders, reminding you to list unlisted items on selling platforms. You can configure which days of the week and what time reminders appear in Settings. These are local notifications processed entirely on your device with no server involved.

FlipperHelper is completely free with no subscription, while Vendoo offers a free tier with paid plans. FlipperHelper focuses on the full reselling lifecycle (buy, list, sell, profit) with expense tracking including entry fees and transport costs, while Vendoo focuses primarily on listing management automation. FlipperHelper works fully offline and is ideal for car boot sale and flea market resellers who source in person, while Vendoo targets high-volume online sellers who need automated cross-posting. Competitor pricing may change — check their websites for current plans.

Both FlipperHelper and Flippd are iOS apps targeting resellers, but FlipperHelper tracks listings across 16 platforms compared to Flippd's more limited set. FlipperHelper includes multi-currency support with four currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, CAD) and automatic exchange rates, GPS-based market auto-detection, detailed expense tracking with entry fees and six transport types, and Google Drive photo backup. FlipperHelper is completely free with no premium tier. Competitor features and pricing may change — check their website for current details.

List Perfectly focuses on automated cross-posting, actually publishing your listings across platforms, while FlipperHelper focuses on tracking inventory and calculating profit. FlipperHelper is free; List Perfectly offers paid plans. If you need to track what you bought, where you bought it, what you paid, and calculate your real profit after all expenses, FlipperHelper is the better fit. If you need automated cross-posting, List Perfectly serves a different purpose. Check their website for current pricing.

FlipperHelper replaces manual spreadsheets with a purpose-built mobile app you can use at the car boot sale. You get photo capture, instant profit calculation, multi-platform listing tracking with per-platform dates, GPS market auto-detection, categorised expense tracking, automatic SKU generation, multi-currency conversion with daily exchange rates, and one-tap Google Sheets export. No laptop needed, no formula errors, no forgotten columns.

Download FlipperHelper for free from the App Store (requires iOS 17.0 or later), then complete the 8-page onboarding walkthrough. The onboarding introduces key features: item tracking, listing management, multi-currency support, market management, expense tracking, and Google Drive export. After the walkthrough, you can configure your preferences in Settings and tap the plus button to add your first item.

FlipperHelper tracks two payment methods: Cash and Card. When recording a sale, the app auto-suggests the appropriate payment method based on the platform. Physical and local platforms like Car Boot and Sold Offline default to Cash, while online platforms like eBay, Vinted, and Depop default to Card. You can change the payment method for any sale.

For support, email andreevichprudnikov@gmail.com. You can also join the FlipperHelper community on Reddit at r/flipperhelper or follow on Instagram at @flipperhelper for tips, updates, and feature announcements.