LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Lexington-based business owner built up his brand from a side project of flipping video games to an online business with a growing presence. Now, the business has a new storefront in the city.
“It's so rewarding to be able to support yourself and support your family doing something that you really love,” said Caleb Ashton, owner of QuickFlips Video Games. He’s doing what he loves by buying, flipping, and selling video games.
“I, like everyone, had these growing up and really enjoyed flipping them on eBay,” Ashton said about some of the games. “It was such a fun side income to build.”
Over the last six years, this side income turned into a full-scale business, and Ashton’s went from himself to 11 employees.
“That grew slowly from a one bedroom apartment operation into a spare room, and then eventually I knew I'd really made it when we made it into the basement,” Ashton said.
The Quickflips team works on games and systems that are sent in, and the team then turns it into something that they can resell. While this business grew, Ashton and his team documented it all through YouTube.
The most recent accomplishment for the Quickflips crew involved moving out of the basement and into an official building, opening a physical storefront in September. The small business continues to grow, both in Lexington, and beyond.
“We are spending about $50,000 a week on collections that come through the mail,” said Odin Blevins, one of the store managers.
“We've got people sending us games from Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, but mostly here within the United States,” added Ashton.
From a side hobby to a Lexington business, Ashton is proud of what he’s accomplished so far.
“We're still in scrappy startup mode, but we're able to move hundreds of thousands of dollars of product on Amazon every single month in addition to what the store is doing,” he said. “Honestly I'm just really proud of the team.”
