How the Flowbee Resold for $300

News

By RC Staff

29 March 2023

If you ever fell asleep with the TV on during the 2000s, you may have woken up to a commercial for the Flowbee. These home haircutting devices became quite popular during the pandemic and resold well. Despite being significantly more expensive than traditional barber’s tools, Flowbees still resold over retail, usually for $300 or more. And if you have any doubts about the quality of its cuts, George Clooney has been using one for 20 years.

What is the Flowbee

First sold in 1987, the Flowbee is a unique tool for cutting hair. It uses a vacuum to draw hair into its blades. By using different sizes of spacers on the vacuum, users can control how much hair is sucked into the vacuum, and therefore the length of the cut.

The Flowbee was marketed heavily through an infomercial format through the 90s and 2000s. Much like the Fushigi and Slap Chop, this constant marketing cemented the Flowbee as a quintessential “as seen on TV” product, for better or worse.

How much does the Flowbee cost?

If you want to buy the entire Flowbee kit, which includes the Flowbee system and Flowbee “Super Mini-Vacuum”, it will set you back just about $200. While the Flowbee can be operated using any standard vacuum with a hose, buying the Flowbee system standalone will still cost $124.99 from the manufacturer.

Why did the Flowbee resell

The widespread lockdowns of 2020 meant that a cut at the barber’s was no longer an option. As weeks stretched into months, it became clear that the only way your hair was getting cut is if you did it yourself, and people began looking into options.

In a story as old as the pandemic, sudden demand and constricted supply led to bottleneck. Consumers rushed to buy up haircutting equipment before it was gone. Scissors, clippers, barber’s kits, if it could cut hair, it sold out.

Despite this demand, it’s still remarkable the Flowbee sold as well as it did. Compared to other options, the Flowbee is considerably more expensive. A set of clippers usually doesn’t cost more than $50, and even when resold during the pandemic they wouldn’t go for more than $100 or so.

On the other hand, a Flowbee would resell for upwards of $300 easily. Part of this can be chalked up to the general craze for haircut equipment. Even if a Flowbee wasn’t a consumer’s first choice, they would buy one if it was their only option.

The Flowbee also received a boost from an unexpected fan. George Clooney revealed during an interview that he had been using one for 22 years. It was nothing short of perfect timing for the Flowbee, which was thrust back into the mainstream for the first time since the 80s.

Whether it was Clooney’s endorsement, desperation, or a sudden appreciation for the product, Flowbees became one of the best selling items of the pandemic. They could be purchased directly from the manufacturer through Flowbee’s website, and sold through Amazon or eBay for an easy $200 in profit.

The pandemic created conditions for some truly bizarre products to resell. From couches to ellipticals, 2020 was a great year for resellers. For more of the most memorable flips of the pandemic, check out our other articles.

Want to learn about reselling opportunities before they’re gone? For a limited time, readers can join RC Elite here.