A Hustler's Guide To Buying And Selling Anything (Part 1)

[smartman]

In my experience, speed is all that matters in hustling. especially if you are dealing in a popular item on craigslist like phones, you have to be quick on the draw- be the first to email them, with the best offer and set up the meeting right away. I have had a roughly 25% buy rate if we agree to meet any later than 4 hours after the item was posted. Obviously on higher ticket items this issue becomes less prevalent, but by the time you are dealing in 5 thousand dollar items, hopefully you'll have bought a car by then. Good luck.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Just bumping this thread with a question I need answering about getting into this. Currently I have no car and no License, would this restrict me in a lot of ways ? I'm all for getting the bus if needs be, that I have no problem with but obvisously at some point it will become an issue, thanks in advance !

It totally depends on where you live and how dense the town/city is.

For example in Phoenix I can't believe how spread out everything is. It took me like 3 hours to go from Scottsdale to Glendale via public transit, whereas in my current city I can take transit from end to end in under an hour.

Set a location near your house (bank, library, mall, transit station, etc) and always meet people there (when selling) as you will get flakes who don't show or don't buy when they show, so that saves you time. It's trickier when buying stuff, but I usually just meet up with people in a mutually beneficial location.

Good luck!

 

[Dennis Steenoven]

While reading your incredible journey, I just couldn't help but notice how much you learned in such a short period of time. Awesome! It took me a few years to figure it all out!

 

[smartman]

anyone ever sell gift cards to cardpool? I just picked some tiffany cards up today to flip, was doing a google search, and they came up as the highest payers. couldn't find a lot of good reviews online for them, but then again, people only rush to review things when they are pissed about something.

 

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[hoosierchiro]

Awesome thread! I read it all the way through. Not only informative and inspirational, but emotional ... You got me hooked and I was cheering you on! Good job!

 

[j_lpz]

Just got thru the thread; took bout two hours, but very well worth the time. There is information here that people are willing to pay money for.
Have done very little Cl selling; will be doing more but focusing the effort on construction equipment and machinery, reason is this is something I understand better.

Thank you all for the information.

 

[bboyu]

what if you are not in the US and can't do this on Craiglist? How can you you start doing this with regards to a fastlane business? Do you look for a need to solve? before you find products to sell or are you looking for anything you can buy? Are you looking for a specific market to sell to first like drug dealers do? They know where all the fiends are...and they will buy what they are selling...I just want to know how do you find products/products ideas to develop/to sell...a method that is timeless for you to find such things...

Anything is up for sale but to resell it has to have some sort of value for the buyer? How can we decide the value for the buyer before we even buy the product to then resell? how we do this "on the spot"?

What are the basics of hustling regardless of the medium you do it through?

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Can people stop bringing up drug dealers.

Have you read the thread at all? Pretty much covers everything you are asking...

So many questions, but here goes;

I don't live in the US either. This is not fastlane. This is a way to make money to invest in your fastlane ventures/ventures of other people. Nothing about this is fastlane.

If you know that product 'a' sells for 'x' dollars, and you see it for sale for below that amount, you buy product 'a' and resell it. It's that simple.

If you know there is a market for Apple products, buy Apple products. The product doesn't matter, you can buy and sell anything.

 

[DeletedUser394]

Just finished re-reading the entire thread. Wow, what a roller coaster lol.

I never did update to say that I sold all of those baby shoes. A lady came by a year or so ago and bought them all. She ended up taking them to an orphanage in Africa (Kenya specifically, I think) which was a pretty cool ending for that.

More than half of the people that posted in this thread over the past 3 years are no longer around. Quitting is easier I guess.

 

[ZCP]

It is the 'oh, this requires effort on my part?' moment........then they go back to watching tv........

 

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[bboyu]

@RichKid can you please tell me if you was to start a fastlane biz from the premise of hustling beforehand - what would you do differently when it came to product research? I.e you do not have the intention to just flog products and forget about them but want to build a brand and a proper business instead of just importing and reselling products?

What are you doing nowadays still hustling or do you have any fastlane ventures in the process?

 

[DeletedUser394]

@RichKid can you please tell me if you was to start a fastlane biz from the premise of hustling beforehand - what would you do differently when it came to product research? I.e you do not have the intention to just flog products and forget about them but want to build a brand and a proper business instead of just importing and reselling products?

What are you doing nowadays still hustling or do you have any fastlane ventures in the process?

At no point is hustling 'fastlane'.

This thread was a means to get startup cash for other things. Nothing more.

If you have $0 now, then this thread is a way to get $$$. That's pretty much it.

Right now I'm doing nothing. Living off of interest from investments. Watching Premier League, being lazy, etc.

 

[iwantaferrari]

Great thread. Nevertheless it takes time to go throughout the whole thread to catch here and there pieces of information.

This would be cool if you could edit the first post as a real " guide " like:
- the places where you find your deals
- How do you define a good deal
- How do you find good niche where a lot of good deals are available
- What were your first deals
- What niches are the most profitables ( video games ? )
- how did you begin hustling
- how much time did you spend per day in your first 3 month doing it
- How much money were you making in average during the 3 first month
- Etc...

Like a "how to" guide and not a " I sold this today and make $ 100 " guide .

I believe a lot of people are in the position where they need some $$$ to fund a business !


PS: it's not that people are " too lazy " to look for the whole thread, its just that people are surrounded by tons of information and need to figure out quick what is worth it and what is not. My 2 cents.

 

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[Runum]

Great thread. Nevertheless it takes time to go throughout the whole thread to catch here and there pieces of information.

This would be cool if you could edit the first post as a real " guide " like:
- the places where you find your deals
- How do you define a good deal
- How do you find good niche where a lot of good deals are available
- What were your first deals
- What niches are the most profitables ( video games ? )
- how did you begin hustling
- how much time did you spend per day in your first 3 month doing it
- How much money were you making in average during the 3 first month
- Etc...

Like a "how to" guide and not a " I sold this today and make $ 100 " guide .

I believe a lot of people are in the position where they need some $$$ to fund a business !


PS: it's not that people are " too lazy " to look for the whole thread, its just that people are surrounded by tons of information and need to figure out quick what is worth it and what is not. My 2 cents.

Would you like whipped cream and a cherry in top? Even with PS it still reads that people are too lazy to do the work themselves and you want OP to do it for them.

 

[iwantaferrari]

Would you like whipped cream and a cherry in top? Even with PS it still reads that people are too lazy to do the work themselves and you want OP to do it for them.

Haha I was sure somebody would attack me for that.

PS: If zen******* or Mj would have said the exact same thing pretty sure you would have said something like " Good Idea ! rep ++ "

 

[Runum]

Haha I was sure somebody would attack me for that.

PS: If zen******* or Mj would have said the exact same thing pretty sure you would have said something like " Good Idea ! rep ++ "

LOL. I didn't think it was an attack. I stated an observation and there was no hate involved. You and others are either going to do what it takes or not. Don't blame it on the haters if you aren't willing to step up.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

No, I'm not interested in rehashing what I spent well over 2 years documenting step by step. That exact information is located within this thread for FREE.

I'm sorry it might take you a couple of hours to read.

 

[ZCP]

Great thread. Nevertheless it takes time to go throughout the whole thread to catch here and there pieces of information.

This would be cool if you could edit the first post as a real " guide " like:
- the places where you find your deals
- How do you define a good deal
- How do you find good niche where a lot of good deals are available
- What were your first deals
- What niches are the most profitables ( video games ? )
- how did you begin hustling
- how much time did you spend per day in your first 3 month doing it
- How much money were you making in average during the 3 first month
- Etc...

Like a "how to" guide and not a " I sold this today and make $ 100 " guide .

I believe a lot of people are in the position where they need some $$$ to fund a business !


PS: it's not that people are " too lazy " to look for the whole thread, its just that people are surrounded by tons of information and need to figure out quick what is worth it and what is not. My 2 cents.

To suggest @RichKid do this would go against pretty much everything this forum is..... To take the initiative and see the need and do it for the community yourself would bring you much rep......

 

[jon.a]

Haha I was sure somebody would attack me for that.

PS: If zen******* or Mj would have said the exact same thing pretty sure you would have said something like " Good Idea ! rep ++ "

And you were right. Stop asking asking asking go do something

 

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[Mike Kavanagh]

I'm sorry it might take you a couple of hours to read.

Don't even be sorry. The only sorry thing is the person who can't go back and find FREE info.

 

[iwantaferrari]

Don't even be sorry. The only sorry thing is the person who can't go back and find FREE info.

Free info is unlimited on the web and people's time is limited. Finding a good " free info " lost in an ocean of " free bull shit info " is actually a very hard task. Busy people don't have time for that.

To suggest @RichKid do this would go against pretty much everything this forum is..... To take the initiative and see the need and do it for the community yourself would bring you much rep......

I care so much about my reputation on an internet forum that I couldn't resist:
/!\ I kept that as factual as possible, you will not find advices like "Don't give up" or anything related to mindset /!\

Summary :

What's the hourly wage ?
How To: Value Your Items
Sell to 18+
how to start
how much time to find a deal ?
where to find the deals
where to find the deals
How to advertise the product
What niche do you like ?
How to get a discount
About scammers
Phone vs mail/txt
What margin do you do
How to find good deals
How much deal per day ?
How to increase your item's value
About flaky people
About flaky people
Other niches ?
About controlling a market
Statistics
What's the next step ( <500 $ deals ) , cars ?
Statistics II
Other Niches

*** What's the hourly wage ? ***

$1,000 for a few hours of work (6 hours maximum I'd say it took me) sounds good to me. In fact I only left my house ONCE for business purposes, even though I put together at least a dozen deals. What I'm getting at is... this is just a start.

*** How To: Value Your Items ***

This is really easy and simple to do (provided your item is not one of a kind). EBAY!

The market determines what something is worth, it doesn't matter what you may think it is worth, or what you want to sell it for. If you are not within the average (give or take a few % either way) you probably won't get any offers. There are certainly exceptions, but rare.

I've been dealing primarily in videogames (I also sold/buy/sell, fitness products, books, dvds, EReaders, GPS equipment) because they are cheap, and for the older games bring back a nostalgic feeling which everyone can relate to (which means higher than average demand for the product).

When valuing a game I use two sources: Ebay and Videogamevalue.com. For example, let's take the game 'Super Smash Bros.' for N64.

Punching it into Ebay you get prices ranging from $20-$80. (I generally include at least 50% of the shipping cost into the price of the game, even if I'm only listing it on craigslist) So I split the difference at $50. Then just to make sure, I punch 'Super Smash Bros.' into Videogamevalue.com and the average used copy price is currently $43, so I know that I'm in a good price range.

*** Sell to 18+ ***

Another tip, is that you generally do not want to deal with people under 18. 95% of the time they say 'oh that's crazy I'm not paying that much' or something similar even though I only list things at fair market value (ie what the market has determined them to be worth).

I seem to by far get my best deals with people aged 20+ (oldest person so far was probably in their 60s and I had no problem with them either)

Young people generally don't have much money to begin with, and even if they do, they aren't willing to pay up.

*** how to start ****

Start off by figuring out how you can take $160 and turn it into $200.
Really the figures and size of the deals don't matter. Just start.
Wishing will get you nowhere, but by actively pursuing your goal(s) you'll get to the point where you can flip a car for $4K.

*** how much time to find a deal ? ***

It takes me 10 minutes to find deals online. I don't deal with clothing though.
Naturally almost anything online is more efficient if you're short on time.

*** where to find the deals ***

I just buy stuff off craigslist and then resell it on craigslist for what it's actually worth 5 minutes later. Also Ebay.

*** How to advertise the product ***

I tend to make my ads more personable. I find that people respond better when you show that you're human instead of some robot business just blankly listing products for sale. Just a sentence or two at the beginning and/or end of a listing seems to work best.

I avoid writing 'check out my other listings', 'OBO', 'negotiable', etc. And don't even bother posting anything for sale unless you have at least one picture to go with a listing. In over 50 sales, I've only been lowballed once. Putting OBO/negotiable opens you up to a whole bunch of crap offers.. I still normally sell between 5%-10% under my original asking (usually when it's a package/bulk deal) but it's still a heck of a lot better than what I'd get if I made it known in the ad that the price was flexible.

An example ad for a GPS device that I just sold an hour ago;

'Purchased this (model #) GPS device, I have no real use for it and would like to make room for other things. Comes with case, usb adapter, and instructions. Only thing missing is the box. It currently retails for $249,99 and I'm willing to part with it for $165.'

I NEVER EVER lie and/or exagerate about a product. If there is a scratch, I say it up front, if there is a flaw, I make 100% sure that they are aware right from the beginning. You just don't want to get into that.. Most of the people I sell to have my phone number, and some even know where I live, so I have no interest in selling crap/things that don't work (The people that pay up to my asking prices/are serious buyers, I make a note of them, keep their phone number/email, and what they want/like to buy and I contact them when I have something else they might like.)

Those buyers know that I buy and sell things (I make it known to them that I can pretty much find them anything they want...within reason), and a few have actually started requesting that I purchase certain things on their behalf.

If someone questions prices then, and only then do I say that I buy/sell _____ all the time so I have a good idea of what _____ is worth. Which is true and normally results in the buyer coming up and matching my original price.

Disclaimer: After posting the ad above, I sold the device within 20 minutes and for the full asking price.

I post each item once, but once it passes the 3rd page (in listings) I delete the ad and relist it. For things like electronics there are so many listings that I have to relist once a day, while for things like computer games, I haven't had to relist those for over a week because theyhust are still on the second page.

My reasoning behind this is that most people know what they want anyway, so they just punch it into the search box, but there are always those people that just want to 'browse' so I make sure I keep my listings within the first 3-5 pages (within whatever category it falls under, not the entire 'buy/sell' section..that would be ridiculous relisting every 5 mins.)

It would take too long to relist everything every day. So I just check once in the morning and once at night to see what page all of my listings are on, and I relist accordingly (if an item is past the 3rd page in it's category).

*** What niche do you like ? ***

Right now, video games.

I have 90% of certain consoles/games currently for sale.

Slowly moving away from games and focusing on other things (which I'd prefer not to say at this moment). A lot of people that buy video games are cheap and/or young, so I'm going towards higher cost items to weed these people out. Still going to buy games on all different consoles if I can get them for the right price though.

*** How to get a discount ***

This is easy enough. If you want 10% off, make your offer at 80% of asking price. Most buyers will meet in the middle.

Example: The item costs $100. You offer $80. He counters at $90. You win, and everyone's happy.

10% is really easy... ~40%+ takes some work.

*** About scammers ***

1) If I can find my potential buyers on facebook, I'm really not worried. (95% I can find)
2) I deal only with cash. (Haven't moved anything online yet, but will eventually).
3) Test whatever you're buying before you hand over the money.
4) If the item is expensive, meet in a public place and/or have someone else with you when you meet the person.

*** Phone vs mail/txt ***

There's an advantage with texting/email because I can make sure what the value of the item(s) is/are (reasearch) in between messages.
You can't do that nearly as efficiently on the phone.

*** What margin do you do ****

I stand to make a 400%-500% profit margin on the item I bought for 20% under asking price.

I don't really bother looking at an item unless I can at least double my money or more upon resale (unless the item is really expensive.. at this point 'really' expensive for me is anything over $500. At $500+ I'd look for 20%-50%+ margins.

*** How to find good deals ***

Buy anything in a 'lot' + sell whatever product you bought from that lot individually = profit.

Buy 10 snowboards for $1,000. Sell the 10 snowboards for $200 each. Make $1000 (or 100%). Really any product, it makes little difference.

*** How much deal per day ? ***

Still averaging 1-2 closed deals a day.

*** How to increase your item's value ***

If you're buying Iphones, buy cases and other accessories to mix and match with them. My Ipods will command a higher price than others, because I have a list of cases and other accessories that a buyer can choose from. The Ipod + Case + accessory sold separately will cost less than what I'm selling the combinations for, but I still sell them.

Just like this morning, woke up to an email offering $300 for a package that actually is only worth $250 if sold it in pieces. That extra $50 in perceived value comes from the fact that I've gone ahead and put everything together, so that the consumer/buyer doesn't have to.

*** About flaky people ***

Every day, and in dealing with more and more people (approaching 75th deal) I see what people are about.

It's amazing how one's word counts for almost nothing. I'm somewhat disappointed as these past few days some of my biggest deals to date have fallen through.

Everything is great until the day comes, and people disappear completely. Not even having the decency to take 10 seconds to let me know that they've changed their mind. It's a great vanishing act.

When you get a tentative deal DO NOT REMOVE YOUR LISTING UNTIL MONEY AND PRODUCT HAVE EXCHANGED HANDS... saves you some time when these people go mia.

Most people are crap (can't think of a better word haha).
Lost count of how many times I've gotten 'Yeah bro, I'll call you tomorrow to pick up'. No you won't. And then I get the truly amazing people that show up exactly when they say 'I'll be there at 7pm'... and lo and behold at 7pm, there they are. Love those people.

Want an easy way to get ahead of the game/in life? Make your word your bond. When you say you're going to do something, it should be as good as done.

Too many flaky people running around out there.

*** Other niches ? ***

Moved on to Ipods now. Bought a 1st gen touch for $40. Probably going to keep it and sell my 5th gen nano. Ipods are my main thing now.

*** About controlling a market ***

Definitely, I'm always thinking 3 steps ahead

I control it completely and it only makes up about 50% of my current inventory (becoming less and less as a percentage as time goes on).

*** Statistics ***

Inventory: $1,762
Cash: $325

Total: $2,087

Breakdown;

Games/Consoles: 48%
Cash: 15%
Musical Instruments (lol I buy everything): 14%
Multimedia: 10%
Electronics: 7%
Sports Memorabilia: 2.5%
Watches/Accessories: 2.5%
Fitness Equipment: 1%

*** What's the next step ( <500 $ deals ) , cars ? ***

Depending on where you live, there is usually a cap (3-5) on how many cars you can sell in a calendar year without a dealers license. There are ways around this (register cars in friends/family names) but you could get in trouble if you don't.
As for $500+ there are many things you can buy. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, bobcats (the machine, not the animal lmao), high end bicycles, guns (real/airsoft), pocket bikes, Atvs, sea-do's, snowmobiles, Camera's, vintage musical instruments, etc.

*** Tool for researching on multiple platforms ***

http://www.searchtempest.com/

*** Statistics II ***

Inventory: $2,467
Cash: $535

Total: $3,002

Here's the breakdown:

Video games/consoles: 36%
Cash: 18%
Musical Instruments: 10%
Sports Equipment: 8%
Bicycles: 8%
Electronics: 7%
Multimedia: 7%
Sports Memorabilia: 2%
Watches: 2%
Tools: 1%
Misc: 1%

*** Other Niches ***

Ipods, Ipads, Iphones, Macbooks, basically anything apple branded, watches, pocket bikes, bicycles, airsoft guns (the higher end models), and musical instruments.

Everything else escapes me at the moment

*** FInal Thoughts***

-This business has limited scalability and should be started only to collect an initial capital in order to fund a real fastlane business.
-The author still worked at a part time job.
- As Far as I understood the Author managed to turn $ 40 into $ 10 000, yet It is not clear to me if it was only through this business or if his part time job helped.
- Seasons ( christmas, holiday, spring) are a very important part of the business.

 

[Runum]

Good on you for stepping up.

 

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[Mike Kavanagh]

Free info is unlimited on the web and people's time is limited. Finding a good " free info " lost in an ocean of " free bull shit info " is actually a very hard task. Busy people don't have time for that.

Busy people, haha. Joke right?
My opinion is, you aren't ever to busy unless you're already running your own business.

You don't need to watch T.V.
You don't need to play video games.
You don't need to go to the bar.

You can never be too busy to help yourself. Discerning bullshit from good shit is hard. I'll give you that. However, making money is a science. Remember the Scientific Method from school?

Everything gets tested. If it works, it becomes a fact. If it doesn't it gets discarded.
You've obviously figured it out on your own so, good job.

 

[RBefort]

Free info is unlimited on the web and people's time is limited. Finding a good " free info " lost in an ocean of " free bull shit info " is actually a very hard task. Busy people don't have time for that.

Filled your rep bank with a bit for cutting down my processes....was on page 7 or so of this thing. Thanks a ton for providing this!

 

[GarrettUK]

I've read this whole thread back to front - I'm officially inspired into action.

I've just bought a job lot of DVDs - 80 for £20. I know these would go for at least £2 each (or 2 for £3) at the car boot sale near me (approx £160 profit)

Also got a good deal on a couple of bikes in my area I've re-listed on Gumtree (UK version of Craigslist). Bought for £40 and relisting for £100.

I'm hoping these pay off - need to prove this works to the missus! (shes sceptical)

 

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[GarrettUK]

Sold my £40 bike for £100 today. Not bad for a first time flipper!

 

[DeletedUser394]

That's great man! Internet dollars transferred!

 

[GarrettUK]

So I had to go to Birmingham yesterday (about 100 miles away from home) for a meeting (my slowlane job) and took an hour for lunch.

I went onto Gumtree and found a great little deal on a bike for £30 in the area and contacted the seller who said it was available and would hold it for me until I could pick it up.

I took the photos from the ad and reposted it my home town immediately after I put the phone down - for £100

Within an hour I had two people lined up to buy it!

Picked up the bike and sold it on the way home!

£70 in the bank!


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

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[rcdlopez]

At no point is hustling 'fastlane'.

This thread was a means to get startup cash for other things. Nothing more.

If you have $0 now, then this thread is a way to get $$$. That's pretty much it.

Right now I'm doing nothing. Living off of interest from investments. Watching Premier League, being lazy, etc.

I agree.

I used to hustle all the time using CL and other sources. A good hustler can manage to avoid having to get a job but it still keeps them in the rat race. My favorite hustle was finding a Lexus LS400 and reselling it. In LA you can find a cool 1st or 2nd Gen Lexus for close to 1k, give it a nice car wash, polish up the rims and install a shitty sound system to attract sidewalkers and BAM! in a week or two you can resell it for for 2k.

I can't tell you how many times I flipped that car for cash man! I was living the slackers dream in college thanks to that hustle, but still ...hustling isn't a good long term solution.

 

[GarrettUK]

I would agree with this too.

I don't think I can make a living flipping bikes. It's been pretty time intensive and only making £60 - £80 per sale isn't going to get me on the rich list any time soon.

I need to scale this thing up so I'm eventually flipping Boeing 747s or something!

Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk