A Hustler's Guide To Buying And Selling Anything (Part 2)

[GravyBoat]

CHECK YOUR EMAIL PERIODICALLY!

Smartphone dude, instant updates

If you're going balls to the wall on Craigslist I suggest getting a secondary phone (preferably one that can at least check email over Wifi). When I was doing this full time, I had an iPad with cellular data so I could check CL/eBay while driving to make deals.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Be professional, take quality pictures, pictures are very important

I'd argue, for 'commodity' type products it really doesn't even matter that much. The past couple of ipods that I sold, I just put up a stock photo lol, and sold them quick with no problems.

If a product has a visible defect OR if it's in pristine condition than pictures can help.

 

[killa_graham]

Anyone experiences with this - http://www.terapeak.com/?
Just signed up for a free-trial and will report back here...

Yeah, Terapeak is pretty awesome. I used it for a month when I was posting heavily on ebay and it was exactly what I needed. I was on the $30/month plan so I canceled shortly after but it is a great tool..

 

[killa_graham]

@GrumpyCat Thanks for posting this new thread! After reading all of your last hustling thread I did exactly what you've advocated here. I sold pretty much everything that wasn't essential to my day to day living and used the capital to start hustling. It wasn't much but it got me taking action!

I've made some good deals so far on smaller electronics so I have been trying to get into larger deals. Unfortunately, right now I'm stuck trying to move a lot of 20 business VOIP phones that I've had for a month haha. I'll make a great margin if I can get them sold.

They are listed on Ebay and Amazon right now for less than the competition. Does anyone have experience with FBA? Is a FBA product more likely to sell than one that is merchant fulfilled even if the price is higher?

 

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[SeanyHang]

@Nicoknowsbest Hell yea man. Terapeak rocks.. If your importing goods it makes your life 100x easier because all the selling information is right-freakin-there.. you don't need to dig through pages of completed listings and make an estimate as to what you'll get. Just buy it for the year if you're serious about selling on ebay.. It'll pay for itsself.

Also people, lurkers, and timid, alike - If you're having analysis paralysis with this particular type of "craigslist hustle"... Just stop it. Stop it right now.

I SAID STOP.

Literally, here's what you do. Go on craigslist. Find something that strikes you as interesting or something that you think to yourself "HEY... I BET I CAN MAKE SOME MONEY ON THIS! :-D ". Check ebay completed listings for that item. Can you sell the item on ebay for more than you can buy it on craiglist? Will the profit cover your gas spent driving, time spent, and possible postage/paypal fees (if you sell on ebay)? Cool. Get the item. Take pictures of the item. Write your copy (for things like this you don't have to write the most beautiful copy on earth like you would if your selling a $1999 info product). Sell said item. Repeat.

That's it.

@GrumpyCat is KILLING it with this stuff, not because he's some genius who wrote the worlds most astounding code after spending 5 years at some coding school, and is marketing it better than anything that's ever been marketing it ( Not that you're not a genius, Grumpy - you da man ;-) ). He's killing it because he just f**king GOES FOR IT. He just does it.

SO. Give it a try. Set a 100 dollar limit to start if you want and just see if you can turn that into 120. If you get a bad deal and somehow you can't sell your item at all - well then your only out 100 bucks... And if you're on this forum, taking the advice from these people.. You're going to make it back.

GODSPEED.

 

[TheNextTrump]

I'd argue, for 'commodity' type products it really doesn't even matter that much. The past couple of ipods that I sold, I just put up a stock photo lol, and sold them quick with no problems.

If a product has a visible defect OR if it's in pristine condition than pictures can help.

I'm not saying it's necessary, but it surely has a positive impact.

I've used stock photos in the past and had success on CL, never tried it on eBay nor would I recommend it.


IMO - stock photos give off a (shady) presence on craigslist. Unless it's something that's a smoking deal I won't waste the time on them
My local & surrounding CL pages are full of scammers tho...

 

[TheNextTrump]

Literally, here's what you do. Go on craigslist. Find something that strikes you as interesting or something that you think to yourself "HEY... I BET I CAN MAKE SOME MONEY ON THIS! :-D ". Check ebay completed listings for that item.

^Spot-on

Honestly, everyone get's way to worked up on(not knowing) what to buy.
I can assure you that no matter where your at, if your city/town has a craigslist page. Then there are MULTIPLE profitable items

You just have to WANT to find them! You just have to want to TRACK down a profitable item. It's that simple.
If your budget is $100, click the FOR SALE section, update your MIN & MAX price to $20 -$100

Pull up another tab with eBay's (Completed/Sold listings) and go to town.

Don't find anything? Look harder, look through other CL pages that are with-in driving distance.

If your still not finding anything using this method, then use your hustle instincts. Some items won't be able to be valued using eBay.

Say you come across snow blower that's in (like-new) condition that sold a couple years ago brand new for $600 and their asking $100-$200
It's safe to say that you can at least get a $300-$400 return on it.


Patience and consistent action, and results will come. Just stick to it, and keep learning.

 

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[ZCP]

@GrumpyCat making an impact. For those reading, the only hard part is getting started. That part is up to you. Sit or do. Once rolling, the momentum will carry you.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

@GrumpyCat making an impact. For those reading, the only hard part is getting started. That part is up to you. Sit or do. Once rolling, the momentum will carry you.

I just came home again after closing my first sale. I made a 35% profit margin on a used iPod Classic. Very pleased with this first result and I cannot agree more with what @ZCP mentioned here. Go out and buy your first item. Don't lose momentum because a potential margin seems too low. Buy something today. Buy and sell 10 items and then you can care about your margins.

 

[Lathan]

I just put up a stock photo lol, and sold them quick with no problems.

Did you do this on Craigslist? I think it's against eBays terms and conditions if I'm not mistaking.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Did you do this on Craigslist? I think it's against eBays terms and conditions if I'm not mistaking.

Kijiji

 

[Bila]

Do you have a set margin for every item (50% minimum ? )

 

[Bila]

@GrumpyCat also, do you have a time frame for each item ( say a week, or 2days to sell an item ? ) do you lower the price after that ?
Thanks

 

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[Bila]

I started this week, using kijiji as well ......

 

[Andrus]

Just sold an old set of wheels and tires that was sitting in my shed gathering dust for $200 cash. Now I need to find item(s) on CL to grow the $200. It's addicting lol

 

[RHL]

Just sold an old set of wheels and tires that was sitting in my shed gathering dust for $200 cash. Now I need to find item(s) on CL to grow the $200. It's addicting lol

Nice. I think I'm going in on a $22,000 hustle tomorrow morning. Just went to the bank to move money around. More details if things shake out!

 

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[GravyBoat]

So is this just a place to post your current hustled items? In that case I have a pretty good one.

Little sister was selling boxes of grapefruit and oranges for a school fundraiser. Many other schools in the area participated, all from the same supplier. It turns out one of the schools accidently ordered 100 extra boxes of fruit, for orders that they could not fill. The truck was coming at 9AM this morning, and regardless, the school would have had to pay for it.

So I looked up the principal's number for that school, called the F*cker at midnight the night before, woke his a$$ up out of bed, asking if he wanted to cut his losses. Instead of telling his boss that he accidently wasted a few thousand dollars, he decided to let me buy the 100 boxes at $5/box.

Long story short, I posted the fruit on CL at $20/box. Keep in mind these are 20 pound boxes, so $1/lb for fresh fruit is still less than the supermarket. People have been hopping all over this deal. Got them today and already have 13 boxes lined up as well as a guy who wants to buy in bulk for his Christmas party.

All goes well, I make $1500 profit in a week or so of work. If they don't sell by then, I'll donate them to a food bank, since I only have to sell 25 boxes to break even.

 

[DeletedUser394]

So is this just a place to post your current hustled items? In that case I have a pretty good one.

No, this is thread is not just a place to post your current hustled items. It's supposed to be a progress thread to hit my challenge. I didn't anticipate so many people dropping in to post what they're doing.

 

[DeletedUser394]

Do you have a set margin for every item (50% minimum ? )

@GrumpyCat also, do you have a time frame for each item ( say a week, or 2days to sell an item ? ) do you lower the price after that ?
Thanks

I used to have a minimum profit margin. I think it was 50% or over, and at least $50 profit.

For example I wasn't buying items that were under $50 to only sell for double (ie $25 item to make $20 profit). As it grew anything under $50 became useless.

No timeframe either. I was buying so much, that I'd sit on some items for a while, other times I'd sell the same day that I bought it. I would only bring down prices if the market turned that way, otherwise I just waited it out.

I always go with the strategy to buy more volume, rather than one or two big ticket items to sell. Just a personal preference really.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Finally did the bullion deal, also collected my first commission check.

Up $120 today.

Market is destroying me, it hasn't updated yet, but I think I'm down over $500. Must stay the course haha.

 

[SBS.95]

No, this is thread is not just a place to post your current hustled items. It's supposed to be a progress thread to hit my challenge. I didn't anticipate so many people dropping in to post what they're doing.

Does that mean I can't talk about the car I picked up for $450 last week?

 

[DeletedUser394]

Does that mean I can't talk about the car I picked up for $450 last week?

Go for it, I want this thread to make it to number 1 on the forum. The more contributors the better.

Just don't want people to get confused in the sense that this is still a progress thread at the end of the day.

 

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[SBS.95]

Go for it, I want this thread to make it to number 1 on the forum. The more contributors the better.

Just don't want people to get confused in the sense that this is still a progress thread at the end of the day.

I'll talk about it after I sell it. Which probably won't be for a month or 2 being as I haven't even ordered the parts to fix it yet.

Gotta get on that today.

 

[DeletedUser394]

I couldn't sleep last night (only managed from 6am-8:30am lol) so I spent the night contacting every cleaner offering his/her services. I then matched them to job postings.

I've mentioned this in other threads, but this is an opportunity as nobody actually reads any of the ads. The people that post resumes don't bother to look at the jobs. I guess they think the employers will. And the employers that post jobs don't look at the resumes.

So I've been actively matching them and offering them the connection if they agree to pay me a 'royalty' or finders fee. If they say no, I offer it to the next person until someone says yes.

What's to keep them from going back on their word? Nothing. But a lot of this hustling stuff is based on trust.. or at least some faith in human decency anyway.

It's still early, but I can say that I can realistically expect about $660/month from these connections. (That's the $160/month from the first contract, plus 3 more that I've since added on). They don't all equal $160/month obviously.

I think this is going to be my angle. I'm hesitant to restart buying and selling, because at the end of the day it was exciting.. but also a major pain in the a$$.

I'm pretty grumpy and irritated so hopefully tonight will be smoother haha.

 

[Kingmaker]

I couldn't sleep last night (only managed from 6am-8:30am lol) so I spent the night contacting every cleaner offering his/her services. I then matched them to job postings.

I've mentioned this in other threads, but this is an opportunity as nobody actually reads any of the ads. The people that post resumes don't bother to look at the jobs. I guess they think the employers will. And the employers that post jobs don't look at the resumes.

So I've been actively matching them and offering them the connection if they agree to pay me a 'royalty' or finders fee. If they say no, I offer it to the next person until someone says yes.

What's to keep them from going back on their word? Nothing. But a lot of this hustling stuff is based on trust.. or at least some faith in human decency anyway.

It's still early, but I can say that I can realistically expect about $660/month from these connections. (That's the $160/month from the first contract, plus 3 more that I've since added on). They don't all equal $160/month obviously.

I think this is going to be my angle. I'm hesitant to restart buying and selling, because at the end of the day it was exciting.. but also a major pain in the a$$.

I'm pretty grumpy and irritated so hopefully tonight will be smoother haha.

Do you only give them the connection after they pay you something up front or their verbal agreement to pay you if they get the job sufficient enough?

Or you're the middle man throughout the whole thing as in each party thinks they are working with/for you?

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Do you only give them the connection after they pay you something up front or their verbal agreement to pay you if they get the job sufficient enough?

Or you're the middle man throughout the whole thing as in each party thinks they are working with/for you?

After they agree I connect them with the employer. Taking money up front would be pretty sketchy.

The employer has no idea most of the time. There was a thread a while back where I was connecting laborers to employers (mainly homeowners). During that time, both sides were aware of my presence and what I was doing.

 

[GuestUser140]

Gotta get your magnitude on. $100, 200, etc. is nice, but it takes a lot of those to add up to real money. Do you have an automated system to handle the transactions, or are you just able to optimize them well enough to still come out ahead doing micro-transactions like this? Either way, the last thread was killer, can't wait for this one.

You call it a micro-transaction, most people I know with jobs have to work a day or more to earn this. They do add up.. and when they do, you'll have:

a) capital
b) experience

Do 100 transactions x $100 = 10k. Then it's time to crank up the mangitude or the scale.

 

[GuestUser140]

Do you only give them the connection after they pay you something up front or their verbal agreement to pay you if they get the job sufficient enough?

Or you're the middle man throughout the whole thing as in each party thinks they are working with/for you?

@GrumpyCat
Before you know you're running an employment agency

 

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[GuestUser140]

It is very hard to find worthwhile deals on used iPods and iPhones here, especially older models. Focusing on a different niche that is less frequented with less experienced people will hopefully solve this for me. As soon as I have my capital back, I will dig into this.

• Buy bundles. I was running around the city like a madman, only to buy single used iPods. When you buy bundles, you streamline your input (time and money) as well as have more room for bargaining. Items bought in lots and sold separately are almost a guaranteed profit.

What would you call worthwhile?

And while a "hot" market can be low margin / competitive, you can take comfort in knowing that demand/need is on your side.

You can PM me if desired, I'm an iPhone guy and live in Europe.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

What would you call worthwhile?

And while a "hot" market can be low margin / competitive, you can take comfort in knowing that demand/need is on your side.

You can PM me if desired, I'm an iPhone guy and live in Europe.

Hey @MichaelGrey - thank you for your reply!

My definition of worthwhile in this case was influenced by what @GrumpyCat said a while ago. At that time, he was looking for deals that offer at least a 50% profit margin - but that needs to add up to more than 50$. Had problems finding those in the iPod market here - but I will look harder this week!

I will PM you now - thanks for the offer!!