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

[GuestUser140]

Hi guys,

Maybe some motivation. I started out with 4 phones from eBay a year and a half ago after reading this very thread.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ou-might-want-to-read-this.55438/#post-403978

Hustle on.

 

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[Twista]

Just found out that Facebook sometimes have Buy, Sell, and Trade groups in many cities and counties.

 

[RBefort]

Just found out that Facebook sometimes have Buy, Sell, and Trade groups in many cities and counties.

Yeah...supposed to be a big thing lately. I disabled my account because there were too many baby pics instead of hot selfies anymore. Told my girlfriend (not the first part), that I might have to enable again just for these groups.


Another concern I have...So, Ebay charges you a fee for selling the product, then paypal charges you another fee for funds being sent through there? I sold an ipad for 548 with shipping, showing Ebay as charges of around $55+paypal $16+ :0 If so, my flipping career might be shortlived. You seriously have to find some sick deals or take lower-margin, high volume deals as previously stated. Guess I better get to work writing cool CL ads.

 

[GuestUser140]

Yeah...supposed to be a big thing lately. I disabled my account because there were too many baby pics instead of hot selfies anymore.
.

Being 23, I can see this becoming an issue in the near future.

Another concern I have...So, Ebay charges you a fee for selling the product, then paypal charges you another fee for funds being sent through there? I sold an ipad for 548 with shipping, showing Ebay as charges of around $55+paypal $16+ :0 If so, my flipping career might be shortlived. You seriously have to find some sick deals or take lower-margin, high volume deals as previously stated. Guess I better get to work writing cool CL ads

You answered your own concerns. Do cash deals only at first, when you got the capital build your own website, pack/brand your product. Instead of a $55 eBay fee you'll use $10 for future costs/advertising and put the remainder in the bank + you'll build loyal customers as you're not just another eBay seller.

 

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[RBefort]

I am a dumbass, but at least I am learning and taking action. Scouring CL deals and bought a surround sound that weighs 40-50 lbs for $160. Lowest price on Amazon+shipping was around $320. Sold it in a couple of days, but Amazon only provides $24.50 for shipping allowance and I spent almost $50. Remind me to go smaller products next time lol. I was hoping to sell it quickly on CL to make more profits, but Amazon is just too quick! It's also kind of annoying living in a lower populated area, so I try to post on 4 different cities on CL with a product like this.

 

[RBefort]

For those that resell on Amazon....do you find OK results when you buy a barely used product (but so clean it could be new--just don't have packaging and such) and post a higher price than the lowest in the "Used" section? Example: New is showing lowest price @ $200 for a PS Vita, Used is $115. Let's say a person doesn't have a box, but only used a few times and no scratches and all that on it. Can you post for $150-ish stating that it is basically new on the 2nd or 3rd page of the products list and still find results? I only did this once with my first product and didn't sell it on there; which is why Ebay was good...but, too small of a sample to tell.

 

[Mike Kavanagh]

I was hoping to sell it quickly on CL to make more profits, but Amazon is just too quick! It's also kind of annoying living in a lower populated area, so I try to post on 4 different cities on CL with a product like this.

Large items, just re-list them in a different craigslist market then you bought it in. Bikes, cars, Sound systems.

For those that resell on Amazon....do you find OK results when you buy a barely used product (but so clean it could be new--just don't have packaging and such) and post a higher price than the lowest in the "Used" section?

It's better to be honest then to get negative feedback. Negative feedback definitely effects you in the long run.
On Amazon, I canceled one order at buyer's request. A few months later I went to attempt to get into a restricted category.
Amazon said no because of the one canceled order.

Don't screw yourself over, you'll make more in the end.

 

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[RBefort]

Large items, just re-list them in a different craigslist market then you bought it in. Bikes, cars, Sound systems.



It's better to be honest then to get negative feedback. Negative feedback definitely effects you in the long run.
On Amazon, I canceled one order at buyer's request. A few months later I went to attempt to get into a restricted category.
Amazon said no because of the one canceled order.

Don't screw yourself over, you'll make more in the end.

Hell, I just wait until the ad disappears and then relist it in same market with different pictures and title than before lol

I didn't mean screwing them over. I just wanted to know the results of buying a used-like new product (the ones where they say they bought a couple of weeks ago, used a couple of times, and regret the purchase) that is worth way more than the lowest price that has some defects. So basically, do you have to be pricing it down at the lowest price (within reason) no matter what in the used category, or will people notice your $150-almost new product in the list comparable to those in same condition vs the $110 with a slight defect? Like Ipads...so many with dents, cracks, scratches, and you go a higher price but are on the pages later. Definitely not going to lie about a product, however. Just wondered if it was an "either/or" kind of thing on Amazon, where you're either the lowest price no matter what or you won't be found at all.

 

[Mike Kavanagh]

Hell, I just wait until the ad disappears and then relist it in same market with different pictures and title than before lol

Think geographic arbitrage. If I buy a mac book pro from some kid who's going off to college or needs to pay some kind of bill, I will sell it in a different area where people have disposable income.

Who's going to care if the other one's up. If your pictures and description are better than the person's you bought it from, what's stopping from re-listing it right away?

I didn't mean screwing them over. I just wanted to know the results of buying a used-like new product (the ones where they say they bought a couple of weeks ago, used a couple of times, and regret the purchase) that is worth way more than the lowest price that has some defects.

The only time I personally put New is when it's still in the wrapper or box unopened.
Why?
I bought a shirt from good will. Not a flaw in it. Sold it as like-new, shipped it out. Came back clearly worn, buyer said it came with stains and whatnot. I just refunded him the cost after he shipped it back.
If eBay would of got involved, they would of sided in his favor because it wasn't brand-new in package.

 

[xavi22]

I found a little niche about two years ago where the item I sell on CL gives me a profit of anywhere from $80 to $100 and sell around 15 to 20 a month. It's just a side hustle but it has now allowed me to purchase 3 small classic convertibles and will be unloading them this spring to hopefully make some decent cash to help me fund my next venture. You guys just have to test the market.

Hate to use the cliche, "think outside the box," but CL is really a goldmine. You can literaly make some decent coin without even having to sell physical items (and no, I'm not referring to doing AM or Fiver arbitrage stuff)

Selling items on CL is not gonna take you to the Fastlane but it can definitely provide the stepping stones to getting you there.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

A+ to @Mike Kavanagh for keeping this thread going. I no longer have interest in it, so go gogogog.

This thread is on its way to numero uno.

 

[P3HSB]

:0 If so, my flipping career might be shortlived. You seriously have to find some sick deals or take lower-margin, high volume deals as previously stated.

I feel your pain @RBefort. I've done a lot of buying and selling throughout my life but for some reason I am unable to make it consistent. Buying and selling is definitely a tricky process.It appears to me that sellers tend to set their prices above the market so they can maintain their margins from the lowballers. In some cases, sellers also set prices at market value and decline all lowball offers or give you a slight discount which is not enough to make any profits. Here is a hypothetical scenario I find myself in a lot...

So let's say there is a pair of shoes you want to buy. The seller is selling it for $100. The real market value of the item is $70 dollars. You message the seller and make an offer for $60. The seller declines and says "I will do $70". From the buyer's perspective (you), it appears to be a good deal as he dropped the price down by $30. At this point you have to make a decision. Since this is just an example, let's just say you decide to pull the trigger and make the purchase. Let assume you bought the item off Craigslist. At this point, you got the product and everything seem to be going right until you realize there is no margins to be made. You try to put it on Ebay and Amazon only to realize, if you priced it at $100, you are most likely unable to compete. Everyone on Ebay is selling it for $70. As for Amazon, it is an absolute price war. If your listing is not around the top 5, it is extremely difficult to sell. Factor in shipping and fees from Ebay and Amazon and now you got negative profits. If you decide to list it on Craigslist and price it at $100 (just like the seller did to you), you will realize that you are back at square one because now you're trying to maintain your margins and others are lowballing you now. Factor in time wasted messaging seller(30 minutes), time driving(1:30hr roundtrip) , gas (15-20miles),wasted inventory space and now you got a nightmare deal that will end your buying and selling career quickly. Very difficult to pull this off consistently imo.

Regarding lowball offers : know exactly what you are looking for. Don't be afraid to make 10-20 ridiculous offers before someone says yes. What do you care? If you didn't get at least one "you are an a**hole" response, you are probably not going deep enough. You are looking for the person who has to sell. You're not in this to find your new BFF. Donald Trump once said he makes 99 insulting real estate offers, looking for the 1 that will say yes.

Anyway... anyone following RichKid's method... here's your challenge. Make 20 ridiculous offers, and see what you can get. You are searching for the diamond in the rough. You can't pay retail and expect to make a profit. You have to figuratively find a steal of a deal in order to make any significant money. Be willing to take risks. You don't get what you don't ask for.

@Vigilante has an interesting point.This seems like the only solution, but then again, your probability of striking a deal is low which makes this business model extremely inconsistent.

 

[bboyu]

hey guys are you lot doing cash transactions only? when selling through ebay and amazon everything gets tracked so are you paying tax on those sales/income or not? if not then how?

 

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[P3HSB]

hey guys are you lot doing cash transactions only? when selling through ebay and amazon everything gets tracked so are you paying tax on those sales/income or not? if not then how?

You don't pay tax on each sale you make. When you make a sell on Ebay, I believe you are charged with Ebay's basic fees and Paypal fee. For Amazon, you are charged with Amazon commission fees. Cool thing about Amazon is that you get shipping credit when your item gets sold. In addition to these fees for both Ebay and Amazon, you have to factor in shipping cost, packaging cost (if you don't have a package) and tracking ID (optional). Don't worry about taxes until you start making consistent sales and a lot of money. Then when tax season comes around, just report it.

 

[bboyu]

I know you don't pay tax on each sale, what I know as I have asked this question a gazillion times is - this method of earning money is illegal because we are "hustling" and just stacking up money for bigger ventures - we can't turn this into a legitimate business as we're just buying and selling anything we find for a profit on an adhoc basis - now if you are buying and selling for a profit then you have to pay taxes or prove otherwise if this is all you're doing when starting out.

I want to be able to prove otherwise but no one seems to spill the beans on how they do this - when selling online everything tracks everything - and you can be found out if you have been selling a lot of items frequently - especially if those items keep propping up on your profile as things you are selling - blatantly you've acquired more stock to sell to generate profit. My question is when selling through such avenues do you tell the customer's its cash in hand on arrival? or do you pay minimal taxes? if you don't pay taxes and don't ask for cash in hand on arrival and get paid through paypal etc then how do you get away without paying tax?

My question is not to you with much respect RickKid, as you

no longer have interest in it, so go gogogog

 

[xavi22]

I know you don't pay tax on each sale, what I know as I have asked this question a gazillion times is - this method of earning money is illegal because we are "hustling" and just stacking up money for bigger ventures - we can't turn this into a legitimate business as we're just buying and selling anything we find for a profit on an adhoc basis - now if you are buying and selling for a profit then you have to pay taxes or prove otherwise if this is all you're doing when starting out.

I want to be able to prove otherwise but no one seems to spill the beans on how they do this - when selling online everything tracks everything - and you can be found out if you have been selling a lot of items frequently - especially if those items keep propping up on your profile as things you are selling - blatantly you've acquired more stock to sell to generate profit. My question is when selling through such avenues do you tell the customer's its cash in hand on arrival? or do you pay minimal taxes? if you don't pay taxes and don't ask for cash in hand on arrival and get paid through paypal etc then how do you get away without paying tax?

Will be taxed if:
A. Using EBay with paypal= $20,000 USD in gross payment volume from sales of goods or services in a single year. You will be taxed on Gross Profit only.

B. Using an E-commerce site= ANY Payment Processor (and merchants like Amazon that collect money and disburse it to you ARE considered payment processors) MUST report your gross sales to the IRS if your account(s) with them take in more than $20,000 AND 200 transactions. This includes PayPal, Amazon, CCNow, Moneybookers, etc.

C. Using Craigslist = NO payment processor (all cash); If you want to set it up as an actual business and pay taxes, then refer to A & B. A high percentage of those selling on CL are NOT reporting to the irs. For this reason, CL will always be a hustle side-thing and you will never be able to scale it up unless you go outside of the parameters of what is considered legal. As I would assume you know, CL is a cash for goods platform and people know that it's all cash and don't expect to pay taxes on any item. It's different for services offered by legitimate businesses on CL.

So you have to decide on what type of direction you want to take with your transactions. There are other ways around this if you need to use Paypal but again, you have to determine how you want to treat your transactions

 

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[Mike Kavanagh]

Ethical grey areas aside. I want to tell you guys a story about a real estate buyer

It's an old story. It's a bit unethical what this man did.

His name was Crassius. An ancient Roman entrepreneur and strict robber baron of his time.
The story goes on to show that when Crassius wanted a property, he'd set fire to it.
The people would come running out, with their most important belongs and family members.They were hopeless.
Everything they owned would be gone. Rome had no fire department or insurance in those days.
He'd then send his slaves up and offer to buy the now valueless property at pennies on the dollar.

I'm not saying you go set people's houses on fire. I'm saying that people have their own fires that they started.

They must sell because of rent. They are going away because of college. Divorce. Death.
These are the things you look for to be consistent.

They may not always tell you what the problem they are having is.
You can tell who a motivated seller is by their actions.
Keeping in constant contact with you. They initiate contact or say their haggle price first.
Words they are using.

Get out there and hustle.

 

[Mike Kavanagh]

Example - Posted 24 days ago

Updated 3 hours ago.

Keywords

I need to move this by the end of the weekend. No reasonable offer refused
Ready To Sell.

The most I'm willing to pay for this deal is $100.
That way my risk is minimized.

I probably wont even part with that much.

Update - No response from them yet but thanks to having some contacts who use this kind of item, I already got a motivated buyer.

 

[xavi22]

By the way, if you still don't think that CL is "goldmine"...check out entire businesses' created from finding a need that CL offers (check out its competitors):

http://imgur.com/9DG8FYU

 

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[Mike Kavanagh]

Example - Posted 24 days ago

Updated 3 hours ago.

Keywords


The most I'm willing to pay for this deal is $100.
That way my risk is minimized.

I probably wont even part with that much.

Update - No response from them yet but thanks to having some contacts who use this kind of item, I already got a motivated buyer.

So gonna throw this out there, just got a text from the guy. He is looking for much higher than I thought.
I told him I wouldn't pay that much. I lowballed him to almost half price. No response yet.

Will update again.

Edit: First f*ck you. What a way to end an evening. Time for shots!

 

[P3HSB]

So gonna throw this out there, just got a text from the guy. He is looking for much higher than I thought.
I told him I wouldn't pay that much. I lowballed him to almost half price. No response yet.

Will update again.

Interested to see if you can close this deal! Im rooting for you @Mike Kavanagh

 

[P3HSB]

I told him I wouldn't pay that much. I lowballed him to almost half price. No response yet.

Edit: First f*ck you. What a way to end an evening. Time for shots!

Tell me something new haha. I've seen that message too many times. Lowballing someone to 50% will definitely decrease your probability.

 

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[KLaw]

I found a little niche about two years ago where the item I sell on CL gives me a profit of anywhere from $80 to $100 and sell around 15 to 20 a month. It's just a side hustle but it has now allowed me to purchase 3 small classic convertibles and will be unloading them this spring to hopefully make some decent cash to help me fund my next venture. You guys just have to test the market.

Hate to use the cliche, "think outside the box," but CL is really a goldmine. You can literaly make some decent coin without even having to sell physical items (and no, I'm not referring to doing AM or Fiver arbitrage stuff)

Selling items on CL is not gonna take you to the Fastlane but it can definitely provide the stepping stones to getting you there.

"You can literaly make some decent coin without even having to sell physical items (and no, I'm not referring to doing AM or Fiver arbitrage stuff) "

If you don't mind, what do you mean by the above? I'm not asking for anything specific to your biz but can anyone give a generic example of what this process is? Thanks.

 

[RBefort]

Ha going back to Mike's example....other night lady was selling used ps3 and madden 2015 for $100 and she wanted it out of house that night. I saw it around 1030pm and it was posted 2 hrs prior. I was 50 mi away from her and first offered 80, knowing full well she wanted to sell quicklt and trade in alone at best buy was 130ish....amazon selling would be 225 or more. Said she had guy looking next morning and couldnt hold until sunday (this was friday and i had fam in town). I offered 105 to hold, but ahe then said ahe would meet halfway that night, thats how badly she wanted it gone. I didnt want to do a trans. In the dark and not be able to test, so t threw in the towel i am out of inventory though...only have a couple of text books sitting online. Getting back on the grizzy when the family leaves today.

 

[bboyu]

There are other ways around this if you need to use Paypal but again, you have to determine how you want to treat your transactions

Thanks. for the reply. So yeah say if I get some products to sell on ebay via paypal - because I know once a potential customer expresses an interest i.e bids - then he/she will 99% have to buy - unless they want their own a/c in detriment. With CL or Gumtree etc there isn't that security - what are the other ways around this as you were saying?

Also with buying and selling property you would definitely have to pay tax wouldn't you?

 

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[Mike Kavanagh]

Thanks. for the reply. So yeah say if I get some products to sell on ebay via paypal - because I know once a potential customer expresses an interest i.e bids - then he/she will 99% have to buy - unless they want their own a/c in detriment. With CL or Gumtree etc there isn't that security - what are the other ways around this as you were saying?

Also with buying and selling property you would definitely have to pay tax wouldn't you?

Look man, I'm going to be blunt.
Either shit or get off of the pot.

Everything is you're saying is excuse a or excuse b.

JUST FREAKING TRY IT.

 

[RBefort]

Agree with above. I saw sales tax on my first ebay sale from flipping. I instantly googled "do i need sales tax on my ebay product." Saw an answer that said "if you arent a registered business that needs to collect, dont worry about it." Shipped the item and went out to find another. Works for me. Ill worry about it later when i build this up more.

Craigslist it is true, when someone sends you a msg, they wont necessarily buy...who cares? More people will inquire. If you price the item right, it wont last very long anyway.

 

[RBefort]

Good god there are a ton of losers and wankers on CL. Not flipping this car, but didn't get any bites for forever posting my price and even showing the NADA/KBB values. Not to mention, I said I was honest and let people know anything and everything about the car beforehand. You mention one issue and it seems they freak out and won't come to see it. Almost like you should get them to come see it first, discuss it in person, and then work out a price. Anyhow, I switched my ad to $1 price, saying to make REASONABLE offer, with a pic of the book values in the ad. I get offered $2k, 9k, anything in between on a $13k+ valued car rofl...not to mention, I get tons of requests asking what my lowest price is now. Granted, in this thread we are the kings of lowball requests...but we don't do it because that's all we can afford...we are doing it strategically, whereas I feel these people are just being dumb and bothersome.

However, the whole switching to $1 does kind of bring up something psychologically in people that brings them to inquire a lot more than if you just posted a price. Maybe they undercut intentionally to cure their worry of overpaying what you really want? Had a girl say $9k for my car once, I say dealer gave me more and she instantly goes to $11k...pre picture of the book values. Just thought this was somewhat interesting, and people can relate/share. I need inventory but rain/flat tire means none of that

 

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[adamhenry]

However, the whole switching to $1 does kind of bring up something psychologically in people that brings them to inquire a lot more than if you just posted a price.

Hmm, maybe I'll try that on my next listing.

I did experiment with trading a couple of times - listed a bike for trade without a dollar value.

Traded a bike for an iPad mini, then traded the iPad mini for a Canon T2i DSLR.

Had $90 in the bike, would've sold it for about $150. The T2i was worth about $600 at the time.

 

[RBefort]

Nice work! Usually when people ask to trade, it is complete shit (guess I've only had a couple of instances with a car and a surround sound). The surround sound a guy wanted to trade mechanic or skilled labor. Zzzzz.