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

[Clenjamin]

Was looking for a appraisal website and only found one so that might be a fastlane idea hmmm just skip the buying and selling and just tell people what to sell it for.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

what we need to make is something that searches craigslist then amazon and ebay and finds deals thats you can make value off of.

The coding already exists. I don't use it though.

When I expand enough, I'm just going to hire some of my friends to do it manually.

You can find dozens of deals in minutes... if you can't find any deals, make them. Lowball everyone until someone agrees.

 

[DeletedUser394]

Probably, but more so because you're 30 years old.

New addition to my ignore list.

Back to work for me

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Too bad that almost everyone is doing this.

I'd love a few tips on dropping the price though.

For example, I need to buy some new work hardware.

This means a big desk, some chairs, a conference table, two IBM laptops, a video projector.

I want to buy them all SH. If you can give me some pointers on dropping the price at least 10%, you're my hero

(I've never haggled before on price and with one small exception, it's the first time I buy this way)

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.

*And while many people may be doing this, they are either too lazy, have no ambition, give up too soon, are just too stupid, etc. There are ~7billion? people on earth..so there's always someone to sell something to.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Officially surpassed the $1,500 milestone. Took me a week and a half.

Made some sales that I turned around and poured directly into more inventory.

Inventory: $1,647
Cash: $125

Total: $1,772

 

[Shades]

I definately need some help with this.....I think I have the ambition and the right idea but im not doing SOMETHING right.

I doubt your doing anything wrong. Last month was the first month I tried to do this, when someone posted a thread about it. Made $2000 profit in Id say about 5-6 hours of work. This month however ive made $75. Your at the mercy of your area. At the mercy of people selling things for a realistic price that you can still resell and make money on. Doesnt come around everyday.

Actually you will find that most people value things at far above what they are actually worth. I always hear "well I paid $500 for it 2 years ago so I want $400 for it" Even though the market only pays $200 for that product used. You have to keep in mind most people arent very intelligent, making deals harder not easier most of the time. Maybe thats rude, but its the truth.

I only will do a deal if I can make at least $60 off of it have shipping and fees. I also never resell on craigslist. I find that to consume much more of my time then simply putting it on ebay, then packing it and printing out the label in 10 minutes after it sells. Post office picks up your packages at your house for free.

Also if someone is making a bunch of money off of video games then more power to them. Thats a very tough way to go. Profit margins are usually very slim. But the thread starter seems to live in a area that pays top dollar for old games, you wont find that many places.

I think cell phones are the easiest way to start out. Smart phones to be exact. Very easy and cheap to ship and they are always in demand on ebay. Just check ebays completed listings before you buy it to see what the phone goes for, then get the seller to sell it to you for a price low enough that you can make at least $60.

Here is a handy calculator for seeing what you ebay and Paypal fees will be on a product before you buy it.

eBay Fees Calculator 8.2 by Ryan Olbe (updated July 12, 2011)

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Apparently.

Value here value there, regardless of what one thinks value means, you need to provide some kind of value to make any money.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Thanks everyone.

Just closed deal #50. I did a rough count of my current inventory, and it's somewhere around 78...

Think about that, in under two weeks, with no money ($0 to start this), I acquired 78 different things that add up to around $1,800. I have at least one of practically every item, in every category, ever sold under or around $100 haha.

Anybody can do this! And the excuse of 'I don't have any money' just doesn't work. I don't even remember what it was that I sold originally, but it was for $40 cash and it was something that I hadn't used in years.

I don't have a calculator handy but $40 to $1,800 sounds like a pretty killer return.

Feels weird to say, but I'm 'mentoring' one of my friends...who happens to live 2,400km (1,800 miles?) away from me. And guess what, his first weekend he made over $200 profit. He thinks he can pay off his car within a few weeks at the rate he's going.

Location is irrelevant. You could be living in Antarctica, so long as you have an internet connection, you're good to go.

As for where I'm taking this, there is little barrier to entry. As I said, anyone can do this. So my advantage is in progressively purchasing items of greater and greater value. Anyone can put $100 down on an ipod...not every one can slap $5,000 cash on a car.... fewer still can do that five days straight. (if the opportunity arises).

Also wouldn't mind flipping a house or two in the future. Everyone has to start somewhere, and while I may have started at the bottom, I sure as hell ain't staying there. Every day is a chance to make money if that's one of your goals. Don't waste it. (Or waste it, and leave more money for me, I don't mind! )

 

[biophase]

Yea I agree, no offense Ryan but you don't lowball enough. You are obviously doing really well as it is but you could be doing BETTER.

You don't have to lowball that much if their asking price is already very low. It's better to just get the item.

I once sold my mountain bike worth about $500 for $175 on craigslist. I had this one guy offer me $150, I said no it's worth $175. He said he'll think about it. Of course, I got about 5 full price offers in the 2 minutes that past before he called me back and said he'll pay $175 but it was too late. If he was a flipper he could have made easily $200 on it.

Why did I sell it for $175? Because I didn't want to deal with taking photos, explaining its features, answering questions, deal with people making offers and I wanted it gone that night. I sold it within 5 minutes. Guy was over at my house within 15.

The guy who bought it from me didn't even take a look at it. It was night time he was wheeled it into his car without ever seeing it in the light. I asked him if he wanted to ride it first and that it had alot of scratches. He said, it's a $175 gary fisher bike I don't need to ride it cause even if it's broken it's still worth it.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Know your enemy. Or in this case competition.

Sent off a quick email to my main Ipod competitor to a) Get his email address (so I can punch it into facebook) and b) To see how far he's willing to negotiate on his prices.

So using sleuth/stalker (lol) skills I know he's in his mid 20s, etc. It's great to put a face to the name.

Now that I know what I'm dealing with, makes it easier to take over his market.

And scored my biggest deal (on the sell side) so far since starting!!!! Funny how the day before I get an email saying my prices are outrageous (they aren't) and then today some awesome man picks up 30% of my inventory and doesn't even haggle. Just pays what I ask.

This 1 deal makes up for the 6 or so that fell through in the last 3 days.

 

[DeletedUser394]

I'm not 'sitting' on inventory for more money. I buy things in lots therefore I can't sell 20 of the same item to the next person.. unless they are buying bundles/lots as well.

The goal is $10k cash... I funnel all cash back into more expensive items and repeat, and repeat and repeat. When I reach a certain amount of inventory (as a $ value) then I'll mostly stick to individual items for quicker turnover.

Yes, read the lambo thread.

Perhaps I'm not really flipping, but I see little other conceivable way how I could have gone from $40 to $2,500 in two weeks.

The strategy as I go on is to sell off inventory and stick to bigger and bigger items ($ wise).

Happy with how I'm doing it.

 

[DeletedUser394]

From December 27th to now I've done almost nothing except wake up and go to international hockey games all week long.

Now I'm sick and quite grumpy. In spite of doing absolutely nothing for over a week, I'm up another $500.

I've devised phase 2 of my plan. It will basically mean me working 1 day a week on average, and making money 7 days a week. I'm not sure it's exactly passive income, but I'm going back to school after the summer and if I can get away with not having to work an actual job part time, I'll be quite the happy camper.

I won't be reinventing the wheel, or doing anything new/groundbreaking so I'm fairly confident it will work out.

Phase 2 will be put into practice this summer (building cash reserves now). (Phase 1 is buying and selling on craigslist in case you didn't know lol)

Phase 2 will be in another thread because this one is out of control (in an good way). If I make it to $10k by the end of Phase 1, Phase 2 will be the goal of going from $10K to $100K (6 month-1 year time period for that goal). But that's a ways away, so I don't want to get ahead of myself.

So;

Inventory: $2,287
Cash: $1,240

Total: $3,527

One month ago I started with $0. (In case you're reading this and didn't happen to read the entire thread.)

 

[DeletedUser2]

Hustling: Taking something and giving high value to someone else. The hustler takes the cut from between the true value and the perceived value of the item, service, or information.

Scamming: To sell something of promised high value for a low value, to which no value is to be had.

Politicking: Tricking people into what has value.

Noobing: complaining about any value someone else brings, as being to high priced.

 

[Ivan]

I've been doing a little reselling on the side for a little over a year. It's mostly a hobby at the moment and my main source of income is still my job. I've learned a TON though. A few things:

Never buy on emotions.
Be able to walk away from any deal and don't feel bad for wasting a person's time. Better to waste $5 in gas than have hundreds/thousands of dollars tied up in a losing investment.

Research is key.
Really get to know the market before you buy. I bought a bike for $700 that I thought I could resell for $1000. I didn't do my homework and barely broke even after a few months.

Risk is in the eye of the beholder.
I never understood Robert Kiyosaki when he wrote "Investing is not risky if you know what you're doing" until I started the reselling game. If I know a pair of shoes sells easily for $70, and I see them listed for $15, I have no problem making that investment. I try to get that concept across to others, but they just don't get it.

Keep the money moving.
In my opinion, quick turnover beats waiting for a higher price (within reason). Sell, make a quick profit, and pump the money back in. It works like compound interest. I'd rather make 30% three times in a week rather than wait to make 60% once from the same investment in the same time frame. In the first scenario, $100 becomes $220. In the second you only get $160. As long as you don't have a lot of overhead (gas cost, travel time) multiple quick sales usually multiply money faster.

Keep inventory moving.
Sometimes it's better to break even or even lose a little on a bad investment in order to free up the money. I've found that this is a better strategy than sitting on a bad item, stubbornly waiting for a minimal profit. I've missed out on a few killer deals because my cash was tied up in inventory.

Let the seller lower the price.
I've had several instances when I've asked a person "What's the lowest you're willing to go on the price?" and they lowered it past what I was going to offer.

Keep demographics in mind.
Keep in mind the kind of people you'll have to deal with. I know a few people who have been threatened and robbed while trying to sell an iPhone. That's why I stay out of that market. Higher profit margins are not worth getting shot (to me, at least). Video games were pretty profitable for me, but I found that I was making too many trips to the 'hood for my liking. I mostly do high end mountain bikes now. The kind of people who are into mtb are far more pleasant to deal with.

Understand supply and demand.
Buy at times when supply is high and demand is low. Sell when demand is high and supply is low. For example, I can usually sell a low-end bike very quickly in September. I have 2 state universities and 6 community colleges in my city. Lots of students need bikes. A great time to buy bikes is at the end of spring, when a lot of students are graduating or ending school. The day after Christmas is also a great time to buy since people are getting rid of unwanted presents. A friend of mine picked up an iPad 2 still in packaging for $380 this year on Dec 26th.

This concept also applies geographically. There might be a deficit in one city but an abundance in another. Bringing equilibrium to that system can make you some easy money. For example, old diesel Mercedes sell pretty well in my city because there aren't many of them. You can get them dirt cheap if you're willing to drive for a bit. I picked one up in San Jose for $550 and sold it in Sacramento for $900 recently.



There's more, but I figure this post is already getting pretty long. Hope this helps someone.

 

[DeletedUser394]

Well, I did it... I actually freaking did it. :smxG:

Passed the $10K mark a few days ago, and I still have a few thousand dollars worth of inventory to sell on top of that.

I'm already fully bankrolled for next year's b&p, bought myself a brand new computer with dual monitors, I have a decent job, will be going back to school in July, I could go on.

It wasn't hard at all... hard work, dedication, the rest is easy after that.

Next challenge will be posted eventually (when I can think of it) haha.

 

[oddball]

That is good advice psaco. True 10 of them would equal that.

I got almost screwed on verizon/sprint 2 that were under contract. I even called the phone company before I bought them and gave them the numbers and they said that they were "clean" I guess "clean" doesn't mean they can be activated till the prior owner cancels. So now I just do AT&T ones which I can only find one here or there.

I am thinking once the new iphone comes out the price will be very high on ebay because that is what tends to happen when new electronics get released. So buying them on craigslist to resell will be lucrative again.

Yea, just because it is a clean ESN doesn't mean it doesn't still have a contract attached. I learned that the hard way too, ended up getting the guy to take care of it. He stopped answering me so I decided what better way to annoy him then to send him literally hundreds of texts at random hours of the day/night. lol

 

[ZCP]

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

 

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[GarrettUK]

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

 

[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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[DeletedUser394]

I'm reminded today why I don't do this anymore.

I'm selling an item for under 100 (listed at 100). Brand new ipod basically that I never used.

The person emails offering 80 a day or two ago, so I say yes whatever, and we agree to meet up this morning.

Last night I also received a reply from a girl at my uni offering full price, but I say sorry it already has a buyer. (In keeping my word I was losing 20% essentially)

I get an email a couple of minutes ago saying someone offered the person 70 and that they will no longer be meeting me to buy it (never mind the fact that I was actually going to meet this person closer to them than it was to me.)

Oh well, I get to sell it on campus for full value now.

In life, in business, in everything. Make sure your word counts for something. Flakey a$$ lo$ers haha

 

[cdrag]

Here's a free tip/suggestion - I use when selling on Ebay/Amazon.

I buy and sell collectibles - mostly video games, comics, collectible toys etc - and I always check ebay vs amazon seller prices. I have seen numerous instances where a comic that I bought for $5 is selling for $10 on ebay.. You think great, double your money well that's not the case - In this case, the same exact comic is selling for $25 on Amazon - 5x profit

So one thing to take into consideration - always make sure you research the best place to sell your item. Oh and for the record, I don't waste my time with 1 $5 comic - i typically buy 50-100 which definitely creates a bigger profit than making $5 off one comic. This is something I am doing for a comic right now while it is hot before it drops in price

 

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[SBS.95]

Going in person is how you get the best deals. You can cut the price by more than half in some cases.

I might be alone in this, but I disagree with lowballing on the spot. Reasons:

• I've had people try to do it with me, and it pisses me off. The answer is always "We agreed on a price already, you can pay it or I'm leaving." I expect people to respect my time, so I try to respect others peoples time.
• I want to know I'm making money before I leave the house. Driving 15 minutes, having my offer refused, and then driving 15 minutes home empty-handed, is not something I'm interested in doing.
• It's way easier for me to send out 20 lowball offers through email (literally just copy+paste an email and insert my offer $#)

 

[SeanyHang]

Damn guys - first time reading through this entire thread (tons of tidbits of gold!!!)... This is what I'm feelin after soaking in all 30 pages... hahaha.

Now it's entirely possible that I may have skipped over this or even forgot it after taking in all that info.. But how exactly are you guys finding/obtaining these "lots" of items? I've been importing from overseas in bulk to sell online (ebay/amazon) which is obviously one way to get a "lot" of product... But I get the impression that you're actually finding things in bulk on CL?

This would be a fun and productive thing to do on the side while I'm waiting for my products from overseas to arrive at my door. Im in the NJ/NY area so there's a plethora of items to get my hands on (I just picked up a Marshall VS265 for $180 which typically goes used for around $450-$500). BUT I haven't been seeing any of these lots that you guys are talking about. I guess maybe I'm also just searching the wrong sections?

 

[amp0193]

Watch this video:

http://www.conservativeoutfitters.c...m-14-year-old-buys-house-and-becomes-landlord

Doing her school online, means she gets to hustle all the time. High schoolers in here take note.

 

[DeletedUser394]

Also, if anyone has any questions, please post them here instead of PMs (already received a few, so it's nice to see that many people want to get started).

That way it can benefit everyone, and hopefully lead to a discussion.

 

[Sky]

Hustling: Taking something and giving high value to someone else. The hustler takes the cut from between the true value and the perceived value of the item, service, or information.

Scamming: To sell something of promised high value for a low value, to which no value is to be had.

Politicking: Tricking people into what has value.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Nearly 600 views in less than 24 hours. Yikes!

So the first goal with this project is $10,000 unencumbered cash by June 1st 2012. (That'll be just before a new semester). I'd be really pleased with that result.

Made a few more acquisitions and sales today, currently have 11 listings up.

Cash on Hand: $245
Inventory: $960

Total: $1,205


**and 'Sky' the purpose of my '...ok?' post was a poor attempt (my fault) at trying to say: 'The definition/interpretation of the word 'hustler' really doesn't matter to me. In the context of this thread, I only care about making money.' The word 'hustler' is irrelevant and I don't want to discuss semantics, when making money is the goal.

 

[DeletedUser394]

Beat me to it, that was one of my future 'tips'! ;P

When I wrote 'You have to give a damn about the product, or at least pretend to' I was referring to caring enough to post the specs, etc.

It makes no difference to me what I'm selling, but I need to know what it is, what it does, and I need to be able to tell a buyer exactly that.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

GMA. Scammers abound. Be specifically on the lookout for fake cashier's checks from out of state buyers. Ryan... how about some SAFETY tips on how to buy and sell and avoid scammers?

This is easy also. I've yet to be scammed, although I imagine it might happen at some point.

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.

 

[DeletedUser394]

So new goal to add to current.

$10,000 by June 1st (I'm between $1.5K-$2K after 2 weeks)
Ebook/Website up and running by January 1st

Closed 5 deals today, and sold something to someone before I even bought it off another person. This is an addiction hahaha.

 

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