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

max momo · Jan 12, 2012

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

That post by Ivan is very good – his concise summary is obviously based on experience (and echoes much of my own) rather than just something he read on a blog.

Now – regarding the issue of not buying stuff that costs less than a dollar:

That makes sense when you are starting out. Eventually, it pays to buy LARGE LOTS of many things, rather than just a couple items. If you buy the entire contents of a house, rather than one particular item, your market now has many more interested buyers (and you get discounts for volume).

Sure, it’s easier to start just buying one item at a time. Eventually you will be buying entire inventory of someone’s estate or business.

KEEP BUILDING YOUR ROLODEX/SPREADSHEET of buyers. At that point you want to sell of all the stuff to a wholesaler and cherry pick the prizes, for substantial markup. That is, you will never buy something unless you know it will quickly sell to someone on your list!

The same lessons apply, now it’s just a matter of SYTEMS and SCALE.

Best…

DeletedUser394 · Jan 12, 2012

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

That post by Ivan is very good – his concise summary is obviously based on experience (and echoes much of my own) rather than just something he read on a blog.

Now – regarding the issue of not buying stuff that costs less than a dollar:

That makes sense when you are starting out. Eventually, it pays to buy LARGE LOTS of many things, rather than just a couple items. If you buy the entire contents of a house, rather than one particular item, your market now has many more interested buyers (and you get discounts for volume).

Sure, it’s easier to start just buying one item at a time. Eventually you will be buying entire inventory of someone’s estate or business.

KEEP BUILDING YOUR ROLODEX/SPREADSHEET of buyers. At that point you want to sell of all the stuff to a wholesaler and cherry pick the prizes, for substantial markup. That is, you will never buy something unless you know it will quickly sell to someone on your list!

The same lessons apply, now it’s just a matter of SYTEMS and SCALE.

Best…

A general rule, is a 'general rule'. It does not apply to everything. I bought 120 units at $5 each the other day. Worth over $4000 retail.

For individual items I'm not purchasing anything under set dollar amounts, because that's what I want to do, so that's what I'm going to do.

I have little interest in continuing this beyond a certain point. Already have an exit/transition strategy in place.

CommonCents · Jan 12, 2012

A spinoff is a listing service for businesses for their excess inventory/materials. Work off their inventory listing/selling stuff sitting on their shelves. Very scalable if you set up an easy cataloging/photo (camera/laptop) system that you train others to do.

DeletedUser394 · Jan 13, 2012

Made $600 in 2 days.

Inventory: $3,505
Cash: $1,120

Total: $4,625

Nearly to the halfway point.

Stridone · Jan 13, 2012

I've read this entire thread plus the one on the Lambo forums and I've been trying to apply the knowledge in these past few days but damn, no one seems to bite around here (Netherlands, small city of 130K people). I've been targeting video games, apple products, tv's, laptops and cell phones but no luck AT ALL. Most people tend to demand a price above market value if anything and are very clear when trying to negotiate. It's also different from Craigslist in that people hardly ever put their number in ads and negotiation happens through email mainly. Even the few calls I tried yielded no results. When people put stuff up at a low price there's alot of overbidding before you know it. I might start studying some specific products to get to know those markets because the aforementioned ones seem to be pretty bad for hustling.

Any tips on what I might be doing wrong and what I could try next? Or is it just a tough market? I've put in alot of hours trying to scoop up deals these past few days but not a single one yet.. That's pretty dissapointing. The main dutch site for buying and selling is Marktplaats and this is the one I'm using. This thread is still awesome but I can't seem to succesfully apply its teachings.

FloK · Jan 13, 2012

Hello everyone! My first post here. My name is Folusho, and I caught the entrepreneur bug, "hustling"
after I graduated from HS.

When N**** launched, I would stay up till 3 in the morning downloading and sell the cds for $10 a pop. After the media started talking about it, I started realizing that what I was doing wasn't good, but I had sooooo many customers because I worked at a telemarketing firm.

Long story short, I stopped selling CD, later DVDs, and starting selling websites, and consulting online.

I've cleared over a mill with that business.

Just a little about me.

Here are a few programs you can use to find things and automate the process a little more.

ifttt / Put the internet to work for you. With this you can automate your responses when certain things happen online.

I also use a program called Leadnetpro, there are other like it that are cheap, and you can set it up to
search Craigslist, Ebay, Google, etc...

But like an earlier poster said, you don't want to automate something if you don't have a successful formula that works.

When you put the technology first, then people get human interaction, they seem to respond better. Sorta like they are surprised that they were able to talk to someone.

mavwrx · Jan 13, 2012

you can apply this craigslists logic to ebay/amazon and vice versa. I buy a LOT of electronic goods on ebay or craigslist for about $50 per item. Then I clean it up and a warrant and resell on amazon for $140.

Stridone · Jan 14, 2012

mavwrx said:
you can apply this craigslists logic to ebay/amazon and vice versa. I buy a LOT of electronic goods on ebay or craigslist for about $50 per item. Then I clean it up and a warrant and resell on amazon for $140.

Within your city/country or even internationally? Shipping will slightly lessen the profit margin I guess but this might be a good solution to living in a small city with few good deals. What sorts of goods are you currently dealing in? $50 to $140 is a damn nice margin.

mavwrx · Jan 14, 2012

Stridone said:
Within your city/country or even internationally? Shipping will slightly lessen the profit margin I guess but this might be a good solution to living in a small city with few good deals. What sorts of goods are you currently dealing in? $50 to $140 is a damn nice margin.

Across the usa shipping (no internaltional sales) shipping is about $10 flat rate with priority mail. I'd rather not say, it falls under electronics. But you can find these artibritrage siutations existing within ebay and amazon.

DeletedUser394 · Jan 15, 2012

Only update, is that there's a slight change in my goal. Rather than $10K cash, it could be a combination of inventory and cash, as I'm planning on continuing this into ebay/online store rather than just taking straight cash into another venture.

And I'm only going to update this once a week henceforth.

I have 147 days remaining to make $5,500.

DeletedUser394 · Jan 17, 2012

Good things happen to good hustlers.

Was on my way from the bank today, (Depositing some money to cover for a new shipment of inventory), and now I'm probably going to be in the paper tomorrow haha.

A photographer for one of the big papers in the city stopped me and took some shots.

Found my picture on the newspaper website just now. Pretty cool.

I look like a habs loving terrorist.

DeletedUser394 · Jan 17, 2012

LOL, I'm on the front page now.

oddball · Jan 17, 2012

Since you are moving to ebay you should also go with Amazon. You can make a lot on there. i was until they shut my account because of a complaint. Person complained because a leather case I threw in for free with an ipad was a worn on the edges and wanted a new one.

DeletedUser394 · Jan 17, 2012

I'm already on amazon and a few others.

Likwid24 · Jan 17, 2012

Awesome. Your insane for going out in that weather!

DeletedUser394 · Jan 18, 2012

Likwid24 said:
Awesome. Your insane for going out in that weather!

Nothing stops the hustle! Not weather nor nuclear war... okay, maybe nuclear war.

DeletedUser394 · Jan 18, 2012

Wooooo I'm on the third page of today's newspaper right under 'Top News'.

In other news (lol) I passed $5,000 at some point this week. Not sure of the cash/inventory breakdown but when I'm not too lazy I'll do the math.

Officially out of the video game reselling business. Sold off the last of my inventory yesterday.

Ivan · Jan 19, 2012

Just a quick note: if you want better profit margins, buy from sources that have a barrier to entry (remember that fastlane commandment? Lol)

Example: ANYONE can open up Craigslist if they have a few spare moments, but not everyone is willing to go the extra mile and visit an auction or estate sale. You havemuch less competition and lower prices as the barriers increase.

I've found this to be especially true of cars. Good deals get snapped up real quick on CL and profits can be slim after the fees and paperwork are taken care of. But if you can get cars from an auction that requires a yearly fee, membership, etc, and resell in a market where those barriers don't exist, I've found that there's better money to be made. Plus it's a more consistent source of product (don't have to deal with flakes) and you can set up a "system" for steady income. My last car was bought for $3300(after repairs, registration, taxes) and sold for $4800.

Repos can be good but it's hit or miss with those. You definitely want to inspect them first.

Eventually, I'm planning to do something similar with real estate. I know investors in my area are making a killing picking up properties for half their market value at cash auctions and reselling them.

bernieshawn · Jan 22, 2012

Hey hustlers, 2 quick questions (please let me know if they have already been answered, this thread is really long so I glanced through it but could have missed something):

1. Do you always buy on CL and sell on ebay? Or do you sometimes do it in reverse? Do you sell anywhere else (like Amazon)?

2. Are there any red flags on CL listings that let you know to stay away from the item/offer?

DeletedUser394 · Jan 22, 2012

bernieshawn said:
Hey hustlers, 2 quick questions (please let me know if they have already been answered, this thread is really long so I glanced through it but could have missed something):

1. Do you always buy on CL and sell on ebay? Or do you sometimes do it in reverse? Do you sell anywhere else (like Amazon)?

2. Are there any red flags on CL listings that let you know to stay away from the item/offer?

1) You can do any combination. Wherever the deals are. Craigslist, Amazon, Ebay (there are at least 15 other sites I can think of as well). You can buy lots on ebay and resell individually on CL for example. Really, wherever the profit is, that's where you want to be.

2) If they want you to ship the item and pay via paypal, don't do it. Stick to cash only, and always inspect the product before buying. You shouldn't feel obligated to buy if the item(s) wasn't what you were expecting, or wasn't as described.

Although that isn't always the case. I bought below wholesale lots of brand new shoes and I email transfered the money and she shipped the product.

Only reason I did this is because once you have someone's email, you can find out plenty about a person. Easiest thing is facebook. If the person is on facebook, and I can link him/her to other people as well, then I'm happy to do the deal.

Autonomust · Jan 22, 2012

RyanDrake said:
Nothing stops the hustle! Not weather nor nuclear war... okay, maybe nuclear war.

Nah, Nuclear war won't stop the hustle as long as you have something that'll help people get through the war.

The Spark · Jan 23, 2012

I've finally manned up and started the flipping. For some wierd reason I've been moving toward luxury items. The allure keeps snatching me until I can figure out some cheaper higher margin items. Hey, gotta pay the costs to be the boss right?

First one:

Bought a Gold and diamond Movado watch for 900$ off Craigslist. Flawless, but quickly found out the resell value of movado specificially is terrible due to the economy. Long story short I unloaded it on Ebay for 1250. After fees I walked away with about $250. Not bad for a first time. I rolled those profits and I jumped down to a $475 purchase of a lot of 18 luxury handbags (coach, burberry etc.) that were returns to Nordstrom. I have a potential profit of up to $2500 of those. I hope to net at least $1000 for a profit of ~$500.

Kidtrepeneur · Jan 23, 2012

Really good stuff. Sounds like I should get into the hustling game

Laverdure · Jan 23, 2012

The Spark said:
I've finally manned up and started the flipping. For some wierd reason I've been moving toward luxury items. The allure keeps snatching me until I can figure out some cheaper higher margin items. Hey, gotta pay the costs to be the boss right?

First one:

Bought a Gold and diamond Movado watch for 900$ off Craigslist. Flawless, but quickly found out the resell value of movado specificially is terrible due to the economy. Long story short I unloaded it on Ebay for 1250. After fees I walked away with about $250. Not bad for a first time. I rolled those profits and I jumped down to a $475 purchase of a lot of 18 luxury handbags (coach, burberry etc.) that were returns to Nordstrom. I have a potential profit of up to $2500 of those. I hope to net at least $1000 for a profit of ~$500.

$475 for 18 luxury handbags = $26. something each handbags when this good deals comes out you should think about it ... why are they so cheap ? My first relaxe would be ... copy? China replica?

I used to buy a lot of this stuff on internet from China wholesaler when I was 16 years old ... it brought me troubles ...

mmtprofile · Jan 23, 2012

Very cool hustla!

mmtprofile · Jan 23, 2012

As far as I'm concerned any entrepreneur who isn't corporate is a hustler.

The Spark · Jan 23, 2012

The source is direct customer returns and shelf pulls. Many have either small stitching mistakes or perhaps a small smudge that makes them lightly used. I know my source. This is the first time ill be doing thus and I believe it may take me sometime to unload but in prepared as I below profit is inevitable.

DeletedUser394 · Jan 24, 2012

These more expensive items are driving me nuts. Receiving 1 legitimate reply for every 100 bogus attempted 'just ship here' paypal scammers. Sending me texts at 4 in the morning because they are in some far away country in a completely different time zone.

In the ad(s) I make it very clear that these are in person cash only deals, and to not waste my time by contacting me if they aren't in the area... and they keep replying anyway (although at a lesser frequency, some of them can actually read I guess)

Yesterday got some jerk wanting me to send something to 'The United State' where his wife is, or some bs. Which of the 50 states in the united one? lol it's almost unnerving.

I'm going to be paying that extra money to get them all listed on a more legitimate website (ebay, amazon, etc) and then creating my own. I'm going to probably use flat rate stores (if they still exist). I want to focus on higher dollar amount items with good profit margins (more room to negotiate when buying and selling).

At that point the only things I would offer on CL would be things that are too big to be 'shipped to Ghana, or Botswana, or Nigeria, or China etc'. Like cars for instance.

kwerner · Jan 24, 2012

Hey Ryan, are you TYPING out your listings on craigslist or are you using an IMAGE that describes the listing?

One thing I've tried in the past that greatly reduces the amount of spam that the bots pick up is typing up my ad in Microsoft Word (listing your phone number, description, etc) then taking a SCREEN PRINT of the Word document and uploading it to craigslist. There's a way to put much larger images than just the 4 that they offer, I can't remember how off the top of my head how though, just google it. And if I recall correctly, you have to put a tiny bit of text in the ad for CL to accept it, but most of everything the customer needs to know will be listed on the image / screen print.

Hopefully trying that will eliminate any more 4 AM text messages.

hispanic-mj · Jan 24, 2012

hustlin in th streets makes way more bank but i choose to hustle the same way you do

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

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

Contributor

DeletedUser394

Guest

Silver Contributor

DeletedUser394

Guest

New Contributor

Contributor

New Contributor

New Contributor

New Contributor

DeletedUser394

Guest

DeletedUser394

Guest

Attachments

DeletedUser394

Guest

Bronze Contributor

DeletedUser394

Guest

Legendary Contributor

DeletedUser394

Guest

DeletedUser394

Guest

Bronze Contributor

Bronze Contributor

DeletedUser394

Guest

Contributor

New Contributor

PARKED

Bronze Contributor

PARKED

PARKED

New Contributor

DeletedUser394

Guest

Bronze Contributor

PARKED

Sponsored Resources: Jumpstart Your Fastlane

Post New Topic

Fastlane Insiders