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

SeanyHang

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It's as simple as typing in the word 'lot', or 'lot of' in the craigslist search bar.

Really, that's it.
Oh God.. I'm embarrassed I even asked. Lmao, thanks my man.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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AndreHimself

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Hopefully this isn't a dumb question, but is it better to look under completed listings or sold listings when checking eBay for what prices to sell the items?
 

smartman

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check completed so you have an idea of how many actually sell at the prices you find vs how many are listed and go unsold. Sometimes there will be a random BIN for like double the actual market price, and a bunch of unsold auctions at half that BIN. Use your judgement. Odds are, on that random inflated sale price, the buyer never paid.
 

William

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I think @smartman meant SOLD LISTINGS.

Sold Listing - everything that sold.

Completed Listing - every listing that finished. Sold or not.
 
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smartman

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I meant completed. It is critical to have the info on what ISN'T selling and at what price. I've made this mistake a few times, learn from my experiences so you don't have to!
 

mws87

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I used to sell on craigslist all the time. The only problem was I was doing it when I needed to. This thread has inspired me to pick the hustle back up! Really cool that you're doing video games. I searched locally on craigslist and couldn't find much. Which could be good or bad. I have a question though: What's your process for meeting? I'm sure with video games the buyer would want to test it out, and I'm not too keen on having a bunch of people strangers come over. Any tips? Also, I may have overlooked this, but are you getting games off eBay as well? If so, have you gotten any duds?

BTW, have you ever bought/sold an authentic copy of Earthbound?
 
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Last edited:
D

DeletedUser394

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I used to sell on craigslist all the time. The only problem was I was doing it when I needed to. This thread has inspired me to pick the hustle back up! Really cool that you're doing video games. I searched locally on craigslist and couldn't find much. Which could be good or bad. I have a question though: What's your process for meeting? I'm sure with video games the buyer would want to test it out, and I'm not too keen on having a bunch of people strangers come over. Any tips? Also, I may have overlooked this, but are you getting games off eBay as well? If so, have you gotten any duds?

BTW, have you ever bought/sold an authentic copy of Earthbound?

Are you asking me?

I've not done much of this kind of thing in quite a while.

Occasionally people would come to my house to test games, otherwise they would at least know that they have my cell number so if it doesn't work they would have a way to reach me.

Generally though people just took me at my word. I personally tested everything before selling, so if someone would have (nobody ever did) claim that something was broken, I probably wouldn't have refunded them the money.

I bought laptops and things like that brand new on clearance from eBay, which turned out well. Never did buy video games, although if you have the money some people sell huge lots of games.
 

mws87

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Are you asking me?

I've not done much of this kind of thing in quite a while.

Occasionally people would come to my house to test games, otherwise they would at least know that they have my cell number so if it doesn't work they would have a way to reach me.

Generally though people just took me at my word. I personally tested everything before selling, so if someone would have (nobody ever did) claim that something was broken, I probably wouldn't have refunded them the money.

I bought laptops and things like that brand new on clearance from eBay, which turned out well. Never did buy video games, although if you have the money some people sell huge lots of games.

Woops, sorry about that. My eagerness caused me to overlook the reply/quote button. Good stuff, man. Very insightful! Put up a few things on Craigslist that I don't have a need for anymore. Looking at $700 tomorrow.
 
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NerdAtCoolTable

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It's seems to be a buyers market in my area.

Everything I've bought I ended up selling on EBay. It's way more time convienant to just list it and wait for the sale online. I can be out buying more product during this time. Yes the fees suck but moving product is my main goal.

Past weekend. I picked up a PS3 super slim 500gb with newer games for $120. Sold on eBay the same day for $250. Easy $100 profit after fees and shipping.

Ive also been emailing upcoming garage sales about items they will be having and trying to pick it up before the actual sale. I'm in a pretty competive niche so every edge helps.

Hope everyone is doing good this week. Keep up the grind
 

smartman

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Yea, I do the same. Apple stuff goes straight to amazon, other items go to ebay. Nothing gets relisted on craigslist, unless it is musical gear, which I usually just list for a high price so I can keep it as a toy until someone ponies up the cash.
 

NerdAtCoolTable

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Yea, I do the same. Apple stuff goes straight to amazon, other items go to ebay. Nothing gets relisted on craigslist, unless it is musical gear, which I usually just list for a high price so I can keep it as a toy until someone ponies up the cash.

There is an app called Offer Up. It's just like Craigslist , but a lot easier to list things. I'll throw things on there as well to see if I can find someone to pick the item up before it sales on eBay.
 
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mws87

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@GrumpyCat do you ever handle trades if there is more money to be made? Have a guy offering me a trade, there's a extra $200 that can be made from it based on what I know about the item, and he clearly stated that in his email as well (which makes me suspicious)
 

smartman

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do your research and make a deal. If the thing you are trading for is harder to sell, maybe pass, unless you are bankrolled enough to sit on the money to maximize profits. A good example- a few years ago some dude offered to trade me a pretty top line kirby vacuum cleaner for an iphone 4 I had. I took the trade. I sat on that god damn vacuum cleaner for 6 months before it finally sold. Lesson to learn- I could have had less money, but more space in my house if I had just sold the phone and moved on. When I did sell the kirby, it went on ebay, so I had to waste an hour of my life packing the thing up and taking it to the post office as well.
 

smartman

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There is an app called Offer Up. It's just like Craigslist , but a lot easier to list things. I'll throw things on there as well to see if I can find someone to pick the item up before it sales on eBay.


is Offer Up a US thing or are you in another country? I can't imagine anything like that really working in my town.
 
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mws87

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do your research and make a deal. If the thing you are trading for is harder to sell, maybe pass, unless you are bankrolled enough to sit on the money to maximize profits. A good example- a few years ago some dude offered to trade me a pretty top line kirby vacuum cleaner for an iphone 4 I had. I took the trade. I sat on that god damn vacuum cleaner for 6 months before it finally sold. Lesson to learn- I could have had less money, but more space in my house if I had just sold the phone and moved on. When I did sell the kirby, it went on ebay, so I had to waste an hour of my life packing the thing up and taking it to the post office as well.
Yeah, what I'm selling is way less common than what he is offering as trade. There is no shortage for his item to say the least. I'll pass.
That reminds me of a time I was selling a guitar I had (I'm a musician sometimes). It was a Gibson SG with P90 pickups, the thing was sweet. Ended up putting it up on Craigslist and I could not move the f'n thing! I even dropped the price just to get rid of it. There was literally nothing wrong with it, had only played it a handful of times. The horrid part was I had over a dozen people come check it out and they all were of the flakiest of flakes. I felt like they all really knew each other and it was just a prank to see how far they could go until I went insane.
 

smartman

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I'm about ready to stop flipping music grear altogether. Even if I make a sale, it seems to always involve two trips by the buyer, one to test it, two to wait for them to get paid. Can't stand it. Unfortunately, Even worse, musicians always want to trade gear, and it is NEVER, EVER, EVER an interesting trade offer, let alone lucrative.
 
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smartman

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no reason to bump this to share a charity story that even my mom knows about, but welcome to the terrordome.

Flipping has been dry in my part of town lately. HOWEVER, I've noticed that there is some arbitrage in the ipod classic arena lately with upgraged memory. For those with ice in their veins, look up the prices of the 240gb ipod classics and such. I feel like there is money there, and am having a hell of a time sourcing used classics for profitable prices. Looking forward to the experiment though.

I am pretty frustrated at all my other flipping options lately, would love to hear an update on what everyone has been hustling. I've been grinding it out in the band/concert t shirt pantheon this last month. Unreliable and inconsistent finds, at best.
 

Trevor Chaumont

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I'm about ready to stop flipping music grear altogether. Even if I make a sale, it seems to always involve two trips by the buyer, one to test it, two to wait for them to get paid. Can't stand it. Unfortunately, Even worse, musicians always want to trade gear, and it is NEVER, EVER, EVER an interesting trade offer, let alone lucrative.
I'm a guitarist, I agree. Musicians are terrible to work with unless they're pretty big.
 

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