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Coronavirus made me $780,000 in profit in 6 weeks

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BrandonL

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THIS THREAD HAS BEEN LOCKED AS THE POST DOES NOT PASS THE SMELL TEST AND THE INFORMATION COULD NOT BE CORROBORATED BY OTHER FORUM USERS

I replied to a thread about making money during the coronavirus pandemic, but decided to create my own thread to share what I did.

I have been making a killing selling freezers... those little chest freezers. I have already made $780,000 in profits in 6 weeks. They are pretty much sold out across the country. People have been buying them to store food, especially after the lockdowns started.

I have a contact at an appliance manufacturer. She has been holding stock for me for weeks. I have been buying freezers and immediately flipping them to appliance stores that are completely sold out and cannot order more because most manufacturers are backed up until May or June.

Once I sell my shipment, I turn around and buy more. I sell them to appliance stores close to the manufacturer's warehouse so they are shipped and delivered quickly.

I am about to order one last batch of freezers. If anyone wants to get in on this, let me know and I might be able to increase the order. I already have appliance stores waiting on my last batch.

The entire country is pretty much out of chest freezers for the next 3 or 4 months. Home Depot doesn't get any more until June. Lowes gets some in May. Even longer for smaller appliance stores.

In case you thought it, no I didn't price gouge the appliance stores.

Here are a few articles about this:


https://www.woodtv.com/health/coronavirus/its-insane-C0VlD-19-response-leads-to-run-on-freezers/

 
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BlindSide

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I replied to a thread about making money during the coronavirus pandemic, but decided to create my own thread to share what I did.

I have been making a killing selling freezers... those little chest freezers. I have already made $780,000 in profits in 6 weeks. They are pretty much sold out across the country. People have been buying them to store food, especially after the lockdowns started.

I have a contact at an appliance manufacturer. She has been holding stock for me for weeks. I have been buying freezers and immediately flipping them to appliance stores that are completely sold out and cannot order more because most manufacturers are backed up until May or June.

Once I sell my shipment, I turn around and buy more. I sell them to appliance stores close to the manufacturer's warehouse so they are shipped and delivered quickly.

I am about to order one last batch of freezers. If anyone wants to get in on this, let me know and I might be able to increase the order. I already have appliance stores bidding on my last batch.

The entire country is pretty much out of chest freezers for the next 3 or 4 months. Home Depot doesn't get any more until June. Lowes gets some in May. Even longer for smaller appliance stores.

In case you thought it, no I didn't price gouge the appliance stores.

Here are a few articles about this:


https://www.woodtv.com/health/coronavirus/its-insane-C0VlD-19-response-leads-to-run-on-freezers/

Wow, excellent work!

780k is more than a killing!
 

roguehillbilly

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Nice work, how'd you get into this?
 

BizyDad

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Thanks for adding a positive take on this crisis. Real world practicality, too. I'm sure you'll inspire several on here.

Can you share a little about how you approached the appliance stores?
 
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BrandonL

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Thanks for adding a positive take on this crisis. Real world practicality, too. I'm sure you'll inspire several on here.

Can you share a little about how you approached the appliance stores?

Initially I used Google and found cities where freezers were sold out. Then I just called appliance stores and told them what I had.

Now I just call (or email) any appliance store. They are all out of small freezers.
 
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Fox

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I replied to a thread about making money during the coronavirus pandemic, but decided to create my own thread to share what I did.

I have been making a killing selling freezers... those little chest freezers. I have already made $780,000 in profits in 6 weeks. They are pretty much sold out across the country. People have been buying them to store food, especially after the lockdowns started.

I have a contact at an appliance manufacturer. She has been holding stock for me for weeks. I have been buying freezers and immediately flipping them to appliance stores that are completely sold out and cannot order more because most manufacturers are backed up until May or June.

Once I sell my shipment, I turn around and buy more. I sell them to appliance stores close to the manufacturer's warehouse so they are shipped and delivered quickly.

I am about to order one last batch of freezers. If anyone wants to get in on this, let me know and I might be able to increase the order. I already have appliance stores waiting on my last batch.

The entire country is pretty much out of chest freezers for the next 3 or 4 months. Home Depot doesn't get any more until June. Lowes gets some in May. Even longer for smaller appliance stores.

In case you thought it, no I didn't price gouge the appliance stores.

Here are a few articles about this:


https://www.woodtv.com/health/coronavirus/its-insane-C0VlD-19-response-leads-to-run-on-freezers/


Well done - why are you stopping now though?
 
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BrandonL

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Well done - why are you stopping now though?

Because they are almost completely out of inventory. The only reason they are not out of stock now is because I paid the owner (my friend's client) weeks ago to hold the rest of the freezers for me.

They have $920,000 left in inventory. I am going to purchase $545,000 more tomorrow.

If anyone wants to purchase the remaining $375,000 in inventory - let me know. The appliance stores will pay you $431,250 for it (115% markup).

I always make them pay via wire transfer. Since they are sold out everywhere, I have all the bargaining power.
 

BrandonL

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cool - just curious. Well done and well earned success. Great to see this type of action taking right now.

Everyone around me is taking action right now, so it rubbed off I guess. We are all super excited, though we can't share that excitement with too many people because people get offended. And I can understand because for most people, they consider these times very troubling.

But this is one of the greatest business opporutnities ever - in many ways.
 

SeanODG

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Credit to you for taking action AND finding a way to make a profit while getting a product to people that they need during this time!

How long do you plan to keep buying inventory? I'd imagine at some point, everyone who wants to buy an extra freezer has one
 
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BrandonL

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Credit to you for taking action AND finding a way to make a profit while getting a product to people that they need during this time!

How long do you plan to keep buying inventory? I'd imagine at some point, everyone who wants to buy an extra freezer has one

Putting in my last order in tomorrow. And no, everyone who wants to buy an extra freezer will not have one, unfortunately.

There is a shortgage of these freezers in America. Lowes, Home Depot, local appliance stores, all have tons of people requesting freezers but they are all gone.

And it will take months to replenish. Go to HomeDepot.com and try to order a chest freezer. Once you add it to your cart and estimate delivery, it will say June!
 

SeanODG

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Putting in my last order in tomorrow. And no, everyone who wants to buy an extra freezer will not have one, unfortunately.

There is a shortgage of these freezers in America. Lowes, Home Depot, local appliance stores, all have tons of people requesting freezers but they are all gone.

And it will take months to replenish. Go to HomeDepot.com and try to order a chest freezer. Once you add it to your cart and estimate delivery, it will say June!

Wow!

Congrats on the profit and thanks for helping to get freezer's into people's hands!
 

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Mental mate, a bit of lateral thinking backed up by action, well deserved success.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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I suspect, even after this crisis subsides, that freezers will remain in demand.

A lot of eyes will be opened when this is over, and "preppers" will no longer be considered a fringe ideology.
 
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Rabby

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Seems like you could maintain those contacts, take back-orders and still have a profitable business as a distributor / manufacturer's rep long after this is over.

Maybe you can buy the whole 930k of inventory on business credit (given your record with them so far) with 50% down? They hold the inventory for you?
 

Bobby_italy

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Because they are almost completely out of inventory. The only reason they are not out of stock now is because I paid the owner (my friend's client) weeks ago to hold the rest of the freezers for me.

They have $920,000 left in inventory. I am going to purchase $545,000 more tomorrow.

If anyone wants to purchase the remaining $375,000 in inventory - let me know. The appliance stores will pay you $431,250 for it (115% markup).

I always make them pay via wire transfer. Since they are sold out everywhere, I have all the bargaining power.
Amazing work man, also the solidarity on wanting to help fellow fastlaners, saluted!
 
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Rabby

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By the way... assuming 15% margin on freezers from your post above, you've sold around +/- $6,000,000 worth of freezers right? That's got to be a crazy number of freezers, like 10,000 of the things. It's a valuable service you're performing for people, getting freezers to the right places so people can use them. That's the foundation of good will in business, and the start of a valuable asset.
 
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MattR82

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Putting in my last order in tomorrow. And no, everyone who wants to buy an extra freezer will not have one, unfortunately.

There is a shortgage of these freezers in America. Lowes, Home Depot, local appliance stores, all have tons of people requesting freezers but they are all gone.

And it will take months to replenish. Go to HomeDepot.com and try to order a chest freezer. Once you add it to your cart and estimate delivery, it will say June!
Why are the guys you're buying from not able to sell to the above that are out of stock? I assume it's because they have bulky purchasing contracts etc and not flexible enough to jump on it.
 

BrandonL

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Seems like you could maintain those contacts, take back-orders and still have a profitable business as a distributor / manufacturer's rep long after this is over.

Maybe you can buy the whole 930k of inventory on business credit (given your record with them so far) with 50% down? They hold the inventory for you?

You make a good point about maintaining the contacts. Will give that some thought.

I have had to pay for 100% of the inventory upfront simply because the inventory is in such high demand. They wouldn't accept 50% down or anything like that considering there are countless businesses willing to pay cash. They have no incentive.
 
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BrandonL

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Why are the guys you're buying from not able to sell to the above that are out of stock? I assume it's because they have bulky purchasing contracts etc and not flexible enough to jump on it.

They can sell to stores! Their typical customer is large corporations like Home Depot. The only reason they have not sold the remaining units to stores is because I made a deal with them a while back after my friend introduced me. Can't divulge exactly what the deal was, but I convinced them to hold some inventory back for me.

This is before everything went absolutely bananas with freezers. He is not holding any more for me after tomorrow, so I will buy my last batch of freezers and they will sell the remaining batch to someone else.

I would buy all of them, but we just put a significant amount of money towards another business opportunity with a bigger return.
 

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I'm just gonna say this: Please do NOT order any freezers from this person.

I'm not responsible for your actions here.

I'm also not saying that this person is genuine, or fake -- just that the forum should NOT be your source for a freezer. It is a source for learning.
 

BrandonL

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I'm just gonna say this: Please do NOT order any freezers from this person.

I'm not responsible for your actions here.

I'm also not saying that this person is genuine, or fake -- just that the forum should NOT be your source for a freezer. It is a source for learning.

Hey MJ,

I'm not selling the remaining freezers. If anything I would connect someone with the manufaturer, but not many people have $375k laying around ;-)

But I agree - the forum should not be a source for a freezer.
 
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EVMaso

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Everyone around me is taking action right now, so it rubbed off I guess. We are all super excited, though we can't share that excitement with too many people because people get offended.

You shouldn't worry about people getting offended.

Unlike say, masks or sanitizer, the good you are flipping is NOT A LIFE OR DEATH ITEM. It is a QUALITY OF LIFE ITEM. If someone doesn't get an extra chest freezer, there are lots of dry and canned foods to eat. No one will die if they don't get a chest freezer.

Contrast this with sanitizer or masks (or god forbid, Coronavirus tests like this schmuck doctor), these items can literally be life or death if they are or are not in possession. Profiteering off of a life or death item is what causes revulsion (and if I may say, rightly so).

So don't worry. Good job! Crisis is opportunity, and you found a way to do it without making people hate you.
 

BrandonL

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You shouldn't worry about people getting offended.

Unlike say, masks or sanitizer, the good you are flipping is NOT A LIFE OR DEATH ITEM. It is a QUALITY OF LIFE ITEM. If someone doesn't get an extra chest freezer, there are lots of dry and canned foods to eat. No one will die if they don't get a chest freezer.

Contrast this with sanitizer or masks (or god forbid, Coronavirus tests like this schmuck doctor), these items can literally be life or death if they are or are not in possession. Profiteering off of a life or death item is what causes revulsion (and if I may say, rightly so).

So don't worry. Good job! Crisis is opportunity, and you found a way to do it without making people hate you.

Agreed. Honestly, it was tempting to "price gouge" a little, since as you said a freezer is not a life or death item. Though after watching several things play out in the media, I refuse to be the target of anger and outrage because I wanted to double the price of a freezer!
 
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