My favorite post on this forum!

Okay, a few questions:

1. How do you find auctions? Do you usually type on Google, “local auctions?”

2. When selling on eBay, do you mail out the items to the customer? (Obviously I think yes but never understood selling used stuff on eBay.)

3. As I’m working on my current project, I was wondering to myself... how can I make extra income? Should I start on the Craigslist platform first? Or letgo? I’m in NYC by the way.

Thank you.

 

We rarely go these days but we both love auctions. The wife used to buy jewelry at auctions and sell what she bought at the museum to other ladies in the office. She also used to do this with jewelry from ebay that she would buy. She loves doing it and they love buying it. She had these pearls that she bought for $5 on ebay (free shipping), one of the ladies on the board at the museum said she would give her $200 for them.... SOLD!! There is a film maker from NYC that goes to the museum every couple of months and the 1st place he heads is to her office to see if she has any jewelry because his wife and daughter love it.

I used to flip all kinds of things.... it's fun! But a guy told me this, so that is when I got in to the appliance business. I was making $3-$11-$75..... he said you can sell 10 things at $10 profit and make $100 or you can sell one high ticket item for $100 profit and make $100. So after debating with myself if I actually wanted to have a real business again or not, I woke up one morning when the wife was gone out of town and when she came back, I had bought a washer & dryer ($150)..... her words were..... "Not again.....". These days she doesn't mind and actually keeps my books for me. $50k is an easy year in this business, I'm thinking I want to double that for 2018 just to show people it can be done. But if it gets to be too much of a pain in the a$$, I will go back on cruise control.

Furniture is a great thing to sell. My friend and her husband actually bought a different house so she can have more room to buy and sell furniture. She likes tables and chairs. She doesn't do much work to them, maybe clean and spend a few minutes making it look good. If she buys it with a broke knob, she cleans it, makes it look way better, takes great pictures and sells it with the same broken knob. Just be sure to tell people if something is broken.

 

At first I was just buying from Craigslist, cleaning them up a little, spray a little paint on the scratches and sell. I learned a little about the old washers.... it's not too hard to change a lid switch. Now it's a little different. I have a guy that works on them for me and 2 people that sell them. We only sell the newer type matching sets (no front loads). I do not sell just a washer or just a dryer because that doesn't make me enough profit. I turn those sales down every day. We have better sets than most large appliance stores. I don't think I've had a buyer yet that has not said, "Wow! These look like they are new!". I've found a way to make them look better than when they came from the factory. So as far as a learning curve to repair them, it didn't take long with the older sets. If it was major I didn't bother. The bad thing about Craigslist is that every washer and dryer set on there works PERFECT according to the owner..... until you get it home and find all the things wrong with it. On the newer sets I couldn't stay at their house an hour to let the washer go through all the cycles so I had to wing it for awhile.

 

Cool. Thanks for the useful tips.

I have a few embarrassing questions.

After I read your thread, I went to CL to find some stuff to buy and flip.

However, one person asked me a question I didn't know how to answer.

Look here:


I admit, I copied the words from your post because I believe they work.

Did I get too crazy with my asking price? The original price she was selling for was: $125.00

I offered $55. Too low?

Another seller got mad/insulted when I offered $400 for his MacBook Air.



I kinda laughed to myself how blunt he was lol.

All in all, is there a right way to approach these sellers? Or do I keep negotiating?

Also, is it all right I buy stuff from Groupon and then resell on Craigslist? For example, lets say I buy a knife set for $15.00 but sell for $50.00? Am I outrageously making these prices too high?

I was also considering buying electronics from amazon then reselling on CL for a profit. Let me know, thanks. By the way, this is fun.

P.S. Sorry if it seems like I'm hijacking the thread. Just some questions I'd like answered.

 

Back in the day I used to get some very good deals on high priced items. If someone was selling a washer & dryer on CL for $650 and I knew all I could get was $650 then I would low ball them. Why not? It's the only chance I have at getting it. I'd just say.... I don't mean to give you a low price but all I have for your washer and dryer is $300. I can pick up anytime you want. I've got some great deals go my way.

I don't remember the exact prices now but I got a heck of a deal on one. He wanted like $800 for the set, I offered $300. He said no. And like above, I said if you can't sell it just let me know. Thank you and good luck on your move. 2 weeks later he contacted me and said he would take $300..... now I have him over a barrel hehehehehehe..... I said, "Oh dang, yesterday was my grandson's birthday and we spent some of the washer and dryer money on him. I have $250 and I can come pick it up right now". He said to come get it. I wiped it off and sold it like 2 days later for I think $600-$800.

By the way, I never lie. All I had for that washer to begin with was $300.... I never said that's all the money I have, I said all I have for your washer and dryer. And, we did spend $50 of my washer & dryer money that night, I just hadn't replaced it in the correct envelope yet.... I'm never too quick to replace money in the BUY envelope just for such a reason.

Buy it on Groupon and sell it where ever you can for as much as you can.... it's the American way!!! Isn't it beautiful? Buy it for $15 and sell it for $115 if someone wants to buy it!!

 

Awesome, solid post. Lol at the dead cat haha.

For the first seller, I started off with:

“Hey I can give you $55 today. Let me know why you’re selling it.”

After that she posts what you see in the screenshot.

I feel stupid but I wrote her I need it for a gift for Christmas and it’s all I have right now. She said she’s not a charity/donation but can text her back with a better offer. I don’t want to spend anything over $55 for that coat... so I’m gonna pass.

For the groupon to CL thing, on Groupon there’s a smartwatch for sell at $18.

I checked eBay for they same smartwatch and it sells for $60.

If I buy 5 watches at $18, total is: $90

Sell each watch for $60, profit is $210.00.

In the end, is this viable? Also, there’s a market on letgo and CL, so the demand is there. I just want some opinions before buying these watches or anything on Groupon to sell on CL.

Also you’re right, a lot of the seller ads are horrible, bad pictures and bad descriptions/benefits. I can outperform them by making my ads more attractive/professional.

Thanks for the feedback/advice.

 

For every item you ever want to buy......

Just because it is for sale for $x amount does not mean it will sell for $x amount. I have my van for sale for $100,000 to the first person that wants to buy it. That doesn't mean I will sell it for that much.

 

I needed these words of encouragement.

 

Hopefully this can help some people out...

Help Each Other Reach Our Dreams

Appliance Flipping

https://recraigslist.com/2013/03/10-best-things-to-buy-and-sell-on-craigslist/

https://recraigslist.com/2011/10/i-earn-my-entire-living-on-craigslist-ask-me-almost-anything/

The Craigslist Hustle- Tax Evasion at its Finest!

Flipping Appliances for Profit

Check out this guy's you tube chanel

View: https://youtu.be/yxckW-eUJEc


Mikeyjd's Appliance Sales and Repair Journey

Make a Modest Living or Side Cash Buying and Selling Used Appliances

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.th...-used-appliances-one-man-makes-2000-week/amp/

http://hustlerskungfu.com/how-to-make-a-million-dollars-a-year-on-craigslist/

https://appliantology.org/blogs/entry/972-servicing-vs-appliance-sales-i-may-have-found-an-answer/

If you really get into selling used appliances, Google wholesale used appliance warehouse and buy them in bulk to resale. Get them delivered or rent a Uhaul truck and pick them up.

http://nmbwholesale.com/wholesale-appliances/ Example

Below I will copy and paste an email exchange I had with a very successful used appliance dealer...



Hi my name is Adam and I'm interested in the used appliance business, if you could answer a few questions for me when it is convenient for you I would really appreciate it. I live in the south east so no worries about competition.

I would have messaged you on appliantology but it seems they won't let me without a subscription. Anyway it seems from reading a couple posts by you in the fast lane forum that you took the appliance school training program by Ryan from recraigslist.

Did that program really seem to help you and would you recommend I look into that for myself?

Do you know if I could join the forum at applianceschool even without a subscription to the program?

When first starting out would you recommend concentrating mostly on selling washers and dryers or do you think stoves and fridges are worth doing as well?

Where do you get your appliances for resale from? Mainly craigslist and offerup? Or appliance wholesale warehouses? Contracts with appartment complexes for their used units? Other?

When you first started out where did you store your inventory?

Do you think now that you have a shop you'll be able to make a lot more sales as opposed to just selling on craigslist and offerup?

Do you think that you close a lot more sales by offering a warrenty as opposed to if you didn't offer one?

Have you thought about renting out your appliances in addition to selling them?

Do you think adding a service division to your business would be profitable?

Did you first start out selling appliances under the table for cash and then eventually register your business as an LLC or other structure?

When you deliver appliances on your own and have to deliver up or down stairs do you use a stair climbing dolly such as one of these below?

http://www.m3-shs.com/product-line.html. looks like some really nice ones here

http://m.northerntool.com/products/...MjkOyCV5L7lR6NNTsZtAEDvDs5yusR1Ub3RoCDG3w_wcB

Any other tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!



His answer:


The program is a very good baseline. A lot of the material is covered in his blog (maybe 70%), but there's some good stuff in the material. I think it's easily worth the nominal $100 cost considering how lucrative this business can be. You're likely to cover it in the first week just based on time savings if you value your time at $20/hour. The forum is probably the most valuable part of the membership and is for members only as far as I know.

I think it's easier to get started with washers and dryers from a refurbishing standpoint, mainly because the Whirlpool direct drive system is so plentiful and easy to master. I started on stoves and fridges by flipping working ones. You can make a lot of money by just cleaning/transporting them.

I started getting everything on Craigslist. Now I only search specific machines off craigslist. I have an app that searches for stainless ones (along with specific niche vehicles I like to flip). I mostly buy from a few wholesale relationships I've cultivated along with a network of about a dozen scrappers that bring stuff to my shop.

I started out in a single bay of my dad's pole barn. I spent about 6 months leasing his 3 car garage at $300 per month. After that, I rented several storage units before we got our current shop location.

The shop has made a difference in sales, but I think it's mainly because we're able to process a lot of units compared to when we were in a smaller location. I think I could do the same thing out of a pole barn if the location was convenient enough for people.

The warranty has been very key in landing several of my largest repeat customers. I have one account that's purchased $25k worth in the last 18 months and it's hard to say if they would have been willing to even give me a chance without the warranty being involved.

I've considered a rental program and even had a proposal drawn up for a larger client who owns roughly 25 rentals. In the end, my monthly price was higher than what he wanted to pay. I'd be willing to do it, but the terms have to make sense.

I advertise in home repairs and service. It makes up about 10% of my business, which is how I prefer it. I clear about $80/hour including drive time on my service calls, whereas I'm netting closer to $120/ on my sales. The service business, in large part only exists, to support the sales business and increase networking.

Originally I ran my appliances through my flooring LLC, which allowed me to take credit cards and checks immediately without worrying about text liabilities. Of course, there are always cash deals in this type of business. I currently have a separate LLC for my appliance business.

I like to have 2 people any time an appliance is going upstairs or in a basement. You get into a lot of situations that won't allow for the use of a dolly. Unless you're a champion power lifter you're probably going to need a 2nd hand at least occasionally if you offer installation services.

 

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

GOLD - A Hustler's Guide To Buying And Selling Anything (Part 2)

 

Flea Market Flips | Flea Market Flipper

 

Good places to buy and sell, Facebook marketplace, craigslist, offerup, letgo, ebay, amazon.

 

Just a quick note without going in to anything.... do NOT pay for any type of appliance school. I won't mention any names from above but one may be light years out of date. You can learn anything you want to learn without paying from Youtube and it will be up to date with the new type of machines.

 

Why does this kind of topic resonate with people?!

Arbitraging.

Because it's simple and dead straight-forward.

There is no way you could complicate this even if you try.

Buy stuff for a dollar, sell for two.

I used to actively invest in stocks. But when I realized how its all the same with this, I switched.

For one big reason:

It all falls back to fastlane mentality - CONTROL.

When you buy a stock for low, you are nevervous as hell.

Why?:

One: You don't know if your valuation analysis is right. Are you smarter than all those people selling?

Two: You don't know what you can even sell for. or if the stock is truly mispriced. Or, if you can even sell at a profit at all.

The market might never agree with you even if you are right.

But with good ol' physical product arbritrage you don't have any of these problems.

I told you, dead straight-forward.

Buy that limited retro Chicago Bulls Jersey for $900 and sell for $2,500 on eBay.

Buy price and sell price always can be deduced fairly accurately at any one time.

Just focus on the margin of safety. Make the price differences larger than you think it should be.

And the returns can be phenomenal.

Yeah, it's pure hustle but many other money making models - even some of the more accepted business models - will envy its fast acceleration of capital (ROI wise) from a very low starting point.

You could go literally from $1000 to $100,000 pretty quickly (not easy).

Yeah I agree with another poster. Best thread for me on the forum.

 

I travel some and I always stop in at used appliance shops. I've figured out why I sell so many so easy.... my place is so clean you could almost eat off the floor. Even over at the shop things are nice and neat for the most part. I'm in Austin this week and I went to 3 shops yesterday. Well, I attempted 3. The 1st one was so muddy in the parking lot I didn't end up going in. Even on a good day, I don't really know who would want to stop in and buy anything as the place looked almost haunted. The 2nd place was basically like a junk yard.... about the only thing better than the 1st was no mud. It was at the end of this gravel road and all rundown. The 3rd was atleast clean. Their machines were old but they did put some effort in to the operation. So the moral of the story is.... if you want to sell appliances and people are going to be coming to look at them, don't look like Fred Sanford. A clean, well kept area will make you money almost every time.

Oh wait, I forgot about the very 1st guy I tried to go looking at his machines. He worked from his house and here is exactly what he told me.... I'd rather just send you pictures because it is really soggy here. So he sends me pictures and I reply back.... are these sitting in water? He said, "Yes, they are sitting on the side of my house in wet grass and a little water". ......LMAO what kind of shit is that? I didn't say that but I thought it. He wants people to pay $400 for a washer and dryer that he has outside sitting in wet grass and 2 inches of water. <<<< Don't do business like this.

 

@Argue

Not to derail the thread. With my experience from buying off of craigslist or wherever. It is better not to talk price through chat. Talk price face to face. Money talks, bullshit walks. You can get a better sense of urgency from the person who is selling the item. You can play into that. How many potential buyers have actually meet the seller?

 

Great post @B_Mac , I can relate to this hustle…

Summer of 2016 while I was looking for work, I flipped furniture and appliances on Craigslist and earned $1,653 net, in like 3 months, part-time. When you are starving this is a good hustle.

I targeted free or very low cost electric dryers and couches. I cleaned them up, made them look pretty took great pictures, and a good sales advertisement as B_Mac said. I scoured the Craigslist free section, Facebook yard sale (I used my wife's FB account for this to my advantage, think, wouldn't you rather have a hot chick show up at your door instead of some sketchy dude?, They assumed she'd show up until they saw my mug at their front door, lol, but it worked!), and lastly the good will store(s). People literally give away valuable items, and your service to them is taking this perceived trash from them and turning it into your treasure.

I kept good records during that summer, take a look at the numbers I did in the link. ME USED Appliances
The highest profit item sold was $230, after tipping my buddy $20 to help me out for an hour to pick up the sectional. I picked up this exact sectional for free, that was retailing for about $600, sold for $250. And the guy I sold it to was thanking me for the bargain.

I also bought a gently used Breville 800ESXL Espresso machine at the good will store for $7 freaking bucks and sold for $190.

Once I landed a slave job I stopped, but this is a great hustle for starting out. Although it violates the law of scale, that could be tweaked with some HR, possibly.

Here is one advertisement I found from an old listing that netted me $190 from selling the Espresso machine mentioned above. The remainder of this post is the old Craigslist ad, hopefully it helps someone out there!

Breville Espresso Maker - Model 800ESXL - $200
FOR SALE:

Breville Espresso Maker 800ESXL

This machine is in excellent condition, it works great, and makes an amazing espresso. It can also steam the milk. This will be great for a small coffee shop or a luxurious home drinking experience.

This comes complete with everything you see in the picture: (from the Breville website)

-15 Bar Italian Pump
-Purge Function: Automatically adjusts water temperature after steam for optimal espresso extraction temperature
-The Triple Prime Pump releases 3 bursts of hot water to moisten the ground coffee resulting in greater build-up to extract the fullest flavor
--Thermoblock Heating System
--75 Fl.oz (2.2L) removable front-fill water tank
--Espresso machine with ThermoBlock heating system and 15-bar Triple Prime pump
--Durable stainless-steel housing; selector dial for espresso, steam, or hot water
--4-1/2-inch cup clearance; swivel steam wand with frother; 75-ounce removable water tank
--Filters, tamping tool, cleaning tool, and stainless-steel frothing pitcher included
-Measures 12 by 10 by 12-1/2 inches

We are selling because we stopped drinking coffee and switched to Yerba Mate. We no longer use it.

This machine retails brand new on Amazon for $340. I am asking $200 OR BEST OFFER. Thank you.
Also, I recorded a video of this machine making a coffee as proof everything is functioning normally. I can provide the link to this video upon request.

 

I've actually found a way to scale this (used appliances) and even go nation wide..... if I was younger and wanted a big business. This would be a very good thing to franchise if done correctly.