TL;DR Buy stuff. Sell stuff.
I've seen some posts on here and other places saying something like "I don't have the money to put into my idea right now," or "If only I had $XX,XXX I could get going."
I understand. I've been there myself. So I thought I'd share how I turned $500 into $40,000 in just 8 months (I swear I'm not selling anything.).
I've been flipping all my life, started in 6th grade with War Head suckers. Buy a five pack for 55 cents and sold for a quarter each at school. Every day before different classes, I had a small line going. I felt like a king.
Off and on through the years, I kept it up, selling anything I thought I could make money on. I also always had being an entrepreneur in back of mind, action faked a few times and made $0. Went back to flipping and made decent cash.
In April, read TMF , and decided to get my shit together. Decided to start looking for where I could add some value and also flipping to get some cash going that I could put toward any ideas I had later. Also decided to do it without taking anything out of my bank accounts. So, I sold a bunch of stuff I had laying around the house, put together about $500, and went to work on Craigslist, Offerup, Letgo, ebay, yard sales, flea markets, and anywhere else people sell junk.
I would buy and sell just about anything. Not an exhaustive list, I sold:
-Camping / Hiking equipment (backpacks, stoves, tents, etc)
-Video game systems, games, and accessories (controllers, memory cards for older systems)
-Collectible bells
-DVDs (Not recommended)
Underwear (New, about 60 packs of compression drawers from Goodwill. However, in my travels around the internet, I also learned that used underwear sales is a thing. I did not participate in that niche.)
-Cell phones (made ALOT of money here, especially around product launches. iPhone 11 coming out? Used iPhone 8s can be had relatively cheap)
-Baby items (At my local Goodwills, Target donates new in box stuff, I could usually get it for 50% retail and sell for 75-80% retail in a day or two)
-Printers
-4 wheelers
Alot of other things, but you get the point.
Just as important as the what, is the how:
First, buy something.
- Pick a site (i.e. craigslist).
- Go through listings. Every single one that falls into your spending budget. Many people concentrate on things they "know." I am not an expert on most of the things I sold. You don't need to be. You DO need to be diligent in the next few steps.
- Find something with shitty pictures and terrible description. Or something that stands out to you. Look for the same thing in other craigslist ads, look for it on offerup, on ebay sold listings.
- You need to form an idea of what you could get for this thing and where you would sell it to get that much. Sometimes your local craigslist will be better and sometimes ebay will be better. I live in an area near the Appalachian trail. So hiking things came up for sale all the time, and prices were always low. Those things went for MUCH higher on ebay.
-Text the person. Start with any questions you have. Might throw in "Why are you selling." Could gauge how quickly they want to sell.
- This is the part MANY struggle with. You know what you can get for it, now you need to buy right to make a profit. How? NEGOTIATE. HARD. But with kindness. With kindness? What? Let me explain. I bought a used iphone 6. Had it list for whatever amount. Girl on facebook messaged me an offer of 1/2 my asking. I responded, simply, no thanks. She responded with well how much. I gave my original asking price. I wasn't budging. She sent me back something snotty and I blocked her. NO ONE responds to you if you belittle their stuff.
So how do you get it? With kindness. I'll give you an example. Guy on facebook was selling a brand new with tags 75L Osprey backpack for $175. A good deal already. I sent him a message saying I could do $75 today. He said no I can't go that low. Told him I understood, it was a great bag and worth what he was asking, but I've got $75. If you change your mind, let me know. He said ok.
10 minutes later he messaged me. "I'm tired of people not showing up. If you are at this address at this time, I'll take $75." I was there on time, got a great bag for $75. Sold it for $225 cash in about a week.
Now you bought something, time to sell it.
- Take a TON of pictures. Every angle, inside and out, imperfections if they exist.
- You should already know where you are selling. Start a listing. Title should grab their attention. "Hiking backpack." = sucks. "BRAND NEW Osprey 75L Volcano Red Backpack" = good.
- Body should be exciting. Just putting the details of the backpack is OK, but you can do better. I put a picture in their mind. "Spend any time on a trail with serious backpackers, and you will see hundreds of Ospreys. Padded waist belt supports the weight. AirFlow technology keeps your back cool as you push hard on a summer day." You get the point.
- Give your phone number if the platform permits it. Answer calls and texts. You will get spam calls. You will get stupid low ball offers (don't be mad, you were doing it too). You will get trade offers. Don't discount those, I've made some decent trades and ended up with more money than I otherwise would have.
- Stay patient. If you have a good price on a good product, hold out for the price. You don't have to take the first offer that comes along. If you hold an item for a while without selling, then you can accept a lower price and move on.
- Be on time to your transactions. Be courteous. Be professional. You will hear sob stories. People say they don't have much / leaving abusive relationships, etc. You are not a charity. Tell them you hate to hear about their woes. Then remind them of how much they owe you. Be able to make change. No one carries cash. Everyone goes to the ATM before coming to see you and they receive $20s. If you are selling for $50, you will need a $10 to make change. I guarantee it.
Why be on time and professional and have change ready? Because at the end of the deal, let people know you buy and sell things for people. Ask if they are selling anything else. Ask if they are looking for anything. Try to find out their budget. Come in under their budget and you have another sale. I've had plenty of people call me and offer me great items at low prices because they know I will show up, with cash, and I am normal (more or less) and they don't want to deal with all the weird shit craigslist people have going on.
One thing to add. Be prepared to travel to get stuff. If you stay local only, you are limiting yourself badly. I traveled from Richmond to Atlanta to Jacksonville to Charlotte, Asheville and everywhere in between buying and selling. You will need to learn a little logistical planning to achieve your best results. Set stuff up along your path. Like I said about the hiking stuff in my area, something cheap in one place might be a hot commodity in another.
A little about luck.
You have to make your own. I have a full time job. A wife and 5 year old twins. I work 8-10 hours a day, sleep for 7. I spent every free second I had looking for things to buy and posting things for sale. No TV, no other BS.
To be totally honest with you, $500 to $40k in 8 months probably won't happen for most people, and I doubt I could replicate it. It did happen to me for a few reasons. Partly, because I have been doing it for awhile. But also because I was spending so much time in the resale world, that I found myself in a situation for a great opportunity, that I capitalized on.
Between April and October, I had turned the $500 into about $13k. Below is how I went from $13k to $40k with one item.
I live in a small, country town. I would occasionally attend auctions. There was an auction for the estate of a doctor who had passed away. There would be a huge collection of old guns, arrowheads, Civil war currency, and gold and silver coins.
I have spent significant time studying coins, so I thought I'd go. I am milling around, looking at some coins, and get to a gold coin. It is a St. Gaudens double eagle. Its in a little coin holder marked 1927. A 1927 double eagle is worth slightly more than the price of gold. I start to look the coin over, and realize it is a 1927 S double eagle. My heart skips about 4,000 beats. My hands are shaking. I have a million thoughts running through my mind. Two main thoughts are "Does anyone else know what I know?" and "Is this thing real?" Understandable if you don't get what any of this means. Take a minute to look up the difference between a 1927 and 1927 S double eagle.
I have all of my $13k with me. I get a drink and step outside to take a minute to collect myself. After 20 minutes. I decide I am willing to bid up to $7k on this thing. Bunch of other stuff sells.
We get to the coin. Honestly, my heart was pounding as the bidding started. Someone goes $1,000. Someone else $1,100. A third $1,200. Around and around. Up to $2,000. Bidding has slowed. $2,400. I jump in for $2,500. Another guy is hanging with me. $3,000. My heart is pounding harder. $4,000. I know he knows and he knows I know. $5,000. F*ck, this guy is a dealer and I can't roll with him. Back and forth, and I bid $6,000. He looks at the auctioneer. Shakes his head no. I think he is lying and will jump back in. I know I am ready to go another thousand. Auctioneer starts his countdown and tries to get the guy to jump back in. He doesn't bid and I take the coin for $6,000. Holy shit. I bought some other coins, spending about $12k that day. I am nervous.
I have it authenticated by a local dealer. I begin shopping it around for sale. Go to Asheville,NC. Down to Charleston. A few offers, very low. Most people say I don't have a customer who can afford such a coin. I visit Nashville to look at some stuff. Visited a coin shop and got an offer on the coin. Consign it to the owner, who says he has a buyer. We do a little paper work and I head home. A few days later, he calls me. SOLD! After his cut, I take home $34k.
I got lucky here, to be honest. The auction house didn't know what they had. They didn't advertise it at all. Most Appalachian folks don't have more than $6k sitting around to drop on a coin. The likelihood that such a thing happens again is LOW. And while I was lucky, I also created my own luck by being in the right place at the right time.
I've seen some posts on here and other places saying something like "I don't have the money to put into my idea right now," or "If only I had $XX,XXX I could get going."
I understand. I've been there myself. So I thought I'd share how I turned $500 into $40,000 in just 8 months (I swear I'm not selling anything.).
I've been flipping all my life, started in 6th grade with War Head suckers. Buy a five pack for 55 cents and sold for a quarter each at school. Every day before different classes, I had a small line going. I felt like a king.
Off and on through the years, I kept it up, selling anything I thought I could make money on. I also always had being an entrepreneur in back of mind, action faked a few times and made $0. Went back to flipping and made decent cash.
In April, read TMF , and decided to get my shit together. Decided to start looking for where I could add some value and also flipping to get some cash going that I could put toward any ideas I had later. Also decided to do it without taking anything out of my bank accounts. So, I sold a bunch of stuff I had laying around the house, put together about $500, and went to work on Craigslist, Offerup, Letgo, ebay, yard sales, flea markets, and anywhere else people sell junk.
I would buy and sell just about anything. Not an exhaustive list, I sold:
-Camping / Hiking equipment (backpacks, stoves, tents, etc)
-Video game systems, games, and accessories (controllers, memory cards for older systems)
-Collectible bells
-DVDs (Not recommended)
Underwear (New, about 60 packs of compression drawers from Goodwill. However, in my travels around the internet, I also learned that used underwear sales is a thing. I did not participate in that niche.)
-Cell phones (made ALOT of money here, especially around product launches. iPhone 11 coming out? Used iPhone 8s can be had relatively cheap)
-Baby items (At my local Goodwills, Target donates new in box stuff, I could usually get it for 50% retail and sell for 75-80% retail in a day or two)
-Printers
-4 wheelers
Alot of other things, but you get the point.
Just as important as the what, is the how:
First, buy something.
- Pick a site (i.e. craigslist).
- Go through listings. Every single one that falls into your spending budget. Many people concentrate on things they "know." I am not an expert on most of the things I sold. You don't need to be. You DO need to be diligent in the next few steps.
- Find something with shitty pictures and terrible description. Or something that stands out to you. Look for the same thing in other craigslist ads, look for it on offerup, on ebay sold listings.
- You need to form an idea of what you could get for this thing and where you would sell it to get that much. Sometimes your local craigslist will be better and sometimes ebay will be better. I live in an area near the Appalachian trail. So hiking things came up for sale all the time, and prices were always low. Those things went for MUCH higher on ebay.
-Text the person. Start with any questions you have. Might throw in "Why are you selling." Could gauge how quickly they want to sell.
- This is the part MANY struggle with. You know what you can get for it, now you need to buy right to make a profit. How? NEGOTIATE. HARD. But with kindness. With kindness? What? Let me explain. I bought a used iphone 6. Had it list for whatever amount. Girl on facebook messaged me an offer of 1/2 my asking. I responded, simply, no thanks. She responded with well how much. I gave my original asking price. I wasn't budging. She sent me back something snotty and I blocked her. NO ONE responds to you if you belittle their stuff.
So how do you get it? With kindness. I'll give you an example. Guy on facebook was selling a brand new with tags 75L Osprey backpack for $175. A good deal already. I sent him a message saying I could do $75 today. He said no I can't go that low. Told him I understood, it was a great bag and worth what he was asking, but I've got $75. If you change your mind, let me know. He said ok.
10 minutes later he messaged me. "I'm tired of people not showing up. If you are at this address at this time, I'll take $75." I was there on time, got a great bag for $75. Sold it for $225 cash in about a week.
Now you bought something, time to sell it.
- Take a TON of pictures. Every angle, inside and out, imperfections if they exist.
- You should already know where you are selling. Start a listing. Title should grab their attention. "Hiking backpack." = sucks. "BRAND NEW Osprey 75L Volcano Red Backpack" = good.
- Body should be exciting. Just putting the details of the backpack is OK, but you can do better. I put a picture in their mind. "Spend any time on a trail with serious backpackers, and you will see hundreds of Ospreys. Padded waist belt supports the weight. AirFlow technology keeps your back cool as you push hard on a summer day." You get the point.
- Give your phone number if the platform permits it. Answer calls and texts. You will get spam calls. You will get stupid low ball offers (don't be mad, you were doing it too). You will get trade offers. Don't discount those, I've made some decent trades and ended up with more money than I otherwise would have.
- Stay patient. If you have a good price on a good product, hold out for the price. You don't have to take the first offer that comes along. If you hold an item for a while without selling, then you can accept a lower price and move on.
- Be on time to your transactions. Be courteous. Be professional. You will hear sob stories. People say they don't have much / leaving abusive relationships, etc. You are not a charity. Tell them you hate to hear about their woes. Then remind them of how much they owe you. Be able to make change. No one carries cash. Everyone goes to the ATM before coming to see you and they receive $20s. If you are selling for $50, you will need a $10 to make change. I guarantee it.
Why be on time and professional and have change ready? Because at the end of the deal, let people know you buy and sell things for people. Ask if they are selling anything else. Ask if they are looking for anything. Try to find out their budget. Come in under their budget and you have another sale. I've had plenty of people call me and offer me great items at low prices because they know I will show up, with cash, and I am normal (more or less) and they don't want to deal with all the weird shit craigslist people have going on.
One thing to add. Be prepared to travel to get stuff. If you stay local only, you are limiting yourself badly. I traveled from Richmond to Atlanta to Jacksonville to Charlotte, Asheville and everywhere in between buying and selling. You will need to learn a little logistical planning to achieve your best results. Set stuff up along your path. Like I said about the hiking stuff in my area, something cheap in one place might be a hot commodity in another.
A little about luck.
You have to make your own. I have a full time job. A wife and 5 year old twins. I work 8-10 hours a day, sleep for 7. I spent every free second I had looking for things to buy and posting things for sale. No TV, no other BS.
To be totally honest with you, $500 to $40k in 8 months probably won't happen for most people, and I doubt I could replicate it. It did happen to me for a few reasons. Partly, because I have been doing it for awhile. But also because I was spending so much time in the resale world, that I found myself in a situation for a great opportunity, that I capitalized on.
Between April and October, I had turned the $500 into about $13k. Below is how I went from $13k to $40k with one item.
I live in a small, country town. I would occasionally attend auctions. There was an auction for the estate of a doctor who had passed away. There would be a huge collection of old guns, arrowheads, Civil war currency, and gold and silver coins.
I have spent significant time studying coins, so I thought I'd go. I am milling around, looking at some coins, and get to a gold coin. It is a St. Gaudens double eagle. Its in a little coin holder marked 1927. A 1927 double eagle is worth slightly more than the price of gold. I start to look the coin over, and realize it is a 1927 S double eagle. My heart skips about 4,000 beats. My hands are shaking. I have a million thoughts running through my mind. Two main thoughts are "Does anyone else know what I know?" and "Is this thing real?" Understandable if you don't get what any of this means. Take a minute to look up the difference between a 1927 and 1927 S double eagle.
I have all of my $13k with me. I get a drink and step outside to take a minute to collect myself. After 20 minutes. I decide I am willing to bid up to $7k on this thing. Bunch of other stuff sells.
We get to the coin. Honestly, my heart was pounding as the bidding started. Someone goes $1,000. Someone else $1,100. A third $1,200. Around and around. Up to $2,000. Bidding has slowed. $2,400. I jump in for $2,500. Another guy is hanging with me. $3,000. My heart is pounding harder. $4,000. I know he knows and he knows I know. $5,000. F*ck, this guy is a dealer and I can't roll with him. Back and forth, and I bid $6,000. He looks at the auctioneer. Shakes his head no. I think he is lying and will jump back in. I know I am ready to go another thousand. Auctioneer starts his countdown and tries to get the guy to jump back in. He doesn't bid and I take the coin for $6,000. Holy shit. I bought some other coins, spending about $12k that day. I am nervous.
I have it authenticated by a local dealer. I begin shopping it around for sale. Go to Asheville,NC. Down to Charleston. A few offers, very low. Most people say I don't have a customer who can afford such a coin. I visit Nashville to look at some stuff. Visited a coin shop and got an offer on the coin. Consign it to the owner, who says he has a buyer. We do a little paper work and I head home. A few days later, he calls me. SOLD! After his cut, I take home $34k.
I got lucky here, to be honest. The auction house didn't know what they had. They didn't advertise it at all. Most Appalachian folks don't have more than $6k sitting around to drop on a coin. The likelihood that such a thing happens again is LOW. And while I was lucky, I also created my own luck by being in the right place at the right time.
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