The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

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

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

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

How I turned $20 into $8,500+ in 2 months

AllenCrawley

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
420%
Oct 13, 2011
4,112
17,270
52
Scottsdale, AZ
I had the great fortune to meet Jill from this forum at B&P 2013 who is a savvy and profitable eBay seller. We were sharing stories and this is one I shared with her. She encouraged me to post a thread here giving some of those details.

This was about 10 years ago when we were doing a lot of sales on eBay.

Each week my wife and I visited 2 auctions houses looking for items to buy and resell on eBay. One week we came across a bank liquidation auction. One of the large banks here were selling all their office furnishings. We came in a bit late and most of the stuff had already been sold except for a bunch of Steelcase Criterion office chairs. 5 chairs in excellent shape sold for about $50-75 each. There were 91 chairs left, most of which were not in the best condition. Cracks in the arm pads, dirty/stained/ripped fabric, broken components, etc. However about 20 of them were still in fair condition. The auctioneer became frustrated as he continued to try to sell the remaining chairs at $50 each but no one was biting. He then decided to sell them as one lot with a starting bid at $300... no bidders... $250... no bidders... $200... then $150... still nothing. It was obvious his frustration was compounding. He then blurted out "Somebody start the bid!". I quickly yelled out "$20!". He emphatically shooted "Sold!" Effectively not giving anyone else an opportunity to bid.

I just bought 91 office chairs for $0.22 each. I then quickly thought "How am I going to get all these home?". I knew nothing about these chairs. I had no idea at that time what the retail price of these chairs were or how much they may be able to be sold for or anything. I just saw an opportunity and responded.

I made arrangements to pick them up the next day. I went home and did some research on these chairs and was pleasantly surprised to see this model of chair sold for $600-$800 new and a few good condition used and refurbished ones were selling on eBay for $300-$500 each!

I got the chairs home and figured out how to reupholster the seat and back and how to disassemble for easier shipping. I then typed out re-assembly instructions for the buyers. My wife and I went to JoAnn Fabrics to pick out some nice higher end fabrics. I bought a few cans of spray adhesive, went home and got started.

Of the 91 chairs 20 of them were in pretty good condition so we just cleaned and reupholstered those and sold them for an average of $350 each. Another 12 had some minor cracks in the arm pads but we still reupholstered them and sold them for $125 each. I placed an ad in the local newspaper and sold a lot of 10 as-is for $100 and another lot of 10 for $50.

The remaining chairs were not good enough to sell so I just used those for parts as I made repairs to the others.

After adding the cost of new fabric, spray adhesive and some minor repair parts to the cost of the chairs, our cost per chair ending up being $0.90 or almost $82. A net profit of $8,568 (minus eBay fees).

I hope you found this valuable or at least an interesting read. There is a whole world of opportunity out there. NO EXCUSES!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

AllenCrawley

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
420%
Oct 13, 2011
4,112
17,270
52
Scottsdale, AZ
Dude - I love reading stories like this! Did you have any idea at the time how well this would play out?

Haha, not a clue! I can't tell you how much I hoped to find more of these chairs at auctions.
 

Ivan

Bronze Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
88%
Jul 22, 2011
128
112
Nice! It's not sexy, but it makes money. Everybody wants to be the guy who flips new iPhones, exotic cars, or web sites. But a lot of times, you can dominate a "boring" market and make a killing.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

andviv

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
40%
Jul 27, 2007
5,361
2,143
Washington DC
Allen, I confess, I am still upset with you for not presenting at B&P... you have soooo much valuable content to add, it is well worth your time for presentations next time to be one hour.

Speed ++
 

AllenCrawley

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
420%
Oct 13, 2011
4,112
17,270
52
Scottsdale, AZ
Allen, I confess, I am still upset with you for not presenting at B&P

I just didn't get my topic back in time but I did try to present. I really wanted to but there just wasn't enough time. I think there were 6 or 7 that didn't present.
 

GPM

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
376%
Oct 25, 2012
2,067
7,775
Canada
This is great! It really drives home the point that there is always a way to make something work. Take off those blinders and keep your eyes peeled for opportunity!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

million$$$smile

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
703%
Dec 25, 2012
705
4,956
Midwest
Wow! Great story! Even if you would have paid 5 times the amount of $100, you would have done nice. Just goes to show you what one can do by taking it upon themselves to create value out of something everyone else passed over. If you would have stopped, explained the opportunity to those in attendance, there perhaps would have been several that would have caught the vision....
then again, maybe not.

speed +
Randall
 

Ãœbertreffen

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
73%
Aug 17, 2012
172
126
SPEED+.

While the deal is unique and rarely repeated, it's the process of capitalizing on an opportunity regardless of being a one time deal or not. Some have opportunities right in front of them and they still do nothing.

This reminds me a few years back of a business right next door that went under. They took their empty dumpster out back and filled it to the top of product. At that point I don't think they cared.

Sticking out of the top were three professional floor buffers. A few doors down was a flooring company we knew very well. Instead of selling, we told him he could have them. They all worked and were worth thousands each.

I don't recommend people start dumpster diving, but it goes to show that opportunity is literally everywhere.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

TK1

Silver Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
110%
Mar 31, 2011
626
686
lack-of-money-lack-of-idea.jpg
 

LightHouse

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
163%
Aug 13, 2007
4,297
6,996
Northern VA
Let me tell you the open opportunity here. Plenty of property management companies deal with the issue of furniture, most of the time they have to pay to have furniture removed if a tenant leaves it. There is a huge opportunity to just talk to the companies and tell them you will haul it away for free. Most of the time they have companies come look at it and say that they can't sell it right away so they charge to pick it up. But that doesnt account for anyone that wants to refurb the furniture and then sell it.

Office furniture is a huge boring market, there are a few people making a killing on it.
 

andviv

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
40%
Jul 27, 2007
5,361
2,143
Washington DC

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,076
169,493
Utah
Great story Allen and thanks for sharing.

Just goes to prove that a particular product offered up to 100 or so individuals may have no value ... however, when that same product is offered to the WORLD, it can have tremendous value.

There is also opportunity like this in books -- go to a thift store and you'll find some books sitting on the shelf for $0.99 -- they could be bought and resold in the global marketplace for 4,5, sometimes 10X more ... you are simply changing the point-of-sale from a limited market (a neighborhood store) to unlimited. (global/ebay).
 

InMotion

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
62%
Mar 18, 2011
857
532
Just goes to prove that a particular product offered up to 100 or so individuals may have no value ... however, when that same product is offered to the WORLD, it can have tremendous value.

That was a problem of mine in the past and I learned that it is very true. Locality doesn't necessarily mean much due to cultural differences etc. If you have a great product or a great deal try another market.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

andviv

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
40%
Jul 27, 2007
5,361
2,143
Washington DC
I looked at your profile but have no idea what a shinny object is. Something with too much shin? :p
Wait till you meet me and you will see I speak just like that... something to do with the accent, you know?

P.S. thanks for catching that one, I will fix it right away. ;)
 

AroundTheWorld

Be in the Moment
FASTLANE INSIDER
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
68%
Jul 24, 2007
2,871
1,950
.
you are simply changing the point-of-sale from a limited market (a neighborhood store) to unlimited. (global/ebay).

I was just thinking of this in terms of relationships and networking... Isn't this this reason B&P is so popular? and.... match.com, etc. People have such a hard time making connections on a relational level in their physical neighborhoods - but on a global level, relationships can be developed....

Has anyone developed a match.com type site - fastlane style? ;)
 

AroundTheWorld

Be in the Moment
FASTLANE INSIDER
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
68%
Jul 24, 2007
2,871
1,950
.
Wait till you meet me and you will see I speak just like that... something to do with the accent, you know?

Say my name..... undress ;)

Missed seeing you at B&P.... will go next year....
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

CEBenz

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
29%
Apr 16, 2011
833
242
Tacoma, Wa
Wait till you meet me and you will see I speak just like that... something to do with the accent, you know?

P.S. thanks for catching that one, I will fix it right away. ;)

I couldn't resist a chance to rib ya lol.
 

CEBenz

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
29%
Apr 16, 2011
833
242
Tacoma, Wa
I was just thinking of this in terms of relationships and networking... Isn't this this reason B&P is so popular? and.... match.com, etc. People have such a hard time making connections on a relational level in their physical neighborhoods - but on a global level, relationships can be developed....

Has anyone developed a match.com type site - fastlane style? ;)

It's an interesting idea. I wonder how geography would play into people's desire to communicate with each other.
 

socaldude

Saturn Sedan and PT Cruiser enthusiast.
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
212%
Jan 10, 2012
2,380
5,043
San Diego, CA
There is also opportunity like this in books -- go to a thift store and you'll find some books sitting on the shelf for $0.99 -- they could be bought and resold in the global marketplace for 4,5, sometimes 10X more ... you are simply changing the point-of-sale from a limited market (a neighborhood store) to unlimited. (global/ebay).

You took the exact words out of my mouth.

I did the same thing a while ago allen did but with books. A local bookstore in my city was going out of business and the owner sold me a shit load of books and bookshelves as a "liquidation lot" for $300. I bought 4 big a$$ high quality bookshelves for $200 and around 100 books for $100.

For example a book that was included in this lot was this book: The Art of Monsters Inc Autographed Disney Hardcover Book 0811833887 | eBay . I essentially bought it at an average cost of $1 and I put it on ebay and sold it for $200 at auction! It looks like they are going for around $100 now.

Included in that lot where a lot of old a$$ dictionaries. Who the hell knew that there was a collectors market for this? I sold a set of 5 on ebay for $50! And I sold a 1955 leatherbound medical dictionary for $40! Then I sold 3 bookshelves on craigslist for $100 each, I kept the other. I kept a few of the other books and sold the others here and there for a few dollars (ebay, amazon, personal friends etc).

Total profit(not revenue)? Around $600. Not bad for a 3-4 hour investment. Thats a 200% return on investment! or $150 an hour!
Not bad if you are a broke college student :).

It's incredible how many types of markets there are. And if you just "expand" your knowledge of these markets and how you can deliver value or repackage it then you can make a lot of extra income or even a legit Fastlane business.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

CEBenz

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
29%
Apr 16, 2011
833
242
Tacoma, Wa
SoCal, that's an excellent point. Only one minor problem. When I attempted to to do that, I couldn't bring myself to part with the books though in my case there are only 5. All with an original publish date of 1912. They just fascinate me for reasons that presently escape me.
 

Pete799p

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
56%
Aug 18, 2011
513
285
Let me tell you the open opportunity here. Plenty of property management companies deal with the issue of furniture, most of the time they have to pay to have furniture removed if a tenant leaves it. There is a huge opportunity to just talk to the companies and tell them you will haul it away for free. Most of the time they have companies come look at it and say that they can't sell it right away so they charge to pick it up. But that doesnt account for anyone that wants to refurb the furniture and then sell it.

Office furniture is a huge boring market, there are a few people making a killing on it.

The only thing you have to look out for/ account for/ know how to deal with when getting abandoned furniture from apartments is beg bugs. I have found that a lot of tnts will leave all of their beds/furniture because they are infested. I can also tell you this happens a lot more then you think. This is by no means a deal breaker but you must be prepared to deal with it.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
S

stranger

Guest
I had the great fortune to meet Jill from this forum at B&P 2013 who is a savvy and profitable eBay seller. We were sharing stories and this is one I shared with her. She encouraged me to post a thread here giving some of those details.

This was about 10 years ago when we were doing a lot of sales on eBay.

Each week my wife and I visited 2 auctions houses looking for items to buy and resell on eBay. One week we came across a bank liquidation auction. One of the large banks here were selling all their office furnishings. We came in a bit late and most of the stuff had already been sold except for a bunch of Steelcase Criterion office chairs. 5 chairs in excellent shape sold for about $50-75 each. There were 91 chairs left, most of which were not in the best condition. Cracks in the arm pads, dirty/stained/ripped fabric, broken components, etc. However about 20 of them were still in fair condition. The auctioneer became frustrated as he continued to try to sell the remaining chairs at $50 each but no one was biting. He then decided to sell them as one lot with a starting bid at $300... no bidders... $250... no bidders... $200... then $150... still nothing. It was obvious his frustration was compounding. He then blurted out "Somebody start the bid!". I quickly yelled out "$20!". He emphatically shooted "Sold!" Effectively not giving anyone else an opportunity to bid.

I just bought 91 office chairs for $0.22 each. I then quickly thought "How am I going to get all these home?". I knew nothing about these chairs. I had no idea at that time what the retail price of these chairs were or how much they may be able to be sold for or anything. I just saw an opportunity and responded.

I made arrangements to pick them up the next day. I went home and did some research on these chairs and was pleasantly surprised to see this model of chair sold for $600-$800 new and a few good condition used and refurbished ones were selling on eBay for $300-$500 each!

I got the chairs home and figured out how to reupholster the seat and back and how to disassemble for easier shipping. I then typed out re-assembly instructions for the buyers. My wife and I went to JoAnn Fabrics to pick out some nice higher end fabrics. I bought a few cans of spray adhesive, went home and got started.

Of the 91 chairs 20 of them were in pretty good condition so we just cleaned and reupholstered those and sold them for an average of $350 each. Another 12 had some minor cracks in the arm pads but we still reupholstered them and sold them for $125 each. I placed an ad in the local newspaper and sold a lot of 10 as-is for $100 and another lot of 10 for $50.

The remaining chairs were not good enough to sell so I just used those for parts as I made repairs to the others.

After adding the cost of new fabric, spray adhesive and some minor repair parts to the cost of the chairs, our cost per chair ending up being $0.90 or almost $82. A net profit of $8,568 (minus eBay fees).

I hope you found this valuable or at least an interesting read. There is a whole world of opportunity out there. NO EXCUSES!

It's 1 time deal and not a business because you cannot repeat it again, again and again. OK, I was lucky to pick up a lot of 14 old postcards per 5 bucks a month ago. I've sold 2 of them for 940 bucks. The other 12 ones are junk. I call it the good luck.
 

LightHouse

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
163%
Aug 13, 2007
4,297
6,996
Northern VA
The only thing you have to look out for/ account for/ know how to deal with when getting abandoned furniture from apartments is beg bugs. I have found that a lot of tnts will leave all of their beds/furniture because they are infested. I can also tell you this happens a lot more then you think. This is by no means a deal breaker but you must be prepared to deal with it.

I'm talking commercial not residential. No bed bugs in commercial furniture from what I've seen.
 

Mike39

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
100%
Mar 17, 2012
1,496
1,496
Orlando, FL
It's 1 time deal and not a business because you cannot repeat it again, again and again. OK, I was lucky to pick up a lot of 14 old postcards per 5 bucks a month ago. I've sold 2 of them for 940 bucks. The other 12 ones are junk. I call it the good luck.

What Allen did was not luck, had he not been thinking with a business focus, that wouldn't have happened. 99% of people would have walked right by those chairs and continued with their day. That is not luck, that's opportunity, decisive thinking, and execution.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Vigilante

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
596%
Oct 31, 2011
11,116
66,265
Gulf Coast
What Allen did was not luck, had he not been thinking with a business focus, that wouldn't have happened. 99% of people would have walked right by those chairs and continued with their day. That is not luck, that's opportunity, decisive thinking, and execution.

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan
 

ColtonJD91

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
50%
Aug 23, 2012
175
88
Las Vegas, NV
I love it! Selling office equipment may not be sexy, however, 9,600% profit margins are. Well done! Even if he paid $7,500 for chairs plus repairs, it'd be a nice payout!
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top