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

[AllenCrawley]

While its not Fastlane, it is hustle! And that can be a godsend while bootstrapping!

Yes, a lot of people comment or think, "this isn't fastlane". However, if buying from local auctions and reselling on ebay would make you an additional $10,000, $20,000 or $50,000 over the next year or so, would it help you fund your fastlane business? You bet!

 

[Red]

Ha ha, I remember reading this last year, not really knowing you. Now it's even better! My dad taught me to keep an eye out for deals, but mostly in relation to cars/motorcycles. My last bike I bought for cash, put 18k miles on it & sold it for a grand more than I paid. Not exactly the spread you pulled, but still evidence that, if your eyes are open, you'll find something. Opportunity is everywhere, even if it's a few bucks & some fun.

 

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[AllenCrawley]

Love threads like this opportunity is always around the corner

Indeed there are.

Find one or two auction houses to visit the next week. Look up on their website what will be auctioned. Do some price research on the items your interested or seem promising. Determine your max bids. Have fun. You might make some money in the process.

 

[MitchC]

On the subject of things that are not glamorous to hustle.

I went to a wreckers and noticed a 1992 Toyota had a very rare factory option air purifier. I pulled it out and the lady at the counter had no idea what it was, she charged me $10 and I sold it the next day on a car forum for $200. You can do the same with certain car intakes etc if you know what to look for

Pandora bracelets are also a huge goldmine but there's plenty of people who have realized that, you buy a bracelet with charms on it from someone then sell them separately.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Wow I missed the update on this one. The office chairs strike again!

 

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[Amail]

Dude - I love reading stories like this! Did you have any idea at the time how well this would play out?

 

[AllenCrawley]

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.

 

[CEBenz]

Thanks for sharing Allen. I'm planning to make another attempt at craigslist hustling next week and this helped me find some more motivation.

 

[AroundTheWorld]

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?

 

[cautiouscapy]

Chance favors the prepared mind...

I was at a local garbage dump the other week - in the UK now most of these have an area where they resell stuff for a few pennies to a few pounds to offset costs - great place to look for things to resell!

I spotted some graphic novels in a box, some still bagged in plastic from the shop and I took a pile of about 8 home for $1.50, found out that one is advertised on Amazon at £75 secondhand, another £46.

I'm not even a fan of graphic novels, but I realized they have smaller print runs than your mass-market paperbacks, and importantly, a fanatical audience.

Mind you, they have to SELL to make that money, and the Amazon cut is huge!

Tiny win, but it made me feel good for the rest of the weekend.

 

[Ivan]

you are simply changing the point-of-sale from a limited market (a neighborhood store) to unlimited. (global/ebay).

I think this is the best fastlane gold nugget in this thread. This is why flipping works. Anytime you make a product available to a bigger pool of buyers, you win. A few such models that have worked for me:

Craigslist -> eBay
Garage sale -> Craigslist (for big stuff)
Garage sale -> eBay
Small Obscure Auction -> big public auction (like eBay)

But that's not the fastlane part. You're still working a job at that point (sometimes for peanuts). When you build a scalable system that commoditizes a certain industry, you cut the middlemen (flippers) out of the equation and collect a portion of what they would have made. I think that's what's going to happen with these local auctions. Already seen it happen for storage auctions.

That's my goal for my car auction site as well.

 

[CEBenz]

I think this is the best fastlane gold nugget in this thread. This is why flipping works. Anytime you make a product available to a bigger pool of buyers, you win. A few such models that have worked for me:

Craigslist -> eBay
Garage sale -> Craigslist (for big stuff)
Garage sale -> eBay
Small Obscure Auction -> big public auction (like eBay)

But that's not the fastlane part. You're still working a job at that point (sometimes for peanuts). When you build a scalable system that commoditizes a certain industry, you cut the middlemen (flippers) out of the equation and collect a portion of what they would have made. I think that's what's going to happen with these local auctions. Already seen it happen for storage auctions.

That's my goal for my car auction site as well.

While its not Fastlane, it is hustle! And that can be a godsend while bootstrapping!

 

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[Yankee427]

One example that I found recently was the NHL had an outdoor series of games played here in the US called the Stadium Series. There was one in LA, one in NY and one in Chicago. They made custom knit hats for all the teams that were limited edition hats that the players wore during the pregrame warmups.

Dick's Sporting Goods had the hats selling for $24, and the hats sold out quickly. I realized there was a huge market for the hats after I saw on ebay NJ Devils Stadium Series knit hats selling on ebay for $100. I purchased 10 Pittsburgh Penguins knit hats and tried to buy more than 1 Chicago Blackhawks hat, but they only had one available. I bought it for $24 and resold the hat for $80.

I have an ebay auction going on currently selling my 10 Pittsburgh Penguins Knit Hats for $50 each after paying $24 for each one originally. Not a bad markup for doing nothing besides shipping them back out.

 

[LightHouse]

Yesterday I went to a local thrift store to look for a couple items that will help me in the production of my product. Would you believe I see two Steelcase Leap Chairs for sale there? For $10 each! These sell on ebay used for $250 - $600.

As I'm looking at the chairs, one of the employees strikes a conversation. She says a business upgraded their office chairs and brought in all the old chairs. I ask, How many? She answers, "A lot". "Sold all but these two?", I ask. She says, "No, these are the first two we've brought out. We can't bring anymore out until these two sell."

At this point I don't know the resell value of these chairs but know that profit is there to be made. I look over the two chairs thoroughly and bought one of them as the other has some damage.

I get home. Clean up the chair. Looks near new. Look up resell values on ebay's completed auctions for the Leap Chair. Determine that if I reupholsters the seat and back (minor stains) I could sell for about $450 easily.

Also, I notice that the chair pistons alone are selling for up to $50 on ebay. So I could buy the damaged chair for $10 and resell the piston for $40-$45. Going back this morning to pick up that chair if still available and then ask management if I could look thru the others in the back. See if a deal could be made.

Nice find, I have an older, slightly more expensive version of this chair and an aeron chair that i use. They are really nice chairs, I would have bought the lot in a second, you could sell them all to a reseller without touching a thing.

 

[biophase]

Allen, I'd love to have two of those chairs if you could pick any more up for me!

Yesterday I went to a local thrift store to look for a couple items that will help me in the production of my product. Would you believe I see two Steelcase Leap Chairs for sale there? For $10 each! These sell on ebay used for $250 - $600.

As I'm looking at the chairs, one of the employees strikes a conversation. She says a business upgraded their office chairs and brought in all the old chairs. I ask, How many? She answers, "A lot". "Sold all but these two?", I ask. She says, "No, these are the first two we've brought out. We can't bring anymore out until these two sell."

At this point I don't know the resell value of these chairs but know that profit is there to be made. I look over the two chairs thoroughly and bought one of them as the other has some damage.

I get home. Clean up the chair. Looks near new. Look up resell values on ebay's completed auctions for the Leap Chair. Determine that if I reupholsters the seat and back (minor stains) I could sell for about $450 easily.

Also, I notice that the chair pistons alone are selling for up to $50 on ebay. So I could buy the damaged chair for $10 and resell the piston for $40-$45. Going back this morning to pick up that chair if still available and then ask management if I could look thru the others in the back. See if a deal could be made.

 

[kaqm]

Well, this thread certainly gave me the kick up the a$$ I needed...time to get out of the comfort zone!

 

[the5thpgriff]

Update: Why wait... I posted tonight on Craglist

 

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[LightHouse]

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.

Thanks @Raoul Duke for looking this past and reminding me. I made a deal with a used fortune company that they get first offer for all the furniture I have come available. They have to take it either way.

Some times they have to spend money to get rid of junk, some times they get a lot of free inventory to sell and make a large margin on. It works for them, and also solves a huge problem for me. Win\win!

 

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[InMotion]

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.

 

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[andviv]

I looked at your profile but have no idea what a shinny object is. Something with too much shin?

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.

 

[Pete799p]

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.

 

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[ColtonJD91]

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!

 

[Pete799p]

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

I just didn't want people to see some gold in that nice leather coach they found in an abandoned apartment and bring home a costly problem. I have seen some really nice furniture that has been left in units that were infested with bed bugs.

I definitely second commercial as well I was working with a local developer when one of his tnts abandoned their unit. It was a warehouse for a furniture store and they left everything. Some of it was in bad shape but there was tons of good stuff

 

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[Pete799p]

I see. We have a couple auction houses up here but my brother and I haven't seen stuff go for much below market. But we also haven't seen one that was exclusively office furniture either. Mostly it's bar and restaurant stuff. Equipment auctions are usually way out of my price range but I can see doing exactly what you did. How did you sell the desks? Local paper? Craigslist?

There is big money to be made in equipment auctions if you have the cash and you know what to do with it. I watched a video not too long ago about a UK entrepreneur who was able to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth a manufacturing equipment for 10's of thousands which he moved to china to open up his own cabinet manufacturer. The deal was really ridiculous when you add it up.

 

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[CEBenz]

There is big money to be made in equipment auctions if you have the cash and you know what to do with it. I watched a video not too long ago about a UK entrepreneur who was able to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth a manufacturing equipment for 10's of thousands which he moved to china to open up his own cabinet manufacturer. The deal was really ridiculous when you add it up.

Oh I know there could be. Just takes more capital than I have. I do remember missing a day of school as a kid, to attend an auction. The auction significance? The auction was made up entirely of the equipment used in the Exxon Valdez clean up. Too bad I was too young at the time (10?) to realize the potential.

 

[CEBenz]

Yes, a lot of people comment or think, "this isn't fastlane". However, if buying from local auctions and reselling on ebay would make you an additional $10,000, $20,000 or $50,000 over the next year or so, would it help you fund your fastlane business? You bet!

It would beat a job.

 

[D11FYY]

Love threads like this opportunity is always around the corner

 

[AllenCrawley]

Allen, I'd love to have two of those chairs if you could pick any more up for me!

I went back today and unfortunately they were sold out. I spoke with the GM and she said they only had 8 to start with and sold all by end of day yesterday. I knew I should have acted when I was first there. When an opportunity presents itself be sure to act decisively.

 

[LightHouse]

I just PAID 5k to have a boatload of office furniture hauled out front one of my properties. Someone asked why not sell it and store it, well i don't have time to mess with all that, i need it out, and out fast. Storage is the most expensive part of this business.

 

[sambreaker20]

Www.recraigslist.com

Also search YouTube for:

Resale Renegade
Bonafide Hustler
Raiken Profit
The College Picker

Should get you started. Some of the guys are irritating, but they know their stuff.

more YouTube guys that knows their stuff and provide great contents

Global voodoo
Dallas Moore


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