How to: Multiply $100 from buying/reselling from Craigslist

[DeletedUser2]

Here is a repost on someone doing a craiglist biz. I think its already on this site, but since I clip and keep these kinds of tidbits for business models, then


Some one posted how they get to X income on using Craiglist. Below is the snip i kept from that post

Read........


I’ve got nothing to gain here, there is so much opportunity out there to do this type of stuff in a variety of geographic and demographic. You can do it with $500 or $500,000.

So don’t worry about crossing swords.

A few of the questions:

Q: In your post you indicated that you wrote $500 on each day of the calendar...was that the profit goal for each day?
A: The goal was to essentially buy product that would yield $500 in profit each day, not necessarily buy a certain value amount. For example, you could buy 5 iPad for $100 profit a piece or buy one jet ski that had $500 profit in it. Not so much about volume of transaction, about margin.

Q: you also said that each day you bankrolled him $5000...was his goal to buy $5000 worth of "product" every day? or simply the cash made available to him?
A: No. Not necessarily, but sometimes on big ticket items he needed $5K to jump start the day or a transaction. Only rarely did we consume all $5K, I think maybe once or twice to buy a car.

Q: what was the daily purchasing goal?
A: None.

Q: what was spent gross earning the $17k?
A: $42,000 was the total spend

Q: Is the bread and butter in smaller things like cell phones and computers?
or larger things like used cars?
A: Bread and butter are the following, with stars on the heavy volume items

--$5000 and under passenger cars
--Motorcycles of every price
--Recreation vehicles (Jet skiis, boats, RVs, travel trailers)
--Bicycles of every type, especially high-end offroad and onroad cycles
--Oakley and other brand high-end sunglasses
--Women's purses (ultra-highend only)
--Time Shares, low-end only
--Land (acreage only, no houses)
--Rims and Tires
--Laptops (current models only)
--iPhones, iPads, and all other Apple branded products
--Flat televisions
--Guns
--Safes
--Broken Gold
--Consoles (Xbox, Playstations, etc) and video games
--High-end furniture in excellent condition
--Trailer, car haulers

Q: What kind of mark up are you shooting to attain? 25%? 50%? 100%+?
A:Not necessarily a percentage, just as much as possible. I used this as a guide: $100 or less: double the money. $500 or more, 50% on a 7-day turn rate.

Q: Same city CL relist or nearby city?
A: Same city, unless it was an eBay sale or unless it was much more appropriate out of town (buy a snow blower in Houston, sell it in Minneapolis for example)

Q: Wait a period of time before relisting?
A: Immediately relist it.

Q: What are the best most readily available and easy to sell items?
A: Apple Products, cheap cars and motorcycles

Q: DO you ever get stuck with merchandise that you cant move?
A: Haven’t yet. Sure I will

Q:How can you decide what to pay for items?
A: This is the tough part. Use your mojo, or if you don’t have any mojo then use eBay, it’ generally a good starting point. Don’t buy anything you don’t know what to pay for.

Are you looking to pay half of the going retail or some fixed number?
A: You have to find the right mix for your area. Don’t spend a ton of time trying to figure it out. Just go buy a bunch of stuff and try it out. If you are uncomfortable with that, stick to Apple products only - as they are extremely easy to sell and even easier easy to buy.

Q: Do you test purchases on the premises?
A: Yes

Q:All offers are face to face?
A: This is sort of the magic beans. You don’t want to waste your time running all around town, but at the same time you need to set the expectations for the seller. I don’t have the answer for this, but I will tell you that when I offer $500 for an item worth $1000 over the phone, I almost always get the item for $300 when I show up with cash. Make sense?

Q: $5k total for a month or daily?
A: Again, it’s a function of cash. The more you have, the more you can buy.

Q: Do you lowball people?
A: That's the whole point. 85% of the people will hang up on you. 15% will sell you something. You do the math. If you don't like rejection you'll fail, because it's 85% "go screw yourself" responses.

 

[MNentre]

"NO RESERVE - Robot Coupe MP 450 Turbo VV 720 Watts Hand Mixer - NO RESERVE" (SOLD FOR 82) This does not tell me anything about the condition, why you are selling, does it work, etc.

This is especially important when just a few days earlier the same product sold for salvage value with this title:
"Robot Coupe MP 450 TURBO/For Parts" (SOLD FOR 65)

People will now group your product in the same value range since you didn't differentiate that yours is working and worthy of a higher price. People read the title and undertitle, they dont take the time to read the full auction.

Now here is one that just ended yesterday:
"ROBOT COUPE MP 450 COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL IMMERSIBLE FOOD MIXER GREAT CONDITION!!" (SOLD FOR 299)

he used many more keywords in the title and talked about the condition. if you were to just read the title straight up it doesnt make much sense because he says "COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL IMMERSIBLE" but these are all keywords that people might search for in ebay.

If people dont search for your exact "robot coupe mp 450" they wont see your listing, but for the last seller you could search for "commercial mixer" and I can guarantee his will show up because that is what his listing title includes.

 

[oddball]

I could be wrong but I feel like most people reading this assume this is our fastlane plan. Speaking for myself, it's not at all. Just a means of making money to do my fastlane plans. I realize I couldn't sell on eBay my whole life and make the money I want but at 20 years old it's good pay. Today I sold stuff I paid a total of $200 for $395, not bad. There is more to selling on eBay and cl then making money. It really teaches you a lot. The lessons you an learn vs the amount of money you risk makes it great. If I make a mistake at this point in my life, it's small but I remember if for next time. Better ten if I just jumped into a big project and made a mistake.

 

[Vigilante]

This was intended just to provide a primer for some working capital. However Fastlane does not equal no work. You might be looking for the four hour work week.

 

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[theBiz]

this is a great place to start, i never really got into iphone or ipads the profit is too small but there less risk for your learning curve.


You want to buy something for $300 and sell it for $400?

1) Call as many people that have the item up for $400 and see if it sold, and then say hey buddy if you dont mind me asking what did you end up selling that for? Write it down. Do not be too optimistic. Research is important here.


2) If you are consistently buying the same thing (iphones or whatever) put out ads for iphones even when you dont have them and are looking to buy them, then you have a list of people to call or email everytime you find one.


There is real money to be made here, do not limit yourself to craigslist, the sellers get many potential buyers viewing their ads which is a bad thing for you. Sometimes the local paper or classified magazine has the best deals or things that sit, when you call someone up who has been sitting on something for too long they normally will just accept an offer.

Through craigslist i once bought a truck for $16,000 this was a distressed seller... had union contracts in place and you must come out of pocket for payroll (he needed cash)

Well i drove it back home (2 hours each way) 4 hours total

1 hour detailing and taking pics.

5 Hours total... put it online 4 days later sold it for $26,000 cash.

Not bad $10,000/5 hours .... $2,000 an hour.

At the end of the day what did i really do, i didn't work hard at all i just drove something back and put it on the internet.

Have i bought similar items and not sold them for 3 months and made $2,000 profit? Yes.
The bigger you go in numbers the bigger chance you have to make a score.

Was it luck that 1 person called for that truck in the 4 days and bought it right on the spot. Was it luck that not 1 single person ever called about that same truck? Maybe, but this is how things go.


If only i could find these deals all the time......


The first day i joined here years ago MJ said think b2b in any business you do. I can not stress enough with larger number items this is true.


You want to sell a hot rod? You have a smaller demographic to sell to and they will buy when they feel like it.

Sell a truck to business owners who MAKES MONEY with the truck they are buying from you, one day someone will call and say i just signed a contract i need a truck. They are better buyers, they do not complain as much, and they are not tire kickers.

And for some reason honda civics hahhaa... but good luck buying one at a good deal before someone else buys it.

ISSUES:

1) shady title stuff to deal with
2) transporting a non registered or insured vehicle
3) If it gets stolen your out $16,000
4) Where to store it
5) How will people test drive without plates, if they crash into someone or kill them your in trouble

Not so easy anymore huh?

Every business opportunity has problems you must solve and most people would have stopped at #1 on that check list. It all depends how hard your willing to work to figure out and execute solving them.


SOLUTION

1) shady title stuff to deal with

i know how it works now and i just leave the risk open

2) transporting a non registered or insured vehicle

made friends with a body shop owner who has dealer plates, payed him $100 to use them

3) If it gets stolen your out $16,000

Put a car infront of it so it could net get out of the driveway

4) Where to store it

I live in a residential area and people dont want to see a commercial vehicle in my driveway so i called up a friend whos doing bad financially and payed him $100 to store it at his home.

5) How will people test drive without plates, if they crash into someone or kill them your in trouble

i let them drive it and i meditate

 

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[DeletedUser394]

A quick tip when buying/selling:

As soon as someone emails you, punch in their email address into facebook and check out their profile.

I can find out everything I need to know about a person in less than 2 minutes. (their age, economic situation, etc). That way I have a distinct advantage because I know how much money that person is likely to hand over for the product(s) they are asking for or selling.

-Ryan

 

[DeletedUser394]

i thought this was a fastlane forum

Quality first post!

 

[theBiz]

most fastlaners started selling stuff out of garbage bags on the street, any entrepreneurship is a learning experience, you have to learn how to crawl before you walk... anyone who disagrees was never and will never be successful.

 

[CryptO]

Amail

I have had hit and misses before on Ebay. The best things I sold were bottles of Grand Cru wine in France. I bought a bottle of Chateau Latour 2004 for about 290 Euros, one year later I sold it for 450 euros. That was my best success. I timed it right when I bought it and I timed it right when I sold it (to a chinese man, the chinese are going wine mental for the last few years!!). The thing is that grand cru wine pretty much always appreciates in value, so it is nearly always a safe bet. I did this with a few others each bottle made me a nice little profit. However it was a one year turnarround. Very SLOWLANE indeed, but profitable (perhaps fastlane if done in a massive quantity???)

Another thing I did on ebay a few years ago was, buying lasers for use on construction sites. I would purchase them from ebay america, then relist them on ebay france for approx 1/3rd of the price more, electronics are generally much cheaper in America than in France. Every laser I sold I was making about $100!! I felt like I was on a runner until there was a program on french TV about a young kid doing the same kind of thing and it landed him in massive trouble because he was not registered as a company and was avoiding import taxes, neither was I, so I stopped. Now three years later, lasers in America and France have adjusted and so the timing has gone.

I have sold domain names with limited success on ebay too. One domain I bought for $7 and in two days listed in an auction on ebay it went for $55. I thought I had made it lol and even registered a company lmao!!. Then the next 6 sales I lost money or made even!!! My mistake was I just assumed that by doing short auctions with a starting price of $1 there would be people queing up to by my domain names. But there wasn't, even though some of them could of been very valuabe, but only to the right person at the right time, and I think that applies to all specialist objects or services.

When I look at other domainers that are more established on ebay they sell things over a longer period with either a BIN option or a reserve price. However the trouble with doing this is that if you have lots of unsold items you will have to keep paying relisting fees, so you have to price generously enough not to put off bidders and end up with hundreds of unsold items.

If I had the capital, I would get into wine big time because the price of it remains stable and if you buy grand cru bottles direct from the chateaus on pre order. You can pretty much always guarantee that in two to three years the price increases way way more than you would get from having your money tied up in a bank. I have a great uncle in England thats been successful at this for years.

My mum sells cupcake sprinkles in the UK in ebay, she earns her living from it, a small living, since January this year, she has become a top seller with a feedback of over 1000 positives.

The thing that I noticed is that most top sellers list multiple items over and over and they tend to only mix in a few auctions.

Feedback really does help on ebay. If you haven't got allot people are not going to trust you. I do not look at buying anything from somebody with a feedback of less than 10 and if it is an expensive item I would not purchase from a seller with under 35 to 50 depending on item. To me, there are so many scammers the risk is not worth it.

Also, I'm sure this has been pointed out before. It's easy to boost feedback quickly by buying and selling lots of $1 items. Even if they are low value you can push your feedback number up within a week and people will trust you more. Pretty obvious, but it can help inspire potential buyers with more confidence to get them bidding more.

 

[Kinsey6287]

LOOKS LIKE IT'S A CHALLENGE! WHO'S IN??? READ BELOW!

Fastlaners! I'm back! Been gone for a little while (deployed) but I'm back and with vengeance.

Here is the plan. I have an incredible invention idea that I need a substantial amount of start-up funds in order to build a few prototypes. Here is my plan:

I am going to take $100, and scan my local craigslist for a really good bargain (or two). By the item/s, and then turn around and sell it/them for a quick profit. Because I know cars, car parts, furniture items, and some sporting goods, that is where I will focus my efforts.

With that profit, I'll by another one or two items that are a great bargain and re-sell.

This is mainly just for the fun of it, as I'll be saving on the side to buy the items for my prototypes, but I figured it would be cool to track how you can inflate $100 into more and in what type of time frame. So, here we go.

Each day I'll update as to what I am buying/selling and what my profits are at.

Guidelines/Rules I will go by:

#1 - Only possess one or two items at a time, I'm not trying to become a hoarder. lol
#2 - Only utilize my local chapter of craigslist
#3 - Only use original $100 plus any profits for purchasing further items. (so if I buy a couch for $100 and sell it for $150, then I must use the $150 for the next purchase and no more)
#4 - Only sell what I bought (no grabbing stuff from my garage to sell for more profits to make it seem that I am making more.)
#5 - If the item needs to be cleaned/repaired and you can do it yourself you can, HOWEVER any money used to repair/refurbish it must be from the original $100 and any profits, and MUST BE DONE BY YOU

Stay tuned!

 

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[JEdwards]

Good Luck..I think this is a great way to make money.

If I had craigslist when I was 20.. Easy money..

 

[Davidla]

As a college student this is what I do so I'm in. I actually just had an item I paid $55 for that I sold for $175(minus fees) on ebay.
Like RyanDrake, I am not going exactly by your runs. I will obviously only start with $100 and not sell anything around the house. But I am not going to just stick with craigslist, just annoying to deal with sometimes.

As an unexperienced ebay seller i feel like craigslist is more simple.
I listed an Iphone on both ebay and craigslist to see what sells first and CL won.
I had a non paypal buyer on ebay so I decided not to go with him after researching some common ebay scams.
However, profit margins on ebay seem to be much higher so I'm definitely learning that as well.

hmmm, i want in. i just don't think i have a lot of time to put into this challenge: i have 16 credits, a start-up venture, a video project, kung-fu, and a girlfriend.

Get rid of the girlfriend

 

[Giles]

I do this occasionally with cars. My last deal was a BMW bought for $3100, sold for $3150 (I rushed, and the car presented some issues one I bought it).

Deal before that was a Mitsubishi bought for $500, sold for $2200

Looking for the next one now...

 

[Davidla]

In competition:

100$ started

Droid 130 - 90 (cost) = 40$

Bank roll: 140$.

Bought camera for 55$ set to sell for 90$ tomorrow.

--
Out of competition:

Sold:
Iphone 4: 390 - 290 (cost) = 100$ profit.

Bought:

Iphone 4 for 300, and Htc evo 4g for 130.

 

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[JEdwards]

I congratulate you guys, If I was dead broke this is exactly what I would do to make money..

CL is a game changer.

 

[MediaMonty]

Great thread, surprised to see so many people know about this. I've been doing this for a couple of years now, at first I just wanted to make side income and to not have to work a bad part time job, but I ended up making enough to quit college and be on the path to becoming an entrepreneur.

I started with selling game consoles, ipods, smartphones, laptops/computers, but when I got the cash I moved onto selling used cars. Selling used cars can be a hassle due to legal issues, and these can vary from state to state. I really got concentrated on selling used cars that I had to go around and look for a dealer license to rent from. I think in most states, getting a dealer license is necessary if you want to concentrate on buying and selling used cars.

Another way to buy and sell on CL is to buy junk cars. I used to go to a junkyard, and tell them that I buy junk cars regularly and in high volume. This way I can negotiate the price I get for sending junk cars to the junkyard, and they would give me a higher price than usual.

Then I go on CL to look for old broken down cars that are not likely to be sold to someone who actually wants to own and drive it. Most common types of cars are Buicks and Pontiacs. I go to them, try to lowball them for the the car, and tell the owner that a tow truck will come next day to pick it up. I call junkyard and tell them all the information and the car as well as where it's located (address). The yard sends a truck to pick it up and credits me for junking the yard. I pickup the money next time I show up at the junkyard.

Average profit for each car junk is $100.

 

[JEdwards]

Why? Do sites really flip THAT fast? It's an interesting thought to do something like this... maybe If I'd work together with my webdesigner friend, do a bit of facelifting to the sites... hmmm =)

No Sites dont flip that fast.. Stick with the cl, ebay plan.

 

[oddball]

Picked up a PS3 last week for $100, need a controller and controller cable but that wasn't much. All and all, I am into it for $135.90, sold in on a forum for $208.46 after pp fees. It will cost about $15 to ship, so I'll look at ~$60 profit.

So I was at $204.90 - PS3 cost $135.90 = $69 + Sold PS3 $193 = $262

 

[DeletedUser394]

Just banked another $60.

Bought two games for $10. Sold for $60. $50 profit in 1 hour.

 

[DeletedUser394]

I now pretty much control the N64 market in my city.

I own ~80% of the games currently for sale, and I can still make 50%-100%+ profit even when selling my games lower than the local video game store.

Bought a bundle for $100, can sell it out in chunks for $750. $650 potential profit for doing nothing (the person I bought it from drove to my house) lol.

EDIT: Within 5 minutes of posting a new ad, I already have an interested party for a piece of the package. hahaha this stuff is like cocaine!

DOUBLE EDIT: 3 minutes later I sold 3 things out of that package for $80. Too much fun!

 

[DeletedUser394]

Sold 2 games from that picture above for $60 about 10 mins ago. Woman dropped by my house to buy them for her kids. She acknowledged that I charge fair market value.

Expecting someone else in a few hours to buy a console, 2 controllers, and 1 game for $80.

Easy money...

I realize my neighbours probably think I'm a drug dealer. Random people come to my house almost every day handing me cash hahaha.

 

[Ivan]

Ryan, thanks for the tip about the game systems. I used to resell mountain bikes and make decent money, but buying has slowed since it's winter. So after reading this thread, I decided to try the video game market.

Sure enough, I was able to score the following collection for $200:
Boxed NES with 9 games
Super Nintendo with 8 games
N64 with 15 games
2 Gamecubes with 1 game
Playstation with 12 games
PS2 with 7 games
Gameboy Advance SP with 8 games
Nintendo DS lite with 1 game
Sega Genesis with 11 games
Around 20 games for Atari 2600 and Odyssey 2 (no consoles)
2 PSP games
3 Wii games
Xbox with 2 games but no controllers
A few games for Dreamcast and Game Gear

Yeah, all that for $200. The deals are out there. And this one had been up for 2 days before i saw it. If I was sure I could get the same profit per game that you do, I'd fly out to Canada tomorrow

As a side note, I've learned more about economics, marketing, and psychology by reselling than I have in 5 years of college. And instead of me paying tuition, this "school" pays me when I'm a good student.

Thanks again for the tip

Ivan

 

[DeletedUser394]

Guy just drove 1.45hrs to buy a console and a game for $80 that I bought for $40 this morning. He offered me $70 on the spot (instead of the $80) but I don't care. Made $130 today and I never left my house.

Going to finally go through inventory and post what I'm at. I started at $0 a week or two ago.. pretty sure I'm close to $1,000 now.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

I don't know where you are in Jersey, but took me 2 mins to find these 2 deals. (within video games)

Worth 2-3x at re sale Lot of N64 Nintendo 64 games for sale

Worth at least $150. Classic NINTENDO 64 N64 System w/9 games, 4 controllers + xtras

Also found some 200% profit margins on bike deals in North Jersey (wherever the hell that is), gold selling at 30% under spot, triple to quad flips on laptops..etc.

Making money isn't it hard, all you have to do is quit making generalized statements and actually do your research.

EDIT: Found a few cars that are easily flips for $1,000+ profit each.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Just out of curiosity, what kind of people are buying video game systems that are almost three generations old?

I've had a few people in their early 20's (the nostalgic effect of playing games you played as a kid), a few mothers buying for their kids, and some 40,50,60 year olds that remember playing these systems with their kids.

If you have a product that brings back fond memories to your customers, you can sell anything to anyone.

Things like X Box's are worth close to nothing, because they are not old enough... I imagine they will appeal to kids that were young/in their teens when they came out... but not for some years.

The people that grew up with older systems are in their 20s and 30s now, so it's a great time to be selling older generation video games/systems.

The last system I sold to two ~25 year old guys, and they were giggling like schoolgirls they were so excited to relive a little of their childhood.

 

[rexxkai]

i just got rejected and it hurt...

just tried to lowball a couple selling a $8000 vehicle (prolly could easily sell for $5000-6000) for $2000 on cl.

through email, the wife agreed to the price of $2000 cash, and she said she would sell if i went to buy the car today--it was like she was in a hurry. i wanted to make sure i wasnt getting scammed so i slowed down and started checking out the "used car buying process"

at the beginning of the emailing process, the wife (emailer) sent messages with perfect english, but then later on, her messages drastically changed and it felt like she was a foreigner knowing little english, and lots of the messages had typos ... so i was thinking in my mind if this was really a scam (since she took my lowball offer of $2000)

then, i asked for the VIN number (used to check whether vehicle is stolen or not) and license plate number, but she wouldn't answer my questions and kept saying she wanted my number (i didnt want to give strangers my phone number)

i finally gave her my phone number and then her husband calls me and gives me a lecture, yelling and talking in an aggressive voice that i was playing games with her wife, and that nobody sells a vehicle worth $8000 for $2000. and says how nobody does business like this and how that living in canada, we should RESPECT everyone and that LOWBALLING someone is not RESPECTING them... blah blah blah...

well, thank you for reading my rant. now that i've typed this all up, i feel muchhhhhh better.

GO FASTLANERS!!!

 

[Amail]

For me, it's an exercise in sales. I'd come to realize I can't remember ever selling anything to anyone, except a car when I was a teenager. Every other car has either died, wrecked, or been traded in on something else. I've sold my services, but nothing tangible. I didn't know what it felt like to sell something, particularly something I'd bought with the express purpose of selling it for a profit.

I do now. Funny how the simplest things can change your mindset.

 

[Amail]

My auction closed, but I'm not celebrating. Sold the mixer for $82 - I'm stumped. Looking back thru completed listings, I saw that the lowest one of these sold for was $300, and it went up much higher from there. I figured I'd easily hit my buy in price of $180.

Since the $250 min bid and $475 BIN strategy got me zero bids, I figured I'd change it up. Second strategy was $1 min bid, no reserve, and let the biddiny mayhem begin. Well, I got bids all right, but not what I was expecting.

What did I do wrong? What lesson can I take from this? Should I have put a reserve amount? Experienced ebayer's, please chime in. I'm learning as I go, so I want my $100 lesson to count.

 

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[oddball]

Part of your problem was the item. I saw 5 on ebay but they were all new. So how many people are looking to buy a used one? Also, for an item like that, doing a 30day fixed price or OBO listing might have been a better route. That item is going to take a while to find the right buyer so I don't feel the auction type was right for it. Also, shipping price hurts you. People see $35 and sometimes will find another. Its one of those gambles where a lower or free shipping cost may get you higher bids.

I almost no longer charge for shipping unless its a large item and I usually just charge $10 for those. I put options for faster shipping so if they want it faster they have the option. I usually don't do auctions either, I will do fixed listings sometimes with OBO option. Just sold 2 phones in the past 2 days.

Just my 2 cents.

 

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[MNentre]

Amail,

Keep in mind, there could be A LOT of opportunity to take what you've learned and buy a lot of underpriced items on eBay and resell them for a nice profit as long as you have good copy. Also, a good trick is to search for popular items that might have the brand or product misspelled in the listing title. That will drastically decrease the # of viewers to the auction.

Also, another thought:
Usually a no reserve auction is only good on items that sell frequently. High priced commercial kitchen items might not be the best item to sell without a reserve. It looked like only a few sold within the last month, so I dont think there is enough demand for the mixer to get a good auction with multiple buyers bidding.

Good luck!