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

[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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[PatrickP]

Perhaps the number of items you have sold is why but not sure.

If you have positive feedback you could put that in your auction sort of like a testimonial.

Maybe tell a story about the item and/or about you. Help potential buyers get to know you as a person.

Maybe even go at the problem head on.

Hey potential bidder! Thanks so much for looking at my auction. I am sure you can see I have only sold 11 items before but day by day I am looking to increase that. So in an effort to help you get to know me a little better: I live in small town in NY, in a van down by the river. Wait scratch that I live in a HOUSE near the river. I have 2 children but my wife says I am the real baby in the family . . . and so on.

Just an off the cuff idea, probably crazy but who knows?

 

[PatrickP]

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.

Ah ok I didn't know this one was used ad the others for sale are new.

As for the 30 day thing etc sounds good to me, I have not been on Ebay for years so I am not familiar with things like that at all.

 

[Amail]

I see only one NIB that sold. The others are used. I see now one sold at $280, but I would have been happy with that too.

So you think for an obscure item like this, I should have listed it longer? That makes sense. As for shipping, I didn't want to get burned on shipping that thing - it's really big. However, I see your point. I could have gotten more bids with free shipping, which may have pushed the price up beyond the difference.

 

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[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.

 

[PatrickP]

I think MNentre is giving some GREAT advice. He is actually on there doing it on a daily basis and knows what is what.

I took a quick look at the auction and to me there is GREAT news! The auction is pretty horrible. That is good news as it means the more you improve your future auctions the closer the selling price will be to what others are getting.

I would aim to be MUCH MUCH better than other auctions as opposed to being the same or just ok. As was said in the post above mine I don't see anywhere that states if it even runs or anything about the condition.

I see the definition Ebay gives to used: but believe you stating Hey I just turned it on yesterday and mixed up some XYZ. Tell a story, create an image in the bidders mind.

Don't sell the steak sell the smell of a steak cooking, the sound(sizzle) of a steak cooking.

Put yourself in a potential buyers place would you pay $270 for something from that auction?

 

[Amail]

Great suggestions, guys. Thanks to you both.

I'm on the hunt again. This time I'll put a LOT more thought into the title. Marketing 101, eh?

 

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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!

 

[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.

 

[Amail]

Thanks Alty. Good advice there! Maybe I'll list a bunch of cheap things just to get my feedback numbers up.

 

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[Mike39]

If you guys live in the U.S, go to a goodwill store, if you poke around you can find some amazing deals, I found a cordless charging pad for $20, retail it sells for $100, its only been 2 hours and I already have 2 offers on it for $45. Its great for small stuff like $20 profit a piece so you can get some $ to buy bigger items, they also have bikes usually that you can upsell for $50-100.

 

[PatrickP]

How do you ship a bike to the ebay winner?

 

[Mike39]

How do you ship a bike to the ebay winner?

I primarily use craigslist, people drive over to my house and pick them up, yet to get into ebay

 

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[PatrickP]

ah ok I wasn't thinking that lol

Nice job man!

 

[Mike39]

Thanks, its still only petty cash though, having a couple hundred bucks cash is not to uplifting, I need to start moving products in the $300-$1000 range so I can start seeing some real return but that means more risk and more money on the line each deal

 

[oddball]

Thanks, its still only petty cash though, having a couple hundred bucks cash is not to uplifting, I need to start moving products in the $300-$1000 range so I can start seeing some real return but that means more risk and more money on the line each deal

Yea, this is what you should do between apps. Honestly. I have been doing this for a few years and still love the items in the $50-$400 range, I see some of my biggest returns there. I did have a $500 macbook I sold for $750 in a week which was nice. But still, I have picked up phones and ipods for <$100 and sold them for 100-300% returns. Its good quick money. Before you know it, you have way more than you started with.

 

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[Trig7]

Hi guys. I was thinking about doing this, but I was wondering how I would go about getting items from people on craigslist who are not in my city. Like I found a Macbook pro for $350 like three states away. None of the ones close to me were anywhere near that price, so I wouldn't be able to resell any of the ones close to me for as good a profit as the one three states away. How could I pay for the item three states away and make it so that neither me or the seller will get screwed.

Cuz one of two things could happen. Either I could wire him the money and then there's the chance he just takes it and sells it to someone else anyway, or he sends me the item and then in his mind there's a chance I just won't send the money, so no person would agree to that. I think national arbitrage is the way to go for this (buying the cheapest items from craigslists all over the nation, then reselling locally).. Any thoughts?

 

[PHD]

any thoughts?

c-o-d?

 

[Trig7]

I don't know what cod means.

 

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[Trig7]

Oh, cash on delivery, got it. Wow, that's actually a great idea. Do you think people would agree to that? Some people might think its a scam or at the very least fishy.

 

[oddball]

I personally would avoid it unless its a crazy good deal and you can afford a loss for a while if something happens. If you really want to do it, go with paypal. I had an item I was buying that looked a little fishy because the price was pretty good, but they showed me their ebay account and even sent a message through it (had a lot of good feedback). I decided to try it out, $500 item I could easily get $900-$1000. Never saw the item, paypal got me my money back. I was without a product or money for a few weeks so it sucked. With CL, I really suggest staying local and avoid shipping.

 

[Trig7]

But since its cash on delivery, how is there any risk? It seems to me like there is no risk on either side. I don't have to pay until I have the product in front of me already and he doesn't have to worry about me not paying because if I don't, the item just gets shipped right back.

 

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[sambreaker20]

Hi guys. I was thinking about doing this, but I was wondering how I would go about getting items from people on craigslist who are not in my city. Like I found a Macbook pro for $350 like three states away. None of the ones close to me were anywhere near that price, so I wouldn't be able to resell any of the ones close to me for as good a profit as the one three states away. How could I pay for the item three states away and make it so that neither me or the seller will get screwed.

Cuz one of two things could happen. Either I could wire him the money and then there's the chance he just takes it and sells it to someone else anyway, or he sends me the item and then in his mind there's a chance I just won't send the money, so no person would agree to that. I think national arbitrage is the way to go for this (buying the cheapest items from craigslists all over the nation, then reselling locally).. Any thoughts?

the only problem is that scammers do that so they might not believe you.

 

[Bruce]

Maybe tell him to list it on ebay and you buy it from him. There's always a chance of losing money due to fraud though.

 

[Trig7]

Can someone give me some thoughts on the Cash-On-Delivery approach? I feel like this would solve the whole possibly-get-scammed problem. Does anyone think cash on delivery would be a good idea?

 

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[oddball]

Wish I could give feedback on it but I have never done it. Most people prefer paypal, as a buyer you are well protected though.

 

[Wozart]

Im new to this but I read this thread, and felt it was something I should do as a little side-hustle, thanks for those of ya'll who posted and gave advice, ideas, etc. Also some if you more experienced cats who are doing this wouldn't mind if I hit you up with a pm asking for advice, that would be cool too

 

[5holiday]

Can someone give me some thoughts on the Cash-On-Delivery approach? I feel like this would solve the whole possibly-get-scammed problem. Does anyone think cash on delivery would be a good idea?

Cash on Delivery - in my country, a small delivery of COD costs about post charge + $25 (if you collect it) and the buyer pays $25 + $17.5 if you pick it up and refuse it.

So i guess this means you could use this only on high price items with a lot of margin, and can handle loosing about $25 after postage costs.

I tried to do a transaction via ebay. It was a bulk item worth about $135. I tried to buy a new second hand one using the ebay method: "you list for $65, and tell me quickly and I will buy it!". Someone else just saw it and bought it straight away.

I think a way to fix that would be to have it as BIN 'or best offer' for a lot of money (not too high so you dont get heaps of ebay fees). that way you can ask them to accept your offer which you've previously agreed upon.

 

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[5holiday]

also, i'm joining in too!

bought: books $14, sold $217
bought: collectibles $80, resale target $120