Is this the Fastest Way to Make Money?

Is this the easiest way to make money? No but I think its one of the best way to make money for the average person. In fact I bet it would be one of the top 10 ways to make a living if there were a list. Please read on and let me know what you think in the comments.

I was surfing through YouTube recently and came across a video that told me how I can make money buying on Craigslist and reselling on eBay. The author of the article said he made about $2,000 a month. He was selling used cell phones that he bought locally from Craigslist and sold on eBay. Simple I thought and then I started thinking of the pitfalls of such a venture. So I since I have had some experience in buying and selling (but not cell phones) I thought I’d write a post about this to help anyone who wants to give it a try. If you apply yourself to this type of work you can be a success and have a great income but like anything you must be industrious and be able to juggle more than one “deal” at a time. Please read on.

Let me describe the model in a bit more detail. It is really simple however. Depending on what you’re selling and how much effort you put into it you can make a full time living from this model. It will certainly get you out of the house on a regular basis and you will have some long days but I have made a few dollars like this and I have watched a friend make over 10k a month with a little luck and a lot of determination.

Since this is a physical business you need to develop a source of products. New, used and cast offs; it doesn’t matter as long as the item has true value. You will spend a lot of time researching the market for the items and you may need in a buying situation and need to excuse yourself for a few minutes while you check prices on eBay. As you do this model more and more you will become a savvy buyer based on the shear knowledge you will acquire. That means more money in your pocket and quicker turnover since you will have developed a source of buyers in the process.

What are the sources of products? Well you could make a laundry list. First of all if you watch storage wars you already know one source of products and that is storage auctions. You already know a sales outlet and that is the used merchandise stores that the stars of the show have. The trick to being successful at this venture is to keep an open mind and to look far and wide for product. Brainstore a list of buying opportunities. Here are a few to get you started

• Make a deal with a charity store to take all of their _____ when it arrives. I recently heard of a woman who gets all of the used handmade quilts. She pays a flat fee and does some minor repairs and then resells the quilts for a 150% mark up. It just took a little imagination to picture how what could be and a little ingenuity on her part to make the small repairs if needed.
• Look at used merchandise for sale in the local newspapers and buy and sell papers. People are often underpricing their merchandise simply to get rid of it. There may be a huge audience on the internet for some items.
• Scour used product stores and antique markets for underpriced products. I walked into an antique store several years ago in a smaller community and bought several albums of antique post cards. I resold them on eBay individually for about a 500% mark up. The antique dealer had no market and I took a small risk but found buyers on line. And by the way I did this on my lunch hour. So there is how I turned a product of around $100 into $500.
• Go to auctions. Some of the best ones are the misguided freight auctions. Most of this is not really misguided freight and is often a person getting out of business or a business selling off excess merchandise. Think about offering a few dollars for quirky merchandise that no one knows the value of and can be bought cheaply. I saw a profession horticulture tool (a tree injector) that sold for $6.00 at auction and was worth several hundred dollars to the right person. It did sell on eBay almost right away.
• Attend yard sales. I have picked up more merchandise at yard sales and made thousands, some of by auctioning off the merchandise and some by eBay sales. The more you do it the better you get at spotting valuable stuff. I bought some marbles for twenty five cents and in the antique guide they were valued at ten dollars each. I bought seven used steel Tonka toys that were really beat up for $11 and sold them for $77 at auction. I’m sure that if I put them on eBay I could have doubled that again but I was holding an auction right after I bought them.
• Offer to clean out garages and basements. Two people I know do this and sell off anything of value at flea markets, auctions and eBay. I don’t know how much money they’re making but they’re both driving new trucks.
• Look on Craigslist and Kijiji for local merchandise and make offers on it. I have sold merchandise on these venues and often get offers that say “ I’ll give you xx dollars.” (sight unseen) I tend to stay away from these buyers as they give you rock bottom pricing and don’t care at all about you. I know somebody however that buys and sells clothing always treats people nicely and with respect and I think does far better than some of the “ramrod” approach people out there.

So there you have a few ways I have seen money being made or have made it myself. This sort of income does not come without pitfalls (like a friend who got arrested) but I’ve reached my writing limit today. Soon I will add to this post some of the things that may never occur to you and it will be an important read.