Buy on Craigslist Sell on EBay

[TheStreetCeo]

Check out EBay and "watch" a number of items that are getting a ton of bids i.e Ipods. Watch them on your EBay account until you have at least 10 ended auctions. Then average out the sales price on those 10 units. Subtract the wanted net profit, EBay, shipping, and paypal fee's and that's your purchase price on Craigslist for the same item.
Now go to Craigslist and post a wanted post for that item at that price or a little below and wait for people to come to you. It works and should be an easy $1000 a month. Check out the last post on my blog for more information. Shameless plug.

[disneysteve]

Nice idea. I bet it does work.

I just heard about another scheme kind of like this. I know a guy who buys empty printer cartridges on ebay in bulk, 100 at a time. He then returns them to Staples where they give you store credit for them. When he gets enough credit, he buys a laptop and sells it on ebay. Staples does limit how many you can return at a time (or per month maybe) but he just keeps doing it until the credit adds up.

[TheStreetCeo]

What?, is that legal? What is the store credit fro? Is it so they can dispose of reuse them?

[disneysteve]

What?, is that legal? What is the store credit fro? Is it so they can dispose of reuse them?

Staples has a cartridge recycling program. I think they pay you $3 for each one you bring in. You can then use the store credit for anything in the store. He buys the empties in bulk, probably pays $.25 to $.50 each and turns them in for $3 in credit. Not a bad deal. Just takes a while due to the store limit on how many you can turn in.

[TheStreetCeo]

I just looked it up. $2.00 per and max 10 per month. That would take a long time to add up. Good savings idea though.

[disneysteve]

I just looked it up. $2.00 per and max 10 per month. That would take a long time to add up. Good savings idea though.

I think they've recently reduced that. It used to be $3 per and the limit was probably higher.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Is this what happens to all the stolen ipods?

[97guns]

i was selling levis on the bay for a little while. i would go to the flea market every week and picking them up for 1-$3 a piece, mostly kids sizes but i was able to net 3 or $4 a piece reselling them on the bay. there are some guys selling levis that list 100's of pairs.

[disneysteve]

It is possible to buy items in bulk on ebay and turn around and sell them piecemeal or in much smaller lots and turn a profit. Some wholesalers unload stuff really, really cheaply on ebay but you might have to buy 100 or more of the item at once. So maybe you'll buy a lot of 100 doodads for $2 each but be able to sell lots of 5 doodads for $25. The trick is finding the most profitable doodads.

[ferriwinkle]

These sound like great ideas, i will give them a whirl and will let you know what i find.

[TheStreetCeo]

It is possible to buy items in bulk on ebay and turn around and sell them piecemeal or in much smaller lots and turn a profit. Some wholesalers unload stuff really, really cheaply on ebay but you might have to buy 100 or more of the item at once. So maybe you'll buy a lot of 100 doodads for $2 each but be able to sell lots of 5 doodads for $25. The trick is finding the most profitable doodads.

I've been on EBay since Dec 1998. This is my observation of how things work there.
A hot item starts selling like mad. Individula sales are made for a period of 3-9 months. Around the 9 month mark the price drops considerably and people start listing items in bulk. For example I used to sell authentic Ralph Lauren Polo shirts for $40 a piece about 7 years ago. I did that at a clip of about 4 shirts a day for around 2 months. Then other sellers catch wind of the hot item and start selling them too. Supply out weighs demand and the price starts to drop and in another couple of months you can buy 3 polo's for the price of one. Then it gets worse and you can buy 10 polos for the price of one. Now you can buy a polo shirt for $15.00 on EBay. I can buy them in bulk(authentic) for around $9.00 a piece but the supply out weighs the demand so I don't bother.

So to answer your question. It's rare to buy on EBay to resell on EBay and make a profit.

That's just my observation.

[sbarrow47]

I used to own a business that did this with cell phones. We made an average of $50 per phone with very little work.
Alot of times we didn't even have to pick up the phones, we would get the sellers to mail them in.

[LttlDriver]

ebay and paypal takes so much out of your earnings these days, its very difficult

[ramirezhenry55]

Sounds like a great idea for sidelines and filler jobs.