Anyone buy things specifically for reselling them?

[Anonymous]

?

[Anonymous]

That's dumb, sorry.
Get a real job, don't be a peasant.

[Anonymous]

My husband buys and sells on Ebay. He doesn't primarily do it to make money, but he buys job lots of items that he only wants one or two of and then resells the rest. He usually comes out ahead.

[Anonymous]

To make an acceptable living at this, you need to make it into a full-time job.
Selling on eBay, for ex: you need time to find items at a good price at estate sales, or to find clients who want you to sell their stuff. Then you need room to stock. Then you need a system to track your items, get them out on time, shave cents off your listings and mailings, deal with difficult buyers, and so on. You probably also need to live in a less expensive region!

Not worth it, in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's dumb, sorry.
Get a real job, don't be a peasant.

Not OP but why is that dumb? This is what businesses do. Maybe OP wants to be the boss-owner and not the peasant-employee.

[Anonymous]

I don't. But I know several book dealers who go to library and other book sales and buy for $1 and sell for more online.

[Anonymous]

And in normal life, many, many people do this all the time. Every time I go to the warehouse club, I see people who are clearly buying supplies/snacks/etc for businesses. There are tons of small businesses who resell those individually packages snacks and drinks. So independent convenience stores, or gas stations or hair salons, etc, which have snacks and such out for $1 or something like that buy them at warehouse clubs. I've seen people who stock up on those shopping bags and when special events at convention centers or festivals are going on, they sell them to people going in. Or have umbrellas and rain ponchos for people coming out into the rain. In fact, if you are a legitimate business for resell, you can get a tax-exempt card so that you don't pay taxes when you buy items you plan to resell. You will charge your customers tax when they buy it from you.

You're pretty sheltered if you don't know that this happens all the time, every day, all around our area.

[Anonymous]

Thought I read on another thread that those Gypsies make a good living, driving luxury cars, throwing nice parties, etc. And legit brokers buy and sell merchandise and intangibles like investment instruments.

[Anonymous]

I think the non-snarky version of 09:24 would be something like:

It is extraordinarily hard to make a meaningful amount of money, much less a living, by buying and re-selling things. The only way to do this is to do it as a full-time job and trade huge volumes of goods.

If you want to buy and re-sell a few things because you enjoy it and get a thrill out of seeing something you bought re-sell for more than you paid, go ahead and do this, but think of it as more of a hobby than a financial strategy.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP: I actually work (lawyer) but I also sell things on Ebay when I find a good deal or have something that I know will sell well. I don't do it often but I try to do it in a way that it might cover my own needs...for example, I might buy Lego sets on sale, resell them on Ebay and try to make enough extra money to cover our kids' Christmas presents (so I'm not out of pocket for their presents at all). I was wondering if anyone else did this...

[Anonymous]

I'm also a lawyer and used to do stuff like this occasionally because I thought it was fun. Once you factor in the opportunity costs, e.g. time spent finding deals, reselling things, shipping things, I don't think it makes sense to do if your sole motivation is financial. But if you also enjoy it, I don't see the harm.

[Anonymous]

I do this on occasion and you can make a lot of money doing it. I guess you could do it more full time but I don't. I make probably $500 every two weeks when I am actively working at it (not full time of course). I would typically do it for something that will give me at least 4x my original purchase price. I figure I can't do that good in any other investment vehicle. If I bought something on sale for $5, I might sell it for $20 or $30. I then ship ONE at the post office so I know the mailing price in general and the rest I mail on my own with stamps even if I put a little extra on...this way I'm not running to the post office all the time!

[Anonymous]

i have a relative who buys antique linens at estate sales, cleans them (oxy clean) and resells at higher value.

[Anonymous]

I sell higher end children's clothing on Ebay. I find things at various thrift stores around the area and know pretty well what brands/lines will sell and what is a waste of time. There are several area thrift stores that get a lot of tea collection, mini boden etc at really, really low prices. I make about $500-$700 per month and spend 10-15 hours a week "working" (this includes shopping, making listings, packaging and shipping. It's more for fun (l love to shop for kid's clothes!) than the money--but the money is pretty great and it's mine and not in our household budget so I can do with it what I please.

I do own a small more traditional business as well.

[Anonymous]

I do it sometimes but it isn't always worth it. Ebay has high fees but Facebook is free except Paypal fees. I have a separate Facebook acct so none of my 'friends' know my business. You can print postage right from Paypal and it's cheaper than going to the post office.

I just read how a college kid 'flipped' Nike shoes on Ebay- the collector shoes that go for between 2 and 3 thousand dollars and didn't have any other type of job.

I have funded several things doing this and find it fun. I don't think you could make a living unless you make it your job.