Reselling (Part Two: Buy/Sell Normal Items)

First of all, some of the steps are in different orders.  The first thing you need to do is find what item you are going to buy and once you have figured that out, you have to find the average selling price for this item. Whenever I am selling an item that is not super high in demand, but still modestly demanded, such as maybe a paintball gun, I will fix in my mind that I am going to sell it at the lower end of the average sale.  So if it normally sells for about $200-$300, then I will assume I am going to make $200 and anything past that is luck and more profit

Next, you have to assume this might take a little more time than say a ticket or something that sells extremely easy, such as an iPhone. I resell a lot of electronics and phones and iPhones especially are GREAT for reselling, but so is any electronic.  But you have to get them for the right price.

Before buying the item you need to map out how much time and energy it will take you to sell this item. Because is $15 really worth 5 hours of time? Probably not. And you can find better items. But $15 for 30 minutes isn't bad extra cash. Or $50 for 3 hours is pretty good too.  Here are the things you need to consider:

• Time it will take you to research and sell
• Cost of shipping (If you ship), cost of listing (If you list it on a site such as eBay)
• Profit you will make if you buy it for what you think you will and sell it for the lowest average cost

Those will tell you if it is worth it to buy the item and take the time to sell it.

After all of this is done, you need to buy the item. Remember: BUY LOW, SELL HIGH. Try to haggle it as low as you can to gain maximum profit.  I will be posting a blog soon about how to haggle.  When you have bought the item, start selling. I PERSONALLY suggest eBay for multiple reasons. It has the most traffic daily (more than amazon), and an auction is at the advantage for you so multiple people can compete and you can always put a Buy It Now price. (I will be blogging on how to use eBay soon!) And you probably won't find someone randomly who is like, "Oh yea I was looking for a Pxx200 Softshot Paintball Gun! That's so convenient your selling it!"

When selling try to remember these tips.

1. Keep the price reasonable. Don't sell it for $100 more than what it is worth. Trust me, it won't sell.
2. If it doesn't sell the first time, list it again for the same price and advertise more. Facebook, Online Forums, etc.
3. If it doesn't sell the second time, lower the price and list it again.
4. Keep listing until you get to the lowest price you are willing to accept.

If it doesn't sell by the end of these steps, you either didn't do your research and bought an item that is nowhere near worth the value you are trying to sell it for, it's really hard to sell and you should keep trying, or you are doing something wrong in steps to sell it.

The last thing I want to reiterate is very important. Don't Get Greedy.  This mainly applies to when not reselling online, but online don't list for too high a price.  When you aren't selling online, and let's say you bought a ticket for $20 and have an offer for $50.  Well you set up a meeting time and already confirmed the buy, then someone comes and says "Hey I'll give you $55!" The problem with that is once you cancel the person you have already confirmed the buy with, they will go find another seller and/or won't come back to you.  And then a lot of times the other guy will end up not giving you the $55 because he doesn't want the ticket anymore and then you are stuck with no buyer and a loss of money.

Really, this is a greattttt way to make money. Both with the tickets/events and just other random items, you can make up to a few hundred dollars a month and that's a good amount of spare change for a really small amount of work.

Now if your are reselling an ITEM (and your buying it from a person or something like that), not something such as a ticket that has a certain date you have to sell it by or that increases in price as time goes one, there are different steps and rules.

Still please remember to follow the steps about supply and demand, Buy LOW-Sell HIGH,
  Buy something people want/are interested in, and RESEARCH!!!