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 Buying and Selling for Profit
- Searching for treasure
- Hot collectibles
-
Negotiating
- What's it worth?
- Selling your
treasures
- Finding and developing your nitch
- Starting a home
business
Searching for treasure
 I love going to garage
sales. It is the thrill of the hunt that makes them so fun for me. I buy stuff
at garage sales that I like and want to keep and I buy stuff at garage sales
that I will resell to make some extra money. Sometimes I buy an item that I
plan on selling for a profit but once my wife gets a look at it, it ends up
becoming part of our household. I recently bought a mid-century Eames style,
modern Danish floor lamp. I invested $20 in it and planned on selling it.
Nope, my wife loves it and wants to keep it. It is in our living room right
now. Here is a photo of it.
It stands about 5 feet tall, has a pull chain made of teak wood. Made by
the W.H.Woolums Mfg Co, St Petersburg. FL. There is not much info available on
this maker so I don't yet know what it is worth. I found one similar on ebay
that sold for almost $300.00.
What makes me decide to buy something? Sometimes it is experience,
sometimes it is luck, sometimes it is just a feeling that I get. Sometimes I
see something unusual and just take a chance. It may pay off or it may cost
me. Either way, I learn from the experience and put that knowledge to work for
me sometime in the future. That's what it's all about. If you buy things you
know about you can hedge your bet. Whether for fun or for profit, you don't
want to spend too much money on an item, especially if you hope to sell it and
make a profit. I have bought half a dozen old lamps in the past few years
thinking they may be valuable only to find that nobody was interested in
buying them at auction. When I buy an item that is not worth what I paid for
it, I either have to keep them, put them in my own garage sale or donate them.
Since I have limited space, I usually donate them to Goodwill and get a tax
write-off.
Most Garage sales I visit have a lot of kids stuff. Cribs, highchairs,
playpens, toys, and clothes. These sales rarely have anything I am looking
for. But you never know. I have found some great deals here too. You just have
to look past the baby stuff and see what else is at the sale. I recently
bought a flute for $10 at a sale filled with baby stuff. 
The brand name is Gemeinhardt, it is a student model M2, silver plated. It
sells on ebay for $50 to $75. August is a good time to sell musical instruments
on ebay since many parents are trying to save money on band instruments for
their kids who will be heading back to school in September.
Hot collectibles
 Some items
are hot all the time, like old rare coins. Other items are seasonal, like
items designed for holidays. Some items are hot for a short period of time and
then are never hot again. I have a 12" GI Joe doll of Bob Hope in his
famous USO tour outfit. When Bob Hope died a few years ago this item was
selling like hot cakes on ebay for $80 and more. A month later it was
only selling for $40.Today it's only worth about $20 which is what I paid for
it when it was new. I waited too long to sell it for the maximum profit. I
thought it would be worth more if I held onto it longer. I was wrong, but I
learned from the experience. You need to be aware of this type of trend and
use them to your advantage. Buy things in speculation if you think you know
what will happen in the future. Just be prepared to wait until the timing is
right to sell your items. If you miss the window of opportunity like I did
with Bob Hope, your chance to make a profit may be over.
Knowing when to sell certain items is important. Air
conditioners sell well in the summertime and heaters sell well in the winter,
this anyone knows. I just mentioned the best time of year to sell band
instruments in the few weeks just prior to school starting.
When you are out shopping at garage sales, you may be
tempted to buy things that you are not knowledgeable about. I
was tempted a few months ago to buy a large lot of iron-on patches for $100. I
knew nothing about the iron-on business but thought I should take a
chance. I bought them thinking I could make a return on my investment,
but after doing some research I found that they were as easy to sell as I
thought. I still have them and am still working to figure out the best way to
make a profit with them Learn from my mistakes: Don't buy items that you
have little or no knowledge of, unless you are willing to take a long time to
recoup your investment or risk losing your investment
entirely.
Below is a small sample of the iron-on
patches lot I bought at a garage sale.
Negotiating
Sometimes you will find an item at a garage
sale that you know is worth far more than the price they are asking. In this
situation you may be compelled to pay the seller whatever they are asking
for the item. This happens to me all the time. I get so excited about the
item and the low price attached to it that I don't bother to dicker on the
price. My excitement costs me money. I could have offered them a few dollars
less and they probably would have accepted my offer. Even if they said no to
my offer, I could have acquired the item by paying the price they were
asking. Learn from my experience: Always offer the seller less than they are
asking. If they refuse, offer them a little more. If they still refuse and
you really want the item, agree to pay them what they are asking. Moral of
the story: It never hurts to ask!
More to come! keep checking back!
What's it worth?
Selling your
treasures
Finding and developing your niche
Starting a home
business
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