I made 6 figures buying/ selling on Craigslist: Ask me Anything
- Thread starter Mike K
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What's the deal with this Greek yogurt? I haven't tried it yet. How is it different from the regular yogurt that I eat? Do you recommend it?
I guess I'll throw in some questions related to the topic you mentioned too... but I still expect your answers about that Greek yogurt. How many hours would you say you put in any given week? Was it stressful? Did you ever have to pay people significantly less than the value of what they were selling was worth without telling them what their item was worth, and if so, did you feel bad doing so?
I guess I'll throw in some questions related to the topic you mentioned too... but I still expect your answers about that Greek yogurt. How many hours would you say you put in any given week? Was it stressful? Did you ever have to pay people significantly less than the value of what they were selling was worth without telling them what their item was worth, and if so, did you feel bad doing so?
So you mainly did cameras? Having a niche like that is awesome. Every asshole and their cousin does cars like I did for awhile, but Powersports equipment is turning out to pay off just as well without fear of title jumping, etc.
What other niche Craigslist markets did you come across that you feel had a lot of untapped potential?
What other niche Craigslist markets did you come across that you feel had a lot of untapped potential?
It all tastes like garbage but don't tell that to my 2 year old.
Back then, all told probably 60 a week but it could be a very relaxed 60, just kind of perusing Craigslist while watching TV. 60 hours on your own schedule is better than 40 hours on someone else's. I work 40 now and feel like I'm barely doing anything most of the time.
I wouldn't say any more or less than any other business. The most stressful part would be when I'd string together a few days without buying something because when you're not buying eventually you're not going to be selling. I'm also very short term when it comes to business. I might close a $10,000 deal today but if Friday and Saturday are dead I'm in a cold sweat. That's great for motivation, not so great for sanity.
Almost never. In fact, I would often tell them I thought their asking price was reasonable but that I couldn't pay it. People aren't stupid and insulting their intelligence by telling them that their item is worth less than it is is a horrible negotiating tactic.
Actually no. The cameras are something I grew to be interested in and I focused on building my brand around that. While I was doing this I sold everything from court reporters to high end stereo equipment and everything in between.
Concentrating on a niche is a safe gameplan if there is enough market for that specific niche. For me there weren't enough court reporters or satellite meters or high end stereo equipment to live off of so I made myself a jack of all trades and a master of none and bought everything.
For a time court reporters. Fluke meters too. Basically anything that would be obvious is probably a market that's already been tapped or that has a lot of competition. For instance, McIntosh stereo equipment isn't the only equipment worth a but load of cash but it's by far the hardest to get because everyone tries to go for it. So you can work on the other more obscure brands like Rotel, Outlaw Audio, etc.
The biggest thing is being a better negotiator than everyone else though. While most people were going back and forth asking a seller questions I had already gotten them to agree to my price and was setting up a time to meet.
Some good Q's in here. This thread has some potential.
This is why I didn't stay in business for myself. I tried my hand at running a IT consulting business YEARS ago. It was good when business was booming, but you'd hit a dry spell and the stress was insane. My real problem was that I was terrible at sticking to a solid budget, so we burned through surplus cash - not saving enough for the certainty of the dry spells. (I still have this problem today)
Regardless, good to hear you're successful with it, Mike. It's no easy task you've become good at... so my hat's off to you.
This is why I didn't stay in business for myself. I tried my hand at running a IT consulting business YEARS ago. It was good when business was booming, but you'd hit a dry spell and the stress was insane. My real problem was that I was terrible at sticking to a solid budget, so we burned through surplus cash - not saving enough for the certainty of the dry spells. (I still have this problem today)
Regardless, good to hear you're successful with it, Mike. It's no easy task you've become good at... so my hat's off to you.
[MENTION=396]Mike K[/MENTION] , this is interesting. I've been playing with cell phones lately, buying dirt cheap and reselling, but I'll only meet at a legit carrier store. That way I dont get stiffed and I haven't had a problem yet.
Do you use keywords when searching? Such as NEED GONE, MUST SELL a lot of times people are desperate and you can haggle them. It's very easy to do through email and text.
Do you use keywords when searching? Such as NEED GONE, MUST SELL a lot of times people are desperate and you can haggle them. It's very easy to do through email and text.
You learn to feel it out but largely you just average out completed listings on eBay. So if someone is selling a widget for $900 and that widget sells on the high side for $1200 on eBay I'm interested and will probably try offering $600 and then listing it for the $1200.
Yes, I would have an inventory of completely unrelated stuff.
It depends. Some stuff I sold almost as soon as I got it. Other stuff would sit on the shelf for months.
I started with what I could afford to buy and then moved up from there. The second or third item I bought was a court reporter for $1700. I was flat broke at the time and we borrowed the money from my then fiancee's parents. I sold it the next morning for $2700 and distinctly remember thinking at that point that I might be on to something. Maybe I can turn this into a business of sorts. From there it snowballed.
I bought primarily on Craigslist and sold primarily on eBay. Craigslist is a horrible place to sell unless you're selling a high demand item for little money. Otherwise you're dealing with scammers, lowballers, flakes and people that have a tenuous grasp on the english language.
Anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 at a time. The more you have listed the more you sell. That sounds silly to say but if you have one item listed you're waiting for a specific person to buy it but when you have 40 items listed chances are somebody is interested in something you have. The more you have listed the more you become obsessed with getting the most out of something versus selling it quickly.
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