As always, I keep my eyes open and my senses sharp when it comes to spotting ways to make extra money, particularly in the online arena. After all, what’s better than being able to work from anywhere, am I right? My brothers were always a huge fan of the discount shopping site Woot.com, if for no other reason than they occasionally get great gadgets and other things for a highly discounted price.
Didn’t it stand to reason, I wondered, that if the discount was low enough, I could buy something and re-sell it after for a slight premium? I worried that Woot inflated a temporary amount of demand, and that re-selling after may not be easy or quick. To remedy this concern, I was very picky about what I bought and the amount of discount from retail sites like Amazon.com. I wasn’t about to buy a roomba vacuum and attempt to resell it. I also shyed away from selling on E-Bay, as the shipping costs would eat into my already low premium. Instead I listed them on Craigslist. Here’s what I got, and sold.
Digital Camera: Bought 150$, had a buyer at 175$. Unfortunately, my girlfriend’s parents wanted to get her a digital camera for her birthday, so they bought it from me at $150. Break even.
Headphones: Bought for 50$, sold at 60$
So far, in my tiny experiment, I made a 20% return on the headphones, and had a potential 16ish% on the camera. Not bad! Obviously like many other sources of income, this one would not be reliable. You have to wait, be patient, and only pick up higher-margin items that would have a wide audience in terms of demand. I’d say shoot for 1-2 items per month.
-Xias