Buy Low Sell High: A Place to Start

Here's a random video about flipping stuff for some profit.  If you don't have a specialized skill to create your own job, or if you're starting on a real tight budget, buying and selling is a good way to make some cash fairly quick.

As I've written in earlier posts, there are at least 20 million unemployed and underemployed people in the U.S. right now.  There are tens of millions more who could use some extra cash.  Buying and selling stuff is a great place to start.  I've done it at various levels before. 

In fact my first business, in second grade, was selling pieces of Magic Rub erasers.  These gray erasers worked much better than the red ones, and we all wanted them.  Then I found out my dad was a draftsman, and used Magic Rub erasers at work.  He gave me a couple.  I used an thin piece of metal called an eraser shield to cut each eraser into about 8 pieces, and I sold each piece for 10 cents to my classmates.  Hey, we all start somewhere.

In today's highly connected, internet and mobile phone enabled world, there are all kinds of places to buy stuff cheap and many great ways to resell it for a profit.  There's one key to this, you have to have an idea what each item will actually sell for.  You may have personal experience with certain items, like antiques or vintage video games or whatever.  Or you can just use your phone to look up items on Ebay or Amazon to get an idea.  Whatever works.

Then you have to have a way to sell the items.  You can sell to collectors.  You can sell at flea markets or swap meets.  You can sell on Ebay or Amazon.  You can sell on Craigslist or one of the local sales apps.  You can sell at garage or yard sales.  You can sell at consignment shops.  My advice is to keep all options open for selling items.  Sell the better items for higher dollar amounts to collectors or on Ebay or to consignment shops.  You'll wind up with leftover stuff.  That's what you sell on Craigslist, at the swap meet, or at a garage sale. 

I'm going to get this blog going with several posts about many different ways and places to find bargains.  After all those posts, I'll bookend this section with more ideas about how to sell different items.  Good luck on your own efforts to Buy Low and Sell High.