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Lately I’ve been finding some great deals through Facebook. Individual items are often priced too high for a scavenger, but if you find that someone has a bunch of something you can often score big time. Like at yard sales and flea markets, if you’re willing to say “how much for all of them?”
My latest score (the one that prompted me to write this) was a bunch of auto repair manuals. Someone listed a yard sale last sat (Oct 26) and one picture showed a stack of about 12 Haynes repair manuals labelled “$3 each”. I ask how much for the whole stack and she said $1 each. I’ve always done well with car repair manuals and look for them when I’m out.
I went to pick them up and discovered that she had 98 manuals and a bunch more several towns over. So I bought them all for $1 each. The attached photo shows the first 98 only.
The next day I met her and bought the rest, for a total of 218 manuals (most of them are still factory sealed). I had them all listed on eBay by the next night and the sales started rolling in. They’re selling consistently at about 1 every 6 hours (at least 4 per day. two days I sold 8 of them).
They were all paid for within the first 6 days! The remainder will make me at least $1,200 profit (after fees and shipping)! They were quick and easy to list and super easy to pack and ship. And she just contacted me saying she has nearly 200 more for me (I’ve trying to get them for $150. If that falls through, I’ll take them for the $1 each). I’m making $10 each on average (after fees and the free shipping).
The moral is – and I find this to be true on a regular basis – don’t be afraid to inquiry about buying “all of them”. These and a huge lot of biker pins have been 2 of the “how much for all of them” deals that are making me a lot of easy money right now.
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Sonia – I think you are getting confused between this Steve and Steve Shultz, who does the What Sold Videos 🙂
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I did this at a church sale a while back. They were almost to the end of the sale and I asked how much for all the hallmark ornaments and got a great deal. Then the ladies were practically throwing stuff at me to take for very little money just so they could be rid of them lol.
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The Groovy Grasshopper Emporium & Retro Treasures WV – I’ve been doing it for my entire adult life and I think there are several reasons the strategy works so well. There’s the obvious: that people see a bigger sale and are happy to dump quantity just to get rid of it.
I also think that sometimes the seller starts to realize “Damn, this is going to add up quickly” and feels bad about asking so much. So they end up low-balling themselves as not to sound greedy or “off their rocker”.
Others simply are bad at math, at least when put on the spot and grossly underestimate the value, then give a discount on top of that. I’m OK with all of that. As resellers, our job is to get the most we can for the least we can. If they want to sell low, that’s their choice.
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The last time I did this was at a yard sale where there was a ton of like new mens Ralph Lauren clothes. They were wanting $5-7 an item with some being a bit higher.
I looked through some of it, internally debated with myself, checked my wallet for cash availability…
Then I went up to the lady and said “What kind of deal can you cut if I take all the Ralph Lauren stuff. I tried to get $2 an item but settled on $3 an item. I think it was 43 pieces if I remember correctly.The best part, there was this awesome Denim & Supply Cardigan sweater that had a GIANT American flag on the back. I sold it quickly for $150 which more than paid for the whole lot.
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Sonia – I don’t know why I didn’t realize you were thinking of Steve Shultz (the cooler Steve). Actually, I believe there are at least 3 Steves here.
Old Dad – It’s amazing how well car repair manuals (and automotive owner/operator manuals) sell. I’ve always had good luck with them and almost always buy them if they’re $2 or less and in good condition. This deal just happens to be the best of both attributes: only $1 each and mostly factory sealed in plastic. (And a large supply availible to me at the moment, so I have to grab every one of them.)
In 6 hours I’m meeting the people to get another 150 manuals. And maybe more next week. They’re raising money for a church ministry and apparently someone has been donated them to the cause. Also, I re-calculated with the new, larger data set; I’m averaging $10.90 per book (after giving “free” shipping).
Earlier this year I bought a pair of Jaguar shop/repair manuals for $4 at a yard sale. They finally sold last month for $45. Anyway, I’m about to go to the post office to ship 11 sales form the past 24 hours, 7 of which are Haynes manuals. I’ve never had any category of item sell so quickly and consistently.
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