/diy/ - Do It Yourself

When you start you will work at a pretty low rate. That's okay. You'll learn what sells well and what doesn't, and sometimes it's just slim pickings.

OP pic was a good example of something that can work, though. I paid $20 for it and it's currently for sale for $150, and I am confident it'll sell for that.

It comes with 4 wood chairs. Everything is very solid and no scratches on top (for tables, this is super important. If it looks shitty it won't sell.)

Anyway, items like that are what you can snap up and make a quick, very happy profit on.

Bigger items (big dressers, dinner tables, etc.,) can net big wins. A few of those every week and you'll be hundreds of dollars up in no time - and ready to invest more money into office liquidations and the like.

Anyway, wanted to update y'all, I said I was starting over and I wanted you guys to know I wasn't just BSing with it.

Here are the two items I sold.

1st: 3 drawer dresser. bought for $5 (I thought $10, but I just looked over my notes and I talked them down,) sold for $40. This is okay to begin with, especially if you don't have a lot of cash, but you'll want to mix in more expensive stuff as you move on. Always snap up solid wood (ie not particle board) wood furniture if it's $5-10 and not totally scratched up / gouged / painted / falling apart. You'll make good % profits, but you need to do several (preferably all delivered on the same trip) to make a decent amount of money.

Second item, coffee table, $35. Bought for $5.

Again, a good item to start with, and never hesitate to snap up stuff in good condition for 5-10 bucks, but low-dollar items have their big-% profits eaten up quickly by gas, wear & tear and you end up with surprisingly little money.

Once you have a storage unit and a going operation, I suggest you make one day your "cheap stuff" day and deliver all of your cheap stuff on that day. It'll be a heck of a lot of work compressed into a few hours, but it'll net you bigger profits.

How much time do you put in? $45 is good if you only put in a couple of hours per day, but less good if it consumes your entire day.

>>308354

Probably hour to grab the two items, another hour to do the two deliveries.

But that's still far below the effectiveness we want long-term.

hey op what city are you in?

>>308360

Denver, why?

Going to bed guys. My daughter learned how to roll over today and I've been busy playing with her all night. Hope this is helpful to some of you, especially younger, who are in need of cash.

>>308366

Denver? I live in Colorado too. Teach me your ways. Congrats with your daughter.

>>308372

At least a few people screencapped the previous thread where I explained what I'm doing in more detail.

Can someone please post it? Surely they are around some time during the day.

An idea you may want to look into is repairing, re-finishing and upcycling. You can get a lot of furniture for free if you're willing to replace broken legs or door-hinges, and sand out scratches and dents.A dated coffee table that you may not be able to sell for much as is, can be given a mosaic top and bright 'moroccan' paintjob or given some other style, for a little cost and a little work. Depending on the market where you live those kind of pieces can sell for a lot. Another thing to consider is whether you have any wood crafters around. Hardwood furniture that's beyond repair can be broken up and sold as scraps to carvers and other hobbyists.

Not op, but i bought 2 aluminum doors, the kind ones you see in stores and offices, pic related. I dont remember if it costed me 5 or 10 dollars for the 2 doors. instead of glass it had acrylic, that was the real reason i bought it. So i took out the acrylic and sell the aluminum to the junk yard for $25, now i regret that i didnt buy all the doors.

Its a long shot, but you can always look for deals like these, buy something that no matter what you can still sell it as scrap and have a win.

Tried to post screencap but size is too big.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!

>>308657

Break it up?

Sorry to bother you, but apparently some people are interested.

If you don't post it, after work tonight I'll try to redo it if I'm not too tired.

>>308589

This is a good idea too. One of the things I did before was appliance removal: people would pay me $10 or so to come by and pick up their big appliances (fridge etc) that had stopped working. I would then scrap it. The 10 bucks paid for my gas, the recycling fee was my profit.

Not very effective to be honest, but hey.

Let me try..

>>308730

>>308731

>>308732
There we go, OP. You've been helpful.

saw the original post and have been trying to get into it. How do you find product to buy? I hit like 15 garage sales last week andndidnt find a single dresser. Got a decent looking table for $15, but no luck selling as the craigslist section in my area (Nashville) gets upwards of 500 posts a day. Any advice?

>>308746

Post after 5pm (otherwise the dealers flood you out.)

Post a pic of the table.

>>308752

>>308756
What ae you selling it for?

>>308759
started at 75. backed down to 50.

>>308762

50 sounds like the upper bounds of what that table will sell out. To be frank it's just cheap.

There's a reason I said tables are a little advanced, there's more to them than just "good condition." Make sure all the measurements are there too, that will help.

Would maybe have paid 5 for that table. But keep at it. You're learning, and that's worth the money you spent.

>>308768
Thanks, I'll keep at it.

>>308756
That table would look more valuable with a better background. That pic would make me think that you really don't value it much and it's just being stored in the garage.
I have no experience here, just my 2 cents.

kinda related:
A friend of mine was into resale and had an antique for sale for $20. He couldn't sell it. He changed the price to $35 and sold it in a few days.
Some people really do prefer to pay more. WTF

>>308776
Good idea, ill move it inside an snap some new pics, thanks for the input and perspective.

"free cats" no one shows up, cats $15, sold in one day

>>308363
an acquaintance of mine is doing the same thing

>>308776
>Some people really do prefer to pay more
Or more probably the person who wanted the piece only saw it when it was marked $35. Nobody looks at something, says "ah, not expensive enough" then comes back when the price is higher. Had this been the case, the person would have haggled it down.

how do you deal with lowballers?

>>308768

OP you pay taxes on that profit?

OP ,

you say FREE DELIVERY , but what is your distance limit?

OP, please start a blog or something. Would love to hear more about your progress.

>>309120

You just politely say "I'm sorry, but I cannot go lower than $x" and stick to that.

>>309135

I play it by ear. Usually there's so much profit inan item ($50-100) I just calculate costs as about $0.25/mile (gas and wear-n-tear) and leave it at that. If it looks excessive - especially for lower profit items - I'll call the customer and let them know that, sorry, but I'll need $5-10 extra due to their distance from me.

I've never had someone get angry with me for saying that.

>>309171
>start a blog
>for 4channers

lol, sorry. I have a blog but I'm not linking it here.

>>309130

To start with I didn't. It's similar to how you don't pay taxes when you sell your old iphone. It's too small time and the govt doesn't really care.

If you're paranoid about it, keep everything in cash.

Once you get to be a bigger operation you should file an LLC, open a bank account and go 100% legit.

Talk to other small business owners some time; you'd be surprised (and saddened) by the fact that you just can't open a business anymore without a shitton of capital or by simply skirting the tax man. If you feel guilty about it, there's a line on your tax forms for donating extra money to the government and you can just pay it back that way.

>>309210
What country do you live in? In Quebec, all you do is register your name, then get a tax number from the MRQ. This takes 2-3 hours and costs nothing.

Incorporating is a bit more involved, because even if there's only one person in the company, you still have a by-laws, board of directors, an annual meeting and an auditor. It also costs 1000 CAD a year, which goes to the auditor.

>>308334
OP , when you first started out moving furniture, did you do all the lifting yourself? is it presuming too much to expect the client to help you move things into the house?

>>309237

America. An LLC costs $50 and you can do it online in this state.

Pic: $75 cost. Not shown: another dresser, a baby bed, 2 BBQ grills, a card table, and a 22" Vizio LCD TV that I'm selling for $100.

This was a girl who's BF ran out on her and left her with the bill. She's moving in with her Grandma, and if I hadn't taken all this stuff she would have had to drag it to the dumpster.

If I was cruel I could have talked her down even more, but she was sweet and 18, and had just suffered a miscarriage (which was what caused her BF to run out on her.

>>309486

Deals like this come around every so often and are usually pretty good. Not everything will sell but I will recoup the expenses several times over. It was quite a lot of work but very much worth it.

>>309486

Oh, and everything was complete. The couch cushions are inside the truck. Obviously, it's a bad idea to buy furniture missing important pieces like couch cushions.

>>309486
tfw you sell that mattress and don't tell the new owners the story behind it

>>309486
tfw you sell that mattress and don't tell the new owners the story behind it.

>>309486
hey op how do cloth items like couches and chairs sell? i cringe at the thought of buying used beds and couches i find it gross.

>>309532
not op, but im the same train, i cant buy used couches or matress, but i have taken from the curb to friends who are poor as shit, when you are poor you dont give a fuck about free/cheap things.

>>309526

She miscarried at the hospital. No stains, no bedbugs.

>>309532
>>309538

Man my first matress I literally took out of the dumpster.

They sell. Not as well as other stuff for obvious reasons, but they sell.

Hey all,
I've been working at the buying and reselling gig for about 5 yrs now as a side hobby and in the last 4-5 months I've been trying to turn into the same level of income as a part time job of sorts. What I do works best with smaller things not furniture and washers/dryers, etc.

My approach was this:
-Get a bunch of business cards made up
-Put ebay user ID on cards
-Go around to local odds-n-ends type shops, not thrift stores though.
-Target ones that don't have a website or a lot of foot traffic but ones that also have a good amount of inventory
-Sell them your eBay services for a commission (I charge them 20% of sales price after ebay/paypal fees)
-Repeat

I currently have 3-4 places I do this for and depending on what I have to sell and the market for the items I have I usually make between $200-$500 from each store per month.
Very easy work too. I swing by one every week or two and pick up some more items and once a month I give them the money from the sold items and return the unsold items. Very easy work for a sustainable side income

Hey OP wanted to swing by again and say thanks for this post and the original. Im the guy with that crap table a few posts up.

Got three dressers this weekend and already have a buyer at 5x markup for two of them. Really excited about doing this again next weekend.

OP is my fucking hero

Also might try the ebay middleman thing suggested down the thread

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