Rules of the Road: Buy Low, Sell High, Duh
In this installment of ROTR, I’ll explain the age-old tip of buying low and selling high. It sounds really simple, mostly because it is really simple.
The things we sell on ebay are not all antiques or rare collectibles. Sometimes they are common household items or newer trinkets/collectibles. We buy and resell such items because they are usually pretty expensive to buy new, and therefore, someone out in ebay world would appreciate a deal.
I often look for high-end cookware (cast iron items like Le Creuset, kitchen gadgets, etc.) because if you find these things in good shape, you can usually make a good profit when reselling them. A Le Creuset dutch oven might be $300 new, and you can buy it at a sale for $50, eventually selling it for $150-$200.
That’s just an example. My current endeavor with this technique involves plastic Carnegie dinosaurs. These little guys are authentic replicas of all sorts of prehistoric beasts, made to scale and with super nice detail. I used to work at a Natural History Museum and we sold these dinos. The small ones were like $14.99 and bigger ones were up to $30 each!
Anyway, at a sale recently, I bought 3 of these guys for $1 each. I figured there must be collectors out there who wouldn’t mind saving some dollars and buying these on ebay. They are in great shape and look totally brand new!
No bids yet (3 watchers), so we will have to wait and see if our strategy pays off eventually!
-Erin