During college, my friends and I were always dirt poor and looking for ways to make a little extra money so we could go and hit up the bars late at night. We desperately did not want to get full time jobs and just something on the side that we could do and see a return. Some methods we tried were better than others and many rely on luck, but Ill give you the top 3 methods that made us the most amount of money. Take in mind some of these require some waiting and searching for a good deal, but in the end could be very much worth it.
-Searching Craigslist, then Ebay
This actually isn’t only a method for broke college students, but if you master this method you can actually make a decent second income in real life. While finding good deals on craigslist are harder to come by than before, knowledge is truly power when looking at ads. Most people know what video games and other popular culture items are worth, but items that you might not think as valuable (tools, dolls, Dvds, toys, ect) might be worth picking up and selling. The key is to look for big sales with a bunch of items. Moving sales are the best because people are willing to let things go for almost nothing.
Items that are worth a decent amount, or good finds, should be put on ebay because that’s where you will usually get the best deal. (Smaller items are better because you have to ship them, don’t bother using ebay for big items, just recraigslist them.) There have been times where I picked up a crate of DVDs that I bought for 50 cents each and sold them for 4-5 dollars each. The most expensive part is shipping, but if you put it in a little envelope you can get away with shipping for the price of a stamp.
Big items just recraigslist and wait. This method takes awhile to get responses, but eventually you will get someone interested in everything. The key is to continually build up your inventory of stuff and manage it during the week when you are just sitting around or on your phone while waiting. Most of the time all it takes is a button that says relist and you are good.
If you want to do it with multiple people like I did, I suggest finding a friend with a big car or truck that can fit a lot of items and having someone with a garage to store everything. If you don’t have space, storage units are actually really cheap and if you are selling a lot can be very handy. Try hitting up all the local garage or moving sales on a Saturday or Sunday and fill your car. Consistently restock your goods with different tiers of things that either sell quickly or profitable but slow moving items in order to have different items. Make sure you aren’t buying stuff that you are barely making a profit on, or you basically just become a hoarder and that is the opposite of what you want to do.
This method of making money does take a little bit to start up, but realistically with 100-200 dollars you could actually buy a decent amount of goods to sell. Make sure you haggle with people at garage sales, even if it makes you seem cheap. Every dollar less that you pay is another dollar that goes into your pocket when you sell it. It is called buying smart. I am in an apartment now and haven’t been able to use this method for a while, but I have some friends back for the summer and I definitely think it’s a possibility again.
I've been doing some of this as well. Only sold a couple items so far, but I'm currently up $55. Not bad for an hour of work.
It is good that you shared your experience with us. Great tips, I am sure that a lot of people will find it useful. Thanks for sharing!
My friend used to sell things on Craigslist when he was doing odd-jobs to stay afloat. I've never had success myself.
Amazon is a great place for buying and reselling. I did this stuff a while back but craigslist seems dangerous. We had some big crimes in my area involving crazy craigslist people. Ebay is a great place to resell though. Yard sales are also good to find products.
Hey @calaber24p, it's great to learn about you through this post. Let me know whether your friends end up restarting the process and your results!
My better half makes a decent amount buying second hand clothes from ads she sees on Facebook which she then sells on eBay. Not a fortune by any means but she uses her earnings to buy herself new clothes - saves me forking out for them 😜
I tried doing this with estate sales for a while, thinking I could get a decent return on antiques, furniture, and electronics I got for almost nothing. I went to four or five estate sales, and they were fun, and I got some cool things for very little money. But, I had a hard time selling any of it, either on eBay, Craigslist, or Amazon. The vast majority ended up going to Goodwill when I moved, while I sold a few pieces for barely more than I paid for them, and I kept a few that I liked. I know people make money doing this, and I loved going to the sales, because they were done as live auctions, which was fun, but apparently, I just haven't figured out how to go about profiting from it yet. Even things that looked like they would sell well based on researching comparable sales did not sell. I applaud anyone who has figured out how to do this correctly. :)
Good tips. Thank you!
It's pretty hit and miss.
Good article - thanks for sharing. I wrote an article last year that includes some additional useful tips, for eBay selling: http://tipsmakemoney.com/tips-making-money-ebay. Hopefully someone will find it useful.
Does selling yourself on craiglist count?
It sounds really good and new income opportunity.