Give me your tales of NON-GAMING... Gouging...

[Rot]

WELL... after my Jan's "Craft Fair" adventure last year... which was pretty much an unmitigated disaster...

I decided to get her into going into local auctions... buying stuff and selling on Fleabay...

ANYHOO'S... It seems I've created a monster... the house is full of random weird shit... like pottery, semi-used womens beauty creams... Vintage Jigsaw puzzles... Board games... and SO MUCH MORE!!!

I told her... "Who the FOOK buys semi-empty beauty products"

She said... that it only cost her £3 + 15% auction fees...

MAN... she sold all of them for £55GBP...

AND WORSE... all the other shit she buys she makes at least 1000% markup... I am DEFO in the wrong game here...

SO... Any of you have tales of going to Garage Sales... Car Boots... Auctions... etc etc..

And then turning it into mass profit...

xROTx

PS. I'd prefer non-gaming tales as it's probably a "safe space" for posting

 

[radiantsvgun]

Hmm, as far as gaming goes, back when I was really into collecting anything gaming related I amassed a ton of nes carts, mainly junk. Years later I realized "I don't even like half these games, they're sitting on a shelf" I just started putting lots on ebay for .99 starting bid and putting the money away for a house. Apparently there are a lot of people who want 4 copies of gyromite. Trimmed it down to stuff I really enjoy or am going to play and I'm much happier. Dunno if I actually made real profit by the time I paid fees and shipping, but I got it gone.

If you want to talk about mass profit- my mother in law used to buy furniture at flea markets and goodwill, reupholster them, and then sell the stuff to housewives for massive profit. Like maybe putting in $100 and getting a return of $600. She's slowed down doing it a bit due to family stuff going on, but when she does, its always a massive profit. She joked with me one day that she could take a broken recliner and recover it with camouflage fabric and sell it. Long story short, she sold it for $1k and I ate a plate of crow.

 

[Evan]

Awhile ago I went with some friends to a flea market and yes to make back some profit. I ended up buying a old table and a old painting. I got back to my house and decided to open them up and repair them as they were in bad shape. I opened up some of the drawers on the table and they snapped off the table. I tried to put the drawers back on but the track to put the drawers back on were all rusted and could not be put back on. After that I took of the top of the table and there were cockroaches in there so I put the table in the dumpster.

After that I check on the back of the painting to see if anything was there. When I lived up the painting the bottom frame slid out and the cloth with painting on it feel out. So after that I threw the painting in the dumpster. So in my quest to flea market flip I spent $80 on the table and painting and gained $0.

 

[LoneSage]

Awhile ago I went with some friends to a flea market and yes to make back some profit. I ended up buying a old table and a old painting. I got back to my house and decided to open them up and repair them as they were in bad shape. I opened up some of the drawers on the table and they snapped off the table. I tried to put the drawers back on but the track to put the drawers back on were all rusted and could not be put back on. After that I took of the top of the table and there were cockroaches in there so I put the table in the dumpster.

After that I check on the back of the painting to see if anything was there. When I lived up the painting the bottom frame slid out and the cloth with painting on it feel out. So after that I threw the painting in the dumpster. So in my quest to flea market flip I spent $80 on the table and painting and gained $0.

Are you 13 years old or neobuyer.

 

[madman]

He asks for stories about profit on non-gaming items, first response is about gaming items, second is about losing money.

 

[sr20det510]

I bought a box of small paintings for $10 at and auction.
I kept a single painting, and sold most of the remaining pieces.

There were about 25 pieces total. About half were framed, and the other half were not. I sold a triptych paris water color scene for 150, and two Japanese silk embroidered koi for $100.
The other stuff in the box I probably earn me another 150 or so.

I like going to auctions cause you see some random stuff, and it's interesting when something may look like crap to you, is involved in a bidding war.

 

[Montatez]

I have some friends that fill there house with nostalgia garbage. They always flip it on etsy and hate ebay because of the payment fees. I explained to them its the same price to sell on either one, they didnt believe me....

A little derailed there, honestly they barely make any profit on that shit and to me its not worth the hassle. They go to the thrift stores in town everyday to find this shit to flip.

My buddy has a pretty nice gaming collection from it, and he always gives me stuff he does not collect for.

 

[Lukejaywalker23]

I built a house in a booming area in Houston in 2012 a few years later we felt it was to big of a house and ended up selling for 100k more than we bought it. After realtor fees it was a 80k profit.

I've got my hand in alot of side hustles

 

[FilthyRear]

Non-gaming "gouging"? Sure.

The US housing market.

WELL... after my Jan's "Craft Fair" adventure last year... which was pretty much an unmitigated disaster...

Holy shit, you're such a fucking drama queen.

 

[NeoSneth]

wait. now we are promoting Flipping?
Rot, you hypocrite. this site is doomed



funny enough, i was also going to mention the current house market.

 

[Rot]

Meh guys... that's why I said non-gaming... you and I both know that the scene here is familiez... why make a profit when you can troll...

Anyway... unless you be living under a rock somewhere... profit is the way of the world...

Gotta keep those cogs turning...

xROTx

 

[cat]

I do a lot of house clearances, i've scooped up loads of stuff for free and made coin on it on ebay.
You would seriously not believe what some peeps want taken to the dump and disposed off.
Give you an example......last november did a house clearance, guy got left the property by his father, everything he wanted to keep he put in a single room all the rest was for tipping.
We ended up with a bunch of miele kitchen appliances washer, tumble dryer, a fridge freezer a massive electric cooker dishwasher. about 6 fold up artists easels real nice ones, old cameras and projectors, old corgi/matchbox cars and toy farmyard animals a load of power tools, silver cutlery, real fancy huge ceramic garden pots (about 20 of them), a vintage fishing reel in its leather box....and a whole bunch more that i wont bore you all with.
Made a nice little earner of ebay and local sales between myself and the guy i work with.
Here's a pic of the house, the guy we did the job for had a local buyer lined up, £800,000 and the buyer was spending another £250,000 on modernizing, improvements etc.
When his father originally bought the property in 1986 he paid £75,000 for it, nice mark up.



Here's a view from the front, very nice.

 

[FAT$TACKS]

I walked into what is the worst criminal predatory pawn shop in town one time. (The guy who owned it was an ex cop who lost that job for being dirty. Then was in trouble all the time with his shop.. shit like selling guns for food stamps and such.) There was this huge decorative knife standing up behind some rifles. I couldn't believe they had such a thing here as that knife was super rare. Knowing what it was, I asked them about it and if I could see it. They told me it was just one of those cheap decoration knives and told me they would take 20 for it.

Anyhow, after buying it I told him what it was really and about what it was worth, then left quite amused. Kept it for a while then off to ebay for about 400ish.

 

[smokehouse]

Guns.
Ammo.
Guns.
Ammo.

Every time there is even the slightest hint that there may be a ban on ammo or firearms, people go completely bonkers.

An AR that has a price tag of $499 will literally be $1500 the next day. People will buy out ammo at $10/box, then try to flip it for $30.

After the Newtown shooting of 2012, people went on a ammo buying frenzy. For some reason, .22 Long Rifle, a common, cheap plinking round was snatched up in the millions. In less than a month, you couldn't find a single box of it unless it was at gouged prices. Ammo that was readily available for $13-15 for 500-525 rounds (about 3 cents/rd) suddenly hit the market at $75/500 (15 cents/rd). It stayed this way for YEARS. That was over 4 years ago. Online places still want $35-70 for a 500 round box. Locally, you can find it in the $17-20 for a 500 box, but it is always in very limited quantities. I haven't seen a bulk box sitting on the shelf since Oct.

*EDIT*
I forgot to add that for years after 2012, local smaller gun store owners/Pawn shop owners with a FFl would literally camp out at local Wal Marts in hope that they get ammo in. If they did, and the store didn't have a limit on purchase QTY, they'd buy them out, remark them boxes, and have them on their own shelves a few hours later at triple the price (Wal Mart wasn't gouging at the time).

I basically stopped sport shooting altogether from early 2013 through 2014 or even into 2015. Ammo was too scarce and I refused to pay the gougers.

 

[evil wasabi]

I walked into what is the worst criminal predatory pawn shop in town one time. (The guy who owned it was an ex cop who lost that job for being dirty. Then was in trouble all the time with his shop.. shit like selling guns for food stamps and such.) There was this huge decorative knife standing up behind some rifles. I couldn't believe they had such a thing here as that knife was super rare. Knowing what it was, I asked them about it and if I could see it. They told me it was just one of those cheap decoration knives and told me they would take 20 for it.

Anyhow, after buying it I told him what it was really and about what it was worth, then left quite amused. Kept it for a while then off to ebay for about 400ish.

was it a Nazi knife?

Asking because Kentucky and all.

 

[FAT$TACKS]

was it a Nazi knife?

Asking because Kentucky and all.

While that would have been interesting, no. It was the Werewolf The Apocalypse Klaive that White Wolf Publications had a limited number of made for them. They originally sold for a about 265ish I think. I've seen them sell over the years for anywhere from 300 to 800 depending on condition and if they had all their stuff that came with them. Don't know what one would go for now.

I would imagine some ass hat stole that knife and then traded it in there for five bucks so they could get some meth or something and had no idea what they had.

 

[Tripredacus]

I found the Star Trek Next Generation Columbia House VHS fullset at a garage sale for $15 and sold it to a lady for $100.

 

[NeoSneth]

Anyhow, after buying it I told him what it was really and about what it was worth, then left quite amused. Kept it for a while then off to ebay for about 400ish.

That's exactly what you should NOT do.

 

[JoeAwesome]

That's exactly what you should NOT do.

Agreed. You do that to me, and see if I sell to you reasonably, if at all, next time.

Who wants to hear they got ripped off?

 

[Montatez]

Agreed. You do that to me, and see if I sell to you reasonably, if at all, next time.

Who wants to hear they got ripped off?

Added benefit of of having shit ass pawn shops checking there goods before the sell shit. No more scores just assholes thinking there crap is gold.

 

[FAT$TACKS]

That's exactly what you should NOT do.

I can't say I care about it too much.

It's not like he was any kind of decent human being. Hell, it would be different if he were a human but as far as I'm concerned he isn't. If I had dealing with anyone that I had even the most tiny iota of respect for but it would be different but, Like I mentioned before the guy is a criminal piece of shit. I was going to explain it all but honestly, it's pointless. I'm happy that I was able to let him know he got raped. The only thing that would have been better would have been if someone came in and shot him in the face right after.

 

[norton9478]

I sold 20,000 worth of records last year.

One, I bought for $00.50 and sold for $225.
https://www.discogs.com/Gary-Wilson-Dreams-Soul-Travel/release/3233539
(note, I also sold a copy of the same record for $00.25 before I knew it was worth anything)

Another time, I bought $4500 worth records from some rednecks for $100. Sold about $1500 worth of British Reggae singles the next week for $500 cash to a dealer. The rest, I probably got about $2,000 for.

Another time, I was at a yard sale that advertised records. I started going through them and my eyes were popping out of my head. Replacements, Clash, Sonic Youth (dirty), Joy Division, etc. I pulled 60 and was getting ready to offer $60 for just them, or $80 for the whole lot of 120 (but willing to go 3). Then the lady said I could have all of them for $10 with the crates. When I got home, there was about $900 worth of records.

Another time, i bought 20,000 records for $350 (plus $100 to pay my brother in law to help me move them and $150 in dump fees).
Ended up with about $7000 worth stock. But it was back breaking work moving them, sorting them, pricing them, and throwing away the 15,000 or so that were too scratched/warped/molded. All in all, I probably put 60 hours into them.

I tell you, records is where it's at. It's like going out and finding a stack of early release AES Carts. Except you actually can find them.

 

[NeoSneth]

I sold 20,000 worth of records last year.

One, I bought for $00.50 and sold for $225.
https://www.discogs.com/Gary-Wilson-Dreams-Soul-Travel/release/3233539
(note, I also sold a copy of the same record for $00.25 before I knew it was worth anything)

Another time, I bought $4500 worth records from some rednecks for $100. Sold about $1500 worth of British Reggae singles the next week for $500 cash to a dealer. The rest, I probably got about $2,000 for.

Another time, I was at a yard sale that advertised records. I started going through them and my eyes were popping out of my head. Replacements, Clash, Sonic Youth (dirty), Joy Division, etc. I pulled 60 and was getting ready to offer $60 for just them, or $80 for the whole lot of 120 (but willing to go 3). Then the lady said I could have all of them for $10 with the crates. When I got home, there was about $900 worth of records.

Another time, i bought 20,000 records for $350 (plus $100 to pay my brother in law to help me move them and $150 in dump fees).
Ended up with about $7000 worth stock. But it was back breaking work moving them, sorting them, pricing them, and throwing away the 15,000 or so that were too scratched/warped/molded. All in all, I probably put 60 hours into them.

I tell you, records is where it's at. It's like going out and finding a stack of early release AES Carts. Except you actually can find them.

for now, i think you are right. the vinyl craze is in full effect.

 

[JoeAwesome]

I can't say I care about it too much.

It's not like he was any kind of decent human being. Hell, it would be different if he were a human but as far as I'm concerned he isn't. If I had dealing with anyone that I had even the most tiny iota of respect for but it would be different but, Like I mentioned before the guy is a criminal piece of shit. I was going to explain it all but honestly, it's pointless. I'm happy that I was able to let him know he got raped. The only thing that would have been better would have been if someone came in and shot him in the face right after.

Ok, you probably should tell me what makes him a criminal POS. That's the better story.

 

[K_K]

Ok, you probably should tell me what makes him a criminal POS. That's the better story.

He was a cop on the take. Read his posts.