buy and sell second hand goods to earn an extra income

Never thought of it before? Why not? The process is pretty simple – buy something second hand, and sell it at a profit.

So, where do you buy second hand goods that don’t cost too much, that others might want, and that aren’t too big to load into your car when you buy or collect them?

There are various ways to buy second hand items: Auctions are a great place to start. Often, especially at the smaller auctions, which would be the best place for a beginner to start, the buyer (that’s you)’s deposit for registering as a buyer is not much, or sometimes there isn’t even a buyer’s deposit registration fee at all. If there is, and you can pay it, not to worry – if you don’t buy anything, you just get it back again at the end of the auction, or should you decide to leave during the auction.

Now, ideally, you need to visit an auction the day before it actually takes place, and have a look at what they are going to be auctioning the next day. If certain items catch your eye, and you think other people might want those items (people you can sell the items to, that did not attend the auction), then jot what they are down in a notebook (after checking the quality etc) and go home to make a few phonecalls, or, on the way home, stop off at a few stores that sell the same items, and price them.

Any items you buy at an auction, you will want to sell at below the cost of what they would cost new – considerably lower too, or a person might as well just go and buy the brand new item.

Then work out how much you spend on the items at the auction the next day, to make a profit when you sell them. Do not make the mistake of just going into an auction blindly, and spending the same on second hand items that you would if buying them new. Also do not make the mistake of buying just one big expensive item, then struggling to sell it. Start with small, cheaper items, and grow from there – but also be careful not to get too excited if you do well, and suddenly buy something much more expensive. You don’t want any setbacks during the growing stages.

Where else can you buy second hand goods?

At garage sales, second hand buy and sell stores, pawn shops, from individuals advertising their items in the classifieds of the local newspapers, church and school bazaars, second hand book and furniture stores, charity shops, and from online places like Bid or Buy.

Right. Now, you’ve bought your items, and taken them home.

Next step: sell the items

How and where?

There are various options available to you to sell the items – this actually applies to most items you might want to sell, not necessarily just items you’ve bought second hand at an auction with the purpose of reselling them – these are also methods you could apply to selling products, items or crafts you’ve made yourself:

Place small ads in the classifieds of your local paper – some papers have free ads once a week or so of items for sale under R50, or under R100 etc – but for individual items only, not to be used to sell a whole bunch of products as an ongoing concern. Remember to work out the cost of how much these ads will cost too, when deciding on how much you can spend at an auction, to make a profit when you sell.

You can have a garage sale one to four times a month. (advertise it everywhere and well in advance.)

You can approach second hand stores.

You can take your items to a flea market and set up a stand there – just a blanket on the ground or grass is good enough for starters.

Get a website or blog and sell your items from there.

Once in a while, hang a sign on the front wall of where you live (check your local area laws about signs on premises before you do), mentioning an item or two that you’re selling, and the prices.

Put flyers up on community notice boards (another place to look for second hand things to buy too.)

There you go! Have fun!

Oh, and if you do struggle to sell your items, you can always take them to an auction to get at least some of your money back – sometimes it may even happen that you get back more than what you paid for the items in the first place – because the person buying your items hasn’t done his or her pricing homework like you did.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010