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Go for the big prize or go for the easy money?

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  1. #1
    andrew1990 started this thread.
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    Go for the big prize or go for the easy money?

    So I threw up 10 of my Core 2 PCs as a bundle hoping a reseller would bite. One did but low balled me.

    At this time, I spent roughly $5 per tower

    I listed the group of 10 for $825.

    He offered $500 and wouldnt budge on it. He knows he'll be sitting on them all for a while just like I am now.



    Now I can wait it out and sell them individually hoping to make close to $1000 over a 3 or so month span, or I can get an instant $500 and have him deal with the wait. I have an additional 8 units that Im keeping to try making another $800 over time, but I will need some room so I can get more junk towers to scrap.


    Opinions?



  2. #2
    mikeinreco's Avatar
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    I am no expert but I would take the money and run...The computers are not going to get any newer and new computers are only going to get cheaper.........Flip em and go find more stuff!!!......Just my opinion SOme people like to sit on stuff and try to maximize profit but if someone offers me a reasonable price on anything it's gone and on to the next.....Don't get hung up on one deal there are to many computers out there

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  4. #3
    Craasher's Avatar
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    Yeah I would sell what you have $50 bucks in for a $450 profit all day long for a quick turn around. He also has to have some meat on the bone to to make it worth while for him to purchase.

  5. #4
    jghilino's Avatar
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    Take the money and run. Its a fair price for those and the market is getting flooded with them just like it already is with p4 and pentium d machines. That said, you need to keep the best machines for your own. If he wants to pay a budget price he gets the budget machines. In your case its the ones with the lowest spec cpus, ram and hard drives. You can always take the $500 and go out and buy more machines. You cant spend inventory thats sitting on the shelf decreasing in value. You need to get those sold as fast as possible and on to the next deal.

    Worst case you end up getting stuck with them and have to donate them to a charity, id take the donaton value over the scrap value any day of the week, at the end of the year its hard to cover my sales without enough expenses and deductions.
    I buy and sell all types of scrap and escrap. I buy specialty and hard to sell escrap. I buy resale items. PM me or contact me at jghilino@hotmail.com
    I AM ACTIVELY BUYING ESCRAP OF ALL TYPES. BOARDS, RAM, CPUS AND MUCH MORE

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  7. #5
    happyscraper's Avatar
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    It's already been said but I'm going to say it anyway, TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN. my .02

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    FLIP, FLIP, FLIP! On to the next one...

  9. #7
    Mechanic688's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Craasher View Post
    Yeah I would sell what you have $50 bucks in for a $450 profit all day long for a quick turn around. He also has to have some meat on the bone to to make it worth while for him to purchase.
    And the fact that there is going to be better ones out there after xmas, quite a few people are getting new ones. After Xmas your computers just got a year older.
    P & M Recycling - Specializing in E-Waste Recycling.
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    Quote Originally Posted by andrew1990 View Post
    So I threw up 10 of my Core 2 PCs as a bundle hoping a reseller would bite. One did but low balled me.

    At this time, I spent roughly $5 per tower

    I listed the group of 10 for $825.

    He offered $500 and wouldnt budge on it. He knows he'll be sitting on them all for a while just like I am now.



    Now I can wait it out and sell them individually hoping to make close to $1000 over a 3 or so month span, or I can get an instant $500 and have him deal with the wait. I have an additional 8 units that Im keeping to try making another $800 over time, but I will need some room so I can get more junk towers to scrap.


    Opinions?
    I'm with them sell. Remember the only value an item has is the amount someone is willing to pay for it. Seems like some pretty good profit for very little work.

  11. #9
    BRASSCATCHER's Avatar
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    Take it. You not only made money, but now may have a steady buyer for anything else you come across. Get some info on what he is looking for or what else he may have an interest in. A small deal now may be a big deal down the road.
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  12. #10
    Mechanic688's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BRASSCATCHER View Post
    Take it. You not only made money, but now may have a steady buyer for anything else you come across. Get some info on what he is looking for or what else he may have an interest in. A small deal now may be a big deal down the road.
    A 400-500 % profit is a pretty big deal.

  13. #11
    andrew1990 started this thread.
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    Well Ill give him a call tomorrow if the guy showing up tonight doesnt buy everything. I agree I love when the profit is over 200%, even better at 500%!

  14. #12
    NobleMetalWorks's Avatar
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    If you do not sell them, you haven't made any money, if you do, you have money to purchase more, and turn a profit. Profit is about what the retail industry calls "turns" the faster you turn your inventory, the more effective a buyer you become, the stronger your contacts with sellers becomes, the more material you move, the more material you can buy, you make other people money, you make money, the people you sell to make money and everyone is happy.

    Why piss off your buyer trying to hold on for the majority of the profit, and why piss off potential customers who want to sell to you but have to wait around for you to transact some other deal.

    In another post I mentioned that I sold pins for 69.99 on a fairly consistent basis on ebay just because I have so much other material to run sometimes. I could sit on it and make $99+ on each 1lb bag of pins, but I make a lot more money selling pins at 69.99 and being able to purchase more scrap, than I would selling them at $99+. I could also refine them, but then they would have to lay around, not making me any money, until I freed up time enough to process them. Not only that, but because I purchase and sell so much, the people who supply me with pins or other scrap, call me before anyone else because I'm a for sure thing. I buy, and consistently. Turns, always turns.

    I live close to Silicon Valley, and have been making contacts with the asset & recovery departments of several companies who are in the computer industry. I get the first call on most scrap because I am able to buy it immediately. I can buy immediately because I already sold or processed everything they sold me last month because I sold it at a profit, but still at a very good price so my customer can also make a profit.

    So you paid $5 each tower for a grand total of $50. If you sold them for $500, you are making a 1000% profit. Why in the world wouldn't you sell?

    Lets do some math to make this point even more interesting.

    You buy 10 computers for $50 and sell for $500, you are not able to buy 50 computers. If we take the average price for each computer you sold at $50, you then multiply 50 computers x $50 dollars each, that's $2,500. You were able to sell them to the same guy you say low balled you, and he bought them because he made money off the last batch you sold him. He was able to sell them less, and sell them fast and is ready with his own funds in hand to happily purchase more from you. So week 2 you have 2,500 in your pocket and purchase 500 computers. This is just week two mind you. So you then take those 500 computers and sell them to the same nice guy that is willing to pay you $50 per computer all day long because he's still making money. So now you walk away with $25,000 in your pocket.

    Are you getting the picture here?

    Now, you can sit on your computers and wait around for some smuck that is stupid enough to buy them at $1000 each, but he will never be back. At $1000 each you didn't leave him any room for profit, so nobody bought the computers from him because he was more expensive. He cannot buy any computers from you when you have them again because he hasn't sold the ones you sold him yet. You then find yourself sitting on another lot of computers you are not able to sell. So now you call up that same guy you thought was low balling you, and beg him to give you $40 each for the computers, now he refuses, tells you he found someone else who sells them to him for $30, and for him to buy yours, you have to sell them for $25 each.

    It's really simple, you are not going to make any money if you are not selling any goods.

    Scott
    Last edited by NobleMetalWorks; 12-11-2012 at 02:02 AM.
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  16. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by jghilino View Post
    Worst case you end up getting stuck with them and have to donate them to a charity, id take the donaton value over the scrap value any day of the week, at the end of the year its hard to cover my sales without enough expenses and deductions.
    He's probly done read all this anyway. Donate em! Win-Win

  17. #14
    jghilino's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NobleMetalWorks View Post

    It's really simple, you are not going to make any money if you are not selling any goods.

    Scott
    That is exactly how i run my ebay business. Lowest price + free shipping= fast turnaround and happy customers

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  19. #15
    NobleMetalWorks's Avatar
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    Exactly how I run my own ebay part of the business as well.

    Scott

  20. #16
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    I always flip most of my stuff within reason. I don't view it as "making money". I view it as cash flow or leverage. Sitting around waiting is a bad habit- not to be confused with patience. There is no guarantee you'll get 1g. Take the 500$ use it to buy 10 more 50$ lots. Imo...

  21. #17
    andrew1990 started this thread.
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    Well the guy should be up here Thursday or Friday. Easy Money!

  22. #18
    Russell's Avatar
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    If I may double post here... As my good freind Kenny Rogers once told me, Russell: you've got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run.

    I don't know if that fits in here but I had that song stuck in my head and it felt good to get it out. Thanks for reading.

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