Do you tell people buying your stuff that you got it for free? - Page 2

If they ask I just tell them I buy in bulk which brings my price down.........If they only buy one computer of course they are going to pay a higher price than me buying several hundred at one time

Okay seriously, you all are looking at things from a really self adverse perspective. There is seriously no such thing as "free". Look at it like this. You're at a state fair. There's a vendor there giving out free hot dogs. You're now standing in line behind 100 people trying to score a free hot dog. Now you're going to stand in this line for an hour, jumping for joy at your piece of pig scraps in between a bun, and you'll do it with gusto. Yet, you wasted 60 mins of your time and productivity literally standing still and interacting with people. During that time you could have made 8-10 dollars doing something remedial and gotten 12-16 hot dogs and buns for that.

We find this stuff along the curb, through client resources, or from complete liquidation sales. We spend our time scouting, loading it, hauling, and paying for the gas to do so. If you have to recondition or repair the item, that once again is more time and effort. You have to think about what your time is worth and you can always factor in your knowledge as well. The most precious commodity in this economy is information. If I told you Wal-Mart's stock was going to jump 300 pts tomorrow and I could prove it, your arse would be calling a broker (yeah yeah, insider trading, but knowledge nonetheless).

So no, I don't tell them I acquired things for free or next to nothing. My favorite line is, "Well, you seem to want this and I have it, and you do not. I mean we could change that, however I'm not paying for your bad judgement, and my price is more than fair." Works every time. Here's what I do when I find something... I'll look it up on ebay and find auctions without free shipping and then find a median price for the item if there's multiple auctions. I'll drop my overall price by 30-40% for a quick churn and burn. Then when someone comes to make a deal for the item I'll tell them straight up, you can pay almost double the price and wait a week, or you can just buy this from me now. It's simple. If the item is just some household or consumer goods like glassware or soft goods that are fairly common, I'll just look it up on CL and drop my price 10 bucks lower. Works every time.

In summation, nothing is free. Your time costs, your fuel costs. Your experience, if you're not a total idiot, is priceless. Now, go forth, do work.

And if you get someone being real nosey wanting to know where you got it from, use this line, I got it from the getting place. And then ask them if they have ever been there ?

Originally Posted by TheFatMan

Okay seriously, you all are looking at things from a really self adverse perspective. There is seriously no such thing as "free". Look at it like this. You're at a state fair. There's a vendor there giving out free hot dogs. You're now standing in line behind 100 people trying to score a free hot dog. Now you're going to stand in this line for an hour, jumping for joy at your piece of pig scraps in between a bun, and you'll do it with gusto. Yet, you wasted 60 mins of your time and productivity literally standing still and interacting with people. During that time you could have made 8-10 dollars doing something remedial and gotten 12-16 hot dogs and buns for that.

We find this stuff along the curb, through client resources, or from complete liquidation sales. We spend our time scouting, loading it, hauling, and paying for the gas to do so. If you have to recondition or repair the item, that once again is more time and effort. You have to think about what your time is worth and you can always factor in your knowledge as well. The most precious commodity in this economy is information. If I told you Wal-Mart's stock was going to jump 300 pts tomorrow and I could prove it, your arse would be calling a broker (yeah yeah, insider trading, but knowledge nonetheless).

So no, I don't tell them I acquired things for free or next to nothing. My favorite line is, "Well, you seem to want this and I have it, and you do not. I mean we could change that, however I'm not paying for your bad judgement, and my price is more than fair." Works every time. Here's what I do when I find something... I'll look it up on ebay and find auctions without free shipping and then find a median price for the item if there's multiple auctions. I'll drop my overall price by 30-40% for a quick churn and burn. Then when someone comes to make a deal for the item I'll tell them straight up, you can pay almost double the price and wait a week, or you can just buy this from me now. It's simple. If the item is just some household or consumer goods like glassware or soft goods that are fairly common, I'll just look it up on CL and drop my price 10 bucks lower. Works every time.

In summation, nothing is free. Your time costs, your fuel costs. Your experience, if you're not a total idiot, is priceless. Now, go forth, do work.

THANK you! That is exactly the point I was trying to make. In the other thread I referred to in the OP, there doesn't seem to be any acknowledgment of what went into GETTING the items in the first place. You had to market your services, spent your time fuel insurance vehicle maintenance etc, getting an item. Then when you happen to make a little EXTRA on an item, people seem to think something is OWED to the person you bought it from, because that day you happened to get a little lucky.

A transaction occurs when a willing buyer and a willing seller come together and sell something for an agreed-upon price. That ends the transaction.