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"In This Economy..."
May. 8th, 2009 12:11 pmRecent successes in selling books and video games on Half.com have nearly inspired me to start a little side business. I bought Phoenix Wright for DS from Gamestop for 15 bucks, but the going price for it on Half is about $24 (it actually averages higher, but that is the lowest price I can charge that is near the "last sold" price for the game). So not to knock Gamestop for being morons but... it is eminently possible for me to start hunting around used game stores with a list of top selling games on Half.com, see if they're cheaper, and then up-sell them online.
I mean, yes, it would involve putting up some money up front, spending some time doing research and shopping, and then holding on to inventory until it sells - depending on what's out there, I could probably pocket $50-$100 a week just with video games. But of course the thing stopping me from doing this is that I make way more money doing my job and programming. But anybody could do this kind of reselling really, it makes a lot of sense to do this kind of thing; it especially made a lot of sense when I found a bag of books marked as "free" just sitting on the sidewalk, and then after looking on Half found that about a third of them were together worth about $50. Who wouldn't want to pick up $50 from the sidewalk??
People are looking for deals, so they must be using Half.com more. I think also that using Half is less of a pain than using eBay, because people aren't there to "compete" over prices or haggle with you or generally try to cheat you somehow. I like that the implicit assumption is that you're already getting a deal, there's a set price, just pay it and go on your way. Much less hassle than eBay and its baloney.
As it is, I think all I'll end up doing is just using the money to finance other purchases of used games and books that I want from Half. But other folks, especially unemployed ones, could be doing this sort of thing in their non-job-hunting time; I'm always finding giant bags full of CDs and books everywhere just lying on the sidewalk... and even if they're not salable on Half, you can take them to Goodwill and get them deducted from taxes!!
Reduce, reuse, recycle!
I mean, yes, it would involve putting up some money up front, spending some time doing research and shopping, and then holding on to inventory until it sells - depending on what's out there, I could probably pocket $50-$100 a week just with video games. But of course the thing stopping me from doing this is that I make way more money doing my job and programming. But anybody could do this kind of reselling really, it makes a lot of sense to do this kind of thing; it especially made a lot of sense when I found a bag of books marked as "free" just sitting on the sidewalk, and then after looking on Half found that about a third of them were together worth about $50. Who wouldn't want to pick up $50 from the sidewalk??
People are looking for deals, so they must be using Half.com more. I think also that using Half is less of a pain than using eBay, because people aren't there to "compete" over prices or haggle with you or generally try to cheat you somehow. I like that the implicit assumption is that you're already getting a deal, there's a set price, just pay it and go on your way. Much less hassle than eBay and its baloney.
As it is, I think all I'll end up doing is just using the money to finance other purchases of used games and books that I want from Half. But other folks, especially unemployed ones, could be doing this sort of thing in their non-job-hunting time; I'm always finding giant bags full of CDs and books everywhere just lying on the sidewalk... and even if they're not salable on Half, you can take them to Goodwill and get them deducted from taxes!!
Reduce, reuse, recycle!